The launch will take place during the 6th UBIAS Directors' Conference, which will gather representatives from institutes for advanced study linked to universities on all continents. This will be possible thanks to the partnership between USP's Dean of Research and Coursera.

The MOOC is the result of debates undertaken by 13 young researchers from various fields and several countries participating in the first edition of the Intercontinental Academia (ICA) in 2015 and 2016. Organized by the IEA and the IAR, the project's theme was "Time."

The ICA is a UBIAS program in which two institutes for advanced study from different continents organize periods of immersion in conferences and debates on an interdisciplinary theme. The fourth edition will be held in 2021 and 2022 around the theme "Intelligence and Artificial Intelligence."

Facets of time

The aim of the course is to present a comprehensive overview of the main formulations about time in science, philosophy, and the arts. The discussed issues range from the dynamic or static time of the pre-Socratics to Heidegger's phenomenology, from the discussion about the arrow of time towards the future to the inexistence of the concept of time in quantum gravity, and from geological time to the circadian cycles that control the human organism.

During the periods of intense activity at the IEA (April 2015) and the IAR (March 2016), the young researchers had the opportunity to participate in dozens of conferences by senior specialists on the conception and importance of time in anthropology, physics, neurobiology, chronobiology, psychoanalysis, environmental sciences, and other areas.

So that a synthesis of the debates raised by these conferences and the working meetings could reach a wide audience, the researchers were tasked with producing a MOOC.

IEA's director at the time of ICA's first edition and a member of the senior committee of the project, Martin Grossmann recalls that the idea of producing the MOOC came from chronobiologist Till Roenneberg (Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich - LMU) during a meeting of the committee at the Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies (FRIAS), in September 2014.

Consisting of 17 video classes divided into four modules and a total length of five and a half hours, the course has been produced by six of the young researchers.

The content coordination has been in charge of Nikki Moore (Wake Forest University), Marius Müller (Federal University of Pernambuco), and Valtteri Arstila (University of Turku). Eduardo Almeida and Helder Nakaya, both affiliated to USP, and David Gange (University of Birmingham), have participated as creators and exhibitors.

The filming, under the audiovisual direction of Priscila Lima, took place at the "Clarimundo de Jesus" Research Base of USP's Oceanographic Institute (IO), in Ubatuba, coast of the Brazilian state of São Paulo, in 2017.

According to Grossmann, the MOOC has met the objectives of the ICA, since "the expectations in relation to the results were quite broad and not very well defined."

He considers that the course format has become even more relevant due to the demands of today: "The position of teachers, who still attribute a secondary role to MOOCs in education, tends to change in the face of the reality of online interactions during the pandemic." Grossmann says that he used to consider the format to be very limited, as it tried to reproduce the classroom formula, "but the result achieved by the researchers' work surprised me."

Preparation for recording one of the MOOC classes

For him, the interdisciplinary course on "Time" is introductory and influenced by the cultural and scientific universe of the young researchers of the ICA. "There is no ambition to address issues more assertively."

He finds it difficult to define the MOOC's audience. He believes that the course will attract graduate students from different areas in addition to "restless undergraduates with the need to venture into different fields."

According to Grossmann, the course also leaves a legacy of confirmation that the UBIAS network can work with such initiatives and propose similar ones in the future.

Participants' experience

Two of the six researchers involved in the production of the MOOC, Eduardo Almeida and Marius Müller, will act as pedagogical coordinators of the course at Coursera.

Almeida classifies the experience of producing the course as "incredible," as it required "the harmonization of visions, knowledge, and interpretations from areas as diverse as literature, mathematics, history, psychology, biology, physics, bioinformatics, arts, and philosophy in a discussion that would make a minimum of sense for everyone involved."

For Müller, it has been a difficult process "not only in relation to the theme but also in terms of intercultural interaction." Despite the difficulties, he considers that the work "was a great and very rewardinglearning experience."

The choice of the theme "Time" has been an advantage, according to Almeida, "because it is a dimension of existence that permeates any area of knowledge and is challenging in all disciplines."

