The issue of academic integrity has gained considerable prominence in the last couple of decades. In this article I will attempt to summarize what I see as some key issues, cite a few authoritative articles, and communicate some impressions formed from personal experience as an academic.1 I left India for the first time to join the physics program at Stony Brook University, New York. Everything was new and exciting at this time, especially for someone coming from India, and the formative impact of these five years on me cannot be overemphasized. My first PhD guide, Daniel Z. Freedman, imparted a valuable lesson to me on the importance of honesty and transparency in research. While working on my first research project under his guidance, I came to know that a postdoctoral fellow in the same department was working on something closely related. Freedman instructed me to meet this person, tell him unconditionally what I was doing and how far I had reached, and ask him to respond similarly. This went very well and we ended up publishing independent papers using different methods but with overlapping results. I learned the virtue of transparency, though of course I was fortunate that the other party also acted responsibly. I did not give conscious thought to academic ethics in those days, and it rarely came up as a subject of discussion in my presence beyond the occasional anecdote about some specific scientist. I do not remember any case of paper retraction for misconduct, or even of copying in examinations, during my five years at Stony Brook. This continued to hold true in the initial years following my return to India in 1984 as a postdoctoral fellow and then faculty member at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR). Explore the full InterDialogue with Sunil Mukhi....

Ram Ramaswamy is an Indian physicist whose work cuts across disciplinary boundaries. A leading complex systems scientist, his research has largely centered on nonlinear dynamics, statistical physics, and computational biology. After earning his PhD from Princeton University, he returned to India, first joining the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research before spending most of his career at Jawaharlal Nehru University, where he was part of both the School of Physical Sciences and the School of Computational and Integrative Sciences until his retirement in 2018. He later served as Vice Chancellor of the University of Hyderabad and has held numerous visiting and honorary professorships. Currently, he is an honorary professor in the Department of Physical Sciences at IISER Berhampur and holds the D. D. Kosambi Chair in Interdisciplinary Studies at the University of Goa. Ramaswamy is a fellow of the World Academy of Sciences and a fellow and former president of the Indian Academy of Sciences, where he also founded the journal Dialogue: Science, Scientists and Society. Across his career, he has consistently championed academic freedom and more inclusive, equitable approaches to science education. In this wide-ranging InterDialogue, we discuss Ramaswamy’s contributions to chaos theory, self-organized criticality, and the synchronization of stochastic systems, along with his influential role in shaping nonlinear science in India. The conversation also explores the broader social responsibilities of scientists, particularly within public universities, including teaching, mentorship, and public communication. We delve into his sustained efforts to advance gender equity in Indian science, beginning with Lilavati’s Daughters, a landmark volume he co-edited featuring the voices of nearly one hundred women scientists. Other topics include improving accessibility in science education for students with disabilities and his current work on a biography of the influential Indian thinker D. D. Kosambi. The discussion opens with reflections on the importance of public...

In the context of risk management and in the face of environmental and economic challenges such as climate change, coastal erosion, water insecurity, and the accelerated loss of biodiversity, among others, the concept of Nature-based Solutions (NbS) has emerged. Over the past decade, this appealing concept has been consolidated as an integrative approach that seeks to address socio-environmental challenges through the sustainable management of socio-ecological systems.  The United Nations Environment Assembly defines NbS as “actions that protect, sustainably manage, and restore natural or modified ecosystems to effectively and adaptively address societal challenges, simultaneously providing benefits for human well-being and biodiversity.” In this way, NbS represents a paradigm shift from traditional solutions based exclusively on grey infrastructure, which are now insufficient in facing many large and complex contemporary challenges. The relevance of NbS resides in their capacity to generate multiple, synergistic benefits through ecosystem services and the strengthening of socio-ecological resilience. This approach recognizes the interdependence of nature and culture, and much of its success depends on how communities perceive and acknowledge the multiple benefits socio-ecological systems provide for human well-being. Therefore, NbS must emphasize the need for participatory, equitable, and inclusive processes to ensure their legitimacy and long-term sustainability. NbS encompass actions for the protection, restoration, and sustainable management of ecosystems. Although they offer multifunctional and cost-effective benefits, their implementation faces diverse challenges. Several international frameworks acknowledge NbS as priority strategies to confront climate change and biodiversity loss, promoting guidelines for their adoption at different scales. Among these frameworks are the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (1992), the Convention on Biological Diversity (1992), the Sendai Framework (2015–30), and the Paris Agreement (2015). However, it is not enough to only secure financing or display technical feasibility. It is also necessary to establish a coherent legal framework, generate open and...

