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Prize awarded for developing 'next generation of quantum

technology'

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'I'm completely stunned,' says UC Berkeley professor

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Quantum technology ubiquitous in everyday electronics

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Physics is second prize awarded in 2025 Nobels

(Changes headline, adds detail on quantum computers in

paragraph 9-10, Macron in paragraph 12, Google background in

paragraph 14)

By Niklas Pollard and Johan Ahlander

STOCKHOLM, Oct 7 (Reuters) - U.S.-based scientists John

Clarke, Michel Devoret and John Martinis won the 2025 Nobel

Prize in Physics for "experiments that revealed quantum physics

in action", paving the way for the development of the next

generation of digital technologies.

"My feelings are that I'm completely stunned. Of course it

had never occurred to me in any way that this might be the basis

of a Nobel Prize," Clarke told the Nobel press conference by

telephone on Tuesday.

"I'm speaking on my cell phone and I suspect that you are

too, and one of the underlying reasons that the cell phone works

is because of all this work."

'NEW SURPRISES' IN CENTURY-OLD FIELD OF QUANTUM MECHANICS

Quantum mechanical behaviours are well studied at the level

of the incredibly small - atoms and sub-atomic particles - but

are often seen as bizarre and unintuitive compared with

classical physics and its far larger scale.

The Nobel winners carried out experiments in the mid-1980s

with an electronic circuit built of superconductors and

demonstrated that quantum mechanics could also influence

everyday objects under certain conditions.

"It is wonderful to be able to celebrate the way that

century-old quantum mechanics continually offers new surprises.

It is also enormously useful, as quantum mechanics is the

foundation of all digital technology," Olle Eriksson, chair of

the Nobel Committee for Physics, said.

Quantum technology is already ubiquitous, with transistors

in computer microchips an everyday example.

"This year's Nobel Prize in Physics has provided

opportunities for developing the next generation of quantum

technology, including quantum cryptography, quantum computers,

and quantum sensors," the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences,

which awards the prize, said in a statement.

Quantum computers use principles of quantum mechanics to make

complex calculations, predict outcomes and perform analysis that

in some cases could take traditional computers millions of

years.

The field is considered to have the potential to help

solve some of humanity's most pressing concerns, such as

tackling climate change. But it also faces challenges, including

improving the accuracy of its chips, and timelines for

commercially viable quantum computing remain disputed.

TWO OF WINNING TRIO HAVE LINKS TO GOOGLE

British-born Clarke is a professor at the University of

California, Berkeley, in the United States.

Devoret, who was born in France and was congratulated on X

by French President Emmanuel Macron, is a professor at Yale

University and the University of California, Santa Barbara, also

in the United States, where Martinis is also a professor.

Martinis, an American, headed Google's Quantum Artificial

Intelligence Lab until 2020. At Google, Martinis was part of the

research team who in 2019 said they had achieved "quantum

supremacy", in which a computer harnessing the properties of

sub-atomic particles did a far better job of solving a problem

than the world's most powerful supercomputer.

Devoret, besides his professorship, is also the chief

scientist of Google Quantum AI. It is the second straight year

that a Nobel has been won by scientists with Google ties. The

2024 chemistry prize was awarded to Demis Hassabis and John

Jumper at Google DeepMind while Geoffrey Hinton, who worked for

Google for more than a decade, won for physics the same year.

PHYSICS SECOND NOBEL PRIZE AWARDED THIS WEEK

The Nobel physics prize is awarded by the Royal Swedish

Academy of Sciences and includes a prize sum totalling 11

million Swedish crowns ($1.2 million) that is shared among the

winners if there are several, as is often the case.

The Nobel Prizes were established through the will of Alfred

Nobel, who amassed a fortune from his invention of dynamite.

Since 1901, with occasional interruptions, the prizes have

annually recognised achievements in science, literature, and

peace. Economics was a later addition.

Physics was the first category mentioned in Nobel's will,

likely reflecting the prominence of the field during his time.

Today, the Nobel Prize in Physics remains widely regarded as the

most prestigious award in the discipline.

Past winners of the Nobel physics prize include some of the

most influential figures in the history of science, such as

Albert Einstein, Erwin Schrodinger, Max Planck and Niels Bohr,

the latter three all pioneers of quantum theory.

In keeping with tradition, physics is the second Nobel to be

awarded this week, after two American and one Japanese scientist

won the medicine prize for breakthroughs in understanding the

immune system. The chemistry prize is due next, on Wednesday.

The science, literature and economics prizes are presented

to the laureates by the Swedish king at a ceremony in Stockholm

on December 10, the anniversary of Alfred Nobel's death,

followed by a lavish banquet at city hall.

The peace prize, which will be announced on Friday, is

awarded in a separate ceremony in Oslo.

($1 = 9.3898 Swedish crowns)