Two obstacles stood out in the execution of the work, in his opinion. One of them is the fact that the greater the specialization in an academic area, the more difficult it is to understand the perspectives (conceptual basis, problematic aspects, theoretical questions, history) of the other areas, although "philosophy sometimes acts as a bridge between some of these knowledge islands." The other is the difference between languages from different areas ("even having English as a language of communication"), which "makes understanding the concepts themselves very difficult." For him, this is due to the adoption of a jargon typical to each discipline "and, I believe, even by the ways of thinking and arguing that differ between people who represent these areas."

All of the topics addressed by the MOOC were challenging, says Almeida. In his case, the topics that are not part of his scope of action as a scientist in the biological field were especially demanding. "The discussion about the physical nature of time is difficult because the mathematical basis or the very abstraction of theories is counterintuitive at first; the perspective of time in a work of art follows principles even more distinct from those that I consider reasonable for my perspective as a scientist."

He reported that his participation in the production of the course caused a mixture of curiosity and skepticism ("I think something somewhat enigmatic") among his department colleagues, because it was something different from the usual activity of researchers.

"I gave a seminar on the topic in the department and several colleagues were curious to know a little more. At the time, the MOOC had not yet been completed. It will be interesting to find out if the course can generate reflections in the colleagues who attend it."

Almeida stated that the online course has been his first experience in scientific dissemination on a larger scale, as his common activity in the area takes place through lectures, extension courses, and small fairs. Müller said that he had already participated in scientific dissemination, "but that the production of a MOOC was very specific and a valuable experience."

According to Almeida, the discussions among the participants have evidenced the feeling that everyone had their academic activities influenced by their work. He said he was more skeptical about some certainties and more attentive to the perspectives that varied disciplines bring about some subjects. He also believes he has become more careful about communicating ideas and being able to speak to an audience broader than his closest circle.

For Müller, participating in the project has influenced his academic mind and "opened up the interest in working and acting in different academic areas in the future."

Both the ICA on "Time" and the production of MOOC were sponsored by the Itaú Cultural Foundation with support from the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP), the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq), FRIAS, the Waseda Institute for Advanced Study (WIAS), and the Center for Advanced Studies (CAS) at LMU Munich.

In November, the second phase of the fourth edition of the Intercontinental Academia (ICA) took place in Belo Horizonte.

The ICA is an initiative of the international network of University-Based Institutes for Advanced Study (UBIAS). Each edition is organized by two IASs from different continents. In the case of ICA 4, which has explored key interdisciplinary issues at the intersection of cognitive science, neuroscience, and artificial intelligence (AI), the hosts have been the Paris Institute for Advanced Study, a member of the French Network of Institutes for Advanced Study (RFIEA), and the Institute of Advanced Transdisciplinary Studies (IEAT) of the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG).

Two of the Brazilian participants are professors at USP: André Fujita, from the Institute of Mathematics and Statistics (IME), who has been appointed by the IEA, and specialist in health technology assessment Patricia Coelho de Soárez, from the Medical School (FM), which has supported her. The third Brazilian is Evandro Cunha, a professor of computational linguistics at UFMG.

For Fujita, the term that best describes the experiences promoted by the encounters is "fantastic." They have allowed various exchanges among the 19 participating researchers and the fellows, collaborations with other institutions, and contact with mentors - including Nobel Prize laureates and directors of renowned centers - who have provided inspiration to everyone. "This has allowed thinking 'outside the box' and setting up a collaboration with fellow Laura Candiotto, a philosopher specializing in emotions," he points out.

Specialized in bioinformatics, Fujita works with the interaction between biological components and the way they create specific phenotypes, working with statistical methods to analyze biological data on a large scale. His contribution to ICA 4 has focused on his experience with biological network analysis, as well as the interdisciplinarity of his field.

While the meeting in Paris has been split into eight days of seminars, activities in Belo Horizonte have prioritized the work among the researchers, with parallel meetings with mentors, and guests from academia and the productive sector.

For Fujita, two outstanding events have been the visit to the local neuroscience and robotics laboratories, as well as a meeting with Virgílio Almeida, when he addressed the Center of Artificial Intelligence in Health. Almeida is professor emeritus from the Department of Computer Science at UFMG and current holder of the Oscar Sala Chair at the IEA. "The meeting with Professor Almeida has been a gateway to collaborations with UFMG's computer science and health personnel," Fujita states.

