Nobel Winner Said ” I Was Young And Stupid When Discovery Made”

STOCKHOLM (AP) — Nobel Prize winner Michael Kosterlitz says he was "young and stupid" when he made the discovery that earned him and two other scientists the prestigious physics award.

Kosterlitz says "it was a piece of work that I did as a very ignorant post-doc."

In the 1970s, Kosterlitz and David Thouless showed that, against expectations, two-dimensional materials could conduct electricity without any loss to resistance. That property is called superconductivity.

Kosterlitz told The Associated Press by phone from Helsinki, where he is a visiting professor at Aalto University, that "complete ignorance was actually an advantage because I didn't have any preconceived ideas. I was young and stupid enough to take it on."

He said he got a phone call saying he had won the prize when he was in a parking lot on his way to lunch in Helsinki.

Kosterlitz said that "I'm a little bit dazzled. I'm still trying to take it in."