Three elderly “masters of light” have won the 2009 Nobel physics prize for discoveries in the 1960s that led to modern fibre optic communications and digital cameras.

Charles Kao, a British-American citizen of Chinese ancestry, took half of the SKr10m ($1.4m) award for working out how to transmit pulses of light over long distances through ultra-pure glass fibres. “Today optical fibres make up the circulatory system that nourishes our communication society,” said the Nobel citation.