It was just past 2:00 am when a mysterious number rang Nobel laureate John Clarke, what he deemed "obviously a joke call" that grew increasingly surreal when he heard "a voice from Sweden."

"It soon became clear that it was real," Clarke told journalists Tuesday after he and two colleagues had won the Nobel Prize in physics for their door-opening work in quantum mechanics.

"I was just sitting there feeling completely stunned," Clarke said. "It had never occurred to me in my entire life that anything like this would ever happen."

The University of California, Berkeley professor said his phone kept ringing, emails began pouring in, and people started "banging on my door" seeking interviews at 3:00 am (1000 GMT).

"I said no thank you, not at this time of night," the British 83-year-old sa

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