Physics Nobel for giant magnetoresistance that shrank disk drives

Giant magnetoresistance, now there is a mouthful. The double physics Nobel announced this morning will get a more substantial track tomorrow. Actually, despite the long word, it’s an appealing story for daily writers. The discovery led in the last decade or two to an implosive shrinkage of data-crammed disk memory devices including those in iPods with more songs on them than anybody possibly needs (wants, that’s different). The US, in something of a break in the recent pattern, is shut out this time. Silicon Valley may have made a lot of the money but the technology’s roots lead to physicists in France and in Germany. Do flash memory thumb drives use GMR? If not, it’s good to get the Nobels out before various solid state memory systems render disk drives passé.

Initial accounts:

Reuters‘s Niklas Pollard; AFP.

Grist for the Mill: Nobel Foundation-Karolinska Inst. Press Release;

-CP