Increasing “fake news” and declining trust in science are challenging academia, US National Academy of Sciences foreign secretary John Hildebrand told a gathering at Academia Sinica in Taipei yesterday, where he called on researchers to avoid bias and political actions.
Twenty academics from 15 countries attended the International Scientific Leaders’ Forum held by Taiwan’s highest academic research institution as part of its 90th anniversary celebrations on its campus in Taipei’s Nangang District (南港).
In his keynote speech, titled The Origins and Roles of Academies, Hildebrand said that contemporary populist movements see science as part of an elite order, which leads to politicization of science, decline of trust in scientists, and the spread of fake news and “alternative facts.”
Photo: Huang Yao-cheng, Taipei Times
To address these challenges, researchers should step up interaction with the public and improve general science literacy, while avoiding overt political actions and biased speeches, he said.
Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology president Peter Gruss, a researcher in gene regulation and embryonic development, gave a speech titled Can We Survive Without Science?
He said that more technological innovations are needed, as the world would be facing great transitions over the next three decades.
For example, artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted diagnostics and precision medicine could trigger a shift from therapy to prediction and prevention of diseases, he said.
Taiwan has a unique opportunity to boost its healthcare system by developing AI technologies, especially as National Health Insurance Administration data provide researchers with a wealth of information, Gruss said, adding that his institute is keen to collaborate with Taiwan.
Taiwan devotes less public funding to its basic research than South Korea, Singapore and Malaysia, Gruss said, adding that the government should allocate more funding to basic research to create momentum for technological progress.
Academia Sinica President James Liao (廖俊智) said that researchers should move forward with ambition, responsibility and wisdom, and become leaders in their research domains.
Identifying major problems facing the world, Liao said researchers should propose new solutions to control climate change, use energy and fix carbon without affecting the environment, and achieve healthy longevity in aging societies.
Areas such as AI, memory and consciousness, psychological stress alleviation, connection between past and present, and prediction of events are also worth exploring, Liao said.
Also speaking at the forum, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said that the government would continue to support basic research.
She said she hoped that the National Biotech Research Park inaugurated in Nangang last month would attract innovators from around the world.
The military has spotted two Chinese warships operating in waters near Penghu County in the Taiwan Strait and sent its own naval and air forces to monitor the vessels, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. Beijing sends warships and warplanes into the waters and skies around Taiwan on an almost daily basis, drawing condemnation from Taipei. While the ministry offers daily updates on the locations of Chinese military aircraft, it only rarely gives details of where Chinese warships are operating, generally only when it detects aircraft carriers, as happened last week. A Chinese destroyer and a frigate entered waters to the southwest
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
Instead of focusing solely on the threat of a full-scale military invasion, the US and its allies must prepare for a potential Chinese “quarantine” of Taiwan enforced through customs inspections, Stanford University Hoover fellow Eyck Freymann said in a Foreign Affairs article published on Wednesday. China could use various “gray zone” tactics in “reconfiguring the regional and ultimately the global economic order without a war,” said Freymann, who is also a nonresident research fellow at the US Naval War College. China might seize control of Taiwan’s links to the outside world by requiring all flights and ships entering or leaving Taiwan
The next minimum wage hike is expected to exceed NT$30,000, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday during an award ceremony honoring “model workers,” including migrant workers, at the Presidential Office ahead of Workers’ Day today. Lai said he wished to thank the awardees on behalf of the nation and extend his most sincere respect for their hard work, on which Taiwan’s prosperity has been built. Lai specifically thanked 10 migrant workers selected for the award, saying that although they left their home countries to further their own goals, their efforts have benefited Taiwan as well. The nation’s industrial sector and small businesses lay
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