Researchers share $22m Breakthrough prize as science gets rock star treatment
by Ian Sample Science editor from on (#39Q4A)
Glitzy ceremony honours work including that on mapping post-big bang primordial light, cell biology, plant science and neurodegenerative disease
The most glitzy event on the scientific calendar took place on Sunday night when the Breakthrough Foundation gave away $22m (16.3m) in prizes to dozens of physicists, biologists and mathematicians at a ceremony in Silicon Valley.
The winners this year include five researchers who won $3m (2.2m) each for their work on cell biology, plant science and neurodegenerative diseases, two mathematicians, and a team of 27 physicists who mapped the primordial light that warmed the universe moments after the big bang 13.8 billion years ago.