The 2004 Nobel Prize in Physics

azatht writes "The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the Nobel Prize in Physics for 2004 "for the discovery of asymptotic freedom in the theory of the strong interaction" jointly to David J. Gross, Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA, H. David Politzer California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Pasadena, USThe 2004 Nobel Prize in Physics, and Frank Wilczek Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, USA."

Re:Where will this take us ?

[Gil-galad55]

It is of immense importance to the theory of elementary particles, but the forces it governs involve quark interactions, and it is doubtful any technology will explicitly need a model of quark interactions for some time! Then again, I could be shortly eating my shorts...

Prize money??

[wetlettuce]

I hadn't realised that the Nobel Prize actually had a cash prize. Considering these guys were just doing there job, the payout is not bad. 10M swedish krona (763K GBP or 1.36M USD).

A plug for Caltech and good teaching.

[DrRobin]

Hey! One of these guys (Politzer) was my Phys 1 prof when I was a frosh at Caltech *cough* 27 years ago, and I actually _remember_ his explanation of asymptotic freedom to us (even though I am a only a biology guy)! I also remember Feynman's guest lecture on numerical methods for "solving" otherwise impossible problems in Quantum Mechanics (which he demonstrated with a hand calculator!). We (the undergrads) were for the most part cocky know-it-alls with no clue what a privilege it was to have these folks (and many others of their caliber) teaching us up close and personal. Now, I look back with amazement at being able to discuss/joke/plead with these folks like it was no big deal. Seriously, if there are any gung-ho Slashlings out there looking for an intense science education, Caltech is hard to beat. Of course, if hazy memory serves in this matter, more than half the class flunked that first Phys1 midterm, so this is not for the faint of heart...

Re:Begone, ye troll!

[Anonymous Coward]

oh I agree, and also that pure mathematics is worthwhile.

I'm just not sure it's what Nobel left his legacy for.

(but that doesn't really matter).

however, when I was in physics, as an experimentalist, I used to kind of like the fact that nobel prizes were won by people who invented neat ways of making detectors, or neat uses of physics - whilst the smart-ass fancy pants theorists got nothing ;-)

I brought up Einstein because he's the classic case - how could anyone have a prize for physics and not give it to him? so they bent the rules a little. Bending the rules a little for Einstein os ok, now they just have ditched the rules.

oh, and no-one had a mobile phone or a satellite when Einstein got his prize.

Re:A plug for Caltech and good teaching.

[4of12]

Hey! One of these guys (Politzer) was my Phys 1 prof when I was a frosh at Caltech *cough* 27 years ago

I remember taking "Track B" with Politzer and Gomez back about that time, with class notes distributed on pink paper, brutal take-home quizzes on relativity, etc.

Politzer is a pretty good and patient prof, answering questions, explaining basic physics points, etc. although one time he did get annoyed at a cocky youngster (I don't think it was you - this was 26 years ago) slouched up in the front row.

Cocky youngster: "I don't see why you just don't use Stoke's Theorem."

Politzer: "I could just do this, too! (writes down what I later learned was manifestly covariant form for Maxwell's equations), but I'm teaching the class (erases equations) and this is how I want to do it."

The silenced cocky youngster sitting up front was spared the further embarrassment of seeing his classmates behind smiling at his long overdue comeuppance.

I agree - Caltech can't be beat for pure science education. It helps, too, that the freshman year is graded Pass/Fail and that they have an honor system, unlike most any other school, actually trusts you to take a closed-book, limited-time,take-homeexamination.

Red, white, and blue

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, Gell-Mann originally decided to call them red, white, and blue, in honor of the French flag. (Not sure why; he's American!) But it made more sense to change it to red, green, and blue, which (as light) combine to a neutral color (white), suggestive of the fact that quarks are bound into color-neutral configurations.

The scary part

[Ancient Devices King]

Two of the winners are in their mid 50's. But the work they won the prize for was done over 30 years ago. That means they were in their early to mid 20's at the time!