Nobel Prize in Physics 2023 awarded to scientists who made ‘impossible’ breakthrough

Technique could make it possible to detect cancers at a very early stage

The Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded to three scientists for discovering a way to study the world at a level previously thought impossible.

The Nobel Assembly announced that Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz and Anne L’Huillier would receive the 2023 prize of 11 million Swedish krona (£824,000) for creating extremely short “attosecond” pulses of light in order to study the inside of atoms.

Applications for the research include molecular fingerprinting, which could lead to ways to detect cancers at a very early stage.

“We can now open the door to the world of electrons,” said Eva Olsson, Chair of the Nobel Committee for Physics, during a ceremony in Stockholm on Tuesday.

“Attosecond [one millionth of a trillionth of a second] physics gives us the opportunity to understand mechanisms that are governed by electrons. The next step will be utilising them.”

She added that the laureates’ contributions “have enabled the investigation of processes that are so rapid they were previously impossible to follow”.

Professor Anne L’Huillier from Lund University in Sweden becomes only the fifth woman to ever win the Nobel Prize in Physics in its 122 year history.

“It’s incredible,” she said. “There are not so many women that get this prize - so it’s very, very special.”

The award comes a day after the Nobel Assembly awarded Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine “for their discoveries concerning nucleoside base modifications that enabled the development of effective mRNA vaccines against Covid-19.”

The awards for chemistry, literature, peace and economics are set to be announced between Wednesday, 4 October, and Monday, 9 October.