(I love the analogy with the jet about halfway through the article. Pretty amazing.)

By Niklas Pollard

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - France's Albert Fert and Germany's Peter Gruenberg won the 2007 Nobel Prize for physics on Tuesday for a breakthrough in nanotechnology that lets huge amounts of data be squeezed into ever-smaller spaces.

Gadgets from powerful laptops to iPods owe their existence to the discovery.

The 10-million Swedish crown ($1.54 million) prize, awarded by The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, recognized the pair for revealing a physical effect called giant magnetoresistance.

"It is thanks to this technology that it has been possible to miniaturize hard disks so radically in recent years," the academy said in a statement.

Giant magnetoresistance -- GMR for short -- works through a large electrical response to a tiny magnetic input.

When atoms are laid down on a hard disk in ultra-thin layers, they interact differently than when spread out more. This makes it possible to pack more data on disks.

Surrounded by journalists in Paris soon after learning of his award, the 69-year-old Fert started chatting with some youngsters near the CNRS research centre he co-founded.

"You like physics?" he asked, telling them he had just won the Nobel prize. "If you are able to listen to music on your MP3 player, it is a bit thanks to what I've done."

Fert and Gruenberg, 68, figured out how to stack nanometer-thin layers of magnetic and non-magnetic atoms to produce the GMR effect.

"The story of the GMR effect is a very good demonstration of how a totally unexpected scientific discovery can give rise to completely new technologies and commercial products," the Nobel committee wrote.

SCIENCE FICTION

It works because of a property called spin. Electrons -- the charged particles within atoms -- "spin" in different directions under various circumstances, producing the changes in resistance that are used to store data.

"It is the thing that has made iPods possible and anything that requires lots of data storage, like YouTube," said Chris Marrows, a physicist at Leeds University who specializes in a branch of technology known as spintronics.

Thanks to advances based on GMR, a typical laptop computer now holds about 100 gigabytes of data. That is equal to the information contained in a kilometer-long (3,280-foot) bookshelf, roughly an entire library floor of academic journals.

Ben Murdin, a physics professor at the University of Surrey in southeast England, described the technology as something practically out of a work of science fiction.

"A computer hard disk reader that uses a GMR sensor is equivalent to a jet flying at a speed of 30,000 kilometers (19,500 miles) per hour ... at a height of just one meter above the ground, and yet being able to see and catalogue every single blade of grass it passes over," Murdin said.

Fert and Gruenberg each made the discovery independently of the other. They shared the 2007 Japan Prize for their work.

As Nobel physics laureates, the two join the ranks of some of the greatest names in science, including Albert Einstein, Marie Curie, Niels Bohr and Wilhelm Rontgen. Rontgen won the first prize in 1901 for discovering X-rays.

Gruenberg said the award was "slightly" expected. "But not completely because then I would have worn a tie," he told reporters, sporting an open-neck shirt. "What is my first reaction? Well, I can't remember, I was stunned."

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, a physicist herself, said: "It is a great honor ... The prize shows how fundamental research can lead to technical, practical uses."

Merkel's French counterpart, President Nicolas Sarkozy, portrayed the award as a coup for Europe.

"It is European research which is crowned," Sarkozy said in a statement. He said Fert was among the great minds who led the way forward for French development and glory.

This was the second of this year's crop of Nobel prizes, which are handed out annually for achievements in science, literature, economics and peace.

All but one of the prizes were established in the will of 19th century dynamite millionaire Alfred Nobel. The economics award was established by Sweden's central bank in 1968.

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Put me on wheels and I'll turn tricks.

Clever? Nah, I ran out of that years ago. But if you find this, let me know, k?
"The road goes ever on..." ~ Tolkien

In memory of my friend skip...
Go then, there are other worlds than these

Thank you, gentlemen.

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Calm, quiet, smooth, devastating

See how important the little things you do can be.

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[ Translation ]
bla blah blah ablahbla blah blah ablahbla blah blah ablahbla blah blah ablahbla blah blah ablahbla blah blah ablahbla blah blah ablahbla blah blah ablah*geek speak* bla blah blah ablahbla blah blah ablahbla blah blah ablahbla blah blah ablah *jseal says you will get more bang for your buck* blah blah ablahbla blah blah ablahbla blah blah ablahbla blah blah ablahbla blah blah ablahbla blah blah ablahbla blah blah

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The practice of putting women on pedestals began to die out when it was discovered that they could give orders better from there.~ Betty Grable

If I wanted your opinion, I'd remove the duct tape and ask you for it.~ Me
<~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~>
One man's dream is another man's nightmare~~~~> §¤ Lilith ¤§
~>My Scribbles<~
==>Gone Shopping<== ~Just a Quickie~ *~A Celebration Vacation~* ~Surprises~ Sleeping With the Window Open
What Did You Do Today? Self Defense Class ~Short Sweet Snippets~ § Summer Spin § Story Challenge Submission Pajamas

What I like most about the dramatic reduction in cost brought about by this technology are the video services like youporn & redtube which can now offer much longer clips, and still be enjoyed without purchasing a subscription.

There may be some other, similar services ...

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Eudaimonia

Yeah, but what have they done for us *lately*?

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On the kinkometer, my kink measures as a sine wave.

That's what I got from it too...LMFAO!

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Minds are like parachutes. They only work when they are open.

~Thomas Dewar~