THREE Americans whose research in the 1960s laid the foundation for digital images and lightning-fast communication have shared the 2009 Nobel Prize in physics for their work developing fibre-optic cable and the sensor at the heart of digital cameras.

Three Americans shared the 2009 Nobel prize for physics today. The honour has been awarded to Charles K Kao, Willard S Boyle and George E Smith for breakthroughs involving the transmission of light in fibre optics and inventing an imaging semiconductor circuit.