3 More Americans Win Nobels

[cal04]

Source: Associated Press

Trio made breakthroughs in fiber optics and invented an imaging semiconductor circuit

Three Americans have won Nobel Prizes in physics for breakthroughs on fiber optics and for inventing an imaging semiconductor circuit, The Associated Press reported.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the prestigious honor to Charles K. Kao, Willard S. Boyle and George E. Smith, according to the AP. Kao is also a British citizen, while Boyle has dual Canadian-U.S. citizenship.

The prize includes a 10 million kronor ($1.4 million) award.

On Monday, three Americans won Nobels in medicine.

Read more: http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/breaking/NATL-3-More-Americans-Win-Nobels-63586512.html

---

N.J.-based pair’s discovery ‘revolutionized photography,’ academy says
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33188514/ns/world_news-europe/

[provis99]

1. Ironic that of the three "Americans", two are foreigners by birth.

But that's what usually happens: America doesn't produce many home-grown Nobel science winners. We import them from other countries, give them university professorships, slap on American citizen, and then crow when they win Nobel prizes, all the time bragging that "Americans" won the prize.

[No Elephants]

3. Why is it ironic? We've always been a nation of immigrants. Even "Native" Americans

immigrated here.

[JDPriestly]

8. The whole world is full of immigrants. I've even met people whose family

immigrated to India many, many generations ago. And then there was Ghengis Khan. Go back far enough and it's just one world. I suppose there is a small number of people whose ancestors way back evolved into humans within 50 miles of the area in which they now live.

[AlphaCentauri]

13. As you know it there are two Americas

The America for the novel price winners and the America for the poor immigrants who are depict as criminals.

[WriteDown]

15. Not my tribe...

They are now claiming that they originated in North America and have no links to Asian ancestry.

I know....good grief.

[Posteritatis]

16. A lot of them are claiming things like that these days

A friend of mine's an Andean anthropologist, says attitudes like that make it almost impossible to do actual research in some places.

(It's infested history too, where for some reason it's now considered impolite to say "no, your people have not lived here for billions of years.")

[WriteDown]

17. That is exactly right...

Everyone wants to be "pure."

[knixphan]

19. yeah, as if 'pure' exists.

[ArbustoBuster]

21. I'm an anerobic bacterium.

My people have lived here for billions of years.

Unfortunately, most of my family are Republicans. I think it's the lack of a brain that makes them fall for the GOP line of BS.

[fujiyama]

26. Part of this is also a fear and distrust

I remember hearing that some were worried that if they agreed to the sampling that if they were not found to be "true" Native Americans, they would be disqualified from any federal and state programs, like college scholarships.

I can understand the paranoia, considering how much Native Americans have been screwed over in the past. This is certainly important anthropological research though and I hope a better relationship can be developed between them and the scientific and anthropology communities.

[provis99]

23. its ironic because native born Americans aren't winning the prizes.

[harmonicon]

4. and what's wrong with that?

Someone isn't just where they're from originally. I think a modern sense of nationality shouldn't be based on something like the pseudo-science of race. Anyone who is an American citizen is equal to any other - that's one of the things that makes the country beautiful and part of the reason why so many millions of people have gone there over hundreds of years. Is there something wrong with that? People move for a better life - which they get - and in turn make the lives of their countrymen, and all of the world better, and you think there's something wrong with that? Isn't that the point? Isn't that the beauty of it?

[provis99]

24. America is not producing Nobel prize winners. Other countries are,

and they move here. You people are all missing my frickin' point.

[harmonicon]

25. let me get this straight:

for America to "produce" Nobel prize winners they must be ejected from a woman's vagina within US borders. Do I have that straight?

[muriel_volestrangler]

27. Except that it is:

George Smith was born and educated in the US, and has done all his work in the US
Willard Boyle was born and educated in Canada, and moved to the for his research at 29 or so. It was in the US he did the work the prize is for.
Charles Kao was born in China, educated in Hong Kong and then Britain, where he did the work the prize is for (that was where the breakthrough was, anyway). Later he came to the US.

