2:14 PM - 2:37 PM
[U09-02] The role of Basic Sciences for Sustainable Development- case of mathematics
★Invited Papers
Keywords:SDGS, basic science, mathematics
Basic science provides the essential means to tackle global issues, such as climate change, pandemics, food and energy shortages, and the varied effects of digitalization on our daily lives. These issues, however, cannot be solved by the contribution of single basic science discipline only. Collaboration among experts from the basic sciences diverse fields and cooperation across a wide range of stakeholders are also crucial. The global issues we face today make each and every one of us an important stakeholder, not only basic and applied scientists, but everyone, regardless of background.
Mathematics has contributed to the development of science and technology as common language of science, and at the same time, mathematics itself has developed through external stimuli. Natural science is the study of natural phenomena through experimentation and observation. Galileo Galilei's famous statement, "The book of the universe is written in the language of mathematics," sums it up well. In particular, mathematics and space science/physics have mutually supported each other in their development. The Fields prize, Gauss prize, Chern prize, Abel prize, and Kyoto Prizes, the most prestigious international prizes in mathematics, have been often awarded for research achievements that are closely related to physics and that open up new areas of mathematics. Among the Millennium Problems, "Yang-Mills and Mass Gap" and "Existence and Regularity of Solutions to the Navier-Stokes Equation" are mathematical problems that evolved from physics problems.
The role of mathematics has been further expanded in the recent information and digitalization. The most distinctive strength of mathematics lies in its nature of abstraction, universality . By abstracting issues, mathematics serves as a common language for various fields, including life science, nanotechnology, environmental science, materials science, physics, chemistry, financial engineering, economic science, and social science, and is involved in the promotion of cross-disciplinary and interdisciplinary research and development.
The International Science Council (ISC) is a global membership organization founded in July 2018 through the merger of the International Council for Science (founded in 1931) and the International Social Science Council (founded in 1952). Its vision is to promote science as a global public good, and its mission is to be the global voice for science.
The ISC is also considering establishing a working group for science education to foster scientists who will promote inclusive science literacy and education. This includes improving understanding of scientific values, philosophy, and ethics; linking science communication with society and national policy; and interdisciplinary and cross-disciplinary skill formation. It also includes identifying the basis for specific aspects of scientific literacy that will set the means for the next generation to become more aware of different sources of information and to distinguish between reliable and unreliable sources.