The elite of human minds shed light on breakthrough scientific discoveries that place science on unprecedented heights

Dubai, 1st February, WAM / The “Scientific Discovery Forum”, within the activities of the World Summit of Scientists, which was launched today in conjunction with the World Summit of Governments, stressed the importance of consolidating scientific curiosity, encouraging young researchers to take intellectual risks, and providing research environments and institutions that fund unconventional ideas.

Scientists participating in the forum said that the greatest discoveries often come from pursuing scientific passion, and that mapping the unknown requires daring to ask questions before knowing the answers.

Professor Rajesh Gopkumar, Director of the International Center for Theoretical Sciences, said in his opening speech that questions are the basic driver of science, even weak questions, and perhaps especially weak ones. He pointed out that the process of scientific discovery is a path with uncertain results. You may set out to answer a question, only to find yourself in the end facing a completely different result, which constitutes the essence of the scientific motivation of researchers and scientists.

Gopkumar added, “If we are about to chart the unknown, quantum mechanics will be our guide and beacon in the physical sciences.”

For his part, Professor Michael Kotzlitz, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics for the year 2016, and professor of physics at Brown University, spoke about a study he recently conducted entitled “Phase transitions and dimensional transition in solids confined by layers,” the idea of ​​which is based on studying a system consisting of two-dimensional layers sandwiched between flat plates, with the possibility of controlling the distance between these plates.

He explained that when the distance is small, a single layer of atoms is formed, and when the spacing increases, two or three layers are formed, which allows studying the resulting structures and properties. In a single layer, we know that the structure at low temperatures is in the form of a “triangular network,” and as the temperature is raised, it turns into a liquid. The first liquid phase we get is the hexatic phase, which maintains a kind of directional system, but the question is: What happens when the distance is increased and more than one layer is obtained?

Costzlitz pointed out that in a single layer, we notice that the transitional system vanishes because there is no long-range system in two dimensions, but in the case of multilayers, the melting transition (from solid to liquid) turns into a first-order transition where we notice the presence of the phenomenon of hysteresis or divergence between the heating and cooling curves, which is a physical property in which the current state of the system depends on its previous history.

He said that these results, although purely numerical, contribute to deepening our understanding of fusion mechanisms, an issue that has puzzled physicists for many decades.

For his part, Professor Dan Shechtman said that most of his research focused on developing metal alloys for space and aviation applications, specifically titanium, aluminum and magnesium alloys, stressing that these alloys represent breakthrough materials that defy ancient engineering laws.

Shechtman added that developing the correct formula may take two years, but developing the technology necessary to produce these alloys and put them in a jet engine takes twenty years. Technology is not an easy matter. He said: “My primary research tool was the transmission electron microscope, which is a very powerful tool in crystallography.”

He pointed out that, through his work, he discovered quasi-periodic compounds, which earned him several awards. He explained that in the past, it was believed that crystals should be periodic (like tiles on the ground but in three dimensions), and from 1912 until 1982, the definition of a crystal was a solid substance whose atoms are arranged periodically without exception, but in 1982, an alloy of aluminum and manganese was found that is characterized by a clear atomic arrangement, but It is non-periodic, and has symmetries (such as pentagonal symmetry) that were considered mathematically (forbidden) in periodic systems. This was the discovery.

While Dr. Yi Fang Wang, winner of the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics for the year 2016, and Director of the Institute of High Energy Physics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, spoke about what are known as “neutrinos”, nicknamed ghost particles, and said that these particles surround us from every side, starting from the Big Bang and the sun all the way to our bodies, as every person in this hall emits about 340 million neutrinos daily.

Regarding the mass dilemma, Wang pointed out that there is a conflict between the standard model of particle physics, which assumes that the mass of the neutrino is zero, and the cosmological model, which emphasizes the necessity of its having mass, noting that without this mass there would be no galaxies or stars.

Wang reviewed the success of the Daya Bay experiment, which is considered one of the most important experiments in particle physics in the twenty-first century. It is an international research project (led by China and the United States) designed specifically to study mysterious particles called neutrinos.

Professor William D. Phillips, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics for the year 1997, and a distinguished professor of physics at the University of Maryland, spoke about his vision for the “quantum” future, as he recalled the first revolution that was based on the “wave-particle” duality, which led to the invention of the “transistor” in 1947, which is the basis on which computers, smartphones, and all the technology of the current era were built.

Phillips added that the second quantum revolution, which we are witnessing today, depends on more exotic concepts such as “superposition” and “entanglement,” and most importantly, the ability to control individual quantum objects.

Phillips warned against the marketing exaggerations surrounding quantum computing, but at the same time stressed that “the potential is beyond imagination,” noting that the founders of quantum mechanics in 1925 never imagined the invention of the transistor, and today we may not imagine the wonders that will result from this second revolution.

In a dialogue session, within the activities of the forum, Professor Gopkumar pointed out that quantum mechanics still presents amazing and surprising aspects that science has only just begun to reveal.

One of the key aspects here is topology, which has been employed to understand phenomena that traditional quantum physics alone cannot explain, said Dr. Julien Barriere, winner of the American Physics Society’s 2022 Distinguished Student Award and a research associate at the Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology.

He added: “Today we are developing new measuring tools for these materials, and we combine lasers with traditional electrical transmission techniques, which allows us to access properties such as curvature, topological connectivity, quantum geometry, and quantum scale, which are properties that could not be measured before. This opens a wide door into the unknown, and controlling these properties may lead to promising future applications.”

For his part, Dr. Dennis Bandorin, MIT Technology Review honoree for the “Innovators Under 35” Award, and Assistant Professor at the National University of Singapore, spoke about the applied aspect of the quantum revolution and said that quantum light sensors are today at the heart of quantum technological development.

He explained that, for example, very weak light signals can be detected from very long distances, and quantum-secure information that cannot be hacked can be transmitted.

While Professor Spinta R. Wadia, founding director of the International Center for Theoretical Sciences, addressed the greatest challenge in modern physics, which is reconciling general relativity and quantum mechanics.

Wadia explained that the two pillars of physics in the twentieth century are quantum mechanics and general relativity, the first of which brought about a technological revolution, while the second represents the framework for understanding the universe on a large scale, from black holes to the evolution of the universe.

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