In addition to the Belo Horizonte stage of ICA 4, Fujita also participated in the first one, which took place in October 2021 in Paris, and in an intermediate meeting in Nagoya, held from August 31 to September 2, 2022, having robotics and artificial intelligence as main themes. On the latter occasion, he presented a seminar at the Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine. Topics from the work of the ICA participants and professors who work with robotics at the institution were discussed. According to the researcher, the discussions were centered on how human-looking robots would fit into society besides robots that help humans in everyday activities. For him, one of the main impacts of his visit was the meeting with Toshio Fukuda, president of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in Japan. Amongst criticisms and suggestions, the emeritus professor from Nagoya University offered a paid travel for Fujita to spend a few months working with his robotics group.

Bachelor in biological sciences and holder of a PhD in biochemistry and molecular biology, both from USP, Nakaya carried out postdoctoral studies from 2008 to 2011 at Emory University, where he analyzed the mechanism of vaccines activation in cells of the immune system. Upon completion, he became assistant professor of the Department of Pathology at Emory, using systems biology to predict and understand the immune response to different vaccines. Two years later, he was hired as a lecturer of the Department of Clinical and Toxicological Analyses of USP's Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences.

In 2014, Nakaya was one of the chosen researchers to participate in the first edition of the Intercontinental Academia (ICA). Held from April 19 to 29, 2015, in São Paulo, and from March 6 to 18, 2016, in Nagoya, the ICA is an initiative of the UBIAS (University-Based Institutes for Advanced Study) network, which brings together 36 institutes of advanced studies based on universities from all continents. The first edition had "Time" as its theme and was organized by the IEA-USP and Nagoya University's Institute for Advanced Research. In March 2017, the young researchers will meet again in São Paulo to produce a MOOC (Massive Open Online Course), the project's main outcome.

Physicist Tadashi Takanayagi, from the Kyoto University's Yukawa Institute for Theoretical Physics (YITP), said that a good analysis model for these conceptions are black holes, a metaphor for the analyses of 3D-realities from the observable information on 2D-surfaces, with the help of the Holographic Principle. The professor spoke during the Physics Workshop of the second phase of the Intercontinental Academia (ICA), on March 9.

Theoretical physicist Tadashi Takanayagi

He explained that the Standard Model, a traditional approach of particle physics, works perfectly for three forces of matter: electromagnetism, strong interaction (nuclear power) and weak interaction (beta decay, neutrino). But it does not describe the action of the fourth force (gravity). "In the microscopic field, gravity behaves completely different from the other three forces."

This difficulty led to the String Theory, according to Takayanagi. As the strings rapidly vibrate, they give rise to heavy particles. As they vibrate slowly, they produce light particles. "With this approach, the theories on matter are consistent with the unification of the four forces: the open string describes electromagnetism, and the strong and weak interactions; simultaneously, the same string describes gravity when closed."

To check whether the String Theory is true, it is necessary to find a phenomenon that can only be explained by it, Takanayagi said. Some aspects of black holes are good cases for research, especially from the microscopic point of view: "We want to use a theoretical microscope to enlarge a black hole and see what is inside."

He said that this concern eventually resulted in the development of the Holographic Principle, "one of the most important advances in this theoretical field in the last 20 years."

The concept of spacetime is defined by a four-dimensional coordinate system (x, y, and z for space, and t for time). The Einstein's General Theory of Relativity considers this concept. "The question is whether this description system of spacetime is real and if it is the best framework for understanding the universe."

Perhaps the analysis of very microscopic structures indicates that space is emerging, and maybe even time is emerging, warns Takanayagi. For him, this kind of consideration leads to the idea that spacetime is equivalent to the information of matter.

Once that massive objects form a black hole, the information in it is not accessible to outsiders. The amount of non-accessible information is called entropy, explains the physicist, adding that the String Theory can solve the problem by playing the role of a microscope to extract information from the black hole. "Among the massive particles there are open strings and one can extract their behavior information. This makes it possible to explain the entropy of the black hole."

Takayanagi showed the formula that defines the amount of entropy of a black hole, proposed by Jacob Bekenstein and Steven Hawking, and stressed that one of its terms, represented by the letter A, corresponds to the surface area of the black hole.

