Et tu, Brute?
Why are you talking about practical applications?
One of the awesomeness things about the Nobel Committee is that their mandate is that it be given for either discovery
or invention, and yet they've
pretty much ignored the latter in most cases.
I fully approve. Discoveries
are more important than inventions. Last year's nobel prize (IMO) was the most important discovery in my lifetime (of course I am biased towards astrophysics).