The Nobel Prize in Physics 1971 Award Ceremony Speech Speech by
professor Erik Ingelstam of the Royal Academy of Sciences Your
Majesty, Your Royal Highnesses, Ladies Our five senses give us
knowledge of our surroundings, and nature herself has many
available resources. The most obvious is light which gives us
the possibility to see and to be pleased by colour and shape.
Sound conveys the speech with which we communicate with each
other and it also allows us to experience the tone-world of
music. Light and sound are wave motions which give us
information not only on the sources from which they originate,
but also on the bodies through which they pass, and against
which they are reflected or deflected. But light and sound are
only two examples of waves which carry information, and they
cover only very small parts of the electromagnetic and acoustic
spectra to which our eyes and ears are sensitive. Physicists and
technologists are working continuously to improve and broaden
the methods and instruments which give