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....

Sunil Mukhi is an Indian theoretical physicist at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) in Pune, Maharashtra. Mukhi has led a distinguished career in theoretical particle physics. He received his PhD from Stony Brook University before joining the prestigious Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Mumbai, where he worked for 27 years. In 2012, he joined IISER Pune as chair of the physics department, where he is now an honorary emeritus professor and the Raja Ramanna Chair. Throughout the years, Mukhi has held sabbatical positions at CERN in Geneva, the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton University, and Trinity College at the University of Cambridge. He is a fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences, the Indian National Science Academy, and the World Academy of Sciences. In 1999, he received the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize, one of India’s highest science awards, for his contributions to theoretical physics. In this InterDialogue, we begin by speaking about Mukhi’s advisory work on academic ethics, the structural incentives for academic misconduct, his concerns about AI use in academia and the difficulties of curtailing it, and India’s international scientific standing. We then speak about Mukhi’s research and contributions to theoretical physics, especially in the field of string theory. Mukhi also discusses his personal background, his career trajectory, and his reasons for returning to India after studying in the United States. We conclude by addressing the importance of science outreach, inclusivity in science, responsible behavior in scientific and public discourse, and the importance of extracurricular interests to maintaining a healthy work-life balance. Timestamps 00:00 – Introduction 2:27 – Importance of academic ethics 5:59 – Consequences of academic misconduct 8:24 – Structural incentives for academic misconduct 11:23 – Legal challenges in academic ethics 13:14 – AI and academic ethics 16:46 – Addressing AI use...

Luiz Davidovich is a Brazilian theoretical physicist with vast experience working at the science-policy interface. This was our second recorded Interdialogue, and this time we met at his lovely FINAP office in Rio de Janeiro, again speaking in depth about the importance of investing in science in both the developing and developed world.  In our wide-ranging conversation, we also ventured into foundational questions about the quantum world and the nature of reality, with a focus on his personal research in quantum metrology. Furthermore, we spoke about some timely recent projects with FINEP focused on bioeconomics, sustainable development and the conservation of the Amazon rainforest. Davidovich is the former president of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences, as well as the former secretary general of The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS). He is the recent recipient of the prestigious TWAS Apex award for his work in quantum optics and quantum information, and for promoting fundamental scientific research, globally.  Chapters 0:00:00 – Introduction 00:02:02 – The improving state of scientific investment in Brazil 00:12:20 – Current roles and projects for fostering scientific research 00:17:31 – The Amazon and bioeconomics 00:28:28 – The importance of intercultural collaboration, mutual respect and knowledge sharing between scientists and Indigenous peoples 00:41:47 – The importance of funding science, technology and innovation in Brazil 00:47:08 – Interrelated theoretical and experimental research into quantum systems interacting with the environment 00:57:03 – What is quantum metrology? 01:02:12 – The fun of doing scientific research and the social responsibility of fostering science 01:04:19 – Quantum computing, artificial intelligence and energy 01:13:58 – General AI, quantum entanglement and consciousness 01:19:03 – The dangers of anti-science, pseudoscience, misinformation and inequality, and the importance of effective scientific communication and engaging early science education

Jorge Pullin is an Argentine-American theoretical and experimental physicist. He is a professor at Louisiana State University and a member of the LIGO team. In this Interdialogue I spoke to Pullin about his pioneering role in the development of Loop Quantum Gravity and about foundational questions related to the nature of time and space. We also spoke about his more recent focus on Gravitational Wave and Multi-Messenger Astronomy, of which he wrote a book called “Sounds of the Cosmos.” We explored background independence and the discrete nature of space and time in LQG, and the emergence of spacetime from spin foam. We also spoke about the Montevideo interpretation of quantum mechanics that he developed with his longtime collaborator Rodolofo Gambini, the black hole information paradox, and much more.  The conversation then shifts towards the exciting gravitational wave observations made by LIGO of neutron star and black hole collisions, and how this has opened up a new era of multi-messenger astronomy, where electromagnetic, neutrino, cosmic ray and gravitational wave observatories can all work together to study objects and events in the Cosmos. We finish by speaking about how this new era of astronomy and experimental astrophysics will help to solve fundamental questions in cosmology, such as the Hubble Tension. Chapters 00:00 :00 Introduction 00:05:25 – The nature of time, the measurement problem, fundamental decoherence and the Montevideo interpretation of quantum mechanics 00:13:03 – The black hole information paradox, spherical symmetry, singularities, Planck stars and other research on Loop Quantum Gravity 00:22:05 – Loop Quantum Gravity vs. String Theory 00:28:20 – Discrete vs. continuous nature of spacetime, and the intersection between foundational LQG and Complex Systems Science 00:30:49 – Details of Loop Quantum Gravity: intersecting loops, spin networks, spin foam, and the emergence and nature of spacetime 00:38:59 – Loop Quantum Cosmology,...

Over the short span of just 300 years, since the invention of modern physics, we have gained a deeper understanding of how our universe works on both small and large scales. Yet, physics is still very young and when it comes to using it to explain life, physicists struggle. Even today, we can’t really explain what the difference is between a living lump of matter and a dead one. But my colleagues and I are creating a new physics of life that might soon provide answers. More than 150 years ago, Darwin poignantly noted the dichotomy between what we understand in physics and what we observe in life – noting at the end of The Origin of Species “…whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been and are being evolved”. The importance of time Isaac Newton described a universe where the laws never change, and time is an immutable and absolute backdrop against which everything moves. Darwin, however, observed a universe where endless forms are generated, each changing features of what came before, suggesting that time should not only have a direction, but that it in some ways folds back on itself. New evolutionary forms can only arise via selection on the past. Presumably these two areas of science are describing the same universe, but how can two such diametrically opposite views be unified? The key to understanding why life is not explainable in current physics may be to reconsider our notions of time as the key difference between the universe as described by Newton and that of Darwin. Time has, in fact, been reinvented many times through the history of physics. Although Newton’s time was fixed and absolute, Einstein’s time became a dimension...