Trio wins Physics Nobel Prize for research on 'quantum tunneling'
What's the story
The 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded to John Clarke, Michel H. Devoret, and John M. Martinis for their groundbreaking experiments, demonstrating quantum tunneling and energy quantization on a macroscopic scale. The trio conducted a pioneering experiment with a superconducting electrical circuit, where billions of electrons pair up into Cooper pairs. Their setup allowed these quantum effects to manifest across an entire superconductor on a chip roughly 1cm in size.
Quantum breakthrough
Research revolutionizes understanding of quantum mechanics
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences emphasized that the experiment by Clarke, Devoret, and Martinis has revolutionized our understanding of quantum mechanics. It successfully showed that quantum phenomena can be observed in much larger, macroscopic systems. The research also laid the groundwork for superconducting quantum circuits, a key technology in modern quantum computers. Their discovery opens doors to manipulating and harnessing quantum effects on scales previously thought impossible.
Prize history
Last year, the prize went to AI pioneers
Since its inception in 1901, the physics prize has been awarded 118 times to 226 laureates whose discoveries have reshaped our understanding of the universe. Last year, it was awarded to artificial intelligence pioneers John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton for their work that laid the groundwork for modern machine learning. Each prize carries global prestige and a cash award of nearly $1.2 million.
List
A look at the other Nobel awards
The week of Nobel awards began with Medicine yesterday. Mary E. Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell, and Dr. Shimon Sakaguchi were recognised for finding how the immune system distinguishes a friend from foe, and targets invading germs while sparing the cells in the body. The series of announcements continues through the week with Chemistry tomorrow, Literature on Thursday, and the Peace Prize on Friday. The awards conclude with the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics on October 13.