Nobel Prize in Physics awarded

Today the Nobel committee awarded the prize in physics.  The prize was awarded to two American scientists and an Australian who separately concluded that the rate at which the universe is expanding is accelerating.  This is an enormously important discovery.  The big bang theory explains why the universe is expanding, but according to that theory the rate should be slowing down.  The observation that the universe's expansion is accelerating means there is something else at play.  This something else has been called dark energy.  You can read the official press release here.