"This is not common. If we observe any matter agglomerate (gas, liquid or solid), entropy is proportional to the volume, not to the surface. But the information seems to be on the surface of a black hole. This is similar to what happens in an hologram, where a 3D-image is encoded on a 2D-surface, but the mechanism is totally different, just an analogy. "

Takayanagi said that physicists Gerard 't Hooft and Leonard Susskind have conjectured that the gravitational theories are equivalent to microscopic theories of "a certain matter" on its border.

According to him, this idea is quite popular and intuitive, but the String Theory proposes something beyond that. He commented that in 1997 Juan Maldacena proposed that the Holographic Principle must be understood as a Gauge / Gravity Duality in the String Theory, meaning that there is an equivalence between gravity (closed strings) and matter (open strings).

At the same time, the Holographic Principle states that spaces can emerge from matter in gravity. Gravity would function as a series of sieves with different frame sizes, allowing the passage of information according to the granulation accepted by each sieve, said Takanayagi.

Toy model

He said that physicists use a toy model to express the hidden information in a black hole: a white dot or a black dot (similar to 0 or 1 in computers). The information unit based on these dots (or "coins") is called one qubit.

For the whole system it must be considered that possibly both the white dot and the black dot are inside and outside the black hole, with a 50% probability for each occurrence. "It follows that if within the black hole there is a white dot then out of it there will always be a white dot (and vice versa). If we can not look inside the black hole, then we can not know the outside of it (hidden information, for example)."

This phenomenon is called quantum entanglement and it is said that "the interior and the exterior are entangled." The amount of "coins" (or qubits) is called entropy of the entanglement (Sent), which measures the amount of hidden information.

Thanks to holography, it appears that the entropy of the black hole is equal to the entropy of the entanglement. In fact, Takanayagi adds, the entropy of the entanglement is equal to the area of any surface, even without any black hole. The formula that Takanayagi proposed with Shinsei Ryu in 2006 implies that spacetime consists of qubits of information.

The Holographic Principle states that the spaces in gravity emerge from matter (or information). In the String Theory, the holography allows us to say that the gravity in the 3D-universe is equal to the matter in the 2D- spacetime. In the gravity of the 3D-Universe spacetime can expand, contract and even be created. Considering the matter in the 2D-spacetime, spacetime is not dynamic, but matter can change and be created.

Directed by Rafael Urban and Larissa Figueiredo, the film has been edited by João Menna Barreto. Cinematographer Jessica Candal Sato completes the team. The idea of the documentary is to synthesise the spirit and the activities of the ICA. The full academic, social and cultural programme of the event was attended by the four filmmakers, who interviewed the creators of the project.

The Intercontinental Academia is a project of the University-Based Institutes for Advanced Study (UBIAS), a network that brings together 36 institutes for advanced study of universities from all continents. The IEA-USP and the IAR-Nagoya have hosted the first edition. The phase held in Brazil was part of the Global Networks of Young Researchers program of the Olavo Setubal Chair of Arts, Culture and Science, based on IEA with the support of Itaú Cultural. The second phase, held in Japan last March, will also be reported by a documentary. Alexandre Rogoski, João Castelo Branco are Renata Corrêa have been responsible for the footage.

Takehiro Ohya talks about the architecture implications for the jurisdictional field.

In cases of severe or fatal accidents, the victim's family would often like to turn back time to prevent the happening. But what if instead of going back in time societies and their institutions could count on environments able to avoid mistakes?

This proposal already exists on the so-callied choice architecture, a concept presented by Professor Takehiro Ohya, from the Keio University, during the Humanities / Social Sciences Workshop of the second phase of the Intercontinental Academia (ICA), on March 10.

Ohya, who is a professor of jurisdictional law and an expert on philosophy of law, gave the lecture Time institutionalized and its transformation, showing some concepts of social control applied to the built environment. This is a kind of architecture theorized by Lawrence Lessig, a professor of law at Harvard University and creator of the creative commons licenses on the internet.

The choice architecture comes to how decisions are influenced by the way choices (things) are presented. This architecture can have a paternalistic bias or a libertarian paternalistic one, according to Ohya.

Bars that force people to walk in a particular place or direction, barriers in the subway or seats that do not allow people to lay down at airports are examples of the paternalistic bias because they give no choice to a person, cited Ohya.

On the other hand, he said, a diner could make healthy food more accessible and more visible at the expense of industrialized products. In this case, although the environment has an intervention by "positively influencing citizens in order to help them to take action for their own benefit," individuals are not prevented from eating whatever they want. The arrangement of food choices has the effect of reducing the consumption of "junk food" and increasing the consumption of healthy food.

