Communication pioneers win 2009 physics Nobel

STOCKHOLM, (Reuters) – A pioneer in fibre optics and  two scientists who figured out how to turn light into electronic  signals — work that paved the way for the Internet age — were  awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize for physics yesterday.
 
  Charles Kao, a Shanghai-born British-American, won half the 10 million Swedish crown ($1.4 million) prize for a discovery   that led to a breakthrough in fibre optics, determining how to  transmit light over long distances via optical glass fibres.  

Willard Boyle, a Canadian-American, and George Smith of the  United States shared the other half for inventing the first  successful imaging technology using a digital sensor.  

“This year’s Nobel prize in physics is awarded for two  scientific achievements that have helped to shape the  foundations of today’s networked societies,” the award-winning  committee said in a statement. 

Their achievements have allowed vast amounts of information  to be sent around the globe almost instantaneously, as trillions  of signals make their way through tiny glass fibres now long  enough to encircle the planet more than 25,000 times.  

Boyle, raised over the phone to address a news conference at  the Nobel committee in the Swedish capital, sounded dazed.  

“I have not had my morning cup of coffee yet, so I am  feeling a little bit not quite with it all. But I have this  lovely feeling all over my body, like ‘Wow, this is really quite  exciting, but is it real?’“ he said.  

The Nobel prizes are given annually for achievements in  chemistry, physics, medicine, peace, literature and economics.  They were first awarded in 1901 in accordance with the 1895 will  of Swedish millionaire Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite.