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Nobel Prize in Physics 2025

• Tewboo 1y ago
  Always exciting to see what groundbreaking discoveries the Nobel Physics Prize will honor this year. Can't wait to learn about the latest advancements!
• kachapopopow 1y ago
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• unpopularopp 1y ago
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  • phoronixrly 1y ago
    Not in the immediate future. US scientists can and will find refuge in other countries for the time being. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-00938-y https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-00938-y
    • DiscourseFan 1y ago
      I think that the majority of them will realize that salaries for academics are pretty low compared to the US, and they will either join private labs or professionalize.
      • ChemSpider 1y ago
        What does a Physics prof at Berkely earn these days? In Germany it would be around 10K€/month (lets ignore all tax etc stuff, just ballpark figure)
        • DiscourseFan 1y ago
          About 200k USD, I think? But isn’t 10k€/month relatively high for europe, like on the upper end of academic salaries?
        • docdeek 1y ago
          €10K seems high to me. In France it would be lower than that, I think, save for maybe a handful of outliers. Google search suggests top earners in physics in academia in Germany is probably between €80K and €90K, or maxing out at €7.5K a month.
    • Hikikomori 1y ago
      A lot of their researchers are immigrants and will just return to their country. New students will stop coming and stay in their home country. America is cooked.
      • DiscourseFan 1y ago
        No, attending a US university in a STEM subject is one of the only reliable ways to migrate to the country now that they've made it much harder to get H1b visas. The flow of immigrants seeking an American education will not stop any time soon.
        • dotnet00 1y ago
          That still involves H1B though? Student visas are non-immigrant, you still have to transition to an immigrant visa like H1B to actually stay past 1+2 years of STEM OPT
          • DiscourseFan 1y ago
            Was not aware of that
  • SiempreViernes 1y ago
    Where did you get that quote from? It's not in the linked article.
    • phoronixrly 1y ago
      If we're looking at the number of nobel laureates per country that would make around 34%.
    • unpopularopp 1y ago
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_American_Nobel_laureates https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_American_Nobel_laureat...
    • drstewart 1y ago
      [flagged]
      • e40 1y ago
        A very reddit reaction.
      • bvvgpc 1y ago
        Maybe you're reading a different version of HackerNews but I've found the amount of politics discussed to be fairly low compared to other outlets + in this case it is actaully relevant and an interesting point. Also, look at the other content, this didn't come from nowhere.
• deleted 1y ago
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• Intermernet 1y ago
  I remember being introduced to this research when reading a weird paper on the unexpected efficiency of photosynthesis, but now I can't find that paper. Anyone got any hints?
  • SiempreViernes 1y ago
    For the papers about their measurements, you can look at the references in the technical press release https://www.nobelprize.org/uploads/2025/10/advanced-physicsprize2025.pdf https://www.nobelprize.org/uploads/2025/10/advanced-physicsp... Can't help you with "a weird paper on the unexpected efficiency of photosynthesis", try asking a biologist at your local university, or possibly an organic chemist.
    • Intermernet 1y ago
      Yeah, I looked at Google Scholar to try and find cross-references to anything to do with photosynthesis and came up empty-handed. Annoying because I've been telling people about these guys for years, but can't find the original paper that introduced me to them!
  • jcynix 1y ago
    Maybe you can find the paper you ate looking for starting here? https://newscenter.lbl.gov/2025/07/08/how-plants-manage-light-new-insights-into-natures-oxygen-making-machinery/ https://newscenter.lbl.gov/2025/07/08/how-plants-manage-ligh... Tip: this page links to further reading of older stuff.
  • handscarlsen 1y ago
    why annoy credible scientists when there is an AI underlord available. Unexpected Quantum Efficiency of Photosynthesis: cite papers -->perplexity.ai hints galore.
