In today’s Bulldog wrapup of science and technology news:

  • Noble physics prize goes to 3 UK scientists
  • Watch the video replay of the announcement
  • Google launching new phone, gadgets;
  • Facebook unveils a marketplace
  • Facebook launches Messenger “lite” overseas

The details:

  • Nobel physics prize awarded to 3 for topology work

British-born scientists David Thouless, Duncan Haldane and Michael Kosterlitz were awarded this year’s Nobel Prize in physics on Tuesday for work that “revealed the secrets of exotic matter,” the prize committee said.

The three “opened the door” to an unknown world where matter takes unusual states or phases, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said.

  • VIDEO: Watch the announcement replay at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qpoBG5hy-A

They were for their “theoretical discoveries of topological phase transitions and topological phases of matter.”

Thouless, 82, is a professor emeritus at the University of Washington. Haldane, 65, is a physics professor at Princeton University in New Jersey. Kosterlitz, 73, is a physicsprofessor at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.

Their research was conducted in the 1970s and ’80s. Nobel judges often award discoveries made decades ago, to make sure they withstand the test of time.

This year’s Nobel Prize announcements started Monday with the medicine award going to Japanese biologist Yoshinori Ohsumi for discoveries on autophagy, the process by which a cell breaks down and recycles content.

The chemistry prize will be announced on Wednesday and the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday. The economics and literature awards will be announced next week.

Each prize has a purse of 8 million kronor ($930,000).

  • Google readies new phones, gadgets featuring its software

Google may be getting serious about selling its own hardware gadgets.

On Tuesday, the search giant will ramp up its consumer electronics strategy with expected announcements of new gadgets including new smartphones and an internet-connected personal-assistant for the home similar to Amazon’s Echo speaker. All are intended to showcase Google’s software and online services.

A new virtual reality headset and other devices, such as a home router, could also be on tap, according to analysts and industry blogs. Google has declined to confirm any specifics, although it previously described some of these products back in May .

Google makes most of its money from online software and digital ads. But it’s putting more emphasis on hardware as it faces rivals like Apple, Amazon and South Korea’s Samsung.

  • Facebook launches new ‘marketplace’ for buying, selling

Facebook says some 450 million people use its site — mainly the “Groups” feature — to buy and sell stuff locally, anything from cars to baby clothes to furniture. Now, the company is launching a separate “marketplace” section that seeks to make it easier to do this.

The last time Facebook tried its hand at such a marketplace was nine years ago, and it didn’t really go anywhere. Like Facebook itself at the time, it was a desktop computer-only product. The latest effort, or course, works on mobile devices, so it’s easier to snap a photo of the item you are selling and upload it on the site.

Facebook Inc. said Monday the most popular items people currently buy and sell on the service include furniture, cars and clothes.

  • Facebook launches ‘lite’ version of Messenger overseas

Facebook is launching a “lite” version of it Messenger chat app. It is aimed at emerging markets, where many people use older phones that don’t have enough room to store or ability to run the full-featured application due to slower internet speeds or other issues.

“Messenger Lite” will be available on Android devices in Kenya, Tunisia, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Venezuela beginning on Monday. The company did not say when it would be available in other countries or whether it is also coming to Apple devices (although Android is far more popular in emerging markets than even older iPhones).

There is already a “Facebook Lite” available for people whose phones are too old or simple to run the full-fledged Facebook. Messenger Lite is a similarly slimmed-down version of Messenger. It will let people send text, photos and links but won’t do video calls, for example.

The move comes as the social media giant moves to force users to adopt Messenger if they want to send each other direct messages, instead of the main Facebook site or app. It is working: more than 1 billion people use Messenger each month.