The Nobel Prize for Physics this year was awarded on Tuesday to French scientist Serge Haroche and American David Wineland for work in quantum physics.
Here are the top five facts on the story:
The 2012 award was won for ground-breaking experimental methods that "enable measuring and manipulation of individual quantum systems".
Through their laboratory methods they have managed to measure and control very fragile quantum states, enabling their field of research to take the very first steps towards building a new type of superfast computer, based on quantum physics.
105 Nobel Prizes in Physics have been awarded to 191 Laureates between 1901 and 2011. John Bardeen has been won the prize twice.
Only two women have won the prize, Marie Curie in 1903 and Maria Goeppert-Mayer in 1963. Curie won in 1903 with her husband Pierre.
Winners include: Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen won the first Nobel Prize in 1901 for his discovery of X-Rays; Guglielmo Marconi in 1909 for his contribution to radio communications; Max Planck in 1918 for quantum theory; Albert Einstein for his theory of relativity in 1921 and Enrico Fermi in 1938 for his work on induced radioactivity.
© Thomson Reuters 2012
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