Nobel Prize for Physics Speculation
Just to mention that that Tuesday (October 8th 2024) will see the announcement of this year’s Nobel Prize for Physics. I must remember to make sure my mobile phone is fully charged so I can be easily reached.
The announcement of the Nobel Prize for Physics is preceded tomorrow (Monday) by the announcement of the Prize for Applications of Physics to Physiology or Medicine, and on Wednesday by the Prize for Applications of Physics to Chemistry. You can find links to all the announcements here.
I do, of course, already have a Nobel Prize Medal of my own already, dating from 2006, when I was lucky enough to attend the prize-giving ceremony and banquet.
I was, however, a guest of the Nobel Foundation rather than a prizewinner, so my medal is made of chocolate rather than gold. I think after 17 years the chocolate is now inedible, but it serves as a souvenir of a very nice weekend in Stockholm!
Regular readers of this blog may recall that I called it correctly in 2022 when Alain Aspect, John F. Clauser and Anton Zeilinger won the Nobel Prize for Physics that year. I had, however, predicted them every year for many years until they won, and they won’t win it again. I really have no idea who will win it this year, but I’ll suggest that there’s still an outside chance for Michael Berry and Yakir Aharonov for their work on the geometric phase, although if they were going to win they probably would have done so by now.
Feel free to make your predictions through the comments box below!
To find out you’ll have to wait for the announcement, around about 10.45 (UK/Irish time) on Tuesday morning. I’ll update this post when the wavefunction has collapsed.
P.S. My own claim for the 2023 Physics Nobel Prize is based on the discovery of the Coles Law.
P.P.S. I’ve just realized this was my 7000th blog post.
UPDATE: The 2024 Nobel Prize for Physics goes to was awarded to John J. Hopfield and Geoffrey E. Hinton “for foundational discoveries and inventions that enable machine learning with artificial neural networks”. Odd. Not really physics, IMHO.
In the Dark 
October 6, 2024 at 12:15 pm
Alan Guth and Andrei Linde for Nobel Prize
October 6, 2024 at 12:54 pm
Isn’t it the Economics prize for predicting inflation?
October 8, 2024 at 10:57 am
🙂
October 8, 2024 at 1:20 pm
I’m glad it didn’t go for cosmic inflation, otherwise I would have felt the need to do a blog post about it and I really don’t have the time.
October 8, 2024 at 4:59 pm
Actually my favourite early universe theory is varying speed of light proposed by Magueijo and Moffat. But this theory will never gain approval let alone win the nobel prize.
October 6, 2024 at 12:31 pm
I wish Irwin Shapiro wins it for Shapiro delay. This test has proved to be important for both GR and astrophysics
October 7, 2024 at 6:00 pm
From Norma G. Sanchez in Paris:
Dear Peter, Greetings from Paris. I have too my Nobel medal in chocolate from the Nobel Foundation ( well conserved, in a picture it looks as the true one). About the Nobel Prize in Physics 2024: Sir Michael Berry and Yakov Aharomov of course, they desserve it from many years. And Quantum Information: eg David Deutsch and the two Peters: Shor and Zoller. Quantum Physics is on full conceptual developements. My mention here to great John Wheeler (who had not a Nobel prize !). Nature is Quantum. And we need new ideas for unification of Knowledge, I have some of these new ones. All Best
October 7, 2024 at 7:02 pm
From Norma G. Sanchez in Paris:
… and of course, the work of WMAP Team, Lyman Page, Charles Bennet, Alan Kogut… !
Dear Peter, Greetings from Paris. I have too my Nobel medal in chocolate from the Nobel Foundation ( well conserved, in a picture it looks as the true one). About the Nobel Prize in Physics 2024: Sir Michael Berry and Yakov Aharomov of course, they desserve it from many years. And Quantum Information: eg David Deutsch and the two Peters: Shor and Zoller. Quantum Physics is on full conceptual developements. My mention here to great John Wheeler (who had not a Nobel prize !). Nature is Quantum. And we need new ideas for unification of Knowledge, I have some of these new ones. All Best
October 8, 2024 at 10:16 am
What does ChatGPT predict?
October 8, 2024 at 10:52 am
Hopfield and Hinton for neural nets. Not to criticise the work but is it physics?
October 8, 2024 at 12:01 pm
No. Their work seems to use ideas and models from physics and NN have been used in physics measurements. Which is apparently enough to put this in the “physics” box.
October 8, 2024 at 11:23 am
I have the same doubt. Yet, many colleagues workinmg next to use use, train and develop CNNs. If we accept that “Physics is what physicists do” then yes, this is Physics.
October 8, 2024 at 2:54 pm
There are physicists everywhere. This is probably the furthest from core physics that the prize has gone, but I am happy to claim this as an application of physics
October 8, 2024 at 4:36 pm
I think the main virtue of the Nobel Prize is that for a short time it gets people talking about physics. I suppose in that light that it is good that people see the benefits of physics in many disparate areas.
October 8, 2024 at 5:04 pm
In terms of nearness to core physics, I would say the 1912 prize was pretty far away as well…
October 8, 2024 at 6:09 pm
Was that the invention of the Dalek?
October 8, 2024 at 6:30 pm
Gas-powered Daleks!
October 8, 2024 at 3:41 pm
… 2024 Physics Prize on Information science, interdisciplinary physics applications, IA. Perhaps Terrence Sejnowski (advised by John Wheeler ) to be added to the Price of this year …
October 12, 2024 at 5:12 pm
Thinking more about this: neural nets in computers *are* simulations of a physical system, namely the brains of animals. The difference from ‘regular’ physics is in testability criteria.