According to the professor, there are four major forces that exert control in big societies: law, social conventions or traditions and religions, market and (most recently) architecture.

The physical environment influences decisions because the arrangement of things or the built structures can cause reactions in the use of a certain place, Oyha explained.

The choice architecture is based on the fact that we act intuitively or heuristically and not always behave as rational agents, Ohya said. In economic theory, the rational agent can be an individual or a firm that makes decisions with a view to their preferences and the efficient use of information. The aim is to rationalize their decisions to maximize costs, production, materials or other actions.

Social control through laws and rules is a further action and there may be those who are not able to be controlled by laws and rules (mentally or physically disabled ones, for instance), Ohya said. "On the other hand, one could argue that architecture could even control dogs and cats. But it can also not be effective in very specific cases," said the professor.

In social control through architecture there is no asymmetry before or after the action. It works regardless of age since social conditions remain the same. In the case of serious injury or loss of human life, the legislation of most countries assesses the value of life according to age and the ability to produce wealth that the person would still have. Therefore, in this case, the law is limited and asymmetric.

"The younger and the more you earn, the more you are worth. Does this mean that the life of a housewife or a worker, an elderly or a disabled one has no value? In this new social control model the asymmetry of time can disappear," Ohya said.

Photo: IAR/Nagoya

Roenneberg: "It seems like they (universities and governments) are trying to eliminate the humanities."

The existence of "biological clocks" is increasingly being accepted by the scientific community. The study of core temperature - or the arterial blood in the central regions of the body - is one example of how chronobiology is discovering how, when and why the brain and hormones are modulated by natural cycles. The interaction of organisms with the environment has been giving clues to many scientific discoveries and this shows that many scientific facts can not be studied in isolation but require a broader context.

The dialogue between different kinds of knowledge, or what academia calls interdisciplinarity, has been identified as a method to revolutionize teaching and research in the future. The theme took a full day of discussions during the programme of the Intercontinental Academia (ICA).

The workshop In Search of Interdisciplinary Dialogue, sponsored by the Waseda Institute for Advanced Studies (WIAS), at Waseda University, was held on March 14, in Tokyo, with the participation of speakers coming from different fields of knowledge.

Till Roenneberg, a professor of chronobiology at the Institute of Medical Psychology of the Ludwig-Maximilians University (LMU), has been invited for the opening lecture due to his diversified education, which includes physics, medicine and biology.

For Roenneberg, science needs more than interdisciplinarity. He sees a "tragic development" taking place especially in universities and governments around the world as they are guiding their research under the monetary focus, which leads them to forget the importance of the humanities.

"It seems like they are trying to eliminate the humanities because there is an idea that apparently this field does not bring much money or many students to the institutions. This is the worst direction we could take. There is a crisis in the way we deal with the humanities and we should change it," he said.

Brussels Atomium.

Roenneberg compared the currently practiced interdisciplinarity with the Brussels Atomium. Composed of interconnected spheres, the steel structure is a kind of giant wheel that provides a unique view to visitors.

“These spheres are incredibly proud to belong to a network. But what they do, though connected, is to stay in the same place. In fact, they only connect in order to stay in the circle. This is not interdisciplinarity. But interdisciplinarity today comes down to this," he said.

For Roenneberg, the UBIAS network, which brings together 34 institutes for advanced studies linked to universities, has enabled the realization of interdisciplinary science. In his view, the biggest advantage of these institutes in relation to other research institutions is that they have contact to the international community while maintaining the link with the academic community and the university environment.

For the biologist, every academic endeavor is related to human beings, and all that relates to humans is linked to basic biological and psychosocial motivations. "In my opinion, besides food and reproduction, humans also seek to reduce their anxiety and get rewards or social approval through behavior. That is what makes us exist."

To reduce anxiety and gain social approval, Roenneberg says that people turn to religion or science. However, the theoretical, philosophical and experimental knowledge that leads to scientific knowledge is full of arrogance and, thus, there is no understanding among scientists.

"This is shameful, because we know that we need others to be critical with ourselves and with our own thinking. It is also to overcome this that we need philosophy and the humanities," he said.

