Nobel Prize in Physics Goes to 3 Scientists Looking at Atoms in Tiniest Split Seconds

Three European scientists received the Nobel Prize in physics on Tuesday for their work using laser pulses to catch a glimpse of spinning electrons in one quintillionth of a second.

The trio awarded include French-Swedish physicist Anne L’Huillier, French scientist Pierre Agostini and Hungarian-born Ferenc Krausz, who worked separately in their pursuits to capture a glimpse of the important particle.

By providing insight into the tiny and super fast world of the subatomic particles, the technique can carry wide-ranging future uses, from improving electronics to diagnosing diseases, experts say.

Electrons move at dizzying speeds, making them out of reach for humans to isolate for further study.

However, the three scientists were able to snap a "blurry" glimpse in a fraction of a second known as an attosecond, similar to how photographers use fast shutters to capture a quick-moving subject.

According to Nobel Committee chair Eva Olsson, one second would have to be divided by 1,000 a total of six times to fall into the realm of an attosecond.

Physicist Mark Pearce, a Nobel Committee member, said “There are as many attoseconds in a second as there are seconds which have passed since the Big Bang, 13.8 billion years ago.”

“The electrons are very fast, and the electrons are really the workforce in everywhere,” Nobel Committee member Mats Larsson said. “Once you can control and understand electrons, you have taken a very big step forward.”

Electrons are what bind atoms together, allowing for chemical reactions, according to L'Huillier, of Lund University in Sweden.

“Electrons are, even if we can’t see them, omnipresent in our life — our biological life and also our technical life, in our everyday life,” Krausz said at a news conference.

“In our biological life, electrons form the adhesive between atoms, with which they form molecules and these molecules are then the smallest functional building stones of every living organism."

And if scientists want to understand how electrons work, they need to know how they move, Krausz said.

At the moment, this science is about understanding our universe, but the hope is that it will eventually have many practical applications in electronics, diagnosing diseases and basic chemistry.

But L'Huillier said her work shows how important it is to work on fundamental science regardless of future applications because she spent 30 years on it before possible real-world uses became more apparent.

L’Huillier is the fifth woman to receive a Nobel in physics.

“For all the women, I say if you are interested, if you have a little bit of passion for this type of challenges, so just go for it,” she told The Associated Press.

The Nobel Prizes each have a cash award of 11 million Swedish kronor ($1 million) from a bequest left by the prize’s creator, Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel.

The physics prize comes a day after two scientists won the Nobel Prize in medicine for discoveries that enabled the creation of mRNA vaccines against COVID-19.

–With the Associated Press