Science News Roundup: Climate change huge threat to humanity, physics Nobel winner Parisi says; Russian actor blasts off to attempt a world first: a movie in space and more

Marking the Oct. 4-10 World Space Week, which this year celebrates women in space, toy maker Mattel Inc has teamed up with the European Space Agency (ESA) and Cristoforetti, who is currently in training for her next mission to the International Space Station next April. Trio win physics Nobel for work deciphering chaotic climate Japanese-born American Syukuro Manabe, German Klaus Hasselmann and Italian Giorgio Parisi won the 2021 Nobel Prize in Physics on Tuesday for work that helps understand complex physical systems such as Earth's changing climate.

Following is a summary of current science news briefs.

Climate change huge threat to humanity, physics Nobel winner Parisi says

Climate change is a "huge threat" to humanity and it is very important for governments to take action as quickly as possible, Italian physics Nobel prize winner Giorgio Parisi told reporters on Tuesday. "I am very pleased to have this Nobel because it is a recognition of all the field I have been working in," Parisi added.

Russian actor blasts off to attempt a world first: a movie in space

A Russian actress and a film director blasted off for the International Space Station on Tuesday, beating Tom Cruise in the race to shoot the first movie in space. The Soyuz MS-19 spacecraft is set to dock at 1212 GMT at the station, which orbits Earth at an altitude of around 220 miles (354 km).

From soundstage to space: "Star Trek" actor Shatner on board for Blue Origin rocket launch

William Shatner, the "Star Trek" actor who found fame by pretending a Hollywood soundstage was a spaceship exploring the galaxy, will be launched to the edge of space for real next week in a rocket built by Blue Origin, billionaire Jeff Bezos' space company. Shatner, best known as Captain Kirk in the original "Star Trek" television series, will be part of a four-person crew aboard Blue Origin's New Shepard launch vehicle on the flight scheduled for the morning of Oct. 12, the company said on Monday.

Robots give Greece's postal service speed boost

There's a new addition to Greece's postal service: a fleet of yellow robots sorting through the mail. Fifty-five small, four-wheeled autonomous mobile robots -- or AMR's -- powered by artificial intelligence, glide around Hellenic Post's sorting center in Athens, speeding up an often arduous process.

Astronaut Barbie doll jets off on zero gravity flight

A Barbie doll version of Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti has jetted off on a zero-gravity flight with the aim of inspiring young girls to consider a career in space and science, technology, maths, and engineering (STEM). Marking the Oct. 4-10 World Space Week, which this year celebrates women in space, toymaker Mattel Inc has teamed up with the European Space Agency (ESA) and Cristoforetti, who is currently in training for her next mission to the International Space Station next April.

Trio win physics Nobel for work deciphering chaotic climate

Japanese-born American Syukuro Manabe, German Klaus Hasselmann and Italian Giorgio Parisi won the 2021 Nobel Prize in Physics on Tuesday for work that helps understand complex physical systems such as Earth's changing climate. In a decision hailed by the U.N. weather agency as a sign of a consensus forming around man-made global warming, one half of the 10-million Swedish crown ($1.15 million) prize goes in equal parts to Manabe, 90, and Hasselmann, 89, for modelling earth’s climate and reliably predicting global warming.

Ancient Indonesian woman reshapes views on spread of early humans

Genetic traces in the body of a young woman who died 7,000 years ago furnish the first clue that mixing between early humans in Indonesia and those from faraway Siberia took place much earlier than previously thought. Theories about early human migration in Asia could be transformed by the research published in the scientific journal Nature in August, after analysis of the deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), or the genetic fingerprint, of the woman who was given a ritual burial in an Indonesian cave.

Creators of molecule-building precision tools win Chemistry Nobel

German Benjamin List and Scottish-born David MacMillan won the 2021 Nobel Prize in Chemistry on Wednesday for developing new tools for building molecules that have helped make new drugs and are more environmentally friendly. Their work on asymmetric organocatalysis, which the award-giving body described as "a new and ingenious tool for molecule building", has also helped in the development of plastics, perfumes and flavours.

Two Americans win Medicine Nobel for work on heat and touch

American scientists David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian won the 2021 Nobel Prize for Medicine on Monday for the discovery of receptors in the skin that sense temperature and touch and could pave the way for new painkillers. Their work, carried out independently, has helped show how humans convert the physical impact from heat or touch into nerve impulses that allow us to "perceive and adapt to the world around us," the Nobel Assembly at Sweden's Karolinska Institute said.

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