STOCKHOLM: The Nobel Chemistry Prize is to be announced on Wednesday, with observers suggesting it could go to gene-editing, the invention of the rechargeable battery or the discovery of new periodic elements.

Sweden’s biggest daily Dagens Nyheter tipped scientists at Russian, Japanese and US institutes that added four new elements to the periodic table: nihonium (Nh), moscovium (Mc), tennessine (Ts) and oganesson (Og).

John Goodenough—a 94-year-old US scientist who invented the rechargeable lithium ion battery that is present in cell phones, computers and electric cars—was another of the favorites for the honor, mentioned by Dagens Nyheter and Swedish radio SR.

Also seen as Nobel-worthy was a technique known as CRISPR that can edit parts of the genome of still-developing embryos by cutting out, replacing or adding parts to the DNA sequence.

It was named by influential US journal Science as 2015’s breakthrough of the year due to its potential to revolutionize health and medicine.

But it could be too early for the jury to award it a Nobel this year, Dagens Nyheter noted, as a bitter patent dispute is currently being waged over who discovered it first.

Sweden’s other main daily Svenska Dagbladet nonetheless also mentioned CRISPR as a possible winner.

It also pointed to Hong Kong doctor Yuk-Ming Dennis Lo, the director of the Li Ka Shing Institute of Health Sciences.

Lo discovered a technique to detect chromosome abnormalities in unborn foetuses, such as Down’s Syndrome, where previous methods could cause a miscarriage.

The speculation will come to an end on Wednesday when the winner or winners are announced at 11:45 am (0945 GMT).

The chemistry prize is the third Nobel to be announced this week.

On Tuesday, the physics prize went to British scientists David Thouless, Duncan Haldane and Michael Kosterlitz for their work in on “topology”, a highly specialized mathematics field studying unusual phases or states of matter which may one day yield superfast and small computers.

On Monday, the medicine prize went to Yoshinori Ohsumi of Japan for his pioneering work on autophagy—a process whereby cells “eat themselves”, which can result in Parkinson’s and diabetes when disrupted.

On Friday, all eyes will turn to Oslo where perhaps the most prestigious of the prizes, that for peace, will be announced.

The Norwegian jury has sifted through an avalanche of nominations this year—a record 376, almost a hundred more than the previous record from 2014.

Among those tipped are the orchestrators of two historic accords: the recent peace deal in Colombia between the government and the leftist FARC rebels, and the Iranian nuclear deal.

In a shock upset however, Colombians rejected the peace deal by a razor-thin majority in a referendum on Sunday, sending the former enemies’ chances of securing a Nobel up in smoke, according to experts.

Also mentioned are Russian activist Svetlana Gannushkina, who has championed the rights of migrants and refugees, Syria’s civil organization of emergency responders known as the White Helmets, and Greek islanders who have come to the aid of desperate migrants.

US fugitive whistleblower Edward Snowden, who revealed the extent of the NSA’s surveillance programs, has meanwhile been nominated for the third straight year.

The economics prize will be announced on Monday, October 10, and the literature prize wraps things up on October 13.

For that prize, the Swedish Academy could tap superstar novelists such as Philip Roth of the US or Haruki Murakami of Japan, or some lesser known writers such as Norwegian playwright Jon Fosse or Syrian poet Adonis. AFP</s>Three British scientists behind groundbreaking research into exotic matter in the quantum world were on Tuesday jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in physics.

Awarding the prize in two parts, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences handed one half to David J. Thouless of the University of Washington and the second half to F. Duncan M. Haldane of Princeton University and J. Michael Kosterlitz of Brown University.

The scientists had “opened the door on an unknown world where matter can assume strange states,” the Nobel committee said in its citation.

“They have used advanced mathematical methods to study unusual phases, or states, of matter, such as superconductors, superfluids or thin magnetic films,” it added.

“Thanks to their pioneering work, the hunt is now on for new and exotic phases of matter,” it added. “Many people are hopeful of future applications in both materials science and electronics.”

The committee said the three laureates’ use of topological concepts in physics was decisive for their discoveries. Topology is a branch of mathematics that describes properties that only change step-wise.

“Using topology as a tool, they were able to astound the experts,” the committee said.

