Legendary climate scientist wins Nobel prize

Three scientists have won the Nobel Prize for physics for work that found order in seeming disorder.

They helped to explain and predict complex forces of nature, including expanding our understanding of climate change.

Syukuro Manabe and Klaus Hasselmann were cited for their work in "the physical modeling of Earth's climate, quantifying variability and reliably predicting global warming."

The second half of the prize went to Giorgio Parisi for explaining disorder in physical systems ranging from those as small as the insides of atoms to the planet-sized.

At an event at Princeton University Manabe said the award was a "big surprise."

Manabe told the audience that global warming's effect on the continental ice sheet is "the key question we have to solve right now."

Manabe also said that he thinks education in Japan, his country of birth, needs to change.

"I think they are doing less and less curiosity driven research than before. I really hope that they would think how to improve the Japanese education," said Manabe.

The prestigious award comes with a gold medal and 10 million Swedish kronor (over $1.14 million). The money comes from a bequest left by the prize's creator, Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel, who died in 1895.

On Monday, the Nobel Committee awarded the prize in physiology or medicine to Americans David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian for their discoveries into how the human body perceives temperature and touch.

Over the coming days prizes will also be awarded for outstanding work in the fields of chemistry, literature, peace and economics.

IMAGE: AP