The Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded Wednesday to three scientists for fundamental discoveries in nanotechnology, particles once considered impossibly small to make, with applications in television screens and LED lamps and to instruments that allow doctors to see the vasculature of a tumour.
The prize was awarded to Moungi G Bawendi, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Louis E Brus, of Columbia University; and Alexei I Ekimov, of Nanocrystals Technology in New York.
The award stirred controversy because, in a highly unusual development, the names of the winners were leaked in Swedish media four hours before they were made public more widely.
The development of nanoparticles, a new class of materials in which changes in size also result in changes in all of a particle's properties - optical, electrical, even the melting point - was first theorised in 1937.
So how small are the particles? Consider how much smaller a soccer ball is than the entire Earth. Quantum dots are that much smaller than the soccer ball.
"For a long time, nobody thought you could make such a small particle," said Johan Aqvist, chairman of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry.
But working independently in the early 1980s, first Ekimov and then Brus succeeded. As often happens with scientific discoveries, though, the initial breakthroughs used cumbersome methods to achieve results that were less than ideal (it was hard to control the size and quality of the particles), but another scientist discovered an elegant method that allowed for widespread use of the technology.
In 1993, Moungi revolutionised the process, devising a way to create "seed," or beginner particles that could then be carefully controlled using temperature. The method allowed him to stop the process to achieve particles of just the right size and quality.
The Nobel laureates continued the march of nanotechnology, which dates back more than 150 years to the work of the English scientist Michael Faraday, who created the first gold nanoparticles. And more discoveries are probably on the way.
"There are many people working very intensely in this field to develop applications," said Olof Ramström, a member of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry and professor of chemistry at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. The work, which doesn't require advanced equipment, has already been applied to the field of quantum computing, in which subatomic particles are used to store information.
"I'm absolutely thrilled," said Judith C Giordan, president of the American Chemical Society, shortly after hearing the prize announced. "This is a terrific example of theorising a phenomenon," producing it in the lab, "and then taking it to the next level of manufacturing."
Giordan said the most exciting applications would use nanotechnology to make better, more energy-efficient solar cells and to create probes that allow doctors and scientists to view cancer cells.
Moungi said he was in bed asleep when the committee called to inform him of the honour.
"Don't be sorry," Moungi said of the interruption. "Thank you so much." He declared himself "very surprised, sleepy, shocked... and very honoured."
The Nobel Prize, which includes an award of about $1 million, is awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
The Washington Post