Nobel winners find hidden patterns in the climate

Published in the Common Interests Newsletter – October 2021

There are actually several featured articles this week, depending on how deeply you want to dig into the relevant publications by the three winners who share the Nobel Prize for Physics this year.

The first article is a summary article by the Nobel Committee for Physics describing in lay terms who the winners are and their contribution to the physics of complex systems and in particular how it applies to Earth’s climate.

For a deeper dive, the second article from the same source provides some of the mathematics of complex and chaotic systems and how they apply to our climate. Clearly, the Committee recognizes the importance of this work to the science of weather and climate, and to the survival of the world economy and, ultimately, of the planet.

Finally, at the end of the second article, there are three pages of references to the articles and publications that are the real meat of the science behind climate change and complex and chaotic systems. I wouldn’t expect any of us to go much deeper than the second article (it’s way out of my field of expertise), but we should have greatly increased confidence that the science is real.