2007 Physics Nobel Prize For Giant Magnetoresistance

A number of readers made sure we are aware that the 2007 Nobel Prize in physics has been awarded to Albert Fert and Peter Grunberg for simultaneously and independently discovering giant magnetoresistance. This property has allowed the explosion of disk-space growth and is cited as being one of the first nanotechnology breakthroughs. From the announcement: "Very weak magnetic changes give rise to major differences in electrical resistance in a GMR system. A system of this kind is the perfect tool for reading data from hard disks when information registered magnetically has to be converted to electric current."

Re:Huh? I don't understand

[$RANDOMLUSER]

Probably because this discovery is considered the birth of spintronics. [wikipedia.org]

Patent?

[grumpyman]

Did anybody patent this technology?

Re:FYI: Nobel prize $ amounts this year...

[reverseengineer]

The cash grant amounts associated with the Nobel Prizes have an interesting history- the foundation wasn't granted tax-exempt status until 1946, so for some of its early years, the tax assessment on the fund exceeded the total worth of that year's prizes. That, combined with orginally very conservative investment rules, caused the nominal value of the cash grants to stagnate, and the real value against inflation to plummet.

After getting tax-exempt status and easing their investment rules, the fund began to grow exponentially, and in both nominal and real terms, the current monetary award is larger than it's ever been. Here [nobelprize.org] is a listing and chart of how that amount has changed over time.

Interesting analogy

[Vainglorious Coward]

The BBC coverage of this story [bbc.co.uk] has a nice analogy :

equivalent to a jet flying at a speed of 30,000 kmph, at a height of just one metre above the ground, and yet being able to see and catalogue every single blade of grass it passes over