Scientists Hopfield and Hinton Win 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics

A screen shows the laureates of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics, US physicist John J Hopfield and Canadian-British computer scientist and cognitive psychologist Geoffrey E Hinton during the announcement by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm, Sweden on October 8, 2024. (AFP)

11:14-8 October 2024 AD ـ 05 Rabi’ Al-Thani 1446 AH

Scientists Hopfield and Hinton Win 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics

US scientist John Hopfield and British-Canadian colleague Geoffrey Hinton won the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics for discoveries and inventions that laid the foundation for machine learning, the award-giving body said on Tuesday.

The award comes with a prize sum of 11 million Swedish crowns ($1.1 million), which is shared between the winners if there are several. The physics prize is awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

"This year's two Nobel Laureates in physics have used tools from physics to develop methods that are the foundation of today's powerful machine learning," the award-giving body said in a statement.

"Machine learning based on artificial neural networks is currently revolutionizing science, engineering and daily life." Widely considered the most prestigious prize for physicists across the world, it was created, along with awards for achievements in science, literature and peace, in the will of Alfred Nobel.

The prizes have been awarded with a few interruptions since 1901, though the Nobel economics honor is a later addition in memory of the Swedish businessman and philanthropist, who had made a fortune from his invention of dynamite.

Outside the sometimes controversial choices for peace and literature, physics often makes the biggest splash among the prizes, with the list of past winners featuring scientific superstars such as Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr and Enrico Fermi.

Last year's physics prize was awarded to Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz and Anne L'Huillier for their work in creating ultra-short pulses of light that can give a snapshot of changes within atoms, potentially improving the detection of diseases.

Physics is the second Nobel to be awarded this week, after US scientists Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun won the medicine prize for their discovery of microRNA and its role in gene regulation, shedding light on how cells specialize.

Eggs Are Less Likely to Crack When Dropped on Their Side, According to Science

Fresh eggs are delivered along with chickens and a portable chicken coop to a client’s house as part of the "Rent The Chicken" service in La Crescenta, California, on April 21, 2025. (AFP)

17:03-8 May 2025 AD ـ 11 Thul-Qi’dah 1446 AH

Eggs Are Less Likely to Crack When Dropped on Their Side, According to Science

Fresh eggs are delivered along with chickens and a portable chicken coop to a client’s house as part of the "Rent The Chicken" service in La Crescenta, California, on April 21, 2025. (AFP)

Eggs are less likely to crack when they fall on their side, according to experiments with over 200 eggs.

What does this mean for the best way to crack an egg for breakfast? Not much, since a break around the middle is the best way to get the golden yolk and runny whites to ooze out.

But scientists said it could help with hard-boiling eggs in a pot: Dropping eggs in horizontally may be less likely to cause a stray crack that can unleash the egg's insides in a puffy, cloudy mess.

It's commonly thought that eggs are strongest at their ends — after all, it's how they're packaged in the carton. The thinking is that the arc-shaped bottom of an egg redirects the force and softens the blow of impact.

But when scientists squeezed eggs in both directions during a compression test, they cracked under the same amount of force.

"The fun started when we thought we would get one result and then we saw another," said Hudson Borja da Rocha with Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who helped run the experiments.

The researchers also ran simulations and dropped eggs horizontally and vertically from three short heights up to 0.4 inches (10 millimeters).

The egg result? The ones dropped horizontally cracked less.

"The common sense is that the egg in the vertical direction is stronger than if you lay the egg down. But they proved that's not the case," said materials scientist Marc Meyers with the University of California, San Diego who was not involved with the new study.

Scientists found that the egg's equator was more flexible and absorbed more of the energy of the fall before cracking. The findings were published Thursday in the journal Communications Physics.

Eggs are also usually nestled top-down into homemade contraptions for egg drop challenges as part of school STEM projects, which partially inspired the new study. It's not yet clear whether the new results will help protect these vulnerable eggs, which are dropped at much loftier heights.

It's a bit counterintuitive that the oblong side of an egg could hold up better against a tumble, said study co-author Tal Cohen with Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Countless broken eggs show "the courage to go and challenge these very common, accepted notions," Cohen said.

Scientists Hopfield and Hinton Win 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics

Scientists Hopfield and Hinton Win 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics

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Eggs Are Less Likely to Crack When Dropped on Their Side, According to Science

Eggs Are Less Likely to Crack When Dropped on Their Side, According to Science

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