Three US scientists, John Clarke, Michel H Devoret and John Martinis, won the Physics Nobel Prize for their work on Quantum Physics that laid the groundwork for modern-day electronics such as cellphones, cameras, and fibre optic cables. Their work forms the basis for what is now being attempted: the building of a supercomputer that is much, much faster than traditional computers. A supercomputer is based on the theory that a superconductor does not have resistance to the flow of atomic particles and thus transmits energy very fast.
British-born Clarke is a professor at the University of California, Berkeley. French-born Devoret and Martinis are both professors at Yale University and the University of California respectively. Martinis was head of Google's Quantum Artificial Intelligence Lab, and Devoret is a chief scientist at Google Quantum AI.
This year's Physics Nobel prize-winning topic is extremely significant in these times when AI is taking the world by storm, transforming the way almost everything is conducted. The trio's experiment in 1984-95 revealed a phenomenon known as Quantum Tunnelling, which showed that atomic particles moved through a barrier in very large quantities, paving the way for modern-day electronics.
