Nobel Prize in Physics 2009

The 2009 Nobel Prize in Physics rewards two ideas that originated  almost 40 years ago which have completely transformed optical communications and modern photography. Today almost all voice and data communication across the world is  based on glass optical fibers, but when Charles Kao first suggested that removing impurities from glass fibers would make them suitable for long range information transfer, his ideas were met with scepticism. Kao’s ideas spurred developments in the quality of glass, design of lightwave communication networks, and fiber amplifiers that have all led to the Internet era today. 

Willard Boyle and George Smith efforts at Bell Labs to design a new technology for information storage resulted in an sensor based on an array of photocells called a charge-coupled device (CCD) which revolutionized digital imaging. From the Hubble space telescope to digital cameras in cellphones the CCD is the electronic eye that defines photography today.