Nobel Prize for Physics goes to US, French and Canadian scientists
Stockholm, Oct 2 : The 2018 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded on Tuesday to Arthur Ashkin of the US, Gerard Mourou of France and Donna Strickland of Canada, making her the third woman to receive the prestigious award.
The trio of laureates won the prize for groundbreaking inventions in the field of laser physics.
Ashkin received the prize for the optical tweezers and their application to biological systems, while Mourou and Strickland were jointly awarded for their method of generating high-intensity, ultra-short optical pulses, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said in a statement.
Strickland became the first woman to receive the award in 55 years after Marie Curie won it in 1903 and Maria Goeppert-Mayer in 1963.
"We need to celebrate women physicists because we're out there. I'm honoured to be one of those women," Strickland said in a news conference following the announcement in Stockholm.
Speaking about being the third woman to ever win the award, she said she thought there might have been more, adding: "Hopefully in time it will start to move forward at a faster rate."
The inventions have revolutionised laser physics, as extremely small objects and incredibly rapid processes were now being seen in a new light.
Ashkin's optical tweezers are able to grab particles, atoms, viruses and other living cells with their laser beam fingers, allowing the American researcher to realise "an old dream of science fiction - using the radiation pressure of light to move physical objects".
The tweezers can capture living bacteria without harming them, a breakthrough he achieved back in 1987. Since then, these instruments have been widely used "to investigate the machinery of life", the Academy explained.
Mourou and Strickland, on the other hand, created ultrashort high-intensity laser pulses without destroying the amplifying material, thus paving the way towards the shortest and most intense laser pulses ever created by mankind.
Their innovative technique, known as "chirped pulse amplification", has now become standard for high-intensity lasers, including the ultra-sharp beams used in corrective eye surgeries.
Ashkin, a New Yorker born in 1922, pursued his Ph.D at the prestigious Cornell University and conducted his Nobel-winning research at Bell Laboratories.
Mourou (born in 1944 in Albertville, France), was the founding director of the Center for Ultrafast Optical Science at the University of Michigan.
Strickland, who was born near Toronto, Canada in 1959, obtained her Ph.D at the University of Rochester with Mourou as her advisor, jointly developing the CPA technique.
The award announcement came one day after a senior scientist with Cern, the academic home to a number of Nobel prize winners, was suspended for saying that physics was invented and built by men.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Political row in Bengal after 104-year-old man put under 'adjudication category' in electoral rolls
Kolkata (PTI): A 104-year-old man has complained of being listed in the "under adjudication" category in the final electoral rolls issued by the Election Commission following the SIR exercise in West Bengal on February 28, officials said on Wednesday.
Sheikh Ibrahim, a resident of Jamalpur gram panchayat in Purba Bardhaman district, said he has voted in every election since India’s first general polls after Independence and had never faced such an experience.
"Is it a crime to live beyond 100 years? I have always believed in casting votes and exercising my democratic rights. Why can't I vote this time? This is my country," he said.
His 70-year-old son said that after his father was called for a hearing at camps "due to some logical discrepancies as claimed by the EC," EC officials later visited their residence, and all necessary documents were submitted.
"The EC official who conducted the hearing expressed satisfaction and assured his name will be in the rolls. However, after the final rolls were published, we found his name listed ‘under adjudication category.’ We fail to comprehend why," his son said.
Flagging the matter, the TMC alleged on X that "104-year-old Sheikh Ibrahim, who was born in pre-Independent India and has voted in every election since the first general elections, was summoned for a hearing and subjected to harassment after being included in the ‘under adjudication’ list."
"Can you imagine the extent of harassment he has faced? How much lower will the Commission stoop?" the party asked.
"Do they think they can gift Bengal to the BJP by deleting names of valid voters even before the elections? It is not that easy. Bengal knows how to respond, and it knows how to fight," the post read.
There was no immediate response from the EC or the BJP to the allegations.
