Nobel physics prize goes to Japan and USA [October 08 2008]

Two Japanese scientists and an American won the 2008 Nobel Prize in physics for theoretical advances that help explain the behavior of the smallest particles of matter. The American, Yoichiro Nambu, 87, of the University of Chicago, won half the $1.4 million prize for mathematical work he did nearly a half-century ago. "I had almost given up" on getting the Nobel, Nambu said.

Makoto Kobayashi and Toshihide Maskawa of Japan shared the other half for a 1972 theory that forecast the later discovery of a new family of subatomic particles. The insights of the three scientists "give us a deeper understanding of what happens far inside the tiniest building blocks of matter," said the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, which presents the physics award.