STOCKHOLM - Three Americans whose 1960s research laid thefoundation for today's world of computerized images and lightning-fast communication shared the 2009 Nobel Prize in physics Tuesdayfor their work developing fiber-optic cable and the sensor at theheart of digital cameras.
Fiber optics
Light through glass: Charles K. Kao, 75, was cited fordiscovering how to transmit light signals over long distancesthrough glass fibers as thin as a human hair. His 1966 breakthroughled to the creation of modern fiber-optic communication networksthat carry voice, video and high-speed Internet data around theworld.
"What the wheel did for transport, the optical fiber did fortelecommunications," said Richard Epworth, who worked with Kao atStandard Telecommunications Laboratories in Harlow, England, in the1960s.
Led to Web: Kao solved the problem of transmitting through milesof glass without having the glass itself absorb the signal. CorningGlass Works built on his ideas to create the first fibers that couldbe used for large-scale long-distance communications, making today'sInternet possible.
Surprised: Kao said he never expected the award despite the vastchanges that resulted from his research.
"Fiber-optics has changed the world of information so much inthese last 40 years," he said in a statement released by the ChineseUniversity of Hong Kong, where he was formerly vice chancellor.
Light into pixels
Digital camera eye: Willard S. Boyle, 85, and George E. Smith,79, were honored for inventing the eye of the digital camera, asensor able to transform light into pixels, the tiny points of colorthat are the building blocks of every digital image.
CCD: Their charge-coupled device, or CCD, is found today indevices ranging from the cheapest point-and-shoot digital camera torobotic medical instruments equipped with video cameras that letsurgeons perform delicate operations deep inside the human body.
The stars: It also revolutionized astronomy by letting spacecraftequipped with digital cameras take images from previously unseenregions of outer space and transmit them back to earth.
U.S. citizens: The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said allthree have American citizenship.
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