  • bookofjoe 1y ago
    >Quantum efficiency of photosynthetic energy conversion [1977] https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC431568/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC431568/ >Evidence for wavelike energy transfer through quantum coherence in photosynthetic systems [2007] https://www.nature.com/articles/nature05678 https://www.nature.com/articles/nature05678 >Explaining the Efficiency of Photosynthesis: Quantum Uncertainty or Classical Vibrations? [2022] https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.jpclett.2c00538 https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.jpclett.2c00538 >Reassessing the role and lifetime of Qx in the energy transfer dynamics of chlorophyll a [2025] https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2025/sc/d4sc06441k https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2025/sc/d4sc0... >Full microscopic simulations uncover persistent quantum effects in primary photosynthesis [2025] https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.ady6751 https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.ady6751
• deleted 1y ago
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• dataviz1000 1y ago
  Michel H. Devoret, Chief Scientist at Google Quantum AI, and in April 2020 John M. Martinis resigned from Google after being reassigned to an advisory role. [0] Sounds like there was some politics shenanigans between them where Martinis was moved into a useless role and took the hint at the height of covid lockdown. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michel_Devoret https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michel_Devoret
  • ctenb 1y ago
    You linked the wrong article
    • dataviz1000 1y ago
      He left because the reorg stripped his hardware decision authority, and he wouldn’t stay without control to drive the technical plan.[0] He kept working on the problem. The question now looking back over 6 years is did Google make a mistake. I've seen this at IBM and other large research divisions where people who did something significant 20 or 30 years in fields like AI become stagnant burning tens and hundreds of millions. There was a political battle and Martinis got pushed out. The question I have is did the people who pushed him out know the path forward in quantum computing or did they just know how to play office politics licking the correct behinds. [0] https://www.forbes.com/sites/moorinsights/2020/04/30/googles-top-quantum-scientist-explains-in-detail-why-he-resigned/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/moorinsights/2020/04/30/googles...
• Metacelsus 1y ago
  This award involved some clever engineering to set up quantum effects in a macroscopic system, but was there any new physics involved here? (Still better than last year's award which wasn't really physics at all!)
  • SiempreViernes 1y ago
    They discovered that the theory worked in a regime it hadn't been tested before; I'm not sure what "new physics" means in your sentence: it is a core assumption of physics that it's rules are always true, that all physics has always existed.
    • averne_ 1y ago
      New physics in this context means previously unknown effects or mechanisms, or even a new theory/framework for an already understood phenomenon. Using "physics" in this way is common amongst academics.
      • IAmBroom 1y ago
        Do you have two aliases on HN, or are you simply presuming to speak for the OP?
  • geremiiah 1y ago
    Comments like these make me realize most people have no clue what science is really like.
    • bananaflag 1y ago
      I don't think so, I just think they expect that Nobel Prize level physics should feel less incremental, and everything that doesn't involve a revolution in physics (like supersymmetry) or at least an expected confirmation of an old revolution (like the Higgs boson or gravitational waves) feels incremental.
      • deleted 1y ago
• chrysander 1y ago
  More than deserved! Both Devoret and Martinis are also highly involved in pushing quantum engineering to new levels - Devoret at Google Quantum AI and Martinis (formerly at Google) with his company, Qolab. Coincidentally, I have a close friend doing his PhD with Devoret and know someone working with Martinis. I am curious to see if they will ever see their respective supervisors again, given that the Nobel Prize attention will likely garner them countless invitations for talks and keynotes...
  • whizzter 1y ago
    Invitations is one thing I think they can mostly pick on their own volition with one exception. The prize rules stipulate that they need to hold one lecture related to their winning topic with the institution that picked the winner within 6 months. Iirc the 2024 physics prize lecture (on the roots of neural networks) was held in the days just before the prize giving ceremony and can be watched on the Swedish broadcasters "education" channel as well as youtube. https://urplay.se/program/239905-nobelforelasningar-2024-geoffrey-hinton-fysikpristagare https://urplay.se/program/239905-nobelforelasningar-2024-geo... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDE9DjpcSdI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDE9DjpcSdI
  • correlator 1y ago
    Definitely agree! It's just strange seeing Devoret without Schoelkopf!
    • chrysander 1y ago
      And Girvin as the third one of their Yale effort!
• uncletoxa 1y ago
  Fred Ramsdell was among those honored Monday with a 2025 Nobel Prize in Medicine, but he's currently "living his best life" on an "off the grid" hiking foray https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20251006-unreachable-nobel-winner-hiking-off-the-grid https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20251006-unreachable-n...
  • uncletoxa 1y ago
    Oops, that was a wrong thread. That's another nonbl prize nomination.