On the other hand, there is no way to replace the brain. The world's data become accessible thanks to the brain, which turns data into information. In this case, it refers to memory and expectations. As an example, Roenneberg showed a laboratory experiment using ducklings. The animals repeatedly go up and down a kind of slide in search for food and social interaction.

"One might think that the ducklings are sliding and chasing each other for fun. But the truth is that they are in a nerve-racking looping for food and social interaction, as these animals can not live alone. They are like people playing slot machines and seeking resources that can never be achieved," he said.

So everything can be a matter of narrative, summarized Roenneberg. Disciplinary knowledge as physics, culture, biology and others, also have to do with narratives, he said. "Apparently, the disciplines have nothing to do with people. But in fact they have profound impact on us for all the knowledge that is produced returns to humanity." Scenes of the atomic bomb, the concentration camps and attacks on the World Trade Center in New York were shown at this point of the lecture.

Modern life, science and religion

Another "subtle" example with enormous impact on humanity was the advent of artificial light, he said. He cited the experiments of Jürgen Walther Ludwig Aschoff  (1913 - 1998), a German physicist, biologist and behavioral physiologist who built underground bunkers to investigate the relationship of daily habits of people and the incidence of sunlight. Alongside other scientists he was one of the founders of chronobiology by inaugurating the research on circadian rhythms. The circadian clock (or cycle) is the period of approximately 24 hours which is the basis of the life cycle of almost all living beings. So it is a cycle influenced by variations of light, temperature, tides and winds, day and night.

In the first weeks living in the bunkers people were still in contact with the outside world. Then they remained inside the shelter, allowed to use artificial light according to their internal rhythms of waking up, sleeping and eating, for example. After studying the cycles of sleep, body temperature, urine output and other physiological and behavioral issues, the researchers concluded that what regulates the time schedule and peoples' lives is an endogenous clock that varies due to light and darkness. This discovery helped to understand the source of many health problems related to aging, sleep disorders and symptoms called jet lag, such as nausea, irritation, fatigue, insomnia, constipation and other physiological discomforts.

"Sleep in the pre-industrial era was regulated by sunlight. People would stay awake when there was light outside and slept when the day ceased. But now, with the electric light, we are always in an indoor environment which is just a little illuminated if compared to what would be offered by an external environment. And at night, at home, people do almost never run out of light. There is insufficient light during the day and too much light at night," said Roenneberg.

"We have created a short circuit in our brain at the cost of more people getting sick. People victimized by what we call social jet leg smoke more, drink more coffee, suffer more from depression and metabolic problems," said the scientist.

The consequence of living out of the circadian clock sync brings not only individual losses. The direct and indirect costs resulting from sleep disorders and problems related to the biological clock represent 1% of the gross domestic product (GDP) of countries, something like US$ 185 trillion in the European Union, US$ 173 trillion in the United States and US$ 103 trillion in China.

Science can also not ignore the method of hypotheses, Roenneberg said. "We must not become conceited. A molecular biologist once said she did not need hypotheses to investigate the gene and what it does. But nature is not a set of Lego pieces. Scientific information is generated by many abstract steps involving different methods and machinery. Scientific research depends on a chain of steps that need to be checked and one can not do this without hypotheses. The hypothesis is necessary to make sure that we are not going in the wrong direction. And for that we need the humanities," he emphasized.

Another warning: science must overcome the male mentality that still prevails in academia, Roenneberg said. "Boys like huge toys and maybe this explains our taste for large and expensive machines. But if we continue to invest in expensive machines we will process more and more data that we can not analyze properly. Therefore, we should invest in young brains able to discover intelligent mathematical strategies to analyze networks of genes and brain cells, for example," he said.

The professor also warned about concepts related to religion, science and knowledge in an environment that is increasingly related to science. "Science is becoming a new religion. Take the Salk Institute as an example: a beautiful building that looks like a temple. We must not confuse things. Even to deal with this we need the humanities and perhaps the religious to tell us what religion actually is. After all, we have to respect the ideas and advancements in science. But at the same time, we should try a litte "disrespect" in order to prove them wrong," he finished.

The first conference of the Intercontinental Academia on the subject of “Time”, on April 21, addressed what is known about the history and the possible future of the universe, as well as the concept of “arrow of time,” which posits only one direction for the flow of time, and considers that past and future are different, a notion closely related to cosmology.

