-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Franco-German duo shares Physics Nobel Prize 2007

 

STOCKHOLM, AP: France's Albert Fert and German Peter Gruenberg won the 2007 Nobel Prize in Physics on Tuesday for 9th. October 2007 for a discovery that lets billions of computer users store reams of data on computer hard drives.  

The technology "can also be considered one of the first real applications of the promising fields of nanotechnology", which deals with extremely small devices, the Royal Swedish Academy of Science said in its citation.

"Applications of this phenomenon have revolutionized techniques for retrieving data from hard disks," the prize citation said. "The discovery also plays a major role in various magnetic sensors as well as for the development of a new generation of electronics."

In 1988, Fert and Gruenberg each independently discovered a physical effect called giant magneto-resistance. In this effect, very weak changes in magnetism generate larger changes in electrical resistance. This is how information stored magnetically on a hard disk can be converted to electrical signals that the computer reads. "The development of computers showed in the last years that this was an important contribution, "Gruenberg told Sweden's TV4 Channel shortly after being told he was sharing the prize with Fert.

 

Extract from Deccan Herald news paper dated 10th October 2007 Wednesday.

 

 

Thank you for visiting

Other Interesting Sites To Visit

Useful Resources

Refered Programes