Fiber-Optics Take Home the Nobel Prize
I remember when fiber-optics first came out in consumer products. They were used in these wonderful feathery lights you could buy from places like Spencer's Gifts stores along with things like Lava Lamps. Fiber-optics has come a long way since then, although you can still get these fiber-optic lights.
Fiber-optic cables can pass astronomical amounts of data - they were used first locally on networks (using relatively short, very expensive, stiff and brittle cables), and now miles and miles of fiber-optic cable give us amazing bandwidths for telephone systems, broadband cable Internet, FiOS to the home, cable TV. Additionally, work on the Hubble Telescope, digital cameras and more have been possible due to fiber-optics and related work. Today the work of three innovative scientists - that have made digital magic possible are finally being given a distinct honor for their innovation and contribution — they are being rewarded with a Nobel Prize in Physics.
Charles K. Kao (75) - formerly of Stanford Telecommunications Lab in the UK - will get half of the $1.4 M Nobel prize, while Willard S. Boyle (85) and George E. Smith (79) - formerly of Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill, New Jersey - will split the remaining half.
Bloomberg's fascinating article entitled, ‘Masters of Light,’ Digital Images Win Physics Nobel notes that, "Kao calculated how to transmit light over long distances through optical glass fibers in 1966, a breakthrough that means people today can exchange text, music and images around the world within seconds. Three years later, Boyle and Smith designed the first imaging technology using a digital sensor, paving the way for the digital camera."
Fiber-optics has been quite revolutionary in the digital world for the last 40 years.
I wonder why it took so long for them to get the Physics Nobel for something that so pervasively affects our every day lives? Hard to say, but I am happy to see that they finally received a Nobel for their outstanding work and contributions to Physics while they were still able to enjoy it.
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