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Universe Expansion Touted for Nobel Prize

Posted on: Tuesday, 3 October 2006, 06:00 CDT

By MATT MOORE and MATTIAS KAREN

STOCKHOLM, Sweden - A theory of how the universe expanded and a tool used to expand global communication networks are being touted as breakthroughs worthy of this year's Nobel Prize in physics.

The winner will be revealed Tuesday, when the award - which has brought concepts like cosmic neutrons, subatomic particles and quantum fluids to the public eye - is announced by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

Thomson Scientific, a science information and publishing company that predicts winners, touted Alan H. Guth, Andrei Linde and Paul J. Steinhardt for the concept of cosmological inflation, a theory of how the universe expanded.

First put forth in 1981 by Guth, it says the universe expanded in part because it was powered by negative vacuum energy density, the underlying energy that exists in all space, even when there is no matter. Linde, a Russian who is a physics professor at Stanford University, and Steinhardt, of Princeton University, have added to that theory.

Physicists Albert Fert of France and Peter Gruenberg of Germany are tipped for their work in discovering the giant magnetoresistive effect, which has enabled the development of faster computer hard drives with hundreds of gigabytes. The process was discovered almost simultaneously by the two researchers.

Emmanuel Desurvire, Masataka Nakazawa and David N. Payne are considered key candidates for their work in developing the erbium-doped fiber amplifier, which amplifies optical signals and is a critical part of the world's Internet and telecommunications infrastructure.

Another likely candidate, and a perennial favorite, is Shuji Nakamura of the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Nakamura is known for developing patents for the blue light-emitting diode, or LED, widely used in traffic signals, cell phones, illumination, and for packing information onto disks. LED lights also have long lives and consume far less energy than normal incandescent lamps.

His work was honored earlier this year with the $1.2 million Millennium Technology Prize in Finland, often dubbed the Nobel Prize for technology.

Alfred Nobel, the wealthy Swedish industrialist and inventor of dynamite who endowed the prizes, left only vague guidelines for the selection committee.

In his will, he said the prize should be given to those who "shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind" and "shall have made the most important discovery or invention within the field of physics."

Americans John L. Hall and Roy J. Glauber and German Theodor W. Haensch won the 2005 prize for work that could lead to better long-distance communication and more precise navigation worldwide and in space.

The prize was given to the three for their work in applying modern quantum physics to the study of optics. Engineers have used their observations to improve lasers, Global Positioning System technology and other instruments.

This year's awards began Monday with the Nobel Prize in medicine going to Americans Andrew Z. Fire and Craig C. Mello for discovering a powerful way to turn off the effect of specific genes, opening a potential new avenue for fighting diseases as diverse as cancer and AIDS.

The process, called RNA interference, also is being studied for treating such conditions as hepatitis virus infection and heart disease. It is already widely used in basic science as a method to study the function of genes.

The winner of the Nobel Prize in chemistry will be named Wednesday. The Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel will be announced Oct. 9.

The winner of the peace prize - the only one not awarded in Sweden - will be announced Oct. 13 in Oslo, Norway.

A date for the literature prize has not yet been set.

The prizes, which include a $1.4 million check, a gold medal and a diploma, are presented on Dec. 10, the anniversary of Nobel's death in 1896.

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On the Net:

Nobel Prizes: http://www.nobelprize.org

Source: Associated Press/AP Online

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