So America is still producing Nobel Prize winners in physics. Of the 3 awarded the prize for medicine yesterday:

Jack Szostak was born in Britain, educated in Canada and the US, and did the work for the prize in the US.
Elizabeth Blackburn was born in Australia, educated in Australia, Britain, and the US, and did the work for the prize in the US.
Carol Greider was born and educated in the US, and has done all her work in the US.

So, the US is producing Nobel laureates in the US too.

Now they've announce chemistry:

Venkatraman Ramakrishnan was born in India, educated in India and the US, and now works in Britain, but I think the work for the prize was largely done in the US - see http://news.rediff.com/report/2009/oct/07/ramakrishnan-wins-chemistry-nobel.htm .
Thomas Steitz was born and educated in the US, and has done all his work in the US.
Ada Yonath was born and educated in Israel, and has done most of her work in Israel, with a little in the US and Germany.

So, it's an international arena; many move around during their careers. 3 out of 9 have lived and worked entirely in the US, another 4 did the work in the US, with 3 of those finishing their education there, and 2 did the bulk of their work for which they got their prizes elsewhere, but have a professional association with the US as well. America does attract many scientists eventually, but even then, one of the winners, while an American citizen, has gone to work at Cambridge University as the latest part of his career.

[Barack_America]

6. That's the wrong way to look at it.

America is still the place that scientists want to spend their careers. We don't "import" them, they seek us out. Furthermore, it was America who provided the research environment for these people to work. America provided the funding, the lab space and the freedom to work on what they wanted. That's what we're really talking about with the citizenship of the award, not so much the people, but the research environment where the work happened. This is absolutely an American award.

I will admit that we need more Americans to go into science and take advantage of these opportunities our universities and govt. set up. FWIW, you can count me as one of them (I'm in an MD/Phd program).

[AlphaCentauri]

12. That is the American educational system is not the best

unless money is involved

[Posteritatis]

14. Boyle's from my neck of the woods originally; NS represent, etc.! (nt)

[daleo]

22. One is a dual citizen - U.S. and Canadian

Born, raised and educated in Canada, worked in the U.S. and Canada (the Nobel was for work done in the U.S.).

[zbdent]

2. What??? George W. Bush hasn't won the Nobel Peace Prize yet???

HORRORS!!!

[Barack_America]

5. Woot!

Seriously, steer your kids into science. America still has the advantage and the jobs pay good middle class wages.

Thanks from a molecular biologist.

[krkaufman]

7. Do we have any footage of Conservatives booing this result? n/t

[undeterred]

9. 3 Americans win Nobel in physics

Source: Los Angeles Times

Three American "masters of light" who created technologies that made it possible to capture digital images and transmit them and other electronic information long distances today won the 2009 Nobel Prize in physics.

Charles K. Kao, a naturalized American who did most of his work in England and Hong Kong, will share half the $1.4-million prize for demonstrating that highly purified fibers of glass can carry light waves for long distances, setting the stage for the globe-girdling fiber-optic networks that transmit the bulk of everyday television, telephone and other communications.

Willard S. Boyle and George E. Smith, who worked at Bell Laboratories, will share the other half of the award for developing the charge-coupled device, the electronic eye that makes digital photography possible and that in less than two decades has filled the world with inexpensive digital cameras and camera-bearing telephones.

Humans have known for more than 4,000 years that glass can carry light, but that process was always inefficient. When researchers developed the first optical instruments for medicine to perform endoscopies and view internal organs, they used bundles of glass fibers. These crude devices leaked light from one fiber to surrounding fibers, impairing efficiency and the integrity of images.


Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-sci-nobel7-2009oct07,0,4906180.story?track=rss

[BlooInBloo]

10. Grats to all. Our best has always been as good as anybody's....

It's our *average* that's the problem.

[depakid]

18. Of these three "Americans" -one is from Britain and one from Canada

just as yesterday- the of the three Americans- the lead researcher was from Australia and another from Britain.

At least today's article- unlike yesterday's, noted that in the fine print.

[Akoto]

11. Rachel Maddow mentioned last night that one of the others was fired by Bush ...

She apparently did not have kind things to say about his policies on stem cell research, and that got her the boot. As Maddow said, when you try to bully geeks into following your point of view, they will always get their revenge!

[jeffbr]

20. Great choices for physics this year

These three guys really changed the world for the better in a tangible way.