Three scientists at US universities win Nobel Prize in physics for advancing quantum technology

STOCKHOLM (AP) — Three scientists won the Nobel Prize in physics Tuesday for research on the strange behavior of subatomic particles called quantum tunneling that enabled the ultra-sensitive measurements achieved by MRI machines and laid the groundwork for better cellphones and faster computers.

The work by John Clarke, Michel H. Devoret and John M. Martinis, who work at American universities, took the seeming contradictions of the subatomic world — where light can be both a wave and a particle and parts of atoms can tunnel through seemingly impenetrable barriers — and applied them in the more traditional physics of digital devices. The results of their findings are just starting to appear in advanced technology and could pave the way for the development of supercharged computing.

The prizewinning research in the mid-1980s took the subatomic “weirdness of quantum mechanics” and found how those tiny interactions can have real-world applications, said Jonathan Bagger, CEO of the American Physical Society. The experiments were a crucial building block in the fast-developing world of quantum mechanics.

Speaking from his cellphone, Clarke, who spearheaded the research team, said: “One of the underlying reasons that cellphones work is because of all this work."

When quantum mechanics first came to light in 1926, a prominent physicist sought to illustrate its many paradoxes with the example of a cat in a box that was both alive and dead at the same time. The three Nobel winners showed that science can put such principles to work, said Physics Today Editor-in-Chief Richard Fitzgerald, who was in a competing research group in the 1990s.

“They didn’t take it that far, but they showed that it can be done,” Fitzgerald said.

The winning physicists took “the scale of something that we can’t see, we can’t touch, we can’t feel" and brought it “up to the scale of something recognizable” and made it "something you can build upon,” Fitzgerald said.

Clarke, 83, conducted his research at the University of California, Berkeley. Martinis, 67, worked at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Devoret, 72, is at Yale and also at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Martinis’ wife, Jean, told Associated Press reporters who called at his home hours after the announcement that he was still asleep and did not yet know. In the past, she said, they stayed up on the night of the physics award, but at some point they decided that sleep was more important.

When his wife woke him and told him about the journalists seeking an interview, the new Nobel laureate remembered that the prizes were being announced this week. He opened his computer, looked at the announcement and saw his picture along with the other winners.

"So I was kind of in shock,” he said.

Clarke said it never occurred to him that he would win a Nobel Prize.

“I practically collapsed,” Clarke told AP. “I was completely stunned. I mean, it’s something that I had never, ever dreamed of in my entire life.”

Martinis — who was a senior Google scientist working toward quantum computing before co-founding his own company, Qolab — said the big future goal is quantum computing, which would be a giant leap in speed and sophistication by relying on the power of the contradictory states in that subatomic world.

That is still eight to 10 years away. But he said the team’s experiments showed "a computer could be much, much more powerful.”

Devoret is now chief scientist for Google’s quantum computing efforts.

Quantum computers are “one very sort of obvious use,” but the research could also help develop sensors that detect and measure faint phenomena, such as magnetic fields, and advance cryptography to encode information, said Mark Pearce, a professor of astrophysics and Nobel physics committee member.

And through better understanding of precision chemistry, it could develop better materials for daily living and even give an added boost to artificial intelligence, Martinis said.

Before the work at Berkeley, scientists knew single electrons or pairs of tiny electrons could tunnel through an impenetrable barrier. What Clarke said his team learned was “if you design the circuity properly, you could actually have tunneling" of objects larger and more useful than just a couple of electrons.

That discovery “can be used to make very sophisticated things that would not otherwise be able to work out,” Clarke said at a news conference, mentioning his iPhone and quantum computers.

He also criticized the Trump administration for its deep cuts to science funding, saying they would “cripple science.”

“If this continues … it may take a decade to get back to where we were half a year ago,” Clarke said.

Martinis, Bagger and Fitzgerald said it’s a bit of a stretch to say cellphones now use the breakthrough made by Clarke and colleagues. But ultra-sensitive measuring devices rely on the team’s work, including MRI machines, which would be far less useful without their advances, Bagger said.

“Quantum mechanics is everywhere in everything we do, from the cellphone to the satellite communications that are connected to the cellphones, to the screens on which we watch our videos on our cellphones,” Bagger said.

Tuesday's award was the 119th time the prize has been given. Last year, artificial intelligence pioneers John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton won the physics prize for helping create the building blocks of machine learning.

On Monday, Mary E. Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell and Dr. Shimon Sakaguchi won the Nobel Prize in medicine on Monday for discoveries about how the immune system knows to attack germs and not our bodies.

Nobel announcements continue with the chemistry prize on Wednesday and literature on Thursday. The Nobel Peace Prize will be announced Friday followed by the Nobel Memorial Prize in economics on Monday.

The award ceremony will be held Dec. 10, the anniversary of the 1896 death of Alfred Nobel, the wealthy Swedish industrialist and the inventor of dynamite who founded the prizes.

The prizes carry priceless prestige and a cash award of 11 million Swedish kronor (nearly $1.2 million).

Corder reported from The Hague, Netherlands, and Borenstein from Washington. Associated Press journalist Adithi Ramakrishnan in New York contributed to this report.

