At around 5:50 p.m. BST on October 5, 2021, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences decided to award the 2021 Nobel Prize in Physics to Japanese scientist Syukuro Manabe, German scientist Klaus Hasselmann, and Italian scientist Giorgio Parisi, for their "contributions to our understanding of complex physical systems. Giorgio Parisi for their "groundbreaking contributions to our understanding of complex physical systems."

The 2021 Nobel Prize carries a single prize of 10 million Swedish kronor (about $7.36 million).

List of Nobel Prize winners in physics over the past 6 years

In 2020, half of the Nobel Prize in Physics went to Roger Penrose for giving proof of the formation of black holes, which became a strong evidence for general relativity. The other half goes to Reinhard Genzel and Andrea Ghez*** for their discovery of ultra-high-mass, dense matter at the center of the Milky Way.

In 2019, Princeton University professor James Peebles, Michel Mayor, a professor at the University of Geneva in Switzerland, and Didier Queloz, a professor at the University of Geneva, were honored, on the grounds that "their discoveries in astrophysics".

In 2018, the American scientist Arthur Ashkin, the French scientist Gerard Mourou and the Canadian scientist Donna Strickland were honored, for "groundbreaking inventions in the field of laser physics".

In 2017, three U.S. scientists, Rainer Weiss, Kip Thorne, and Barry Barish, were honored for " decisive contributions to the LIGO detector and gravitational wave observations."

In 2016, three Anglo-American scientists, David Solis, Duncan Haldane, and Michael Kostelitz, were honored for "theoretical discoveries of topological phase transitions and topological phase matter".

Trivia about the Nobel Prize in Physics

One of the five prizes established by Nobel's will, the Prize in Physics is awarded to "the person who has made the most important discoveries or inventions in the field of physics" and, in contrast to the other Nobel Prizes, is awarded to "the person who has made the most important discoveries or inventions in the field of physics" . The nomination and selection process for the Physics Prize is longer and more rigorous than for the other Nobel Prizes. The rules of the Nobel Prize in Physics state that the contributions of the winners must "have stood the test of time". This means that the Nobel Committee decades after a scientific discovery is made tends to award the prize. Since its inception in 1901, the Nobel Prize in Physics has been an integral part of human civilization for over a century, marking numerous milestones in the history of physics.

According to the rules, a Nobel Prize can be awarded for up to two different achievements, and the prize money will be divided equally. And if an achievement is accomplished by two or three people **** together, then the prize will be awarded to them jointly. A single prize will be shared by a maximum of 3 people.

From 1901 to 2020, the Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded 114 times, with no prizes being awarded in the six years 1916, 1931, 1934, 1940, 1941 and 1942. As the organizing committee put it, "If a candidate's contribution does not meet the requirements, the prize money is held over until the following year. If there is still no suitable candidate in the second year, then the prize money goes back into the Foundation's initial fund." In addition, the Nobel Prize was rarely awarded during the two world wars.

As the saying goes, it's good to be famous before it's too late. To date, the youngest recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics has been Lawrence Bragg, who in 1915, at the age of 25 was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics alongside his father, Henri Bragg***, for his contribution to the study of the structure of atoms and molecules within crystals using X-rays.

To date, the oldest recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics is Arthur Ashkin, who was 96 years old when he won the Nobel Prize in 2018. The prize was awarded for "groundbreaking inventions in the field of laser physics".

In the history of the Nobel Prize, two Nobel Prizes in physics have been awarded to the American physicist John Bardeen, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1956 for his work on semiconductors and for his research on the transistor effect, and again in 1972 for his work on the theory of ultra-low temperatures.

Complex systems are characterized by randomness and disorder and are difficult to understand. This year's prize recognizes new ways to describe them and predict their long-term behavior.

The Earth's climate is a complex system of vital importance to humanity. Shukuro Manabe showed how increasing levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere lead to higher surface temperatures on Earth. In the 1960s, he led the development of physical models of Earth's climate and was the first to explore the interaction between radiative balance and vertical transport of air masses. His work laid the foundation for the development of current climate models.

About a decade later, Klaus Hasselmann created a model that linked weather and climate, thus answering the question of why climate models are reliable despite variable and chaotic weather. He also developed methods for recognizing specific signals, fingerprints, that both natural phenomena and human activities leave imprints on the climate. His methods have been used to demonstrate that rising atmospheric temperatures are due to human emissions of carbon dioxide.

Around 1980, George Parisi discovered hidden patterns in disordered complex materials. His discoveries were one of the most important contributions to complex systems theory. They made it possible to understand and describe many different, apparently completely random materials and phenomena, not only in physics, but also in other very different fields such as math, biology, neuroscience, and machine learning.

