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US Trio Wins Physics Nobel for Gravitational Waves

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20 Wednesday, October 4, 2017 Recent winners of the Nobel Physics Prize 2017: Barry Barish, Kip Thorne and US trio wins physics Nobel Rainer Weiss for the discovery of gravitational waves, a phenom- enon predicted by Albert Einstein a century ago as part of his theory of general relativity. 2016: David Thouless, Duncan for gravitational waves Haldane and Michael Kosterlitz (Britain) for their study of strange Stockholm phenomena in unusual phases, or S astrophysicists Barry Barish, states, of matter, such as super- Kip Thorne and Rainer Weiss conductors, superfluids or thin wereU awarded the Nobel Physics magnetic films. Prize yesterday for the discovery of 2015: Takaaki Kajita (Japan) and gravitational waves, offering a sneak Arthur McDonald (Canada) for peak at the Universe’s very beginnings. their work on neutrinos. Predicted by Albert Einstein a 2014: Isamu Akasaki (Japan), century ago as part of his theory of Hiroshi Amano (Japan) and Shuji general relativity, gravitational waves Nakamura (US) for their work on are “ripples” in space-time -- the LED lamps. theoretical fabric of the cosmos. 2013: Peter Higgs (Britain) and They are the aftermath of violent Francois Englert (Belgium) for galactic events, such as colliding black (LtoR) Rainer Weiss, Barry Barish and Kip Thorne, who won the Nobel Physics Prize 2017 for gravitational waves their work on the so-called Higgs holes or imploding massive stars, Barish, 81, joined the project in 1994 boson, a subatomic particle that and can reveal events that took place and helped bring it to completion. gives mass to other particles. billions of years ago. LIGO is now a collaboration between 2012: Serge Haroche (France) and The first detection of gravitational more than 1,000 researchers from 20 David Wineland (US) for experi- waves happened in September 2015 countries. mental methods used to measure at the US-based Laser Interferometer The 2015 observation was of two and manipulate quantum systems. Gravitational-wave Observatory black holes smashing into each other 2011: Saul Perlmutter, Adam (LIGO), where the three Nobel some 1.3 billion light-years away. Riess (US) and Brian Schmidt laureates worked. “Although the signal was extremely (US-Australian) for discovering the “Their discovery shook the world,” weak when it reached Earth, it is accelerating expansion of the uni- said Goran K Hansson, the head of the already promising a revolution in verse. Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences astrophysics,” the Nobel academy 2010: Andre Geim (Netherlands- which selects the Nobel laureates. said. Britain) and Konstantin Novoselov Announced in February 2016 to “Gravitational waves are an entirely (Russia-Britain) for work on the Scientists Rainer Weiss, Barry C. Barish and Kip S. Thorne great excitement in the scientific new way of following the most violent for decisive contributions to the LIGO detector and the two-dimensional material gra- community, the discovery was hailed events in space and testing the limits observation of gravitational waves phene. 2009: Charles Kao (Britain-US), as the historic culmination of decades of our knowledge.” PHYSICS PRIZE IN NUMBERS of research. It has clinched numerous Gravitational waves are minuscule, Willard S. Boyle (Canada-US) and astrophysics prizes. and near-undetectable because they 110 Nobel Prizes in Physics awarded from 1901 to 2016 George E. Smith (US) for work on interact very weakly with matter and light transmission with optical Travelling at speed of light travel through the Universe at the 1 25 2 fibres and semiconductor circuits. person, Age of Women 2008: Makoto Kobayashi, In 1984, Thorne, now 77, and speed of light unimpeded. John youngest awarded Weiss, 85, co-created LIGO at the The ripples emitted by a pair of Bardeen, laureate, Physics Toshihide Maskawa (Japan) and prestigious California Institute of merging black holes, for example, awarded Lawrence Prize to Yoichiro Nambu (US) for discov- Technology, which has taken home would stretch a one-million-kilometre prize twice, in Bragg, awarded date, including ering the mechanism of sponta- 18 Nobels since the prizes were first (621,000-mile) ruler on Earth by less 