- Title: Nobel physics prize awarded to Peebles, Mayor and Queloz for cosmic discoveries
- Date: 8th October 2019
- Summary: ***WARNING: CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** (SOUNDBITE) (English) SECRETARY-GENERAL OF NOBEL COMMITTEE, GORAN HANSSON, SAYING: "Dr. Peebles are you there? (AUDIO OF PEEBLES SAYING "YES I AM" / PAN TO SCREEN WITH PEEBLE'S PICTURE) This is Goran Hansson again, I'm the guy who woke you up I suppose an hour ago or so (AUDIO OF PEEBLES SAYING "YES YOU DID") to give you the good news. Sorry about that." (AUDIO OF PEEBLES SAYING "IT'S ALRIGHT") WIDE OF NEWS CONFERENCE WITH PEEBLES' PICTURE ON SCREEN WHILE HE IS SPEAKING ON THE PHONE PICTURE OF PEEBLES ON SCREEN WHILE HE SPEAKS / (SOUNDBITE) (English) NOBEL LAUREATE, JAMES PEEBLES, SAYING: "It is so important that there is that interaction [between theoretical and practical physics]. Theory in any of the natural sciences is empty without observation in my opinion. You recall that the establishment of our universe is evolving was in part a theoretical discovery, but that was meaningless without the evidence, the really firm evidence now, that it really did expand from that hot dense state. We depend on that interaction of theory and observation."
- Embargoed: 22nd October 2019 12:48
- Keywords: Nobel Physics Nobel prize in physics
- Location: STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN
- City: STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN
- Country: Sweden
- Topics: Science
- Reuters ID: LVA004B08LAH3
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Canadian-American cosmologist James Peebles and Swiss scientists Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz won the 2019 Nobel Prize in Physics on Tuesday (October 8) for revealing the wonder of the evolution of the universe and discovering planets orbiting distant suns.
Peebles, of Princeton University in the United States, was awarded half of the 9-million-Swedish-crown (910,000 U.S. dollar) prize while Mayor and Queloz, from Switzerland's University of Geneva and Britain's Cambridge University, shared the rest.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said the scientists' research had "transformed our ideas about the cosmos".
Physics is the second Nobel to be awarded this week. William Kaelin, Gregg Semenza and Peter Ratcliffe shared the medicine prize on Monday (October 7) for discoveries about how cells respond to oxygen levels.
Among the Nobels, physics has often taken centre stage with winners featuring some of the greatest names in science like Albert Einstein, Marie Curie and Niels Bohr, as well as ground-breaking inventors such as radio pioneer Guglielmo Marconi.
Using theoretical tools and calculations, Peebles was able to interpret trace radiation from the infancy of the universe and so discover new physical processes, the academy said. It said that Mayor and Queloz announced the first discovery of a planet outside our own solar system, a so-called "exoplanet", starting a revolution in astronomy. Over 4,000 exoplanets have since been found in the Milky Way.
(Production: Ilze Filks, Chiara Rodriquez) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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