Representatives of the The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters have announced that the Abel Prize for 2004 has been awarded jointly to Sir Michael Francis Atiyah of the University of Edinburgh and Isadore M. Singer of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology "for their discovery and proof of the index theorem, bringing together topology, geometry and analysis, and their outstanding role in building new bridges between mathematics and theoretical physics."

The Atiyah-Singer index theorem is one of the great landmarks of twentieth century mathematics, influencing profoundly many of the most important later developments in topology, differential geometry and quantum field theory. Its authors, both jointly and individually, have been instrumental in repairing a rift between the worlds of pure mathematics and theoretical particle physics, initiating a cross-fertilization which has been one of the most exciting developments of the last decades.

The Atiyah-Singer index theorem was the culmination and crowning achievement of a more than 100-year old development of ideas, from Stokes's theorem, which students learn in calculus classes, to sophisticated modern theories like Hodge's theory of harmonic integrals and Hirzebruch's signature theorem.

The problem solved by the Atiyah-Singer theorem is truly ubiquitous. In the 40 years since its discovery, the theorem has had innumerable applications, first within
mathematics and then, beginning in the late 70's, in theoretical physics: gauge theory, instantons, monopoles, string theory, the theory of anomalies, etc.

At first, the applications in physics came as a complete surprise to both the mathematics and phsysics communities. Now the index theorem has become an integral part of their cultures. Atiyah and Singer, together and individually, have been tireless in their attempts to explain the insights of physicists to mathematicians. At the same time, they brought modern differential geometry and analysis as it applies to quantum field theory to the attention of physicists and suggested new directions within physics itself. This cross-fertilization continues to fruitful for both sciences.

The Abel Prize, effectively the Nobel for Mathematics is named after the brilliant Norwegian mathematician Niels Henrik Abel, who died in 1829, and was created in 2002.

The first prize, awarded last year, went to French mathematician Jean-Pierre Serre for his role in shaping algebraic geometry and number theory.

This year's prize is to be presented by Norway's King Harald at a May 25 ceremony in Oslo.

(Article information from BBC Online)

Particle physicists have seen a rare happening that may force a rethink of current theories of sub-atomic matter.

After watching more than seven trillion disintegrations of the kaon particle physicists at the Brookhaven National Laboratory have seen three peculiar events when they expected to see just one. The researchers are not sure if this is a fluke or the start of a deeper theory of matter. The work has been submitted to the Journal Physical Review Letters.

The experiment looked at the disintegration of a sub-atomic particle called the K-meson or kaon. It can decay in a number of ways. One involves it turning into a charged pion particle, a neutrino, and an anti-neutrino.

Physicists regard this decay pattern as especially interesting because it may reveal new effects not accounted for in the so-called Standard Model.

So far they have constructed a theory around 16 particles that make up all matter called the Standard Model of fundamental particles and interactions.

The Standard Model predicts that this particular event should occur only once in every 13 billion decays. The new result now suggests the rare event could occur once in every 7 billion decays - almost twice the rate predicted by the Standard Model. The data is not yet conclusive, however. If it becomes conclusive, as opposed to being a statistical fluke, it would cause a significant departure from standard theory and possibly change the current picture of particle physics.

China has earmarked US$170 million for a lunar probe it intends to launch by the end of 2007, as the country extends its plans to conquer space after putting a man in orbit for the first time last year.

Construction was under way on the 5,170-pound satellite named Chang'e 1, after a goddess from Chinese myth who flew to the moon after stealing the elixir of immortality from her husband.

In October, Chinese astronaut Yang Liwei circled the Earth 14 times during a 21-hour flight. This flight and the recent announcement of President George Bush to send men back to the moon has started talk of a new space race.

The satellite will be launched atop a Long March III A from the Xichang satellite launch center in the southwestern province of Sichuan.

China's space administration first announced its three-phase lunar exploration plan last December.

Proposed follow-up missions include landing an unmanned vehicle on the moon's surface by 2010 and sending another vehicle to collect lunar soil samples and return them to Earth by 2020.

A possible link between cancer and toxins or poisons produced by bacteria has been suggested by King's College London scientists, the Society for General Microbiology's meeting in Bath will hear on April 1.

"As the molecular mechanisms of cancer are becoming better understood, the strong association between Helicobacter pylori and a stomach cancer, gastric adenocarcinoma, has shown that some cancers may start from bacterial infections", says Professor Alistair Lax of the Department of Microbiology at the Dental Institute, King's College London. "Recently other bacterial infections have also demonstrated a greater likelihood that a patient will develop cancer. The link has been controversial for a long time, but we can now show one way that it may work."

Many poisons produced by bacteria are known to act inside our cells, chemically changing some of the processes that govern communication within a cell, and the normal rhythm of cell life is disrupted. This communication process determines whether a cell will grow and divide, or die. Some of the crucial cell proteins are mutated or disrupted during the switch to become a cancer cell, and the scientists think that some bacterial poisons could directly promote cancer formation.

The research presented is the result of over ten years' work on bacterial toxins, and the scientists stress that more information is needed about how these toxins work, and in particular which components of our cells they directly affect. The hypothesis that such toxins can cause cancer or make cancer more likely needs further experimental testing. If further work confirms the hypothesis, doctors and medical researchers will then be able to develop better treatment and preventative measures for some cancers.

NASA's Opportunity rover has demonstrated some rocks on Mars probably formed as deposits at the bottom of a body of gently flowing saltwater, as researchers believe the rover is parked on the shoreline of a salty sea.

Clues gathered so far do not tell how long or how long ago liquid water covered the area. To gather more evidence, the rover's controllers plan to send Opportunity out across a plain toward a thicker exposure of rocks in the wall of a crater.

In telltale patterns, called crossbedding and festooning, some layers within a rock lie at angles to the main layers. Festooned layers have smile-shaped curves produced by shifting of the loose sediments' rippled shapes under a current of water.

According to Dr. John Grotzinger, rover science-team member from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass., the environment at the time the rocks were forming could have been a salt flat, or playa, sometimes covered by shallow water and sometimes dry. Such environments on Earth, either at the edge of oceans or in desert basins, can have currents of water that produce the type of ripples seen in the Mars rocks.

A second line of evidence, findings of chlorine and bromine in the rocks, also suggests this type of environment. Rover scientists presented some of that news three weeks ago as evidence the rocks had at least soaked in mineral-rich water, possibly underground water, after they formed. Increased assurance of the bromine findings strengthens the case rock-forming particles precipitated from surface water as salt concentrations climbed past saturation while water was evaporating.

Engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, Calif., expect Opportunity and Spirit to operate several months longer than the initial rover's three-month prime missions on Mars. To analyze hints of crossbedding, mission controllers programmed Opportunity to move its robotic arm more than 200 times in one day, taking 152 microscope pictures of layering in a rock called "Last Chance."