The Nobel Prize in Physics 2012 has been awarded to Serge Haroche and David J. Wineland for independently inventing and developing ground-breaking methods for measuring and manipulating individual particles while preserving their quantum-mechanical nature, in ways that were previously thought unattainable.

Their ingenious laboratory methods enable measuring and control of very fragile quantum states, thus taking the very first steps towards building a new type of super-fast computer. These methods have also lead to the construction of extremely precise clocks which are a hundred-fold more precise than current caesium clocks. Image taken from Kungl. Vetenskaps Akademien.