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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)
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)
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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)
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)

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.

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Santa and Mrs. Claus Use Military Transports to Bring Christmas to Alaska Native Village

Santa Claus arrives at the school in Yakutat, Alaska,, as part of the Alaska National Guard's Operation Santa initiative that brings Christmas to an Indigenous community that has suffered a hardship, Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Thiessen).
Santa Claus arrives at the school in Yakutat, Alaska,, as part of the Alaska National Guard's Operation Santa initiative that brings Christmas to an Indigenous community that has suffered a hardship, Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Thiessen).
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Santa and Mrs. Claus Use Military Transports to Bring Christmas to Alaska Native Village

Santa Claus arrives at the school in Yakutat, Alaska,, as part of the Alaska National Guard's Operation Santa initiative that brings Christmas to an Indigenous community that has suffered a hardship, Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Thiessen).
Santa Claus arrives at the school in Yakutat, Alaska,, as part of the Alaska National Guard's Operation Santa initiative that brings Christmas to an Indigenous community that has suffered a hardship, Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Thiessen).

Forget the open-air sleigh overloaded with gifts and powered by flying reindeer.
Santa and Mrs. Claus this week took supersized rides to southeast Alaska in a C-17 military cargo plane and a camouflaged Humvee, as they delivered toys to the Tlingit village of Yakutat, northwest of Juneau, The Associated Press reported.
The visit was part of this year’s Operation Santa Claus, an outreach program of the Alaska National Guard to largely Indigenous communities in the nation’s largest state. Each year, the Guard picks a village that has suffered recent hardship — in Yakutat's case, a massive snowfall that threatened to buckle buildings in 2022.
“This is one of the funnest things we get to do, and this is a proud moment for the National Guard,” Maj. Gen. Torrence Saxe, adjutant general of the Alaska National Guard, said Wednesday.
Saxe wore a Guard uniform and a Santa hat that stretched his unit's dress regulations.
The Humvee caused a stir when it entered the school parking lot, and a buzz of “It’s Santa! It’s Santa!” pierced the cold air as dozens of elementary school children gathered outside.
In the school, Mrs. Claus read a Christmas story about the reindeer Dasher. The couple in red then sat for photos with nearly all of the 75 or so students and handed out new backpacks filled with gifts, books, snacks and school supplies donated by the Salvation Army. The school provided lunch, and a local restaurant provided the ice cream and toppings for a sundae bar.
Student Thomas Henry, 10, said while the contents of the backpack were “pretty good,” his favorite item was a plastic dinosaur.
Another, 9-year-old Mackenzie Ross, held her new plush seal toy as she walked around the school gym.
“I think it’s special that I have this opportunity to be here today because I’ve never experienced this before,” she said.
Yakutat, a Tlingit village of about 600 residents, is in the lowlands of the Gulf of Alaska, at the top of Alaska’s panhandle. Nearby is the Hubbard Glacier, a frequent stop for cruise ships.
Some of the National Guard members who visited Yakutat on Wednesday were also there in January 2022, when storms dumped about 6 feet (1.8 meters) of snow in a matter of days, damaging buildings.
Operation Santa started in 1956 when flooding severely curtailed subsistence hunting for residents of St. Mary’s, in western Alaska. Having to spend their money on food, they had little left for Christmas presents, so the military stepped in.
This year, visits were planned to two other communities hit by flooding. Santa’s visit to Circle, in northeastern Alaska, went off without a hitch. Severe weather prevented a visit to Crooked Creek, in the southwestern part of the state, but Christmas was saved when the gifts were delivered there Nov. 16.
“We tend to visit rural communities where it is very isolated,” said Jenni Ragland, service extension director with the Salvation Army Alaska Division. “A lot of kids haven’t traveled to big cities where we typically have Santa and big stores with Christmas gifts and Christmas trees, so we kind of bring the Christmas program on the road."
After the C-17 Globemaster III landed in Yakutat, it quickly returned to Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, an hour away, because there was nowhere to park it at the village's tiny airport. Later it returned to pick up the Christmas crew.
Santa and Mrs. Claus, along with their tuckered elves, were seen nodding off on the flight back.