Basic sciences:
The heart of sustainable development

Hundreds of developing world scientists gathered at TWAS 16th General Conference 

Hundreds of scientists — including TWAS Fellows, TWAS Young Affiliates and Alumni, ministers of science and technology, and dignitaries from all over the world — met online on 21 November 2022 for the inaugural day of the TWAS 16th General Conference.

TWAS General Conferences are showcases for scientific excellence in the developing world, and highlight the importance of scientific research to human prosperity. The theme of the 16th General Conference was 'Basic sciences for evidence-based decision-making and sustainable development in the global South', complimenting the momentum created by the International Year of Basic Sciences for Sustainable Development, a key moment for global mobilization on a priority of great importance to TWAS.

The event normally brings its attendees together physically to the host country. But for the second time, the Academy’s capstone event was held almost entirely online to account for the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, making it safer and simpler for many participants across the globe to take part in the event simultaneously across the world.

Hangzhou Declaration of TWAS 16th General Conference

In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the 16th General Conference of TWAS took place from 21 to 24 November 2022 online. The General Conference was hosted by Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China, in collaboration with the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and the China Association for Science and Technology (CAST).
 
The conference theme was basic sciences for evidence-based decision-making and sustainable development in the global South, since the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed 2022 the International Year of Basic Sciences for Sustainable Development.
 
The Hangzhou Declaration stresses the vital role of basic sciences to attaining sustainable development goals and promoting the well-being of humanity, and calling for more emphasis and investments on basic sciences in development countries. It aims at broadening open access, furthering knowledge-sharing, promoting interdisciplinarity, attracting and sustaining young researchers of science- and technology-lagging countries, and creating a global scientific scenario that is open and inclusive.

The science of balancing nature and civilization

The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set ambitious targets for all the world’s nations to strive for, so that humankind might hope to prosper, sustainably, and equitably. But how do nations meet them while also respecting the delicate balance between human civilization and the resource-providing bounty of nature?
 
This is a question addressed by this year’s winner of the TWAS-Lenovo Science Award, geographer and sustainable development researcher Fu Bojie. He is currently a professor in geography and landscape ecology at the Research Centre for Eco-Environmental Sciences of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and his work focuses on finding evidence-based strategies to make sure civilization and nature can co-exist, and thus flourish together.
 
Modern human civilization has led to a rapid expansion of land used for agriculture. That, combined with climate change, has led to the degradation of the world’s natural resources. Some of Fu’s most significant work has directly helped China’s expansive Loess Plateau restore its green, wild regions while allowing people living in the area to take advantage of their natural resources in a sustainable way.

Discover nature’s powerful clocks

There is much that we can learn from the mind of a simple fruit fly, and research on the tiny creatures has already facilitated progress in our understanding of the biological, internal clocks that govern so much of our lives, said Michael Rosbash, a keynote speaker at the TWAS 16th General Conference on 21 November 2022.

Michael Rosbash is a neuroscientist and chronobiologist at Brandeis University in the United States, and in 2017 was among the winners of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discoveries of molecular mechanisms that control circadian rhythms. Circadian rhythms are the ways that biological organisms align their lives with 24-hour cycles from day to night, governing important processes such as sleep.

The word "circadian" is derived from Latin - it is a combination of two Latin words: "circa" and "dies", and means "around a day.” The rotation of the Earth is such a powerful environmental force that circadian rhythms have risen independently in evolution multiple times, in bacteria, in plants, and again in animals. This is because of the evolutionary advantage it provides, or, as Rosbash put it: “The early bird gets the worm, and the early worm also avoids getting eaten by the bird.” These biological clocks also help govern the internal coherency of a creature’s body, keeping processes separate that can’t happen simultaneously.

Small planet, big challenges and big lessons

Science and computing can help humanity achieve a sustainable future. This is the key message Solomon Assefa delivered on 21 November 2022, as a keynote speaker at the TWAS 16th General Conference.

Assefa is vice-president of IBM Research, and a researcher operating at the nexus of technology, climate change and sustainable development, "who has brought excellence to technology and innovation,” said the session chair, TWAS Fellow Winston Soboyejo.

At the end of 2021, Assefa recalled, NASA launched the James Webb Space Telescope into space. This orbiting infrared observatory will complement and expand the discoveries of the Hubble Space Telescope, with longer wavelength coverage and greatly improved sensitivity. “The longer wavelengths enable Webb to look much closer to the beginning of time and to hunt for the unobserved formation of the first galaxies, as well as to look inside dust clouds where stars and planetary systems are forming today,” as explained on the relevant NASA web page.

Ministers join TWAS to advocate for basic science

Basic sciences are the beating heart of the search for knowledge: without it, many of the key discoveries that paved the way for applied research and transformative technologies may never have happened. And with the numerous, global challenges facing the world today, basic research is more vital than ever.

This was the message conveyed by distinguished speakers at the traditional ministerial session at the TWAS 16th General Conference on 22 November 2022. Messages delivered by dignitaries from Brazil, Senegal, Malaysia, Angola, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, and Italy all united to support the fundamental practice of curiosity-driven science as a key means to enable sustainable development worldwide.

Basic sciences has long been a central focus for TWAS, which aims to strengthen science capacity across all disciplines in the developing world. Indeed, basic sciences in support of informed and sustainable development in the global South was the central theme of the Conference. UNESCO, which TWAS is a programme unit of, had even declared 2022 the International Year of Basic Sciences for Sustainable Development, with celebrations running from July 2022 to July 2023.

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