"Father of Fiber Optics" Wins Nobel Prize 74
alphadogg writes "Charles Kao, whose work in the 1960s laid the foundation for today's long-distance fiber-optic networks, has won a share of this year's Nobel Prize in Physics (PDF). Kao, sometimes referred to as the 'father of fiber-optic communications,' was formally honored by the Nobel Foundation in Stockholm, Sweden 'for groundbreaking achievements concerning the transmission of light in fibers for optical communication.' Kao's breakthrough discovery in 1966 was to determine how to transmit light over long distances using ultrapure optical glass fibers. This would extend the distance of such transmissions to 62 miles vs. the mere 65 feet allowed under previous technology held back by impurities. The first ultrapure fiber was created in 1970."
62 miles? (Score:3, Insightful)
Come on guys. We are talking about Science here. Use the system used by any scientist and 95% of the world population. 100km!
Re:62 miles in the 70's (Score:2, Insightful)
Anyone have a good link on what today's longest fiber's are capable of?
When I posted this I was thinking in my head "distance" but i failed to mention that.
Other capabilities might be interesting as well, such as max bandwidth for a single optic cable, ect...
Re:Why so long? (Score:5, Insightful)
It's a truism that you get your Nobel 20 to 30 years after the groundbreaking work that earned it. After all, they couldn't give it to you back then, 'cause back then it was going to the people who earned it 20 to 30 years before *that*.
Shares of the Nobel Prize (Score:4, Insightful)
If this goes on, in a few years they'll be giving hundredth of the prize...
Why not go back to the days where the prize was given to a single person that embodied a change?
And maybe something modern as well instead of some 50 years old stuff...
Re:Why so long? (Score:4, Insightful)
I imagine they also want some time to see if the discoveries prove to be truly useful in the long term. I'm sure there was plenty of neat stuff being done in the 60s/70s that was neat at the time but how much of it are we still using? (I know there's plenty, my point is there's also plenty that we aren't.) Also, they want to make sure they don't wind up giving the prize to the inventors of Thalidomide [wikipedia.org] or anything.