• blenderob 1y ago
  Great to see the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Cambridge, UK continuing to add to their already outstanding number of Nobel laureate alumni. The Paris-Sud University was a new name to me. Apparently, this will be the 4th Nobel laureate associated with the university.
  • deleted 1y ago
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  • numid_mobile 1y ago
    French higher education institutions work in very different ways from the standard US model; two relevant caracteristics are: a) good institutions for education and for research might not be the same at all and b) institutions work in a much more networked ways, so many labs will be joint ventures between like 5 universities/schools and 3 national research centres, students might get three degrees with each of them being a joint program between several schools. So it's hard to have a good grasp.
    • andrewflnr 1y ago
      > good institutions for education and for research might not be the same at all I'm pretty sure this is true in the US, too. Maybe we're just a little more delusional about it here.
      • com2kid 1y ago
        I went to a tier 2 state school, no real research to speak of. Amazing professors, great students to prof ratio, professors were in their offices all the time and happy to see students. The night before final labs were due profs would be up helping students debug problems. Only 2 courses I took there even had TAs. Work was typically hand graded by professors as soon as you passed the first intro to course, and quite a few of the intro courses were fully taught by professors as well. Does my school have any good research coming out of it? Not really. Not the point. It has a bunch of professors who are there because they want to teach, and it has a bunch of students who are getting to benefit from those professors.
• Fischgericht 1y ago
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• jebarker 1y ago
  For those looking for a good pop-sci introduction to these sort of quantum effects and why demonstrating macroscopic quantum effects is a big deal for the foundations of the field I recommend “Through Two Doors at Once” by Anil Ananthaswany.
  • m3kw9 1y ago
    Is this inferring to the double slit experiment?
    • jebarker 1y ago
      Yes
  • Awesomedonut 1y ago
    Thanks!
• osnium123 1y ago
  I spent time in UCSB’s physics department and Prof. Martinis was one of those experimental physicists who knew more about electronics and measurements than the typical electrical engineer. He used to have a wiki page containing documentation, cad files, etc of circuits that his group developed for his measurements and he also had open source software for controlling electronics. Very cool prize and happy to see UCSB getting one more Nobel prize!
  • zippyman55 1y ago
    Let’s hear it for UCSB’s physics dept!
    • osnium123 1y ago
      It’s arguably one of the top five physics departments in the US.
• chermi 1y ago
  Hey guys, I learned electronics from a nobel laureate! Throughout my physics career including PhD, analog electronics was the most difficult but probably also the most rewarding class to me. I fondly remember staying until 2am in broida at ucsb trying to get a filter to work, getting a few hours sleep, then being back in the lab before sunrise. Of course, this was mostly the result of procrastination, but damn were those good times. One thing that really bothered me then was the idea of a current source. I was perfectly happy with a voltage source, perhaps naively(1). But a current source seemed magical. I was asking Martinis about this and he seemed dumbfounded that I didn't understand. Of course, the answer is feedback. And, of course, good voltage sources also require feedback. But he was so familiar with feedback control he didn't even consider saying that's whats happening, while I never even heard of controls. Long story short, sometime later I asked to join his lab as an undergrad researcher. He said no, and to this day I think it's because I didn't understand current sources. Or maybe I was too late, or maybe the A- (see the aforementioned procrastination). That led me to asking a biophysicist, and therefore I became a biophysicist instead of condensed matter/QI/QC. In hindsight, I think this was fortunate. I would've never considered biophysics, which has been one of the loves of my life since then. Who knows, maybe I would've been just as happy with quantum stuff. I'm working through Mike and ike now and find it fascinating. Funny enough, after my PhD, I co-founded a startup in industrial control & automation. Now I understand feedback quite well, and thus current sources, albeit many years too late. (1) Of course, good voltage sources vary their resistance just like good current sources vary their voltage. My best guess as to the reason I was more bothered by the current sources is that I was so familiar with voltage sources with confidently claimed constant voltages (batteries). Not a very good reason, I should've questioned it more. In practice, it's much easier to make a near ideal voltage source (very high resistance) than a near ideal current source (0 resistance).
