Work on Earth’s Climate and Other Complex Systems Earns Nobel Prize in Physics
Syukuro Manabe and Klaus Hasselmann have been honored for their work that led to reliable predictions of the effects of climate change. They will share the Nobel with Giorgio Parisi, who has made pioneering studies of chaotic physical systems. The post Work on Earth’s Climate and Other Complex Systems Earns Nobel Prize in Physics first appeared on Quanta Magazine
Physicists have traditionally dealt with simple systems — a single atom, a gas in a box — for which the governing laws are clear and exact answers can be calculated. To describe bigger, slightly more complicated systems, they know how to simplify, stripping things down to their essence and ignoring details that don’t matter. A ball rolls the same way down a ramp whether it’s red or blue.
Originally published in Quanta Abstractions.
