Nobel Prize in Physics awarded for discoveries in climate, complex physical systems

Three scientists from US Germany and Italy were on Tuesday awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics 2021 for their contributions in discovering climate and complex physical systemsThe Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the Physics Nobel to Syukuro Manabe Klaus Hasselmann and Giorgio Parisi for groundbreaking contributions to our understanding of complex physical systems said a statementManabe from Princeton University US and Hasselmann from Max Planck Institute for Meteorology Hamburg Germany were jointly awarded for the physical modelling of Earths climate quantifying variability and reliably predicting global warmingParisi from Sapienza University of Rome was awarded the other half for the discovery of the interplay of disorder and fluctuations in physical systems from atomic to planetary scalesManabe and Hasselmann laid the foundation of our knowledge of the Earths climate and how humanity influences it while Parisi got rewarded for his revolutionary contributions to the theory of disordered materials and random processesThree Laureates share this years Nobel Prize in Physics for their studies of chaotic and apparently random phenomena Complex systems are characterised by randomness and disorder and are difficult to understand This years Prize recognises new methods for describing them and predicting their longterm behaviour said the statement from the AcademyAlso read Nobel Prize in Medicine awarded to David Julius and Ardem PatapoutianManabe demonstrated how increased levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere lead to increased temperatures at the surface of the Earth In the 1960s he led the development of physical models of the Earths climate and was the first person to explore the interaction between radiation balance and the vertical transport of air masses His work laid the foundation for the development of current climate modelsAbout ten years later Hasselmann created a model that links together weather and climate thus answering the question of why climate models can be reliable despite weather being changeable and chaotic He also developed methods for identifying specific signals or fingerprints that both natural phenomena and human activities imprint in the climate His methods have been used to prove that the increased temperature in the atmosphere is due to human emissions of carbon dioxideAround 1980 Parisi discovered hidden patterns in disordered complex materials His discoveries are among the most important contributions to the theory of complex systems They make it possible to understand and describe many different and apparently entirely random materials and phenomena not only in physics but also in other very different areas such as mathematics biology neuroscience and machine learningThe discoveries being recognised this year demonstrate that our knowledge about the climate rests on a solid scientific foundation based on a rigorous analysis of observations This years Laureates have all contributed to us gaining deeper insight into the properties and evolution of complex physical systems said Thors Hans Hansson chair of the Nobel Committee for Physics in the statementThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever