96-year-old physicist Arthur Ashkin won half of the 2018 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work developing optical tweezers in the late 1980s.
The technology, which involves “levitating” tiny objects using only light, has since been used to create a life-saving malaria test, better understand how cholesterol-lowering drugs soften red blood cells and more.
But the Nobel Laureate is not done yet. He’s now developed a new solar energy project – in his New Jersey basement – that uses cheap reflective tubes to intensify solar reflections, a simple and inexpensive technology that could potentially replace existing solar panels and bag him a second Nobel Prize.
Even 86-year-old wife Aline, herself a chemistry whiz, is impressed. “I really am surprised that at the age of 96, he is so much ‘with it’ and so brilliant,” she said, though “he’s a little bit cranky now, at times” – to which he agreed.
So how will Mr Ashkin spend his prize money – almost US$500,000?
“I want to take Aline to a good restaurant, and we’ll have a good meal,” he said – and Aline says she’s fine not to wait for a second Prize to celebrate.
“I think one is enough,” she said.
Indeed.