In this InterDialogue recorded at the 17th General Conference of the World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) in October 2025, The InterPlex founder Daniel Henryk Rasolt speaks with Brazilian physicist Marcelo Knobel about his background and career trajectory, science communication, the importance of TWAS, his tenure as the Executive Director of TWAS, the current state of science in Brazil, issues of brain drain, and his own research projects, among other timely topics. In addition to serving as the current Executive Director of TWAS, Knobel is the former rector of the University of Campinas, where he fostered interdisciplinary collaborations and innovative education programs. He has also done research on what he calls “effective communication” between higher education institutions and the public, while practicing what he preaches by disseminating articles, opinion pieces, books, and a podcast intended for a non-specialized audience. He is a global leader in science communication, international and interinstitutional collaborations, and science development in the Global South. Chapters 0:00 – Introduction 2:13 – Knobel’s Background and Career Trajectory 5:37 – Scientific Censorship in Argentina under the Dictatorship 7:57 – Importance of Effective Science Communication 11:58 – Lessons from Knobel’s Science Communication Experience 14:52 – Communicating Nuance and Adaptable Communication Techniques 20:00 – Interinstitutional and Interdisciplinary Communication and Collaboration 23:45 – Fostering Interdisciplinary Collaborations at TWAS 25:54 – History, Importance, and Current Situation of TWAS 28:19 – Knobel’s Tenure as Executive Director of TWAS 30:06 – Knobel’s Vision for the Future of TWAS 31:35 – TWAS in the Global Funding Landscape 35:45 – Current Situation of Science in Brazil 37:22 – Brain Drain and the Consequences of Disinvesting in Science 39:47 – Current Situation of Science and Brain Drain in the US 41:16 – Knobel’s Current Research Projects 48:43 – Knobel’s Book and his Science Communication Efforts 50:57 – Conclusion

It turns out that pop stars Drake and The Weeknd didn’t suddenly drop a new track that went viral on TikTok and YouTube in April 2023. The photograph that won an international photography competition that same month wasn’t a real photograph. And the image of Pope Francis sporting a Balenciaga jacket that appeared in March 2023? That was also a fake. All were made with the help of generative AI, the new technology that can generate humanlike text, audio and images on demand through programs such as ChatGPT, Midjourney and Bard, among others. There’s certainly something unsettling about the ease with which people can be duped by these fakes, and I see it as a harbinger of an authenticity crisis that raises some difficult questions. How will voters know whether a video of a political candidate saying something offensive was real or generated by AI? Will people be willing to pay artists for their work when AI can create something visually stunning? Why follow certain authors when stories in their writing style will be freely circulating on the internet? I’ve been seeing the anxiety play out all around me at Stanford University, where I’m a professor and also lead a large generative AI and education initiative. With text, image, audio and video all becoming easier for anyone to produce through new generative AI tools, I believe people are going to need to reexamine and recalibrate how authenticity is judged in the first place. Fortunately, social science offers some guidance. The many faces of authenticity Long before generative AI and ChatGPT rose to the fore, people had been probing what makes something feel authentic. When a real estate agent is gushing over a property they are trying to sell you, are they being authentic or just trying to close the deal? Is that stylish acquaintance wearing authentic designer fashion...