This morning, the Nobel Prize in Physics for 2009 was awarded to three scientists for their achievements in the fields of optical and digital technology.

Nobel Prize in Physics for 2009 awarded for achievements in the fields of optical and digital technology

Nobel Prize in Physics for 2009 awarded for achievements in the fields of optical and digital technology

Specifically, the award was presented to:

  • Charles K. Kao,Standard Telecommunication Laboratories, Harlow, UK, and Chinese University of Hong Kong,”for groundbreaking achievements concerning the transmission of light in fibers for optical communication”

and

  • Willard S. Boyle and George E. Smith, Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, NJ, USA,”for the invention of an imaging semiconductor circuit – the CCD sensor.”

Kao received one-half of the SEK $10 million (about $1.4 million USD) award; Boyle and Smith will split the second half.

In 1966, Charles K. Kao made a discovery that led to a breakthrough in fiber optics. He calculated how to transmit light over long distances via optical glass fibers. Kao calculated that by using a fiber of purest glass it would be possible to transmit light signals over 100 kilometers –quite an improvement over the fibers available in the 1960s, which transmitted light only 20 meters, or so.

Now, of course, optical fibers are integral to our communication in our society.

In fact, if we were to unravel all of the glass fibers that wind around the globe, we would get a single thread over one billion kilometers long – which is enough to encircle the globe more than 25,000 times.

In 1969 Willard S. Boyle and George E. Smith invented the first successful imaging technology using a digital sensor, a CCD (Charge-Coupled Device).

The CCD is the digital camera’s electronic eye. It revolutionized photography, allowing light to be captured electronically instead of on film. As we all know now, the digital form of photography facilitates the processing and distribution of images. CCD technology is also used in many medical applications, such as imaging the inside of the human body, both for diagnostics and for microsurgery.

Source: NobelPrize.org

Photo image: www.flickr.com/photos/pong/7214586/

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