These three scientists have discovered a new kind of quantum fluid. The fluid was discovered by continual experiments by Prof. Horst Stormer of Germany and Prof. Daniel Tsui of Japan in the field of Step Hall effect. They set a new limit to other works in this field by discovering a series of steps higher than any other discovered as yet. The nature of this discovery remained quite a mystery until both the scientists joined hands with Prof. Laughlin and were able to work out a quantum-mechanical theory for this phenomenon. When the theory was complete, they discovered an astounding fact. The electrons in the superconductors under test for this phenomenon had been split into three smaller equally-charged sub-atomic particles floating about in an intense magnetic field which restricted their efforts to rejoin to form electrons. Such a suspension of sub-atomic particles in a restrictive magnetic field (or any other force field for that case) is known as a quantum fluid. For their great efforts in understanding this new discovery, Prof. Laughlin, Prof. Stormer and Prof. Tsui were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1998.
Recent conclusions from observations made by some American astronomers indicate the universe is actually younger than what is believed to be. Top astronomers of the Hubble Space Telescope key project team announced that the birth of the universe from a "Big Bang" has taken place about 12 to 13.5 billion years ago. They also conclude that the expansion of universe may continue upto infinity in space although this statement has met with a lot of criticism from the scientific world. The general theory used to be that the universe will start contracting due to gravity after expanding upto a certain extent. Anyway, whether the above conclusions are correct or not, doomsday is still not close at hand.
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