Communication pioneers win Nobel Prize

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.

Charles K Kao, 75, was cited for discovering how to transmit light signals over long distances through glass fibres as thin as a human hair.

His 1966 breakthrough led to the creation of modern fibre-optic communication networks that carry voice, video and high-speed internet data around the world.