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News from ICTP 115 - Features - WCPSD
ICTP served as a co-sponsor of the concluding event for The World Year of Physics 2005---an event that was more of a beginning than an end.
World Year of Physics
Looks to Future
The centennial anniversary of
Albert Einstein's annus mirabilis (miraculous year) provided
the rationale for celebrating the World Year of Physics 2005.
But it was the future, not the past, that defined the endless
array of events that took place across the globe last year to
examine the vital role that physics plays in our world.
Such forward-looking thinking also shaped the agenda of the World
Year of Physics' concluding event: the World Conference on Physics
and Sustainable Development, held in Durban, South Africa, from
31 October to 2 November.
More than 300 physicists from around the world attended the event,
which was co-sponsored by ICTP, the United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the International
Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP), and the South African
Institute of Physics (SAIP).
The conference focussed on the relationship of physics to four
major issues of broad public concern: education; energy and the
environment; health; and economic development.
"The meeting," noted Edmund Zingu, president of the
South African Institute of Physics and one of the major organisers
of the event, "represented a modest step to redirect the
attention and efforts of physicists towards the United Nation's
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)."
The MDGs, says Zingu, "focus on such critical global concerns
as poverty reduction, improved environmental management and education."
What makes the MDGs unique are that benchmarks have been established
in each of these areas so that in the future researchers and public
officials can assess the progress---or lack of progress---that
has been made. For example, the MDGs call on the global community
to reduce the number of people worldwide who do not yet have access
to safe drinking water by 50 percent by 2015.
"Many people," notes K.R. Sreenivasan, director of ICTP,
"think that basic physics is an ivory tower pursuit that
has little bearing on economic development. That's simply not
true."
Without physics, Sreenivasan continues, "we could not speak
of the nuclear age, the computer age, or the age of the internet,
three of the defining forces shaping our global community over
the past century."
While we often think of physics as a cutting-edge science of primary
importance to developed countries, Claudio Tuniz, ICTP's assistant
director, observes that "it can also serve as a valuable
tool for developing countries."
"The modelling that is essential for evaluating potential
earthquake and tsunami activity and for forecasting the behaviour
of typhoons and monsoons is based on the principles of statistical
physics. Biophysics is providing critical insights into the field
of genomics that could play a central role in efforts to curb
tropical diseases. On another front, the emerging field of nanotechnology
could lead to the production of nano-filtering systems capable
of purifying water at a cost that even the poorest villages in
the world will be able to afford. In each of these areas, physics
plays---and will continue to play---a central role."
The importance of physics to the developing world was reflected
by the large number of physicists from the South who attended
the event. Some 180 of the 321 participants were from the developing
world. Women were also well represented, accounting for about
25 percent of the total. Speakers at the event included John Mugabe,
advisor on science and technology to the New Partnership for Africa's
Development (NEPAD); Yang Guozhen, president of the Chinese Physical
Society; and Rob Adam, director-general, Department of Science
and Technology, South Africa. Talks were also given by Sara Farley,
science and technology specialist and consultant to the World
Bank and the Rockefeller Foundation; and Marvin Cohen, president
of the American Physical Society.
To help ensure that the conference's broad ideals are translated
into tangible plans of action, participants unanimously agreed
to a resolution that offers a concrete strategy for moving ahead.
Specific groups of scientists and scientific institutions have
been asked to implement parts of the plan and monitor its progress.
Under the theme of physics education, the resolution/action plan
calls for the development of high-quality internet-based instructional
material designed to enhance physics teaching, particularly in
developing countries. Model teacher-training workshops, drawing
on this instructional material, will be held in Africa, Asia and
Latin America. ICTP and the Institute of Physics in the UK are
among the primary groups that have been asked to spearhead this
effort. The goal is to nurture student interest in physics and
ultimately increase the number of students who choose physics
as a career path.
Under the theme of physics and economic development, the resolution/action
plan calls for the development of courses to help provide physicists,
especially those in developing countries, with a greater understanding
of the knowledge and skills that it takes to successfully commercialise
their research. The courses will focus on the challenges posed
by intellectual property rights and patenting, and will explore
the steps that must be taken to bring technology-based products
and services to market. ICTP will host the pilot course, which
will be held in Trieste in 2006. The purpose of this effort is
to help ensure that physicists can participate in the commercialisation
of their intellectual property, if they so choose, from a position
of knowledge and strength.
Under the theme of physics, energy and the environment, the resolution/action
plan calls on the physics community to expand its role as a 'bridge
of knowledge' in ways that help to balance the world's increasing
appetite for energy with its desire to protect and preserve the
environment. Physics has played---and will continue to play---a
central role in increasing the efficiency of energy production
and consumption and in charting a course for the development of
alternative energy sources. Basic physics research could also
prove essential for reducing the levels of pollution that accompany
energy use. Specifically, the plan calls for the creation of an
international physicist network devoted to renewable energy.
Under the theme of physics and health, the resolution/action plan
highlights the role of physics in clinical medicine and calls
for greater cooperation between physicists working in traditional
institutes of physics and those working in medical research centres
and hospitals. It also calls for the development of guidelines
for medical physics educational programmes, which have expanded
enormously over the past two decades. Other possible avenues of
exploration include an examination of the role that physics could
play in telemedicine, which is helping to revolutionise medical
practice in remote areas of the developing world, and the potential
impact that the emerging field of bio-nanotechnology could have,
for example, on targeted cancer therapies that may improve the
effectiveness of current regimens.
The hope is that the groups of scientists and scientific institutions
involved in the implementation and monitoring of the resolution/action
plan will approve the plan by this summer.
"The World Year of Physics 2005," says Sreenivasan,
"has proven to be an enormous success in raising the public
profile of physics and in re-energising the physics community's
efforts to reach out to the larger society. Now we must be sure
that we don't lose momentum and that we remain diligent in our
efforts to fulfil the goals we have laid out for ourselves. We
should be pleased with what we have accomplished over the past
year but not pleased enough to become complacent."
Or, as one observer noted, the end of the World Year of Physics
doesn't mean the end of physics. Indeed far from it.
For additional information on the World Year of Physics
and the Durban conference, see www.wcpsd.org.
TALKING POINTS
The World Conference on Physics and Sustainable Development also
featured plenary lectures that helped frame the major themes of
the conference. Walter Erdelen, assistant director general for
natural sciences, UNESCO, emphasised the important role that basic
physics research plays in development and expressed concern that
declining enrolments in physics in schools across the globe may
spell trouble for meeting the challenges of development in the
years ahead. Werner Burkart, deputy director general and head
of the Department of Nuclear Sciences and Applications, International
Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), underlined the critical role that
the sciences, and particularly basic nuclear science, play in
meeting such basic needs as nutrition, access to safe water, and
disease prevention. And Hans Falk Hoffman, director of technical
transfer and scientific computing, CERN, stressed how physics
both instigates and benefits from advances in rapid broad-band
access to electronic information.