The physics of particles and the study of their interactions is not only enabling advances in our understanding of the universe, but it is also making important contributions to applications in medical diagnostics and treatment, and even in the “X-ray” analysis of large structures, such as engineering works, mountains and volcanoes. It is also helping to protect glaciers. In an interview with the Aspen Italia website team, Antonio Ereditato, Director of both the Laboratory for High Energy Physics and the Albert Einstein Center for Fundamental Physics at the University of Bern, discusses applications made possible by recent studies of particles, whilst clarifying that such results can only be achieved by ensuring the freedom and autonomy of basic research. In short, there can be no social application of basic research and innovation without the momentum created by curiosity-driven studies.
How important is basic research in the field of physics? In all disciplines, not just physics, it is extremely important that scientists engage in basic research. A scientist is someone who is dedicated to making discoveries driven principally by curiosity, with a bottom-up approach unconstrained by interference. This is the only way to produce real innovation; the rest – without wishing to diminish the significance of this transfer process – is all about applying basic research. To understand the importance of such research, let’s think about the impact that the applied study of candles could have. It would probably lead to the creation of better and longer lasting candles. But only someone who can afford to play around with glass bulbs and incandescent filaments, and hence pursue their curiosity, will come up with a groundbreaking innovation such as the creation of the light bulb. That said, though, I think it is useful for us scientists and for society to reach a compromise: often the application of scientific discoveries has come after a lag of decades. Today, our commitment must be to speed this process up.
What new applications could research in neutrino physics bring? Neutrino physics is a typical example of an activity aimed at understanding nature, with resulting impacts in terms of applications that are difficult to quantify and predict in the short term. However, particle physics as a whole has always produced – and today also offers – many ideas for applications that are considerably useful to society. More specifically, the application of our research, for instance, is developing in two different directions: the first is the use of particle detectors in medical diagnostics and treatment, while the other is their use for more particular and perhaps exotic purposes, though just as fascinating. Take the case of modern muon detectors. We can compare these devices to rather special photographic film. Well, this film can be “exposed” with cosmic muons, particles that come from space and which continually bombard the Earth. By studying these, we can see what’s inside very large objects, such as mountains or large civil engineering works, all without even making a single hole! This is what in technical speak we call “muon tomography”. In Japan, they have started working on volcanoes, whereas here in Switzerland we are focusing on observing the condition of glaciers. This might help us to preserve them, an issue of great social impact for a country like Switzerland. I describe the social impact of our basic research studies as “insurance”, our way of demonstrating to those who finance us that research – if carried out freely and without interference – can also lead to very concrete and interesting results for everyone.
Has the crisis put funding for basic research in jeopardy? No, I think that fortunately the crisis has not overly altered the balance between basic research and its applications. Paradoxically, some advanced countries – which includes Switzerland, where I‘ve been since 2006 – have increased funding for basic research during the crisis. This is because a difficult economic climate can serve as an opportunity to boost competitiveness, by focusing on higher value-added products and services. Italy, however, presents a more complicated situation: it cannot compete on cost of production with emerging countries, and it still falls far short of other advanced countries as regards investment in research.
So how might it be possible to bridge this gap? Firstly, it is necessary to increase investment in research, which is currently at around 1% of GDP and should at least be as high as 3%. Then there’s a need to improve the efficiency of such funding, by taking measures with respect to the university and research spheres. They require not so much further reforms but the courage to draw out talent and bring new energies into play. The third point concerns the creation of conditions that will attract future researchers and new talent. We should not think of the mobility of brainpower as necessarily being a problem. On the contrary, our researchers who go abroad contribute tangibly to their own training, though there is a need to even out the numbers of incoming and outgoing talent, and to ensure that there are concrete prospects for people to return to at the end of their overseas training.
Only by making Italy more attractive to researchers (whether Italian or otherwise) from all over the world will it be possible to achieve this result. This brings us to the fourth point, namely: ensuring decent salary conditions for young scientists. Not only is it impossible to do research on an “empty stomach”, but without adequate remuneration, one also cannot attract and retain those skills that would so benefit Italy’s “research system” and economy. Let’s not forget that higher education is a driver of sustainable social and economic progress.
Antonio Ereditato is Full Professor of Experimental Particle Physics at the University of Bern, and is the Director of the University’s Laboratory for High Energy Physics and Albert Einstein Center for Fundamental Physics. His main field of interest is neutrino physics.
