Nobel Prize in Physics: Seeing the Light

lidden writes "The Nobel Prize in Physics 2005 has been awarded Roy J. Glauber "for his contribution to the quantum theory of optical coherence". And John L. Hall and Theodor W. Hänsch "for their contributions to the development of laser-based precision spectroscopy, including the optical frequency comb technique"."

Re:Took their time

[lucabrasi999]

Either that, or he was just making a joke about "42".

Re:Took their time

[darkmeridian]

It took the Nobel committee 42 years to decide that Glauber's work in quantum theory was worthy of their prize. Now that's what I call uncertainty.

The Nobel Committee does not want to impugn the integrity of the Prize by doling it out for science that does not pan out. They have to wait until the research is established to some degree. What would happen to the Prize if someone won for cold fusion? The Nobel Prize would be a joke.

Re:John Hall

[Anonymous Coward]

I've noticed this happens every so often on Slashdot. (as well as rock stars, actors, etc.). Why do people feel the need to announce to the world that they met someone famous? It doesn't make the poster any more important and they certainly won't attain any fame themselves by associating their name with the famous person (especially via an essentially anonymous name on Slashdot).

However, if someone said that John Hall was an ahole then, yeah, it's ok to defend the guy if you think that he isn't. Otherwise, does it actually make you feel better about yourself by pointing out that you met someone famous?

Btw, this isn't a flame. I've never experienced this phenomena so I'm genuinely curious why.

Re:Took their time

[Anonymous Coward]

Are you kidding? Glauber should have won this twenty years ago. His work on coherent states is the bedrock of modern quantum optics. For example, without coherent states, nobody would understand squeezed states. And for example, coherent states allow us to understand why the classical optics approximation works so well. I read his papers over and over in my Ph.D. research, and I'm shocked it's taken so long.

Re:Took their time

[PippinTheThird]

The (original) purpose of Nobel Prize was to encourage young gifted scientists, to give them recognition necessary to get funding for research. Obviously now it's just a sort of a medal for past achievement and adds absolutely nothing to science TODAY.