A combination photograph shows (L-R) Yoichiro Nambu of America and Japan's Makoto Kobayashi and Toshihide Maskawa.Yoichiro Nambu, Makoto Kobayashi and Toshihide Maskawa won the 2008 Nobel Prize in physics for reaching on symmetry at the microscopic level,the Nobel committee announced Tuesday. [Xinhua]

Yoichiro Nambu, Nobel Prize Winner for Physics, said, "It's a great honor for me to be awarded the prize this year. I was telling two other people this morning that I did not expect it this year. It's true that I had been told I was on the list for many, many years, maybe 30 years. So it happens this time of year every year for me, year after year but I did not expect it in any way at this particular time. And I must say that I was very surprised when I got the news. Also I was told that two Japanese physicists got half of the prize at the same time. I know very well the people and I have always appreciated their work very much so I also thought that they deserved the prize. So I'm very happy also that I share the prize with them."

(CCTV October 9, 2008)