In the early 1970s, Michael Kosterlitz and David Thouless overturned the then current theory that superconductivity or suprafluidity could not occur in thin layers. They demonstrated that superconductivity could occur at low temperatures and also explained the mechanism, phase transition, that makes superconductivity disappear at higher temperatures.

In the 1980s, Thouless was able to explain a previous experiment with very thin electrically conducting layers in which conductance was precisely measured as integer steps. He showed that these integers were topological in their nature. At around the same time, Duncan Haldane discovered how topological concepts can be used to understand the properties of chains of small magnets found in some materials.

We now know of many topological phases, not only in thin layers and threads, but also in ordinary three-dimensional materials. Over the last decade, this area has boosted frontline research in condensed matter physics, not least because of the hope that topological materials could be used in new generations of electronics and superconductors, or in future quantum computers. Current research is revealing the secrets of matter in the exotic worlds discovered by this year’s Nobel laureates.

The prize amount of 8 million Swedish krona ($937,000) will be shared between Thouless, 82, and Haldane, 65, and Kosterlitz, 74.

Last year, the Nobel Prize in physics went to Japan’s Takaaki Kajita and Canada’s Arthur McDonald for determining that neutrinos have mass, a key piece of the puzzle in understanding the cosmos. Scientists Isamu Akasaki and Hiroshi Amano and Shuji Nakamura of the U.S. also won in 2014 for their work on LED lamps.

The physics prize is the second of the Nobels to be awarded, after the medicine prize was on Monday awarded to Japanese microbiologist Yoshinori Ohsumi. On Wednesday, the chemistry prize will be announced, to be followed by the peace prize Friday.</s>STOCKHOLM — British-born scientists David Thouless, Duncan Haldane and Michael Kosterlitz were awarded this year’s Nobel Prize in physics on Tuesday for work that “revealed the secrets of exotic matter,” the prize committee said.

The three “opened the door” to an unknown world where matter takes unusual states or phases, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said.

They were for their “theoretical discoveries of topological phase transitions and topological phases of matter.”

Thouless, 82, is a professor emeritus at the University of Washington. Haldane, 65, is a physics professor at Princeton University in New Jersey. Kosterlitz, 73, is a physics professor at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.

Their research was conducted in the 1970s and ’80s. Nobel judges often award discoveries made decades ago, to make sure they withstand the test of time.

This year’s Nobel Prize announcements started Monday with the medicine award going to Japanese biologist Yoshinori Ohsumi for discoveries on autophagy, the process by which a cell breaks down and recycles content.

The chemistry prize will be announced on Wednesday and the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday. The economics and literature awards will be announced next week.

Each prize has a purse of $930,000. The winners also collect a medal and a diploma at the award ceremonies on Dec. 10, the anniversary of prize founder Alfred Nobel’s death in 1896.</s>Image copyright Other Image caption (L-R) David Thouless, Duncan Haldane and Michael Kosterlitz

The 2016 Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded to three British-born scientists for discoveries about strange forms of matter.

David Thouless, Duncan Haldane and Michael Kosterlitz will share the 8m kronor (£727,000) prize.

Their work could result in improved materials for electronics and is already informing one approach to super-fast computing.

They were named at a press conference in Sweden.

The winners join a prestigious list of 200 other Physics laureates recognised since 1901.

The Nobel Committee said the trio's discoveries had "opened the door on an unknown world".

Old work, new uses

When matter is in extreme conditions, such as when it's very cold or flat, scientists start to see unusual behaviour from the atoms.

These phenomena complement the familiar phases of matter, namely when things change from solid to liquid to gas.

Prof Haldane commented: "I was very surprised and very gratified."

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Prof Haldane: "You can't wake up in the morning and say 'I'm going to discover something big today'"

"The work was a long time ago but it's only now that a lot of tremendous new discoveries are based on this original work, and have extended it."

All three researchers used maths to explain strange physical effects in rare states of matter, such as superconductors, superfluids and thin magnetic films.

Kosterlitz and Thouless focused on phenomena that arise in flat forms of matter - on surfaces or inside extremely thin layers that can be considered two-dimensional.

This contrasts with the three dimensions (length, width and height) with which we usually describe reality.

Haldane also studied matter that forms threads so thin they can be considered one-dimensional.

Much of the work involves a field of maths known as topology, which describes properties of matter at large and small scales.

Acting chairman of the Nobel committee, Prof Nils Mårtensson, commented: "Today's advanced technology - take for instance our computers - relies on our ability to understand and control the properties of the materials involved.

"And this year's Nobel laureates in their theoretical work discovered a set of totally unexpected regularities in the behaviour of matter, which can be described in terms of an established mathematical concept - namely, that of topology.

"This has paved the way for designing new materials with novel properties and there is great hope that this will be important for many future technologies."

The physics of strange matter - an example

Image copyright Nobel

Phase transitions occur when matter changes from one phase to another, such as when ice melts and becomes water

Kosterlitz and Thouless described a type of phase transition in a thin layer of very cold matter

In the cold, vortices form (diagram) as tight pairs, but at higher temperatures, as the phase transition occurs, they separate and "sail" off in different directions

One aspect of the work, known as the Quantum Hall effect, has led to a real-world application.

Prof Nigel Cooper, from the University of Cambridge, told BBC News: "The Quantum Hall effect is used in metrology to give a precise definition of the Ohm in resistance.

Just as a kilogram or a metre requires an exact definition, the maths behind today's Nobel prize has helped precisely describe the unit of electrical resistance - how a device or material reduces the electrical conductance flowing through it.

As an application, he said, "it's not in your iPhone, but it's used in government labs around the world."

"There are many aspects of topology people point to that could be relevant in future, but these are not things that are working today."

For instance, Prof Cooper explained, scientists are exploring whether topological concepts could be used in "robust quantum devices which can do things that classical computers or classical circuit elements are unable to do".

Microsoft's Station Q project is taking just such an approach to the development of powerful quantum computers.

"The topological aspects can give the quantum information a robustness against being destroyed by the usual noisy environment," said Prof Cooper.

In addition, he said, topological metals could be used in the manufacture of improved conductors or transistors.

Previous winners of the Nobel Prize in physics

2015 - Takaaki Kajita and Arthur McDonald were awarded the prize the discovery that neutrinos switch between different "flavours".

2014 - Isamu Akasaki, Hiroshi Amano and Shuji Nakamura won the physics Nobel for developing the first blue light-emitting diodes (LEDs).

2013 - Francois Englert and Peter Higgs shared the spoils for formulating the theory of the Higgs boson particle.

2012 - Serge Haroche and David J Wineland were awarded the prize for their work with light and matter.

2011 - The discovery that the expansion of the Universe was accelerating earned Saul Perlmutter, Brian P Schmidt and Adam Riess the physics prize.

2010 - Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov were awarded the prize for their discovery of the "wonder material" graphene.

2009 - Charles Kuen Kao won the physics Nobel for helping to develop fibre optic cables.

Although British in origin, the three individuals all now live and work in the US.

David Thouless was born in 1934 in Bearsden. He is an emeritus professor at the University of Washington.

Duncan Haldane was born in 1951 in London. He is a professor of physics at Princeton University.

Michael Kosterlitz was born in 1942 in Aberdeen. He is currently affiliated to Brown University.

Follow Paul on Twitter.</s>STOCKHOLM (AP) — British-born scientists David Thouless, Duncan Haldane and Michael Kosterlitz were awarded this year’s Nobel Prize in physics on Tuesday for studies on exotic matter that could result in improved materials for electronics or quantum computers.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences cited the three for “theoretical discoveries of topological phase transitions and topological phases of matter.”

Topology is the study of properties of objects that aren’t changed when the objects are distorted. A doughnut and a coffee cup are equivalent topologically because they each have exactly one hole.

The academy said the laureates’ work in the 1970s and ’80s opened the door to a previously unknown world where matter takes unusual states or phases.

“Their discoveries have brought about breakthroughs in the theoretical understanding of matter’s mysteries and created new perspectives on the development of innovative materials,” the academy said.

The judges said there is now hope that “topological materials will be useful for new generations of electronics and superconductors or in future quantum computers,” the academy said.

Nobel judges often award discoveries made decades ago to make sure they withstand the test of time.

