Bangalore: This years Nobel Prize for Physics went to French and an American scientist for finding ways to measure quantum particles without destroying them, which could pave a way for super computers, powerful beyond our present imagination.

The French scientist Serge Haroche and American scientist David Wineland, both 68, discovered ways to manipulate the smallest particles of matter (smaller than an atom) and light (photon) without destroying them. The concept was only imagined through equations and thought experiments before this break through.

Wineland described this remarkable feat as “parlour trick”, a magic trick about placing an object in two places at same time. The discovery is like a wildest science fiction came to reality.

Royal Swedish Academy of Scientists awarded the scientists with 8 million crown and stated that the remarkable feat of Nobel laureates opened gates for experiments in quantum physics by enabling the direct observation of individual quantum particles without destroying them. This could lead to quantum computers which will change our every day life in a radical way similar to how classical computers first took place amid us.

Haroche said that he was walking the street with his wife when he recognized the Swedish country code on his buzzing mobile which brought information about the prestigious award. Speaking to the Sweden reporters on phone he said “I saw area code 46 and I sat down. I called my children, and then called my closest colleagues, without whom I would never have won this prize.” When asked how he would celebrate, he said “I will have champagne, of course.”  

Wineland said in a press conference that he was asleep when the phone call from Stockholm rang and his wife answered it.

Quantum physics studies the behavior of fundamental building blocks of universe which are smaller than the atoms, and till now the ways in which these tiny particles interacted was defined by mathematics. The magnificent find of these Nobel laureates will help in knowing the behavior of these particles even in their isolation. These particles were tougher to isolate from their environment and if done would have lost their behavior or destroyed. This new understanding of tiny particles could lead to quantum computers which can change the computer world beyond bounds.