Serge Haroche of France and David Wineland of the US share the 2012 Nobel physics prize for discoveries in quantum optics – the interaction between light and matter at the most fundamental level.
Their research deals with the most abstruse aspects of quantum theory, such as entanglement and coherence, but it paves the way for extremely precise clocks and ultra-fast computers quite different to those using conventional electronics.
“Until the last decade or two, some of these results were nothing more than ideas in science fiction or, at best, the wilder imaginations of quantum physicists,” said Jim Al-Khalili, professor of physics at the University of Surrey. “Wineland and Haroche and their teams have shown just how strange the quantum world really is and opened up the potential for new technologies undreamt of not so long ago.”