John Martinis stands with his wife Jean in their living room after winning the Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on quantum tunneling on Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2025, in Santa Barbara, Calif. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

John Martinis stands in his living room after winning the Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on quantum tunneling on Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2025, in Santa Barbara, Calif. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

John Martinis stands in his living room after winning the Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on quantum tunneling on Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2025, in Santa Barbara, Calif. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

A bicyclist rides past the Becton Engineering and Applied Science Center at Yale University where Yale Professor Emeritus of Applied Physics Michel Devoret has an office and laboratory, Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2025, in New Haven, Conn. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)

Member of the Nobel Committee for Physics Goran Johansson explains this year's Nobel Prize in Physics, awarded to John Clarke, Michel H Devoret and John M. Martinis, at the Nobel Assembly of the Karolinska Institutet, in Stockholm, Sweden, Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2025. (Christine Olsson/TT News Agency via AP)

From left, Chair of the Nobel Committee for Physics Chair Olle Eriksson, Secretary General of the Swedish Academy of Sciences Hans Ellegren and Member of the Nobel Committee for Physics Goran Johansson announce John Clarke, Michel H Devoret and John M. Martinis, on screen behind, as the recipients the Nobel Prize in Physics, at the Nobel Assembly of the Karolinska Institutet, in Stockholm, Sweden, Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2025. (Christine Olsson/TT News Agency via AP)

From left, Chair of the Nobel Committee for Physics Chair Olle Eriksson, Secretary General of the Swedish Academy of Sciences Hans Ellegren and Member of the Nobel Committee for Physics Goran Johansson announce John Clarke, Michel H Devoret and John M. Martinis, on screen behind, as the recipients the Nobel Prize in Physics, at the Nobel Assembly of the Karolinska Institutet, in Stockholm, Sweden, Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2025. (Christine Olsson/TT News Agency via AP)

Photos of John Clarke, Michel H Devoret and John M. Martinis are pictured on a screen after they were announced as winners of the Nobel Prize in Physics, at the Nobel Assembly of the Karolinska Institutet, in Stockholm, Sweden, Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2025. (Christine Olsson/TT News Agency via AP)

From left, Chair of the Nobel Committee for Physics Chair Olle Eriksson, Secretary General of the Swedish Academy of Sciences Hans Ellegren and Member of the Nobel Committee for Physics Goran Johansson announce John Clarke, Michel H Devoret and John M. Martinis, on screen behind, as the recipients the Nobel Prize in Physics, at the Nobel Assembly of the Karolinska Institutet, in Stockholm, Sweden, Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2025. (Christine Olsson/TT News Agency via AP)

FILE - A Nobel Prize medal is displayed before a ceremony at the Swedish Ambassador's Residence in London, Monday, Dec. 6, 2021. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham, File)

NEW YORK (AP) — Late mob boss John Gotti ’s reality TV star grandson has reported to federal prison after trying to stave off his sentence on fraud charges by saying he was going to donate a kidney to his ailing mother, Victoria Gotti.

The Federal Bureau of Prisons confirmed Tuesday that Carmine Agnello began his 15-month prison term the previous day at the Federal Correctional Institution Fairton in southern New Jersey.

Agnello, who starred on “ Growing Up Gotti ” in the mid-2000s, was originally scheduled to report to prison in July. But U.S. District Court Judge Nusrat Choudhury agreed to delay that until Sept. 18, saying it would allow enough time to recover from the surgery, presuming that happened by Aug. 10 as Agnello suggested

Agnello’s lawyers have said in court filings that Victoria Gotti, the daughter of the former head of New York’s Gambino crime family, suffers from chronic kidney disease.

On Monday, though, with no operation in sight, Choudhury ordered Agnello to surrender immediately to federal authorities.

“Because there is no concrete evidence that an organ transplant will be scheduled to take place at any time between today and Sept. 18, 2026, the request for another deferral of Mr. Agnello’s self-surrender is unjustified,” the judge said.

Agnello lawyer Robert Beltrani said in a letter that surgeons needed more time to set a date for the operation because Gotti was dealing with infections.

“It is undisputed that Carmine is a great match for Ms. Gotti,” he said. “He is simply asking the Court to allow him to remain available to his mother during this very limited period while her doctors determine whether and when she can proceed with transplant.”

Prosecutors objected, noting that a medical report attached to the defendant’s letter said doctors were working to “identify the etiology and the proper treatment” for Gotti’s recurring infections and no transplant could happen until they are fully treated.

“Clearly, the transplant surgery is not imminent,” said Joseph Nocella, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York.

Nocella’s office declined to comment further, and lawyers for Agnello did not immediately respond to email messages. Nor did Gotti, an author and former columnist for the New York Post.

Agnello pleaded guilty in 2024 to wire fraud after prosecutors said he fraudulently obtained $1.1 million in loans from a federal program meant to help small businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A resident of Long Island, he obtained the loans on behalf of his company, Crown Auto Parts & Recycling LLC, but lied about how many people it employed, his criminal record and his plans for the funds, prosecutors said.

The company ceased operations before Agnello applied for the loan, which he ultimately used on other ventures including a $420,000 investment in a cryptocurrency business, prosecutors said.

Agnello, now 40, was a teen when he and his brothers briefly rose to fame sporting gel-spiked hairdos on “Growing up Gotti,” which followed the family's life on Long Island.

His grandfather earned the nicknames “Teflon Don” and “Dapper Don” for his flamboyant style and ability to beat some of the criminal charges he faced over the years. He died in a Missouri federal prison in 2002 at age 61.

The New Jersey lockup where Agnello is now incarcerated has housed some notable inmates over the years.

Most recently disgraced former New York Congressman George Santos served less than three months of a more than seven-year sentence there before President Donald Trump granted him clemency last year.

Follow Philip Marcelo at https://x.com/philmarcelo

FILE - Victoria Gotti and her son, Carmine Agnello attend a news conference for the film "Gotti: Three Generations," on April 12, 2011, in New York. (AP Photo/Evan Agostini, File)