2008 Nobel Prize in Physics

The winners of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physics have been announced. The prize recognizes the significance of understanding broken symmetry. Broken symmetry is the term used to describe an object breaking either rotational or translational symmetry.

Half of the prize goes to Yoichiro Nambu (USA) "for the discovery of the mechanism of spontaneous broken symmetry in subatomic physics" and the other half is shared between Makoto Kobayashi and Toshihide Maskawa (Japan) "for the discovery of the origin of the broken symmetry which predicts the existence of at least three families of quarks in nature".

Watch tomorrow for the announcement of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry!

2008 Nobel Prize in Medicine
2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
List of all Nobel Prizes in Chemistry