TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The 6th ASEAN Bridges event series; dialogues towards peace, facilitated a Nobel Laureate Lecture featuring Professor Sheldon L. Glashow. The keynote speech was presented at BINUS University at its Anggrek Campus in Kebon Jeruk on February 8, 2017.

Professor Sheldon L. Glashow along with Steven Weinberg and Abdus Salam won the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize in the category of physics for his joint contribution on formulating the electroweak theory, which explains the unity of electromagnetism and the weak force.

Professor Glashow's laureate lecture was on ‘How Basic Science Drives Technological Progress’ however within the open forum, questions on Nuclear physics, global warming and Indonesia’s scientific capacity were discussed.

In the open forum, Glashow stressed the importance of Nuclear physics.

"Is nuclear energy important? Yes. Nuclear energy is paramount to the survival of human civilization on earth," Glashow said.

Glashow added that countries burn fossil fuels and are destroying forests, leading to increased emissions of carbon dioxide through various different methods.

"The temperature of Europe as a consequence has increased by about 1 Celsius degrees, I say 1.5 Celsius degrees. If it increases another half Celsius degree we're bound to have serious problems. Flooding, disease, starvation [...]," Glashow added.

The professor made clear that if large countries that contribute to the world pollution through the burning of fossil fuels things will only deteriorate.

"This will continue to get worse and worse if we keep burning carbon dioxide. The clear solution in part is the development and expansion of nuclear energy," Glashow said.

The professor also expressed his thoughts about Indonesia's scientific future and whether or not Indonesia should invest more in science and the advancements of scientific ventures.

"There are some countries that accept the fruits of science but do not contribute, there are other countries that produce the fruits of science and export them to the world. And the question for your country is what kind of country do you want to be? A giver or a taker?" Glashow said.

GEMALA DARMADI (INTERN)