  • henearkr 1y ago
    Interesting, this constant current source notion. For a design without feedback, and in an energetically inefficient way, maybe this can work too: 1. Determine what will be the maximum resistance of the "current consumer" part of your circuit throughout its operation. 2. Prepare a resistor several magnitudes larger than the resistance above. 3. Connect to the resistor above a (huge) voltage source so that the resulting current is the one you target for your current source 4. Put the "current consumer" part of your circuit in series with the large resistor.
• everdrive 1y ago
  Dumb question: "We know that the ball will bounce back every time it is thrown at a wall. A single particle, however, will sometimes pass straight through an equivalent barrier in its microscopic world and appear on the other side. This quantum mechanical phenomenon is called tunnelling." Is the particle just failing to collide with the wall since objects are mostly empty space? Or is something more spooky or interesting happening?
  • kitchi 1y ago
    In quantum mechanics, the "ball" (or in this case an ideal particle) has a "wave function" associated with it. This wave function effectively describes the probability that the particle can be at a certain location. It so happens that when you solve for this problem, a ball bouncing against a wall, in this wave function paradigm then you end up with a non-zero probability that the ball appears on the other side of the wall. I'm not sure if there is a deeper explanation at play here but that's how I understand it.
  • bluesummers5651 1y ago
    The simplest version of this problem involves a "potential barrier." Another loose classical analogy here is considering a ball rolling towards a hill. Everyone knows from experience in classical systems that with sufficient speed i.e. kinetic energy, the ball can go over the hill i.e. there is more kinetic energy in the ball when it meets the bottom of the hill than there is potential energy the ball would have at the top of the hill. If it has less energy, it will not make it past the hill. The weird thing about the analogous situation in quantum mechanics is that even if the particle has less energy than the potential barrier (the hill), it has a non-zero probability of being on the other side due to the wave function exponentially decaying in the barrier.
  • RigelKentaurus 1y ago
    As far as I know, the "single particle" referred to here is not a "classical particle" like a ball. It's a "quantum object" that, depending on how you look at it, behaves like a wave or an object. Definitely spooky!
  • sbenerofe 1y ago
• jonathan_ds 1y ago
  "Quantum properties on a human scale" the news and the new age mystics will have a field day with this one
• nritchie 1y ago
  It is worth noting that the research that Martinis is being awarded the Nobel prize was largely performed while at NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology), part of the Dept of Commerce.
• fraserphysics 1y ago
  I read the NY Times article about this earlier this morning. I thought it was not very good. I came to HN to see if it had something better. It did. The linked article is also at something like a high school level, but it gave me (retired PhD Physics) a good idea of the experiment and the theory. Thanks.
• giardini 1y ago
  So is ball lightning a quantum phenomenon?
• clayliu 1y ago
  [dead]
• cinquemb 1y ago
  Very exciting. Devoret was my co-authors phd advisor (and who is also my advisor now on some of my work). We sorely need more open quantum systems built/designed with open source tooling. The IBM's, Ionq's, Quantinuum's and Googles, will be happy if we all remain serfs to their multimillion dollar machines and hardware direction.
• erikhansenwong 1y ago
  John Clarke is the father of Liz, one of my close friends from college. Liz and I were physics undergrads at Berkeley and her father was a professor there. Thanks to HN I had the pleasure of being the first one to tell her that her dad had just won the Nobel Prize (I saw the news before she woke up, due to time zone differences). I wish I could post photos here, she sent me a beautiful picture of him filled with joy as he received a free parking pass from Berkeley with the expiration date "NEVER" later that afternoon :-D
  • queuebert 1y ago
    This is a weird story. If I were the dad, I would've preferred to tell my daughter myself. And a Nobel winner being overjoyed to get a free parking pass is borderline dystopian.
    • OhioMan2943 1y ago
      It's just inner city life- it's a big deal in the real world
    • scoopertrooper 1y ago
      He’s also getting about a million dollars from the Nobel committee.
    • tyre 1y ago
      Berkeley gives dedicated parking spots to Nobel laureates. It’s not about having a place to park. It’s about being in the same category as all of those greats.
  • bicepjai 1y ago
    So much human behavior unfolding in this short fun story
• multiversenow 1y ago
  Looks like they've gone back to giving it to physicists instead of AI researchers.