Pioneers of light win physics Nobel An engineer in fibre optics
and two scientists who figured out how to turn light into
electronic signals, work that has paved the way for the internet
age, have been awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize for physics.
Professor Charles Kao has won half the 10 million Swedish crown
(A$1.6 million) prize for a discovery that led to a breakthrough
in fibre optics, determining how to transmit light over long
distances via optical glass fibres. Dr Willard Boyle and Dr
George Smith shared the other half for inventing the first
successful imaging technology using a digital sensor. "This
year's Nobel prize in physics is awarded for two scientific
achievements that have helped to shape the foundations of
today's networked societies," the award- committee said in a
statement. Their achievements have allowed vast amounts of
information to be sent around the globe almost instantaneously,
as trillions of signals make their way through tiny glass fibres
now long enough to encircle the planet more