Nobel prize for physics goes to work on fundamental laws of nature

Nobel prize for physics goes to work on fundamental laws of nature

Three researchers have won the Nobel prize for physics for their discovery of the hidden order that underlies the laws of nature.

Yoichiro Nambu, 87, at the Enrico Fermi Laboratory at the University of Chicago was awarded half of the 10m Swedish kronor (£790,000) prize for work on microscopic variations in the subatomic world known as spontaneously broken symmetries.

The theory is fundamental to scientists' understanding of the way the basic building blocks of matter behave, and helps to unify how these interact with three of the four forces of nature.

Makoto Kobayashi, 64, at the High Energy Accelerator Research Organisation and Toshihide Maskawa, 68, at Kyoto University in Japan, were each awarded a quarter of the prize for work on other types of broken symmetry, which predict the existence of at least three families of quarks, the subatomic particles that make up the protons and neutrons found inside atomic nuclei.

An as yet unexplained broken symmetry explains why the universe, and all life within it, exists. If equal amounts of matter and antimatter were created in the big bang 14bn years ago, they should have annihilated each other. But this cannot have happened, as the universe is rich with vast amounts of matter, and life to witness it.

Scientists believe there must have been a tiny deviation of one extra particle of matter for every 10bn antimatter particles. It is this "broken symmetry" that seems to have allowed our cosmos to survive.

The Nobel prize for chemistry is due to be announced tomorrow.