In experiments carried out in the 1980s, the scientists showed that quantum tunnelling can also be observed on a macroscopic scale \u2013 involving multiple particles \u2013 by using superconductors.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis prize is awarding an experiment that brings the scale up to the macroscopic scale, scales that we can understand and measure through human standards,\u201d Danielsson said.<\/p>\n
\u2018Surprise of my life\u2019 <\/p>\n
\u201cIt is also enormously useful, as quantum mechanics is the foundation of all digital technology,\u201d Olle Eriksson, chair of the Nobel Committee for Physics, said in a statement.<\/p>\n
Clarke, 83, is a professor at the University of California, Berkeley.<\/p>\n
Devoret, 72, is a professor at University of California, Santa Barbara and is listed as a professor emeritus at Yale University.<\/p>\n
Martinis, born 1958, is also a professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo put it mildly, it was the surprise of my life,\u201d Clarke told reporters via telephone during the prize announcement, about learning of his award.<\/p>\n
Clarke explained that the scientists had been focused on the physics of their experiments and had not realised at the time the practical applications that could follow.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt certainly had not occurred to us in any way that this discovery would have such a significant impact,\u201d Clarke said.<\/p>\n
Asked about how their discoveries had affected everyday life, Clarke noted that he was speaking to the audience via his mobile phone.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the underlying reasons that the cell phone works is because of all this work,\u201d Clarke said.<\/p>\n
\u2018Brain drain\u2019 <\/p>\n
In a subsequent interview with the Nobel Foundation, Clarke stressed that the discovery was a joint effort.<\/p>\n
\u201cI could not imagine accepting the prize without the two of them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Like many Nobel laureates, the trio\u2019s research was carried out in the United States.<\/p>\n
Major US institutions typically dominate the Nobel science prizes, due largely to the US\u2019 longstanding investment in basic science and academic freedoms.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fact that Michel Devoret went to the US is an example of the brain drain,\u201d Eleanor Crane, a quantum physicist at King\u2019s College London, told AFP.<\/p>\n
But at the same time, Crane noted that this trend \u201cis being reverted right now with a new administration\u201d.<\/p>\n
Massive US budget cuts to science programmes announced by President Donald Trump have raised fears that the United States\u2019 may lose its scientific edge.<\/p>\n
The physics prize is the second Nobel of the season, following Monday\u2019s medicine prize to a US-Japanese trio for research into the human immune system.<\/p>\n
Mary Brunkow and Fred Ramsdell of the United States and Japan\u2019s Shimon Sakaguchi were honoured for identifying immunological \u201csecurity guards\u201d.<\/p>\n
The physics prize will be followed by the chemistry prize on Wednesday, the literature prize on Thursday, and the highly watched Nobel Peace Prize on Friday.<\/p>\n
The economics prize wraps up the 2025 Nobel season on October 13.<\/p>\n
The Nobel consists of a diploma, a gold medal and a US$1.2m ($1.5m) cheque, to be shared if there is more than one winner in a discipline.<\/p>\n
The 2025 laureates will receive their prizes at formal ceremonies in Stockholm and Oslo on December 10, the anniversary of the death in 1896 of scientist Alfred Nobel, who created the prizes in his will.<\/p>\n
– Agence France-Presse<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In experiments carried out in the 1980s, the scientists showed that quantum tunnelling can also be observed on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":64260,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[432,8239,52227,3309,13177,372,170,52230,1651,52233,2082,52228,71,29163,305,296,5126,52234,52231,31737,52232,52229,111,139,40141,69,393,10512,29158,6901,147,145,13082,52226,6202],"class_list":["post-64259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-physics","tag-action","tag-american","tag-briton","tag-cellphones","tag-clarke","tag-computers","tag-development","tag-devoret","tag-digital","tag-enabling","tag-for","tag-frenchman","tag-from","tag-generation","tag-have","tag-into","tag-john","tag-kinds","tag-martinis","tag-mechanical","tag-mechanics","tag-michel","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nobel","tag-nz","tag-physics","tag-prize","tag-putting","tag-quantum","tag-science","tag-technology","tag-trio","tag-tunnelling","tag-wins"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64259\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}