Nobel prize in physics goes to trio whose research alerted the world to climate change

The 2021 Nobel Prize in physics has been awarded to a trio of scientists whose work laid the foundations for how we understand complex physical systems, including Earth's climate.

Syukuro Manabe, of Princeton University in New Jersey, and Klaus Hasselmann, formerly of the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology in Hamburg, Germany, will share one-half of the prize "for the physical modeling of Earth's climate, quantifying variability and reliably predicting global warming." Giorgio Parisi, of Sapienza University of Rome, will receive the other half "for the discovery of the interplay of disorder and fluctuations in physical systems from atomic to planetary scales," the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, which is responsible for selecting the Nobel laureates in physics.

Such complex systems are inherently difficult to understand, as they are characterized by both randomness and disorder, according to a statement from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. "This year's Prize recognises new methods for describing them and predicting their long-term behaviour," the statement said.