Thouless, 82, is a professor emeritus at the University of Washington. Haldane, 65, is a physics professor at Princeton University in New Jersey. Kosterlitz, 73, is a physics professor at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.

Speaking by a phone link to a news conference in Stockholm, Haldane said he was “very surprised and very gratified” by the award, adding the laureates stumbled onto the discoveries.

“Most of the big discoveries are really that way,” he said. “At least in theoretical things, you never set out to discover something new. You stumble on it and you have the luck to recognize what you’ve found is something very interesting.”

This year’s Nobel Prize announcements started Monday with the medicine award going to Japanese biologist Yoshinori Ohsumi for discoveries on autophagy, the process by which a cell breaks down and recycles content.

The chemistry prize will be announced on Wednesday and the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday. The economics and literature awards will be announced next week.

Each prize has a purse of 8 million kronor ($930,000). The winners also collect a medal and a diploma at the award ceremonies on Dec. 10, the anniversary of prize founder Alfred Nobel’s death in 1896.

Associated Press writers Keith Moore in Stockholm and Malcolm Ritter in New York contributed to this report.</s>Press release: The Nobel Prize in Physics 2016

4 October 2016

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the Nobel Prize in Physics 2016 with one half to

David J. Thouless

University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA

and the other half to

F. Duncan M. Haldane

Princeton University, NJ, USA

and

J. Michael Kosterlitz

Brown University, Providence, RI, USA

”for theoretical discoveries of topological phase transitions and topological phases of matter”

They revealed the secrets of exotic matter

This year’s Laureates opened the door on an unknown world where matter can assume strange states. They have used advanced mathematical methods to study unusual phases, or states, of matter, such as superconductors, superfluids or thin magnetic films. Thanks to their pioneering work, the hunt is now on for new and exotic phases of matter. Many people are hopeful of future applications in both materials science and electronics.

The three Laureates’ use of topological concepts in physics was decisive for their discoveries. Topology is a branch of mathematics that describes properties that only change step-wise. Using topology as a tool, they were able to astound the experts. In the early 1970s, Michael Kosterlitz and David Thouless overturned the then current theory that superconductivity or suprafluidity could not occur in thin layers. They demonstrated that superconductivity could occur at low temperatures and also explained the mechanism, phase transition, that makes superconductivity disappear at higher temperatures.

In the 1980s, Thouless was able to explain a previous experiment with very thin electrically conducting layers in which conductance was precisely measured as integer steps. He showed that these integers were topological in their nature. At around the same time, Duncan Haldane discovered how topological concepts can be used to understand the properties of chains of small magnets found in some materials.

We now know of many topological phases, not only in thin layers and threads, but also in ordinary three-dimensional materials. Over the last decade, this area has boosted frontline research in condensed matter physics, not least because of the hope that topological materials could be used in new generations of electronics and superconductors, or in future quantum computers. Current research is revealing the secrets of matter in the exotic worlds discovered by this year’s Nobel Laureates.

Read more about this year’s prize

Popular Science Background

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Scientific Background

Pdf 800 kB

Image – Phases of matter (pdf 900 kB)

Image – Phase transition (pdf 622 kB)

Image – Topology (pdf 417 kB)

All illustrations: Copyright © Johan Jarnestad/The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences

David J. Thouless, born 1934 in Bearsden, UK. Ph.D. 1958 from Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA. Emeritus Professor at the University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA.

https://sharepoint.washington.edu/phys/people/Pages/view-person.aspx?pid=85

F. Duncan M. Haldane, born 1951 in London, UK. Ph.D. 1978 from Cambridge University, UK. Eugene Higgins Professor of Physics at Princeton University, NJ, USA.

https://www.princeton.edu/physics/people/display_person.xml?netid=haldane&display=faculty

J. Michael Kosterlitz, born 1942 in Aberdeen, UK. Ph.D. 1969 from Oxford University, UK. Harrison E. Farnsworth Professor of Physics at Brown University, Providence, RI, USA.

https://vivo.brown.edu/display/jkosterl

Prize amount: 8 million Swedish krona, with one half to David Thouless and the other half to be shared between Duncan Haldane and Michael Kosterlitz.

