With work on machine learning that uses artificial neural networks, John J. Hopfield and Geoffrey E. Hinton “showed a completely new way for us to use computers,” the committee said.

The Nobel Prize in physics is being awarded Tuesday, a day after two American scientists won the medicine prize for their discovery of microRNA. Three scientists won last year's physics Nobel for providing the first split-second glimpse into the superfast world of spinning electrons,

Similar flexibility, though in an area with far more profound consequences than ethology, has been demonstrated with regard to this year’s physics prize. Showing a sense of timeliness not always apparent in its deliberations,