AsianScientist (Jul. 4, 2016) – The grand challenges that science must respond to in today’s world range from perennial topics such as evolution to modern concepts such as artificial intelligence, said scientists at a panel discussion at the opening of the Grand Challenges for Science in the 21st Century conference on June 13, 2016.
Held at Nanyang Technological University and moderated by independent writer and lecturer Tor Norretranders, the panel session comprised Sydney Brenner, Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine; W. Brian Arthur, external professor at the Santa Fe Institute; Astronomer Royal Martin Rees; Terrence Sejnowski, Francis Crick Professor at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies; and Eörs Szathmáry, director of the Parmenides Center for the Conceptual Foundations of Science.
In no particular order, we have distilled the grand challenges for science in the 21st century, as described by the panel speakers, into five key points:
- Scientists must maintain a truth-seeking mentality
The scientific industry has seen a marked shift towards industrial science—or science that directly benefits the economy—and away from basic research, said Sydney Brenner, a senior fellow at the Agency for Science, Technology and Research in Singapore.
He lamented that scientists today lack a crucial truth-seeking mentality, by accepting the results of published research without challenging assumptions.
In science, where research is built upon research—which potentially leads to an accumulation of mistakes—the practice of critical evaluation is all the more pertinent, Brenner said.
“[We must] carefully go over, over and over again what everybody says, and ask: How much of this do we believe?” Brenner said.
- Ensuring that universities remain places where ideas flourish
Szathmáry said that the emphasis on churning out publications within a short span of time might ultimately stifle the progress of scientific knowledge. Instead, universities should allow for longer term research—even if the returns are expected to come in slowly.
“Universities are increasingly being enslaved by administration all over the world,” he said, stressing the need for a reorganization of science.
Szathmáry also urged scientists to revert to older ethical standards in publication. This includes emphasizing the reproducibility of research, as well as fostering rather than suppressing essential debate.
- Scientists must continue to explore new worlds
“More than anything else, science proceeds by its technologies,” said Arthur, who authored the 2009 book The Nature of Technology: What It Is and How It Evolves. “The telescope showed Galileo something very important—that Venus had phases, which meant to Galileo that Venus was circling the Sun.”
Arthur described how this discovery eventually ruled out geocentrism, the widely-held belief that the Sun and other planets revolve around Earth.
He explained that the different families of technology—including the optical telescope, the microscope, the particle accelerator, X-ray crystallography, radio astronomy and genomic methods—are derived from natural phenomena, and they “reveal worlds to us that constitute the challenges of time.”
X-ray crystallography, for instance, led to the momentous discovery of DNA’s double helix structure in 1953, making studies into molecular biology possible. The question remains then, of what new technologies can propel science into the next century, he said.
- Harnessing artificial intelligence
Earlier this year, stunned spectators watched as a Go grandmaster conceded defeat at the virtual hands of his opponent, AlphaGo, in what was the first time a computer program reigned over an international champion in one of the most complex games to have been invented. Few saw it coming.
AlphaGo’s ability to beat a professional Go player is the culmination of at least a decade of research in artificial intelligence, said Sejknowski.
“Here’s the problem—we can’t imagine the future,” he said. “We’re not very good at it.”
Sejknowski explained how artificial intelligence like AlphaGo relies on reinforcement learning, which, through experience, judges the value of each move to maximize long-term results. Yet, when it comes to anticipating the future, scientists are somehow unable to make such calculated moves.
He also pointed out that the effect of disruptive technology such as artificial intelligence reaches far beyond science.
“Who could imagine the impact that the internet was going to have on marketing?” he said, referencing big industry players like Amazon and Spotify.
- Understanding the origin of life
To look to the future, scientists must first look to the past, agreed the panelists at the Grand Challenges discussion. Evolution is as pertinent today as it was during Charles Darwin’s time, they said.
“I think the fundamental questions will always be that of evolution,” said Brenner. “And therefore, I think the biggest challenge we have is how to reconstruct the past in some detail.”
Rees, whose work in astrophysics spans decades, remarked that “the smallest insect is more complex than a star or a galaxy.” However, he pointed out that while significant progress has been made in the field of evolutionary biology, crucial questions about the origin of life remain unanswered.
“We know about evolution, but we don’t know what triggered the transition from complex chemistry to the first-known replicating, metabolizing system,” Rees said.
A long-time champion of the multiverse theory of the origin of the universe, Rees hypothesizes that the Big Bang is merely one out of billions. The theory has attracted the support of several cosmologists.
“In 50 years’ time, I hope we would have firmed up our theories about the multiverse, just like we have with the Big Bang.”
Grand Challenges for Science in the 21st Century was a four-day panel discussion organized by Nanyang Technological University, taking place from June 13 to 16, 2016. It comprised a public session on the opening day, followed by two days of closed discussion among the panelists, and ended with a public session where panelists shared their reflections on the questions brought up by the public on the opening day.
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Copyright: Asian Scientist Magazine; Photo: Shutterstock.
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