Let there be light - THE HINDU SUMMARY

• Anne L’Huillier, Pierre Agostini, and Ferenc Krausz have won the 2023 Physics Nobel Prize for building tools to study the rapid changes in the observable properties of electrons in matter.

• Dr L’Huillier's studies in the late 1980s found that an infrared beam shone on a noble gas produced multiple overtones, and they explained this phenomenon using the laws of quantum mechanics.

• The reinforcing effect of the overtones could be timed to emit intense peaks with a pulse duration of a few attoseconds.

• Dr Agostini and his team demonstrated this in 2001 by producing light with a pulse duration of 250 attoseconds.

• In the same year, Dr. Krausz and his team isolated a single pulse, 650 attoseconds in duration, and used it to measure the kinetic energy of electrons kicked out from krypton atoms.

• This research marked the arrival of attosecond physics.

• The medicine Nobel Prize this year celebrated the invention of mRNA vaccines and their effect on the COVID-19 pandemic.

• The invention of mRNA vaccines has had a straightforward utility for people.

• Attosecond physics, on the other hand, has potential value in various fields such as biochemistry, diagnostics, superconductivity, and manufacturing techniques.

• The laureates' work in attosecond physics has allowed scientists to discover phenomena that occur in attoseconds.

• The value of a particular discovery or invention may not be immediately apparent, but it can have unforeseen applications in the future.

• The 2016 chemistry laureates were recognized for building motors with individual molecules, which had no known applications at the time.

• However, the techniques developed for this feat improved other areas of chemistry.

• The importance lies in making something difficult to do before easier, and the excitement of discovering its potential applications.

THE HINDU