2 Colo. Nobel prize winners furloughed by shutdown

Two winners of the Nobel Prize in physics from Boulder are unable to do research because they’ve been furloughed under the government shutdown.

David Wineland of the University of Colorado, last year’s winner, does research at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Eric Cornell, a 2001 winner, works for a joint institute run by NIST and the university. Both told the Daily Camera that they’ve been told to stop research because of the shutdown.

Wineland says he’s allowed to work at NIST for brief periods just to maintain some equipment that needs to keep running.

Wineland says he’s frustrated by the shutdown but says the government can’t stop researchers from thinking and dreaming up new ideas, a big part of their work.