On April 10th, Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU) and Science published 125 scientific questions of greatest concern in the world, including “Could we live in a fossil-fuel-free world?”, “Where does consciousness lie?”, “Why does time flow in a single direction?”, etc.
These questions crystallize global wisdom. In collaboration with Science under the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), SJTU published the supplementary issue “125 Questions in Scientific Exploration and Discovery”, a fitting number for SJTU's 125th anniversary.
SJTU President Lin Zhongqin, Executive Vice President Ding Kuiling, Vice Presidents Xu Xuemin, Xi Lifeng, Mao Junfa, and Wang Weiming, as well as Chu Xiaoying, Science/AAAS Director of Global Collaboration and Partner Publishing and Michael Levitt, Vice Chairman of the World Laureates Association and the winner of the 2013 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, came together to press the launching button for the global release of the 125 scientific questions.
Lin Zhongqin stressed that the summary of major scientific questions reflects the mission and capacity of a university to make breakthroughs. 125 scientific questions gathered from across the world and published by SJTU and Science embody our efforts to facilitate scientific and technological advances and social development.
Through a video clip, Bill Moran, a publisher of Science, looked back on the special issue “125 Big Questions: What Don’t We Know”, published in Science in 2005 to celebrate the journal's 125th anniversary. Some of the questions have been answered over the last decade or so, but some others remain unsolved and still hot ones in this latest journal collection.
Chu Xiaoying pointed out that raising the right questions helps us assess and resolve global challenges, as the profundity of questions defines the boundary of our thoughts. SJTU's thought-provoking way of celebrating its 125th anniversary demonstrates the innovative spirit of SJTU people and their sense of responsibility for the development of science and the future of mankind, said Chu. Those scientific questions are forward-looking ones that focus on the well-being of mankind. They have been proposed based on international updates, global imperatives and scientific advancement to steer the path of scientific and technological development, said Chu.
In his speech, Michael Levitt expressed that he is expecting brainstorming and in-depth exploration over the questions which will thus promote research.
The event also witnessed the publication of the “Feature of Scientific Questions in Commemoration of the 125th Anniversary of SJTU” by the Journal of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, an issue supplementary to “125 Questions: Exploration and Discovery”. This is a special edition that includes a collection of reviews on the latest basic research in multiple fields, encourages academic discussions over emerging disciplines and interdisciplinary studies. After the call for the global collection of scientific questions was issued last year, we have received responses from scientists, young scholars, and several academic organizations, such as the World Laureates Association. The questions reflect the collective wisdom of the whole academic world, including the editors of Science/AAAS, world-renowned scientists and young scholars that have been awarded the Nobel Prize, the Wolf Prize, the Lasker Awards, the Turing Award, and the MacArthur Fellows Program, as well as SJTU faculty members and students. The questions span a wide range of academic disciplines: mathematics, chemistry, medical health, life science, astronomy, physics, information science, material science, neuroscience, ecology, energy science, and artificial intelligence.
In the new edition of the 125 questions, some of which are unanswered questions from the last edition, such as “What is the universe made of?” and “Can we stop ourselves from aging?”, while some are challenging ones to all humanity, such as “Can we stop global climate change?”, “What is the future for energy storage?”, and “Is it possible to live permanently on another planet?” There are still others that represent the latest scientific and technological advancement, such as “Why does life require chirality?”, “Can quantum artificial intelligence imitate the human brain?”, “Can DNA act as an information storage medium?”, and “How can we develop manufacturing systems on Mars?” and so on.
Please learn more at https://www.science.org/content/resource/125-questions-exploration-and-discovery