2006年诺贝尔物理学奖——宇宙微波背景辐射的黑体谱和各向异性

相传约137亿年前我们的宇宙起源于“盘古开天地式的大爆炸”，能量密度和温度均超高无比，却绝无什么特殊的“爆炸”中心，在足够大的尺度上均匀且各向同性，一直持续膨胀至今．刚开始的时候，随着宇宙温度的迅速降低，若干基本粒子物质相继浮现，宇宙早期的核合成过程制备形成了宇宙时空中第一代恒星形成之前的大致原初元素丰度分布．宇宙“大爆炸”发端时空中的能量场应当有量子涨落；耦合演化到后来呈现的物质场中，这些微弱而此起彼伏的涨落逐渐被引力在各种不同层次上放大，从而最终形成宇宙时空中不同尺度的物质结构系统（包括超星系团、星系团、星系、球状星团、恒星、行星等）．伴随着宇宙膨胀，有一个温度不断下降的热电磁辐射场被“捂”在物质场中；大约在389000年以后，这个热电磁辐射场基本不再与物质相互耦合作用，但它依然带有早期物质场中各处涨落的信息烙印．基于Einstein创立发展的广义相对论（1915年），Einstein（1917年）、Friedmann（1922年）、Lemaitre（1927年）、de Sitter（1932年）开辟了近代理论宇宙学的先河．Hubble（1929年）公布了遥远的星系退行速度正比于它们到我们的距离的划时代观测事实．基于宇宙元素丰度和核合成物理，Gamow，Alpher和Herman于1940—1950年大胆设想了宇宙“大爆炸”的物理框架图像．Penzias和Wilson（1964年）在贝尔试验室从事微波天线研究时意外地发现了2．7K宇宙微波背景辐射．经过多年的精心设计和准备，Mather和Smoot（1989—1994年）领导的“宇宙背景探索器”（COBE）空间试验精确地测量宇宙微波背景辐射的黑体谱和微弱的各向异性涨落；他们俩因此荣获2006年度的物理诺贝尔奖．90年来，科学家们众说纷纭，唇枪舌战，搜索证据，编造理论．随着地面、高空和空间综合试验及理论研究的持续迅速发展，精确宇宙学的时代已经到来．     

Defining and measuring optical frequencies: the optical clock opportunity--and more (Nobel lecture).

Four long-running currents in laser technology met and merged in 1999-2000. Two of these were the quest toward a stable repetitive sequence of ever-shorter optical pulses and, on the other hand, the quest for the most time-stable, unvarying optical frequency possible. The marriage of ultrafast- and ultrastable lasers was brokered mainly by two international teams and became exciting when a special "designer" microstructure optical fiber was shown to be nonlinear enough to produce "white light" from the femtosecond laser pulses, such that the output spectrum embraced a full optical octave. Then, for the first time, one could realize an optical frequency interval equal to the comb's lowest frequency, and count out this interval as a multiple of the repetition rate of the femtosecond pulse laser. This "gear-box" connection between the radiofrequency standard and any/all optical frequency standards came just as sensitivity-enhancing ideas were maturing. The four-way union empowered an explosion of accurate frequency measurement results in the standards field and prepared the way for refined tests of some of our cherished physical principles, such as the time-stability of some of the basic numbers in physics (e.g. the "fine-structure" constant, the speed of light, certain atomic mass ratios), and the equivalence of time-keeping by clocks based on different physics. The stable laser technology also allows time-synchronization between two independent femtosecond lasers so exact they can be made to appear as if the source were a single laser. By improving pump-probe experiments, one important application will be in bond-specific spatial scanning of biological samples. This next decade in optical physics should be a blast!     

2007年诺贝尔化学奖简介

主要介绍了2007年诺贝尔化学奖得主格哈德·埃特尔在金属表面氢吸附、哈伯-博施法合成氨反应过程催化机理及CO催化氧化反应过程方面的研究成果,并分析了获奖成果的学术价值及现实意义.