After all, your iPod, flash drive, and so many other consumer electronic devices with huge data storage capacity in a small space grow out of this discovery.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences yesterday honored two scientists whose discovery revolutionized digital data storage, awarding the 2007 Nobel Prize in physics for work that allows millions to sway to music on their iPods and to store a lifetime's photographs on palm-size devices.

Peter Gruenberg of Germany and Albert Fert of France were recognized for their independent discovery of giant magnetoresistance -- an exotic phenomenon whose practical applications became ubiquitous in everyday life in less than two decades.

Among the results: the palm-size external hard drive that can hold a good chunk of your local library. The iPod that allows you to carry a thousand songs in your pocket. The computing revolution that allows your laptop to hold more information than a 19th-century warehouse.

The Europeans will share about $1.5 million, a tiny fraction of the billions of dollars in wealth they have to helped create in Silicon Valley and around the world.

"It feels great," said Gruenberg in an interview after he won the prize. As usual, Nobel Prize winners were alerted yesterday half an hour ahead of the rest of the world by the academy in Stockholm. When the call came, Gruenberg said, the voice on the other end of the line was extremely faint. He strained to understand what he was being told.

"When I heard the word, 'Stockholm,' I thought, 'That's it! I have won the prize!' " he recalled. Gruenberg and Felt had long been tipped to become Nobelists.

Their discovery that ultra-thin slices of metal have different electrical properties in a magnetic field not only changed the musical and computing habits of the entire planet but also altered the very landscape of how people think about information, and the ways in which music, movies and ideas can be shared.

Now please understand, I'm not knocking previous winners of Nobel Prizes for science. But this discovery is one that we all can relate to because the discovery is one that changed daily lives and habits for many of us as we use its results in our daily lives. What was once cutting edge technology is now in our hands on a daily basic, making our lives more productive and enjoyable.

Posted by: Greg at 10:44 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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