The 2012 Nobel Prize in Physics Serge Haroche calls for countries to contribute more funding to basic research, because, he warns, “there is no economic progress without science” and many of today’s challenges can find their solution in science.
Haroche, who has been part of the jury of this year’s King James I Awards, also warns in an interview with the EFE Agency that you can miss “a generation of young scientists” if positions are not created and an “adequate environment” for their work , and then it will be “difficult” to go back to the previous levels.
As the French physicist points out, in science we can find answers to challenges such as climate change, the need for clean energy and new drugs to fight new types of epidemics, or the search for new formulas of progress of climate agriculture to feed a growing global population.
As an example, Haroche points out that if you want clean vehicles you need batteries that hold up long enough, something that can be achieved with basic science, or if you seek clean energy a formula is nuclear energy, which does not produce CO2 or emit greenhouse gases greenhouses, provided that a way is found to “neutralize radioactive materials”.
It ensures that countries do not devote enough funding to basic science and “know it”, as in 2000 EU countries signed in Lisbon a treaty committing to allocate 3% of GDP to research and development , “and most have not reached that level.”
“Very often, governments contribute less than 1% to basic and applied science and companies less than 2%, so both sides have to increase their contributions,” Says Haroche.
He also stresses that not all countries in Europe have riches such as gas, oil or minerals, and argues: “The only wealth we cherete is the minds of our people,” so funding education and science must be understood as a “future investment” that needs to be thought of in the long term.
“I’m sure there are a lot of young people who would be interested in science, if they had the feeling that a future awaits them,” says Haroche, who points out that, “if the system deceives them or they see that there is no possibility for them, they will dedicate themselves to others camps” where there is work for them.
This French physicist, whose discoveries have laid the foundations for current photonic research, admits that the most publicized application has been quantum computing, although he claims that it is also “the most utopian”, as it is to be solved “numerous difficulties” before it is “just as we dreamed it.”
According to the fact that a super-fast computer based on quantum physics can be a reality within “50 years, or never,” although it points out that, as photonic stalls progress escants, they are finding “many surprises and unexpected things” that can be discovered translate into applications that right now unknown what they will be.
Regarding the consequences of Brexit in the conduct of the investigation, he admits that his British colleagues are “very concerned,” as the UK has so far earmarked “substantial funds” to the European Research Council, and it would be desirable for it to reached some agreement so that he could continue to contribute.
“It is a hope that we have, but whatever it is going to have negative effects,” says Haroche, who highlights its effects on student mobility, because “if they are not clear” that they can be approved, for example a postgraduate degree in the United Kingdom, “maybe they will decide study elsewhere.”
Source: https://www.efe.com/efe/comunitat-valenciana/sociedad/el-premio-nobel-serge-haroche-alerta-no-hay-progreso-economico-sin-ciencia/50000880-3993228
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