VOA常速英语2007-French, German Scientists Win Nobel Physics Priz

By Kevin Billinghurst
Stockholm
09 October 2007

The 2007 Nobel Prize for Physics has been awarded to Albert Fert of France and Peter Gruenberg of Germany for discoveries that have helped fuel explosive growth in the storage capacity of computer hard disks. Kevin Billinghurst has more from Stockholm.

Albert Fert and Peter Gruenberg are honored with this year's Nobel Prize in Physics for their work in a field they named "giant magnetoresistance" or GMR. The two researchers independently discovered the physical effect, and both recognized its practical importance as a means to cause weak magnetic changes to bring about large differences in electrical resistance.

"Before, the highest magnetoresistance one had observed was only on the order of a fraction of a percent. With this discovery, which was made in 1988, one found a system where the magnetoresistance changed with 60 percent," Professor Borje Johansson, a member of the prize-awarding Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, explained.

GMR quickly turned out to be a perfect tool for reading data from computer hard disks, where information registered magnetically has to be converted to electric current. Whether you are storing text, music, photos or any other type of file, your hard disk saves its binary¹ bits of data in the form of microscopically² small areas magnetized in different directions.

To retrieve³ your files, a readout head has to be able to scan the disk and read that magnetic resistance. Miniaturization of hard disks requires packing more information into ever-smaller areas producing weaker and weaker resistance. That calls for increasing the sensitivity of readout heads.

The first readout head based on Fert and Gruenberg's discovery was introduced in 1997, and their GMR technology is now standard throughout the electronics industry.

It is a Nobel tradition that winners receive the coveted⁴ phone call from Stockholm just minutes before the announcement is read to the assembled press. Albert Fert was kept on the line and the call was patched into the Academy's venerable auditorium⁵, where he was asked for a reaction.

"I am so happy for my family, for my co-workers. And I am also very happy to share this with a friend," he said.

Nobel week continues with the announcement of the chemistry prize on Wednesday and literature on Thursday. In accordance with Alfred Nobel's 1897 will establishing the prizes in his name, the Nobel Peace Prize will be announced in Oslo, Norway on Friday.

1 binary   

adj.二，双；二进制的；n.双(体)；联星

参考例句：

• Computers operate using binary numbers.计算机运行运用二进位制。
• Let us try converting the number itself to binary.我们试一试，把这个数本身变成二进制数。

2 microscopically   

显微镜下

参考例句：

• Microscopically the ores are medium grained to amorphous. 显微镜下，矿石为中粒至非晶质。 来自辞典例句
• He studied microscopically the statistics of trade. 他极仔细地研究了贸易统计数字。 来自辞典例句

3 retrieve   

vt.重新得到，收回；挽回，补救；检索

参考例句：

• He was determined to retrieve his honor.他决心恢复名誉。
• The men were trying to retrieve weapons left when the army abandoned the island.士兵们正试图找回军队从该岛撤退时留下的武器。

4 coveted   

adj.令人垂涎的；垂涎的，梦寐以求的v.贪求，觊觎(covet的过去分词)；垂涎；贪图

参考例句：

• He had long coveted the chance to work with a famous musician. 他一直渴望有机会与著名音乐家一起工作。
• Ther other boys coveted his new bat. 其他的男孩都想得到他的新球棒。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 auditorium   

n.观众席，听众席；会堂，礼堂

参考例句：

• The teacher gathered all the pupils in the auditorium.老师把全体同学集合在礼堂内。
• The stage is thrust forward into the auditorium.舞台向前突出，伸入观众席。