USA: NOBEL PRIZE WINNERS FOR PHYSICS & CHEMISTRY

Описание: (14 Oct 1998) German/Eng/Nat

Five scientists at universities in the United States won the Nobel Prizes in physics and chemistry on Tuesday, for work exploring the inner structure of matter.

Their research has far-reaching implications, from a new generation of microelectronics to understanding the destruction of Earth's ozone layer.

Both Nobel prizes, awarded in Stockholm by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, reward the scientists for research done as much as three decades ago.

Princeton University can now add yet another Nobel Prize winner to its list - professor Daniel Tsui won the Nobel Prize in physics.

He becomes the university's 30th staff member to be awarded a Nobel Prize.

The shy scientist will share the award with two other scientists.

Robert B. Laughlin of Stanford, Horst L. Stormer of Columbia University and Tsui won the physics prize for discovering how electrons can change behaviour and act more like fluid than particles.

They found that ordinary electrons acting together in strong magnetic fields and very low temperatures can condense into new types of subatomic particles that function as a fluid.

Those fluids can reveal more about the inner workings of matter.

Speaking before his students and colleagues, Tsui said he was fortunate to have found a career so important and so rewarding.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"I have been extremely fortunate to have the privilege to do what has been called, doing research. That really literally translates, a little translation means you can do basically, something fun, interesting and challenging and still get paid."
SUPER CAPTION: Daniel Tsui, Nobel Prize Winner for Physics

At Columbia University, Professor Horst Stormer said he knew he discovered something special 10 years ago -- but he never thought it would earn him science's top honour.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"Well at first you think its a mistake. First you see this little blip their and you say, oh my god it shouldn't be there, and then you say, actually I'm always the pessimist, oh come on this is all the same, this is nothing to get excited about, then its one, two, three, quarts...what do you mean. Off course we had no idea of what the implications would be but really its something fundamental as it has turned out to be."
SUPER CAPTION: Horst Stormer, Nobel Prize Winner for Physics

A native of Germany, Stormer also works at Lucent Technologies in New Jersey.

The physics professor said the significance of his work was in the surprising discovery that big electrons, when thrown together, could form smaller units.

He compared the discovery to a billiards table where the balls have "a weird way of dancing together."

The balls remain intact, but in smaller groups.

Stormer said the major impact of his research was a conceptual one rather than one that would have immediate practical applications.

Meanwhile, Walter Kohn of the University of California at Santa Barbara and John Pople of Northwestern University were awarded the chemistry prize for developing ways of analysing molecules in chemical reactions.

Kohn, said winning the award - even though he was a physicist - showed that science had a "kind of unity" that crosses the disciplines.

He said he never had any formal courses in chemistry while a student in Toronto during World War II because of his Germanic ancestry.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
SUPER CAPTION: Walter Kohn, Nobel Prize winner

Kohn was delighted to win the prize but feared bad news when the phone rang in the middle of the night.

SOUNDBITE: (German)






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