Further information: http://kva.se and http://nobelprize.org

Press contact: Jessica Balksjö Nannini, Press Officer, phone +46 8 673 95 44, +46 70 673 96 50, jessica.balksjo@kva.se

Experts: Thors Hans Hansson, phone +46 8 553 787 37, hansson@fysik.su.se, and David Haviland, haviland@kth.se, members of the Nobel Committee for Physics.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, founded in 1739, is an independent organisation whose overall objective is to promote the sciences and strengthen their influence in society. The Academy takes special responsibility for the natural sciences and mathematics, but endeavours to promote the exchange of ideas between various disciplines.

Nobel Prize® is a registered trademark of the Nobel Foundation.

To cite this section

MLA style: Press release: The Nobel Prize in Physics 2016. NobelPrize.org. Nobel Media AB 2019. Mon. 9 Sep 2019. <https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/2016/press-release/></s>Three British-born scientists won the Nobel Prize in physics on Tuesday for discoveries about strange states of matter that could result in improved materials for electronics or quantum computers.

David Thouless, Duncan Haldane and Michael Kosterlitz, who are now affiliated with universities in the United States, were honoured for breakthroughs they made in the 1970s and ’80s, The Associated Press reported.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said their work opened the door to a previously unknown world where matter can assume unusual states or phases.

“Their discoveries have brought about breakthroughs in the theoretical understanding of matter’s mysteries and created new perspectives on the development of innovative materials,” the academy said.

The 8 million kronor ($930,000) award was divided with one half going to Thouless and the other to Haldane and Kosterlitz for “theoretical discoveries of topological phase transitions and topological phases of matter.”

Topology is a branch of mathematics that describes properties of objects.

The judges said there is now hope that “topological materials” could pave the way for new generations of electronics or quantum computers that are much more powerful than current computer systems.

Nobel judges often award discoveries made decades ago to make sure they withstand the test of time.

Thouless, 82, is a professor emeritus at the University of Washington. Haldane, 65, is a physics professor at Princeton University in New Jersey. Kosterlitz, 73, is a physics professor at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island and currently a visiting lecturer at Aalto University in Helsinki.

Haldane said he found out about the prize through an early morning telephone call.

“My first thought was someone had died,” he told The Associated Press. “But then a lady with a Swedish accent was on the line. It was pretty unexpected.”

Kosterlitz, a dual U.K.-U.S. citizen, said he got the news in a parking garage while heading to lunch in Helsinki.

“I’m a little bit dazzled. I’m still trying to take it in,” he told AP.

While most people are familiar with objects in three dimensions, the Nobel laureates analyzed materials so thin they have only two dimensions, or even one.

Scientists had once been skeptical that any interesting atomic-scale behavior takes place in these settings, but the Nobel laureates proved them wrong, said Phillip Schewe, a physicist and writer at the University of Maryland in College Park.

For example, Kosterlitz and Thouless showed that, against expectations, two-dimensional materials could conduct electricity without any loss to resistance. That property is called superconductivity.

Kosterlitz said he was in his 20s at the time and that his “complete ignorance” was an advantage in challenging the established science.

“I didn’t have any preconceived ideas,” he said. “I was young and stupid enough to take it on.”

Their analysis relied on topology, which is the mathematical study of properties that don’t change when objects are distorted. A doughnut and a coffee cup are equivalent topologically because they each have exactly one hole. In topology, properties change only in whole steps; you can’t have half a hole.

Prize committee member Thors Hans Hansson explained the concept by holding up a cinnamon bun, a bagel and a pretzel with two holes in it to reporters in Stockholm.

Thouless explained an experiment conducted with a very thin layer of material. Its electrical resistance varied in response to changes in a magnetic field, but while the strength of the field was changed smoothly, the resistance changed in sharply defined steps. This effect is so precise that it is now used to define the unit of electrical resistance, the ohm.

Nobel committee member David Haviland said this year’s prize was more about theoretical discoveries even though they may result in practical applications.

“Topology is a very abstract branch of mathematics which isn’t used so frequently in physics,” Haviland said. “But these theoreticians have come up with a description of these materials using topological ideas, which have proven very fruitful and has led to a lot of ongoing research about material properties.”

