Investment in science is a pillar for any dynamic, equitable modern society, and promoting scientific literacy across all levels of society can help foster innovation, dialogue, and consensus that crosses disciplinary and cultural boundaries. Science also helps to uncover answers to foundational questions that have captivated, confounded, and divided our species for millennia. But what is “science,” and what kind of “evidence” ensures that an approach is scientific? If we take “science” to broadly mean, in its purest sense, a “dynamic search for the truth,” or more explicitly, “the pursuit and application of knowledge and understanding of the natural and social world following a systematic methodology based on evidence,” as the Science Council aptly defines it, then science extends beyond the established, highly specialized disciplines of reductionist natural sciences (physics, chemistry, biology, geoscience, and space science) that have been so successful in fostering our understanding of our planet and the cosmos. Under this definition, science also includes the rigorous data-driven (qualitative and quantitative) social sciences, the inherently non-reductionist “holistic” sciences such as ecological and Earth system sciences, and the budding interdisciplinary field of complex systems science, as well as robust traditional knowledge systems based on multi-generational experiences, observations, and reasoning. As with science, “evidence” can mean a lot of things as well, including primary research, pre-existing data, past and planned experiments, and the referencing of peer-reviewed publications and primary sources. It can also include local and traditional knowledge, thought experiments, theoretical proofs, contemplation, verifiable personal experience, and empirical observation. Broadening and weaving together these forms of scientific evidence holds the potential to address complex, interconnected global challenges and explain deep mysteries that could help unify our polarized societies around foundational understandings. Foundational Questions Foundational questions can transcend the divides of generations and cultures: Cosmology, physics, and evolutionary biology have shed...

Earth Observation technologies are becoming increasingly valuable for understanding our changing world. They are also critical for formulating policies to protect ecosystems and support local communities. The availability of imagery taken from satellites, airplanes, and drones offers opportunities to detect deforestation, glacier melting, crop productivity, hurricane alerts, ocean temperatures, and much more. These applications have become wide-spread and are commonly featured in the news and on social media; an informed public can now be acutely aware of the significant effects that humans have on the landscape. However, other processes of land use change are too complex to be detected and understood solely from space. For example, detecting rich minerals, tracking illicit land activities (e.g., coca farming), and monitoring water salinity. For these and other complex land changes, the imagery itself might not be enough to understand the processes shaping these changes in the landscape. New ways of addressing these are needed. About 26 years ago, Jacqueline Geoghegan and her co authors wrote a chapter in the book People and Pixels: Linking Remote Sensing and Social Science, titled “Socializing the Pixel and Pixelizing the Social in Land-Use and Land-Cover Change.” This chapter was a pioneering step forward in extracting more information from images and linking them with the social processes behind them. It helped me during my PhD studies and subsequent research to develop a strategy for connecting quantitative data from pixels with social mechanisms that impact land change. But how do these two approaches work together? The full Interdialogue with Paulo Murillo. The role of classification in traditional land use science relies on how effectively we can classify elements on the land surface. Classification is the most relevant task in remote sensing. We want to classify or differentiate between forests and agricultural fields or among diverse types of crops using...

Ingo Allekotte is an Argentinian physicist who is currently the Project Manager of the Pierre Auger Cosmic Ray Observatory, the world’s largest cosmic ray observatory at approximately 3,000 square kilometers in area. He is also an Associate Professor at the Balseiro Institute in Bariloche, within beautiful Patagonia, and a researcher at the National Atomic Energy Commision of Argentina (CNEA). In our Interdialogue, we spoke about Cosmic Rays – what they are, the fascinating decades-long history of their detections, the risks that they pose for space travel, and the intersection between cosmic ray astrophysics, particle physics and even cosmology.  We then spoke more specifically about the Pierre Auger Cosmic Ray Observatory and how this interdisciplinary “Big Science” project in Argentina, which incorporates hundreds of scientists from 17 different countries, came to be. Ingo explained some of the exciting discoveries made so far of Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECRs), and how they have conclusively demonstrated extragalactic origins. We also spoke about future exciting research objectives, parallel lines of research and Multi-Messenger astronomy. We concluded our conversation by focusing on science advocacy and the wide-ranging social value of large scientific collaborations like Pierre Auger, while also touching on the importance of maintaining balance and perspective in life by frequently connecting with nature, family and friends. Chapters 00:00:00 Introduction 00:09:19 – The intersection of cosmic ray astrophysics, particle physics and cosmology 00:19:57 – The importance of Earth’s atmosphere in shielding us from cosmic rays: subatomic particle showers, the evolution of life and the risks of space travel 00:26:24 – Observing “low energy” cosmic rays from the sun to ultra-high energy cosmic rays from extragalactic sources 00:34:18 – The Pierre Auger Observatory: history, design, collaborative structure and objectives 00:49:51 – Personal involvement with Pierre Auger and research interests in physics 00:57:09 – Beyond our...

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,...