Nobel Honors 3 for Astrophysics Work
Tuesday October 8, 2002 12:00 PM
STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) - Two Americans and a Japanese won the Nobel Prize in
physics Tuesday for using some of the most obscure particles and waves in
nature to understand the workings of astronomy's grandest wonders.
Riccardo Giacconi, 71, of the Associated Universities Inc. in Washington,
D.C., will get half of the $1 million prize for his role in ``pioneering
contributions to astrophysics, which have led to the discovery of cosmic
X-ray sources.''
Raymond Davis, Jr., 87, of the University of Pennsylvania shares the other
half of the prize with Japanese scientist Masatoshi Koshiba, 76, of the
University of Tokyo. The two men pioneered the construction of giant
underground chambers to detect neutrinos, elusive particles that stream from
the sun by the billion.
Neutrinos offer an unparalleled view of the sun's inner workings because
they are produced in its heart by the same process that causes it to shine.
In fact, Davis' early experiments, performed during the 1960s in a South
Dakota gold mine, confirmed that the sun is powered by nuclear fusion.
Koshiba won his share of the prize for his work at the Kamiokande neutrino
detector in Japan. That experiment confirmed and extended Davis' work, and
also discovered neutrinos coming from distant supernova explosions, some of
the brightest objects in the universe.
The Italian-born Giacconi, a U.S. citizen, was awarded half of the prize for
building the first X-ray telescopes that provided ``completely new - and
sharp - images of the universe,'' the academy said.
His research laid the foundation for X-ray astronomy, which has led to the
discovery of black holes and allowed researchers to peer deep into the
hearts of the dusty young galaxies where stars are born.
When academy officials reached Giacconi by phone at his home outside
Washington, he said he was ``dumbstruck'' to learn of the prize. Koshiba
also was phoned at home in Tokyo, but the academy was still trying to reach
Davis, spokesman Erling Norrby said.
This year's Nobel awards started Monday with the naming of Britons Sydney
Brenner, 75, and Sir John E. Sulston, 60, and American H. Robert Horvitz,
55, as winners of the medicine prize, selected by a committee at the
Karolinska Institute.
The researchers shared it for discoveries about how genes regulate organ
growth and a process of programmed cell deaths that shed light on how
viruses and bacteria invade human cells, including in conditions such as
AIDS, strokes, cancer and heart attacks.
The winner of the Nobel Prize in chemistry will be named on Wednesday
morning and the Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of
Alfred Nobel later the same day.
The literature prize winner will be announced on Thursday, the Swedish
Academy said on Tuesday.
The winner of the coveted peace prize - the only one not awarded in Sweden -
will be announced Friday in Oslo, Norway.
The award committees make their decisions in deep secrecy and candidates are
not publicly revealed for 50 years.
Alfred Nobel, the wealthy Swedish industrialist and inventor of dynamite who
endowed the prizes left only vague guidelines for the selection committees.
In his will he said the prize being revealed on Tuesday should be given to
those who ``shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind'' and
``shall have made the most important discovery or invention within the field
of physics.''
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, which also chooses the chemistry and
economics winners, invited nominations from previous recipients and experts
in the fields before cutting down its choices. Deliberations are conducted
in strict secrecy.
The prizes are presented on Dec. 10, the anniversary of Nobel's death in
1896, in Stockholm and in Oslo.
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On the Net:
Nobel site, http://www.nobel.se
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