John Clarke, Michel H. Devoret and John M. Martinis were awarded the Nobel Prize in physics Tuesday in Sweden for showing that two properties of quantum mechanics, the physical laws that rule the subatomic realm, could be observed on a system large enough to see with the naked eye. They will share a prize of 11 million Swedish kroner (around $1.17 million).

"There is no advanced technology today that does not rely on quantum mechanics," Olle Eriksson, chair of the Nobel Committee for Physics, said during the announcement of the award. The laureates' discoveries, he added, paved the way for technologies such as the cellphone, cameras and fiber optic cables.

It also helped lay the groundwork for current attempts to build a quantum computer, a device that could compute and process informati

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