It is not surprising that there is a day dedicated to light, according to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) it is a universal symbol of life, inclusion and renewal. Light is seen in opposition to darkness, which represents ignorance and intolerance.
Light contributes to our daily life; for example, the use of fiber optics for high broadband speeds, solar energy as a source of heating or for health care. Optical instruments used for analysis and imaging, as well as ultraviolet light sources used for sterilization. These technologies are also essential for sequencing genomes, such as that of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, among many other uses.
In it International Day of Light The role that light plays in science, culture and art, education and sustainable development, and in fields as diverse as medicine, communications and energy is celebrated, for which many sectors of society throughout the world participate in activities that demonstrate how science, technology, art and culture can help achieve UNESCO’s goals: laying the foundations for peaceful societies.
For this reason, the Mexican program, through Science Dissemination UNAMthe UK —Center for Mexican Studies in the United Kingdom and the University of Oxfordthey organized as main event, a talk with the professor Chris Llewellyn Smiththeoretical physicist, currently leading a Royal Society study on large-scale electricity storage, was director of energy research at the University of Oxford and chair of the SESAME (Synchrotron Light for Experimental Science and Applications in the Middle East) Council ), he was also director general of CERN (1994-1998, when the Large Hadron Collider was approved and construction began).
Science diplomacy, peace and light
Llewellyn Smith took this opportunity to talk about the importance of science diplomacy, but also about its limitations. During his talk entitled “Science, diplomacy, peace and light”, he explained that the term has been used for 25 years to describe everything that has to do with science, scientists and international relations, politics and diplomacy.
Actually there are many definitions and uses for this term, but the professor delved into the term. He assures that the recommendations that come from science support the objectives of the policies in two ways, one by underpinning the objectives of international politics and the other by helping to face global technical challenges, such as climate change, for example. “This facilitates international cooperation and helps scientists work together to ultimately build bridges and collaboration between different people.”
Problems with a global impact (climate change, global health, food or energy security) need a global approach. In this sense, he said that science is important because it identifies the problems, makes an approximation, investigates, measures and predicts the impacts, in addition to identifying the solutions. “Many of these problems are complex and have great challenges, many times the solutions are expensive and not always clear, that is what science is for, to look for options.”
Dr. Llewellyn Smith explains that big problems involve many players; scientists, governments, industry, NGOs, philanthropists and international agencies. Scientists can then attract the attention of the most relevant players and work with them, combining perspectives of all kinds.
The specialist gave some examples in which science has provided cost-effective solutions, for example, in the fight against smallpox that was discovered in 1798 and that the way to combat it came thanks to large-scale immunization led by the World Health Organizationlater in 1979 its eradication was confirmed thanks to a cost-effective solution given by science.
Another example is the fortuitous discovery of the Hole in the Ozone Layer in 1970 and which years later (1987) came to generate the Montreal Protocol for the protection of the ozone layer, designed to reduce the production and consumption of numerous substances. that have been studied to react with it and are believed to be responsible for its depletion.
“The science is clear, it makes the threats understandable, with simple and relatively cheap solutions, such as vaccines, it does not look for winners and losers either, however, this is not enough to ensure success”, for example, the alerts in 2004 about a Tsunami in Aceh Sumatra, were ignored, which caused the loss of life of 225,000 people.
The researcher is convinced that scientific diplomacy is essential to facilitate international collaboration, avoid visa restrictions and enable exchange, in addition to establishing large international projects and scientific infrastructure, as is the case of the CERN and the sesameprojects that he has been a part of, but he also recognizes through his experience that there are valuable lessons to be learned.
For example, trust between scientists, politicians and diplomats takes time to build; that the construction of large projects has a strong political component to find the ideal venue, that working with the United States specifically on projects of this nature entails special challenges and that contributions in kind have advantages, for example for purchases, and disadvantages, for split contracts.
Finally, he explains that scientists who get involved in projects with a political and belief component (for example, cloning, DNA testing, security), often like to think that they can be totally objective, since they use their technical experience as a flag, without However, this is somewhat difficult to achieve. “Scientific judgment is not always objective as claimed”, and we must be aware of this.
Dr. Ana María Cetto Kramis, a Mexican scientist specializing in quantum mechanical theoretical physics, stochastic electrodynamics and biophysics of light, also participated in this talk. She coordinated the project for the Museum of Light (UNAM) and directs many of the activities around to the international day of light.
The talk can be heard in full in English through: https://www.facebook.com/