Nobel Prize in Physics goes to three quantum researchers

This year's Nobel Prize in Physics goes to the Frenchman Alain Aspect, the American John F. Clauser and the Austrian Anton Zeilinger for research in the field of quantum physics. This was announced by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm on Tuesday. The researchers conducted groundbreaking experiments with entangled quantum states, where two particles behave as one even when separated.

The results paved the way for new technologies based on quantum information. The most important award for physicists this year is endowed with a total of ten million crowns (around 920,000 euros).

Since it was first awarded in 1901, 4 female and 214 male researchers have received the Nobel Prize in Physics – one of them, the American John Bardeen, even twice.

On Monday, the Swedish researcher Svante Pääbo, who works in Leipzig, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine and Physiology for his findings on human evolution. Among other things, he was the first scientist to sequence the Neanderthal genome.

Last year, Hamburg-based meteorologist Klaus Hasselmann and Japanese-born American Syukuro Manabe received half of the Nobel Prize in Physics. Both have provided a solid physical basis for our knowledge of climate change. The other half went to the Italian Giorgio Parisi for his work on understanding complex systems.

The winners of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry will be announced on Wednesday. The announcements for the Nobel Prize in Literature and Peace will follow on Thursday and Friday. The round ends next Monday with the Nobel Prize for Economics donated by the Swedish Reichsbank.

The award ceremony traditionally takes place on December 10th, the anniversary of the death of the award donator Alfred Nobel.