How many of you know who won the Nobel Peace Prize this year? Probably a significant number would be able to name former US vice president Al Gore, chosen for his work on climate change.

Similarly, a lot of people would be able to name this year’s Nobel winner for literature ­ British author Doris Lessing.

Now for the tricky question. Who won the Nobel prize for physics, and why?

I doubt many of you know the answer. Certainly if you rely on most national news sources, it is unlikely that you will have heard about the success of Frenchman Albert Fert and German Peter Grunberg.

The two scientists were responsible for discovering giant magnetoresistance (GMR), an effect in which a small alteration in magnetic charge can produce a major change in electrical resistance.

According to the citation for the award: “A system of this kind is the perfect tool for reading data from hard disks when information registered magnetically has to be converted to electric current. In 1997 the first read-out head based on the GMR effect was launched and this soon became the standard technology. Even the most recent read-out techniques of today are further developments of GMR.”

You would not be listening to an iPod without the work of Fert and Grunberg. Their discovery led directly to the development of the small, high-capacity disk drives that are central to the consumerisation of technology and the radical changes sweeping the music industry, as well as to improving data storage for businesses.

I would guess you have never heard of them, yet how many more people have benefited from Fert and Grunberg’s work than have read a book by Doris Lessing?

How many more people around the world use hard disk-based MP3 players, compared with the number who have seen Gore’s film, An Inconvenient Truth?

The low public awareness of science and technology is a topic that this column has referred to many times before, and will no doubt do so again. The two scientists who have made such a huge contribution to everyday life all over the world received scant coverage or public recognition. What they did was extremely technical ­ but what it enabled is extremely simple to understand.

You will get tired of hearing this message before long, but it will come back to haunt us: in China and India, they can’t get enough of science and technology; in the UK, we can’t be doing with it. You do the maths ­- or rather, do the science.

Who would have thought that McDonald’s would emerge as a leader of the free world?

The fast-food chain plans to offer free WiFi networking at all its 1,200 outlets from December, making it the largest provider of free wireless connections in the UK.

It was only a matter of time before WiFi services would no longer be chargeable. Many paid-for municipal wireless networks are struggling for customers. The UK may be at the top of the hotspot league tables, but it’s mainly the province of business people using corporate services ­ the number of paying consumers is limited.

Whatever you think of McDonald’s ­or having to sit surrounded by screaming kids with their party meals just to get free internet access ­ the principle is exactly what mobile computing in the UK needs.

WiFi will become a commodity service because the value to individuals of wireless web connectivity is too low. Can you really not wait an hour or two until you get home to check your Facebook page?

The major mobile phone networks have tried to crack the data market for years without achieving much. Mobile web downloads are on the increase, but as more phones have WiFi connectivity built in, so teenagers will be tempted to pop into their local burger bar for free internet access instead of using 3G ­ or so McDonald’s hopes.

The most enterprising response from a mobile network operator would be to offer free data connectivity ­ regardless of the networking technology used.

Straightaway, the mobile would become the roaming web access device of choice for everyone. All the operator needs to do is make sure its mobile portal is the default home page and then watch the money roll in from selling services such as downloads.

Are there any such enterprising mobile operators in the UK? I’m not so sure.
But free is the future for a growing range of technologies. Google, Yahoo, Adobe and IBM are all taking on Microsoft Office by offering free online word processing and spreadsheets. The most mature free market is webmail, where providers compete on the basis of how much stuff they give away free.

The future of computing is mobile and increasingly web-based. The winners will be the companies that solve the conundrum of making money from being free.

Unlikely as it may seem, the latest battleground in IT is the school desk of children in developing countries.

Leading the way in publicity terms is the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project, dreamed up by US technology guru Nicholas Negroponte.

The aim was to provide a $100 computer based on low-cost components and open source software. The scheme has generated many column inches, but fewer sales. Negroponte admits that many heads of state who said they were interested are less keen to sign a cheque. A short-term scheme has been announced where US residents can purchase two OLPC laptops for $399, and one of them will be donated to a child in the developing world ­ the $100 laptop has already become a $150 laptop.

The motivation behind OLPC is sound, but the reality is proving to be a challenge. Nevertheless, Intel has been sufficiently impressed/worried (delete as you consider appropriate) to launch a rival scheme called the Classmate PC.

An already popular option is to donate used computers to be refurbished and sent out to projects in developing countries. Computing has supported the charity Computer Aid International for some years, and several thousand computers have already been provided by readers. Computer Aid is a great charity ­ even if we are biased ­ but it needs more backing and more PCs to spread its reach.

Microsoft founded a similar charity ­- and rival to Computer Aid -­ called Digital Pipeline, and in July announced that EDS had donated 30,000 PCs for use by schoolchildren in Africa. Some have questioned Microsoft’s motives ­ you can’t see those PCs having Linux installed ­ but the recipients will not be complaining.

And last week, another scheme popped up. Macedonia’s Ministry of Education and Science has signed a €44m (£30.8m) deal for thin-client supplier NComputing to provide 180,000 devices costing just £35 each to the entire school population of the former Yugoslav republic.

For UK IT leaders, the race for the school desk has clear implications. The drive to reduce the cost of personal computing can only benefit your budget ­ although the impact will probably not be felt for some time, and IT suppliers are unlikely to rush to offer the same low-cost technology to wealthy business buyers.

But this is also an opportunity for IT departments to play their part in the organisation’s corporate social responsibility plans by donating PCs or supporting projects in the developing world. The question for those in UK IT is: what are you doing to help?

If you've ever been to Times Square in New York you may have seen the US national debt clock - a giant counter tallying up the ever-growing amount of money owed by the US government. (As I write this, the figure stands at a little over $9 trillion - about $30,000 per US citizen).

The aim of the clock is to highlight one of that country's greatest economic challenges. Now, thanks to supplier EMC and analyst IDC, IT managers have their very own equivalent - and you can see it below.

How many times have you had to go back to the board and ask for funds to buy more storage because of the rapidly-growing volume of data you have accumulated? Well, you're not alone.

This is the data clock - the estimated amount of digital information currently in existence around the world. At current growth rates, it is expected to reach 988 billion gigabytes by 2010.

So next time your boss moans about how much you spend on storage - take a look at the latest number above for a little perspective.