Thomson Scientific Unveils Front Runners for Nobel Prize in Physics

Thomson Scientific unveils front runners for Nobel Prize in physics STOCKHOLM, Oct. 9, (Xinhua) — Japanese, British, Canadian and Swiss scientists are among front runners for this year’s Nobel Prize in physics due to be announced Tuesday, according to information group Thomson Scientific.

Sumio Iijima of Meijo University in Nagoya, Japan, is one of the front runners for his work in nanoscience, it predicted.

British cosmologist and astrophysicist Martin J. Rees is also apossibel winner for his work studying cosmic microwave background radiation and how galaxies form.

Canadian Arthur B. McDonald and Tokyo’s Yoji Totsuka are considered another two possible laureates for their work on solar and atmospheric neutrinos.

Others contenders include Polish-born Alexander Wolszczan, Canadian Dale Frail and Switzerland’s Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz for their discovery and documentation of planets that orbitstars outside of a solar system.

But David Pendlebury, an analyst with Thomson Scientific, admitted that it is “a real challenge … to make a prediction.”

“Often the prizes are awarded for work that was done many decades ago,” Pendlebury said, indicating the prize is one of thetoughest to predict.

Thomson Scientific analyzes the work, citations and experience of scores of possible Nobel laureates and conducts an online poll to see who the likely winners could be.

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