Joseph Dziedzic, left, and Arthur Ashkin, right, demonstrating how they can trap and manipulate microscopic living organisms with their optical tweezers. [AIP Emilio Segrè Visual Archives, Physics Today Collection]
Of all the Nobel Prize citations in physics, only one mentions biology: that of Arthur Ashkin, the American who was honored in 2018 for applying a laser-based device called optical tweezers to the study of life.