Nobel Lectures In Physics (2006-2010) (PDF)

This volume is a collection of the Nobel lectures delivered by the prizewinners, together with their biographies and the presentation speeches by Nobel Committee members for the period 2006-2010. The criterion for the Physics award is to the discoverer of a physical phenomenon that changed our views, or to the inventor of a new physical process that gave enormous benefits to either science at large or to the public. The biographies are remarkably interesting to read and the Nobel lectures provide detailed explanations of the phenomena for which the Laureates were awarded the Nobel Prize.Aspiring young scientists as well as more experienced ones, but also the interested public will learn a lot from and appreciate the geniuses of these narrations.List of prizewinners and their discoveries:(2006) to John C Mather and George F Smoot âfor their discovery of the blackbody form and anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background radiationâThe very detailed observations that the Laureates have carried out from the COBE satellite have played a major role in the development of modern cosmology into a precise science.(2007) to Albert Fert and Peter Grünberg âfor the discovery of Giant MagnetoresistanceâApplications of this phenomenon have revolutionized techniques for retrieving data from hard disks. The discovery also plays a major role in various magnetic sensors as well as for the development of a new generation of electronics. The use of Giant Magnetoresistance can be regarded as one of the first major applications of nanotechnology.(2008) to Yoichiro Nambu âfor the discovery of the mechanism of spontaneous broken symmetry in subatomic physicsâ, and to Makoto Kobayashi and Toshihide Maskawa âfor the discovery of the origin of the broken symmetry which predicts the existence of at least three families of quarks in natureâWhy is there something instead of nothing? Why are there so many different elementary particles? The Laureates presented theoretical insights that give us a deeper understanding of what happens far inside the tiniest building blocks of matter.(2009) to Charles Kuen Kao âfor groundbreaking achievements concerning the transmission of light in fibers for optical communicationâ, and to Willard S Boyle and George E Smith âfor the invention of an imaging semiconductor circuit â the CCD sensorâKao's discoveries have paved the way for optical fiber technology, which today is used for almost all telephony and data communication. Boyle and Smith have invented a digital image sensor â CCD, or charge-coupled device â which today has become an electronic eye in almost all areas of photography.(2010) to Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov âfor groundbreaking experiments regarding the two-dimensional material grapheneâThe Laureates have shown that a thin flake of ordinary carbon, just one atom thick, has exceptional properties that originate from the remarkable world of quantum physics.