Not sure what the problem is so I'll post the entire article...
By Simon Johnson
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Three American scientists won the 2004 Nobel physics prize on Tuesday for showing how tiny quark particles interact, helping to
explain everything from how a coin spins to how the universe was built.
David Gross, David Politzer and Frank Wilczek had shown how the attraction between quarks -- the basic building blocks of nature -- was strong when
they were far apart and weak when they were close together.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said their work on the "strong force" between quarks helped give "a unified description of all the forces of
Nature ... from the tiniest distances within the atomic nucleus to the vast distances of the universe."
It explains how "an everyday phenomenon like a coin spinning on a table" is determined by fundamental forces between protons, neutrons, electrons.
Protons and neutrons are made up of quarks, bound by the "strong force."
The strong force functions a bit like an elastic band that is tauter when it is pulled.
The three scientists, in a theory known as quantum chromodynamics, also showed that when quarks are close together at extremely high energies they act
like free particles, a state they called "asymptotic freedom."
Gross told Reuters the U.S. trio had made a first step toward "the theory of everything."
A grand unified theory of life and the universe has eluded scientists who cannot yet reconcile the way subatomic particles behave with gravity.
The three Americans' research on quarks brought scientists closer to explaining the behavior of subatomic forces, which also include electromagnetism
and a "weak force" dealing with radioactive decay.
"Once you understand all these forces it turns out that there are certain features that cry out for unification," Gross told Reuters by phone from
Santa Barbara, California.
Wilczek, speaking in Cambridge, Massachusetts, said the group's theories had first appeared "outlandish" when they emerged in the 1970s and Nobel
recognition came as a "great relief."
Finnish theoretical physicist Stig-Erik Starck said the trio's research had "built a model of how the universe was born, how it works and how it
will ultimately die."
Gross from the University of California, Politzer from the California Institute of Technology and Wilczek at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
will share the 10 million crown ($1.36 million) prize.
"I have no idea what to do with the money, my wife has some ideas," said Gross. "We don't have champagne on ice but its probably a good idea."
© Reuters 2004. All Rights Reserved.
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