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/ 10 October 2007
Gerhard Ertl of Germany won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry on Wednesday, his 71st birthday, for pioneering work in surface chemistry that has become invaluable to industry, from fertilizers to cleaner cars. ”This science is important for the chemical industry,” the jury said in its citation.
Albert Fert of France and Peter Gruenberg of Germany on Tuesday won the Nobel Prize for Physics for work that led to the miniaturised hard disk, one of the breakthroughs of modern information technology. Fert (69) and Gruenberg (68) were lauded for discovering a principle called giant magnetoresistance, or GMR.
Mario Capecchi and Oliver Smithies of the United States and Martin Evans of Britain won the Nobel Prize for Medicine on Monday for their work in creating ”knockout mice”, the 21st-century testbed for biomedical research. The trio were honoured for discovering how to manipulate genetically mouse embryonic stem cells.