2008 Nobel Prize Coming Soon

On October 7, the Nobel Prize committee will announce their 2008 selection for the Nobel Prize in Physics. What is your guess for the candidate for this upcoming award?

Reuters UK has already announced their predictions, which include Vera Rubin for her work in the discovery of dark matter or Andre Geim and Kostya Novoslev for their work on graphene, the thinnest material discovered to date. One of the Reuters Chemistry Nobel predictions, Charles Lieber of Harvard University, is also selected for work in nanotechnology, specifically nanowires and other nanomaterials.

The Reuters UK predictions are based on an analysis of frequently cited research and, since 2002, has predicted 12 Nobel Prizes successfully.

What do you think of these Nobel predictions? Both sound reasonable to me, though of the two, I'm inclined to lean a bit toward graphene, because the Nobel Prize can only go for well proven discoveries. It might still be a bit too premature for dark matter to take that lofty prize, although I wouldn't be upset if it did.

Speaking of dark matter, this study discussed by New Scientist, if proven, indicates that dark matter might help extend the life of stars near the black hole in the center of the Milky Way.