Three scientists who corralled light to transform our communications systems share this year's physics
Nobel Prize.
Briton Charles Kao is lauded for his work in helping to develop fibre optic cables, the slender threads of glass that carry phone and net data as light.
Willard Boyle and George Smith, both
North Americans, are recognised for their part in the invention of the charged coupled device, or CCD.
This light detector lies at the
heart of nearly all digital cameras.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, which administers the prize, said half of the award would go to Kao, who was born in Shanghai and is a UK-US citizen.
It was his insight while working in the UK in the 1960s, said the academy, which allowed researchers to take fibre optics to a new level - to enable these thin cables to transmit light over much longer distances than had previously been possible.
Kao's team at Standard Telecommunication Laboratories in Harlow, UK, proposed the means to improve dramatically the purity - and therefore the efficiency - of the glass material used to construct the fibres.
Today, fibre optics underpin the communication age.
The hair-like cables speed data around the globe in the form of rapid pulses of light.
The modern telephony system is built on the technology, and high-speed broadband internet would not be possible without it.
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Topic: Physics Nobel Prize 2009: Three scientists who corralled light (Read 740 times)