Three scientists who have helped to shape our understanding of Earth’s complex climate and how human activity is causing rapid and chaotic change to it have been awarded the 2021 Nobel Prize in Physics. This year’s prize what split into two halves—the first jointly went to Syukuro Manabe and Klaus Hasselmann for their breakthroughs in “the physical modelling of Earth’s climate... and reliably predicting global warming.” The second went to Giorgio Parisi “for the discovery of the interplay of disorder and fluctuations in physical systems from atomic to planetary scales.” Thors Hans Hansson, chairman of the Nobel Committee for Physics, said in a statement: “The discoveries being recognized this year demonstrate that our knowledge about the climate rests on a solid scientific foundation... This year’s Laureates have all contributed to us gaining deeper insight into the properties and evolution of complex physical systems.”
