Nobel honours technology pioneers October 8, 2009
Posted by sarah in: astronomy , trackbackYesterday the 2009 Nobel Prize for Physics was awarded to three scientists who pioneered some of the key technologies that have helped revolutionise both our lives and the way we do science in the last few decades. One of the laureates, Charles Kao, was honoured for his work on optical fibres, that has helped transform the telecommunications infrastructure we use every day. The others, William Boyle and George Smith, invented the charge coupled device (CCD) – the silicon imaging devices that lie at the core of the digital photography revolution. Congratulations to all three of them!
Scientists around the world, and astronomers in particular, have been nodding their heads in agreement with the Nobel committee’s choices, as the development of these devices have sparked the golden age of discovery in astronomy that we currently find ourselves in. The transition to digital imaging has transformed the way we observe the skies.
As I’m a little late to the party, let me simply list some of the great articles in the media and on blogs that have appeared since yesterday’s announcement.
The official Nobel Prize press release is here, with links to more background info.
News articles from BBC, Guardian, LA Times.
Professor Astronomy has two blog posts talking about fibre optics and CCDs in astronomy. Sean on Cosmic Variance gives his own perspective with nice images from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey.
Wired Science has a nice piece on how the CCD transformed science.
Enjoy!
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Can I quote a post in your blog with the link to you?
sure!