Haldane said the award-winning research is just starting to have practical applications.

“The big hope is that some of these new materials could lead to quantum computers and other new technology,” he said.

Kosterlitz was not so sure.

“I’ve been waiting for my desktop quantum computer for years, but it’s still showing no signs of appearing,” he said. “At the risk of making a bad mistake, I would say that this quantum computation stuff is a long way from being practical.”

This year’s Nobel Prize announcements started Monday with the medicine award going to Japanese biologist Yoshinori Ohsumi for discoveries on autophagy, the process by which a cell breaks down and recycles content.

The chemistry prize will be announced on Wednesday and the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday. The economics and literature awards will be announced next week.

Besides the prize money, the winners get a medal and a diploma at the award ceremonies on Dec. 10, the anniversary of prize founder Alfred Nobel’s death in 1896.</s>Scottish-born scientists David Thouless and Michael Kosterlitz, along with Duncan Haldane from London, have been awarded this year’s Nobel Prize in physics, for work that “revealed the secrets of exotic matter”.

The three “opened the door” to an unknown world where matter takes unusual states or phases, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said.

They were awarded for their “theoretical discoveries of topological phase transitions and topological phases of matter”.

Thouless, 82, is a professor emeritus at the University of Washington, Haldane, 65, is a physics professor at Princeton University in New Jersey, and Kosterlitz, 73, is a physics professor at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.

Their research was conducted in the 1970s and 80s. Nobel judges often award discoveries made decades ago, to make sure they withstand the test of time.

This year’s Nobel Prize announcements started on Monday with the medicine award going to Japanese biologist Yoshinori Ohsumi for discoveries on autophagy, the process by which a cell breaks down and recycles content.

The chemistry prize will be announced on Wednesday and the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday. The economics and literature awards will be announced next week.

Each prize has a purse £730,000. The winners also collect a medal and a diploma at the award ceremonies on December 10, the anniversary of prize founder Alfred Nobel’s death in 1896.

’Like’ The Scotsman on Facebook for regular updates

DOWNLOAD THE SCOTSMAN APP ON ITUNES OR GOOGLE PLAY</s>STOCKHOLM (AP) — British-born scientists David Thouless, Duncan Haldane and Michael Kosterlitz were awarded this year’s Nobel Prize in physics on Tuesday for work that “revealed the secrets of exotic matter,” the prize committee said.

The three “opened the door” to an unknown world where matter takes unusual states or phases, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said.

They were for their “theoretical discoveries of topological phase transitions and topological phases of matter.”

Thouless, 82, is a professor emeritus at the University of Washington. Haldane, 65, is a physics professor at Princeton University in New Jersey. Kosterlitz, 73, is a physics professor at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.

Their research was conducted in the 1970s and ’80s. Nobel judges often award discoveries made decades ago, to make sure they withstand the test of time.

This year’s Nobel Prize announcements started Monday with the medicine award going to Japanese biologist Yoshinori Ohsumi for discoveries on autophagy, the process by which a cell breaks down and recycles content.

The chemistry prize will be announced on Wednesday and the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday. The economics and literature awards will be announced next week.

Each prize has a purse of 8 million kronor ($930,000). The winners also collect a medal and a diploma at the award ceremonies on December 10, the anniversary of prize founder Alfred Nobel’s death in 1896.</s>British-born scientists David Thouless, Duncan Haldane and Michael Kosterlitz won the 2016 Nobel Prize for Physics for studies of unusual states of matter such as in superconductors, the award-giving body said on Tuesday.

"Thanks to their pioneering work, the hunt is now on for new and exotic phases of matter," the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said in a statement awarding the 8 million Swedish crown ($937,000) prize.

"Many people are hopeful of future applications in both materials science and electronics."

Thouless was awarded half the prize with the other half divided between Haldane and Kosterlitz.

Physics is the second of this year's crop of Nobels and comes after Japan's Yoshinori Ohsumi was awarded the prize for medicine on Monday.
British scientists, David Thouless, Duncan Haldane, and John M. Kosterlitz, are awarded the 2016 Nobel Prize in Physics "for theoretical discoveries of topological phase transitions and topological phases of matter".