Nano effect wins 2007 Nobel Prize in Physics

In 1988 Albert Fert and Peter Grünberg each independently discovered a totally new physical effect – Giant Magnetoresistance or GMR, which was to revolutionise data storage technology that is used to read data on hard disks. With GMR it has been possible to miniaturize hard disks radically in recent years. Sensitive read-out heads are needed to be able to read data from the increasingly compact hard disks used in laptops, iPods and other ever-smaller devices.

GMR can be considered one of the first real applications of nanotechnology. ''The MP3 and iPod industry would not have existed without this discovery,'' Borje Johansson, a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences told The Associated Press. ''You would not have an iPod without this effect.''

The two winners split the 10M SEK prize (€1.1M).

See nobelprize.org.
Also New York Times.