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Two Japanese, American win 2008 physics Nobel

Reuters | 10/07/2008 7:09 PM

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STOCKHOLM - Two Japanese scientists and a Tokyo-born American shared the 2008 Nobel Prize for physics for their work in sub-atomic physics, the prize committee said on Tuesday.

The committee recognized Yoichiro Nambu, a Tokyo-born US citizen, for his discovery of the mechanism of "spontaneous broken symmetry in sub-atomic physics."

He shared half of the prestigious 10 million Swedish crown ($1.4 million) prize with Makoto Kobayashi and Toshihide Maskawa, who were recognized for work that predicted the existence of at least three families of quarks in nature.

The prize, awarded by the Nobel Committee for Physics at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, was the second of this year's crop of Nobel prizes.

The prizes are handed out annually for achievements in science, peace, literature and economics. The prizes bearing the name of Alfred Nobel were first awarded in 1901 in accordance with the 1895 will of the Swedish dynamite millionaire.