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John Clarke, Michel H. Devoret and John M. Martinis are announced this year's Nobel Prize winners in Physics, by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences at a press conference in Stockhom, Sweden REUTERS
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Trio win Nobel prize for revealing quantum physics in action
US-based scientists John Clarke, Michel Devoret and John Martinis won the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics for "experiments that revealed quantum physics in action", paving the way for the development of the next generation of digital technologies. Quantum mechanical behaviours are well studied at the level of the incredibly small — atoms and sub-atomic particles — but are often seen as bizarre and unintuitive compared with classical physics and its far larger scale. The Nobel winners carried out experiments in the mid-1980s with an electronic circuit built of superconductors and demonstrated that quantum mechanics could also influence everyday objects under certain conditions.
Quantum technology is already ubiquitous, with transistors in computer microchips an everyday example.
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"This year's Nobel Prize in Physics has provided opportunities for developing the next generation of quantum technology, including quantum cryptography, quantum computers, and quantum sensors," the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, which awards the prize, said in a statement.
Quantum computers use principles of quantum mechanics to make complex calculations, predict outcomes and perform analysis that in some cases could take traditional computers millions of years.
The field is considered to have the potential to help solve some of humanity's most pressing concerns, such as tackling climate change. But it also faces challenges, including improving the accuracy of its chips, and timelines for commercially viable quantum computing remain disputed.
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TWO OF WINNING TRIO HAVE LINKS TO GOOGLE
British-born Clarke is a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, in the United States.
Devoret, who was born in France and was congratulated on X by French President Emmanuel Macron, is a professor at Yale University and the University of California, Santa Barbara, also in the United States, where Martinis is also a professor.
Martinis, an American, headed Google's Quantum Artificial Intelligence Lab until 2020. At Google, Martinis was part of the research team who in 2019 said they had achieved "quantum supremacy", in which a computer harnessing the properties of sub-atomic particles did a far better job of solving a problem than the world's most powerful supercomputer.
Devoret, besides his professorship, is also the chief scientist of Google Quantum AI. It is the second straight year that a Nobel has been won by scientists with Google ties. The 2024 chemistry prize was awarded to Demis Hassabis and John Jumper at Google DeepMind while Geoffrey Hinton, who worked for Google for more than a decade, won for physics the same year.
PHYSICS SECOND NOBEL PRIZE AWARDED THIS WEEK
The Nobel physics prize is awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and includes a prize sum totalling 11 million Swedish crowns ($1.2 million) that is shared among the winners if there are several, as is often the case.
The Nobel Prizes were established through the will of Alfred Nobel, who amassed a fortune from his invention of dynamite.
Since 1901, with occasional interruptions, the prizes have annually recognised achievements in science, literature, and peace. Economics was a later addition.
DID YOU KNOW
Physics was the first category mentioned in Nobel's will, likely reflecting the prominence of the field during his time.
Today, the Nobel Prize in Physics remains widely regarded as the most prestigious award in the discipline.
Past winners of the Nobel physics prize include some of the most influential figures in the history of science, such as Albert Einstein, Erwin Schrodinger, Max Planck and Niels Bohr, the latter three all pioneers of quantum theory.
WTO revises upwards global merchandise trade forecast to 2.4 pc for 2025
The global merchandise trade is expected to grow 2.4 per cent this year and only 0.5 per cent next year, according to the WTO forecast. In August, the World Trade Organisation (WTO) projected 0.9 per cent growth for 2025. However, it said that trade growth will likely slow in 2026 as the impact of the cooling global economy and new tariffs set in. The 2026 projection has been lowered to 0.5 per cent from 1.8 per cent earlier, it said. Global services exports growth is expected to slow down from 6.8 per cent in 2024 to 4.6 per cent in 2025 and 4.4 per cent in 2026, it added. "WTO economists raised the 2025 merchandise trade growth forecast to 2.4 per cent (up from 0.9 per cent in August)," it said. The high growth this year is due to the increased spending on AI-related products and a surge in North American imports ahead of tariff hikes. WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said today's disruptions to the global trade system are a call to action for nations to reimagine trade.
Netflix partners with IICT & FICCI to develop creative tech talent in India
Streaming giant Netflix on Tuesday announced a partnership with the Indian Institute of Creative Technology (IICT) and FICCI to develop the next generation of creative-technology talent in India. The memorandum of understanding (MoU) was exchanged at the 25th edition of FICCI Frames here. As per the pact, the streaming platform will leverage the Netflix fund for creative equity to offer scholarships to select students identified in collaboration with IICT. The Netflix fund for creative equity is a dedicated effort to create opportunities for underrepresented talent in the media and entertainment sector, according to a press release. Netflix will participate in three of IICT's national councils: the R&D council, the academic council, and the industry development council, bringing together leading voices from academia, industry, and policy to help shape India's AVGC-XR (Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming, Comics, and Extended Reality) ecosystem.
IndiaAI bolsters safe AI push with solutions for deepfake detection, bias mitigation
Five projects have been selected in the second round of Expression of Interest (EoI) under the safe and trusted AI pillar of IndiaAI Mission, with solutions ranging from deepfake detection tools to bias mitigation, an official release said on Tuesday. IndiaAI launched the second round of EoI under the ‘Safe and Trusted AI' pillar, across a range of critical themes on December 10, 2024. More than 400 proposals were received from reputed academic institutions, start-ups, research organisations and civil society. A multi-stakeholder committee was formed to provide technical expertise for evaluating the proposals, resulting in the selection of five projects across various themes. These include IIT Jodhpur (CI) & IIT Madras; IIT Mandi & Directorate of Forensic Services, Himachal Pradesh; and IIT Kharagpur (for deepfake detection tool). Proposal of Digital Futures Lab and Karya (bias mitigation); and Globals ITES Pvt Ltd and IIIT Dharwad (penetration testing and evaluation) have also made it to the list. These initiatives will advance real-time deepfake detection, strengthen forensic analysis, address bias in AI models, and build robust evaluation tools for generative AI, ensuring that AI systems deployed in India are reliable, secure, and inclusive, it added.
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