Two scientists whose work made possible the development of the iPod and powerful laptop computers were rewarded yesterday with the Nobel Prize for Physics.Albert Fert, a Frenchman, and Peter Grünberg, a German, have been jointly honoured for creating the technology used to read data on hard disks.Their research has been critical to shrinking data storage systems; without it, MP3 music players and laptops with gigabyte memories could not work. Borje Johansson, a member of the Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences, which awards the prize, said: “The MP3 and iPod industry would not have existed without this discovery.”
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article2622998.eceAlso see:
German, French Scientists Win Nobel Prize in Physics
If you’re reading this article or own anything with a hard drive, chances are good that you owe a debt of gratitude to the two men — France’s Albert Fert and Germany’s Peter Grünberg — awarded this year’s Nobel Prize in physics.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,510425,00.html