"The discoveries recognized this year demonstrate that our understanding of climate is built on a solid scientific foundation, based on rigorous analysis of observations. This year's laureates have all contributed to our deeper understanding of the properties and evolution of complex physical systems. " said Thors Hans Hansen, Chairman of the Nobel Committee for Physics.

Finding the Simplest Scientific Laws for a Complex World

It is no surprise that George Parisi picked up the Nobel Prize. In fact, the scientist's academic homepage has more than 90,000 citations, and he previously won the prize for physics, which is one of the most prestigious prizes in almost all of science, except for the Nobel Prize. "Parisi is a very influential theoretical physicist who conducts his research through statistical physics and complex systems approaches," explained Hepeng Zhang, professor at the Institute of Natural Sciences and the School of Physics and Astronomy at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, adding that "general crystals in which the atoms are arranged in a periodic structure, but many complex systems do not have this spatial order in crystals and are in thermodynamic non-equilibrium states with high randomness, which makes some traditional physical research methods difficult to work in complex systems, but Parisi has developed many methods to study disordered, random complex systems."

Parisi also won the Wolf Prize this year, with the award citation saying, "His work has had a great impact on different branches of physics, including particle physics, critical phenomena, disordered systems, and optimization theory and mathematical physics." According to Zhang Hepeng, progress in the study of complex systems requires the integration and crossover of multiple disciplines; with the development of big data and computational power, this field will also see rapid advancement, helping scientists to explore new research paradigms to better explore the real world.

It is worth noting that Parisi's research is very interesting, some of which are beyond the scope of traditional physics research, such as the irregular boundaries of burning paper, and flocks of birds flying in harmony. "These questions originating in biology and materials science have not yet been fully answered, and physicists have actively intervened in these cross-studies, trying to find the simplest and most universal models and mechanisms for complex problems to help mankind better understand the world," said Zhang Hepeng, and at present, these areas also have a Chinese research .

The Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded annually, with 6 years of suspension (1916, 1931, 1934, 1940-1942). As of 2020, the Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded 114 times,*** with 215 recipients. American physicist John Bardeen, who won the prize twice, in 1956 and 1972, for his work on the transistor effect and the BCS theory of superconductivity, is the only scientist to have won twice.

In 2020, half of the Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to Roger Penrose, and the other half to Reinhard Genzel and Andrea Gertz *** together. The three scientists were honored for discovering a supermassive dense object at the center of the Milky Way. Barista has also learned from the World Leaders Forum (WLF) that Reinhard Genzel has been invited to attend the fourth WLF in early November and share his black hole research at the Master Lecture.

The data show that the Nobel Prize in Physics awarded to only one person has appeared 47 times; awarded to two people, *** has appeared 32 times; awarded to three people, has appeared 35 times. The frequency of two- or three-person awards has increased dramatically in recent years, with the last physicist to win the Nobel Prize in Physics alone dating back to George Shapak, who was awarded the prize in 1992.

The youngest Nobel laureate in physics to date is William Lawrence Bragg, who won the prize at the age of 25 years; he and his father, William Henry Bragg, won the prize at the same time in 1915; and in 2018, Arthur Askin won the prize at the age of 96 years, and was the first of oldest of the Nobel Prize winners in physics.

Statistics show that: among the Nobel Prize winners in physics, there is only 1 person aged 20-29 years; 23 people aged 30-39 years; the largest number of winners aged 40-49 years, amounting to 55 people; the age of 50-59 years old is also the "peak" of the Nobel Prize in physics, with 52 people; 43 people aged 60-69 years old; 26 people aged 70-79 years old; and the number of people aged 70-79 years old. The 50-59 age group is also the "peak period" for Nobel Prizes in Physics, with 52; the 60-69 age group, with 43; the 70-79 age group, with 26; the 80-89 age group, with 15; and the 90-99 age group, again, with only one.

Historically, 4 women have won the Nobel Prize in Physics, namely Madame Curie Marie Curie, the German-American physicist Marie Gephardt Meyer, and in 2018, the Nobel Prize was awarded to the German-American physicist Marie Gephardt Meyer. , 2018 winner Donna Strickland and last year's winner Andrea Goetz. Among them is Marie Curie, a two-time winner of the Nobel Prize; in 1903, Mr. and Mrs. Curie were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics along with Becquerel for their work on radioactivity, and in 1911, Mrs. Curie was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry again for her discovery of the elements polonium and radium, making her the world's first two-time winner of the Nobel Prize.

Some scholars say that, compared with other natural science awards, the regularity of the Nobel Prize in Physics is more obvious: cosmic astrophysics, particle physics, atomic and molecular physics and light physics and condensed matter physics of the four major areas of the round. However, in recent years, astrophysics on stage more frequently - 2015 is the particle physics results awarded;