This is a guest post by Discoblog correspondent Darlene Cavalier.
The inaugural (and now wealthier) winners of the $1 million Kavli Prizes
were announced yesterday at Columbia University as part of the World Science Summit
. The Kavli Prizes are given to researchers for outstanding scientific research in astrophysics, nanoscience, and neuroscience.
Actor and science advocate Alan Alda took the stage and, with the aid of broadcast satellites, introduced representatives of the Kavli Foundation "live" from their hometown of Oslo, Norway.
The astrophysics prize went to Caltech's Maarten Schmidt and Donald Lynden-Bell of Cambridge University for their breakthroughs in quasar research. Schmidt measured the light spectra of quasars and was able to determine our distance from galaxies, while Lynden-Bell demonstrated how quasars were powered by the collapse of material into massive black holes.
The nanoscience prize went to Louis E. Brus of Columbia University and Sumio Iijima of Meijo University ...