1956 and in 1972 in 1915 Marie Curie in 1903 neous broken symmetry in suba- awarded in 1901. than the size of an atom. (AFP) Source: Nobelprize.org Pictures: Nobel Foundation, Getty Images © GRAPHIC NEWS tomic physics. Recent winners of the Nobel Literature Prize Nobel Literature Prize: controversy, fame and flops 2016: Bob Dylan (US) Paris There was uproar in 1989, Andre Gide (1947) and Albert Western domination according to the will of 2015: Svetlana Alexievich head of the announcement on the sidelines of the prize, Camus (1957). From 1901 to 1985 only founder Alfred Nobel. (Belarus) Thursday of this year’s when jurors resigned in fury Other big-name winners eight laureates were chosen In this vein the Academy 2014: Patrick Modiano NobelA Literature Prize that the Academy had not are Rudyard Kipling (1907), from outside Europe and the has often backed those in exile, (France) laureate, here is a look at some publicly backed British author Samuel Beckett (1969) and United States. dissidents, opposition leaders 2013: Alice Munro of the controversies down the Salman Rushdie, subject of Gabriel Garcia Marquez India has only one laureate and authors who are banned (Canada) years since the prestigious title a death sentence by Iran’s (1982). in Rabindranath Tagore in from publishing in their own 2012: Mo Yan (China) was first awarded in 1901. Ayatollah Khomeini. However many prestigious 1913, as does the Arab world countries. 2011: Tomas Transtromer Over the past 20 years two names in literature have with Egypt’s Naguib Mahfouz These include Guatemala’s (Sweden) Controversy laureates have particularly not been recognised with a receiving the award in 1988. Miguel Angel Asturias in 1967 2010: Mario Vargas Llosa The 1964 laureate French divided opinion: Dario Fo, Nobel such as Joseph Conrad, One reason may be that and Pablo Neruda from Chile (Peru) philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, the Italian playwright and James Joyce, Marcel Proust, it was previously difficult in 1971. 2009: Herta Mueller whose political philosophy was actor who was described as Paul Valery, Henry James and for the Nobel juries to judge And during the Cold War (Germany) partly based on the criticism a “jester” by the Academy in Virginia Woolf. non-European literature as several choices were not made 2008: Jean-Marie Gustave of institutions, was the first 1997; and singer songwriter While some obvious translations were rare and purely literary grounds such Le Clezio (France) writer to refuse the prize. He Bob Dylan in 2016 who was candidates fell through the information less accessible as Poland’s Czeslaw Milosz 2007: Doris Lessing wrote that he “always declined silent for weeks after he was cracks, the Academy has before the Internet. (1980) and Jaroslav Seifert of (Britain) official honours”. announced as the winner and been criticised for rewarding In 1986 Nigeria’s Wole the former Czechoslovakia 2006: Orhan Pamuk Other winners raised then snubbed a ceremony to obscure writers who are not Soyinka became the first (1984). (Turkey) eyebrows because they receive the prize. widely read outside their own African to be recognised. The Most famously, in 1970, 2005: Harold Pinter were members of the Nobel countries: Iceland’s Halldor first Chinese author was Gao Soviet writer Alexander (Britain) Academy that chooses the The famous, the forgotten Laxness (1955), Erik Axel Xingjian in 2000 and in 2006 Solzhenitsyn was forced to 2004: Elfriede Jelinek laureates. They include the The Nobel Academy has Karlfeldt (1931), Odysseus Orhan Pamuk became the first decline the prize, fearing that (Austria) little-known Swedish joint- recognised writers of repute Elytis (1979) and Jaroslav Turkish writer on the list. he would not be able to return 2003: J.M. Coetzee (South winners Eyvind Johnson and like Americans William Seifert (1984). to his country should he Africa) Harry Martinson, who in 1974 Faulkner (1949), Ernest There have been 14 female Geopolitics travel to receive it. He finally 2002: Imre Kertesz beat out Graham Greene, Saul Hemingway (1954) and John laureates, only six between The Nobel institution accepted the award four years (Hungary) Bellow and Vladimir Nabokov. Steinbeck (1962) and France’s 1901 and 1990. defends an “idealist” policy, later..
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