The lecturer was theoretical physicist Matthew Kleban, from NYU, who dedicates himself to the study of string theory and the early history of the universe.

He noted that, contrary to what is assumed by the arrow of time, there are physical laws that posit dual direction, i.e., symmetry between past and future, although he stressed that this idea is still very confusing to physicists.

Entropy

According to Kleban, if this idea is correct, then the difference between past and future must be related “to an ‘environmental’ aspect, to an accident of history, such as the difference between North and South Americas, albeit universal, applicable anywhere and anytime.”

When entropy (“disorder”) is low, it tends to increase and the direction of its increase defines the future, said Kleban. Thus, entropy, which was very slight in the early universe, is the “environmental” factor that distinguishes the past from the future. “However, nothing prevents the arrow of time from having a reverse movement due to some other ‘environmental’ aspect.”

Cosmology

With regard to cosmology, he first defined what this science is: “The branch of astrophysics that studies the structure of the universe in the largest accessible scale; this includes the study of the birth, death (or future) and evolution of the Universe over time.”

However, because the universe is 14 billion years, we can only see a portion of it, although quite vast, corresponding to the distance traveled by light in these 14 billion years, he said. “Looking at the past, we see that the universe was hotter and opaque 14 billion years ago, so we cannot see (at least directly) its birth.”

Continuing with his presentation, Kleban addressed the current contents of the universe. He said there are about 100 billion galaxies, each with hundreds of billions of stars. The Milky Way has nearly 300 billion stars and a colossal black hole exists in the center of the galaxy, called Sagittarius A*, with mass equivalent to 4 million Suns, but with radius (at least in theory) only 17 times the size of the Sun. The solar system also orbits the galactic center, but the orbit lasts 200 million years.

Hubble's Law

The panel on galaxies was used by Kleban to introduce his comments about the expansion of the universe. The central figure here was American astronomer Edwin Hubble (1989-1953), whose telescope in the 1920s was able to observe approximately 50 galaxies (the Hubble Telescope, orbiting the Earth for 25 years, allows us to observe 10,000 galaxies when aimed at each 10/1,000,000 slit of the heavens).

Kleban explained that Edwin Hubble noticed something odd in the galaxies: the farther away they were, the faster they moved away from Earth. This observation led to the so-called Hubble’s Law: v = Hd, where H is a constant with units of 1/time. With this law, it became possible to calculate when the entire content of the universe was bundled together, so to speak: 14 billion years ago.

Kleban then reversed the arrow of time, as if the history of the universe moved backward, from when galaxies were just gas, through the increased warming, the opacity, the nucleosynthesis of protons and neutrons of helium and lithium, the inflation (when the volume of the universe spiked dramatically in a tiny fraction of a second), until reaching what is known as the singularity, “where even mere speculation collapses.”

He pointed out that each of these phases of the universe produced enormous entropy and that, even today, entropy is increasing. “Life can be seen as a process that accelerates the production of entropy, as stars and black holes do even more so.”

Hubble’s observations about the expansion of the universe created a profoundly strange idea, namely, the notion of the Earth as the center from which everything moves away, a kind of resumption of Ptolemy’s geocentrism.

Relativity

Kleban explained that in 1916, ten years before Hubble’s observations, Albert Einstein (1879-1955) developed the General Theory of Relativity, a sequence to the Special Theory of Relativity (1905), which had unified space and time (and energy and momentum). “In Einstein’s Theory of Relativity, time is relative, elapsing slower for an object moving at high speed or immersed in a gravitational field. Even in relativity, however, time does not flow in reverse.”

According Kleban, general relativity is a theory of gravity and also a radical reformulation of the nature of space and time that establishes their intimate and dynamic connection. Thus, the apparent force of gravity ceases to be a common force and becomes something like a “pseudoforce” or “fictitious force.”

After detailing some implications of this scenario, including the curvature of space-time, Kleban explained why Hubble’s Law works: “It is because the universe is expanding, and this has implications for the past and for the future.”

With regard to the future, some believe that the expansion will continue infinitely; the speed of expansion will decrease gradually, but will never cease. According to this hypothesis, Kleban explained, stars will eventually consume all their fuel and the universe will become cold and dead, even though this would probably not be the end, which would occur later.

Other researchers think the expansion will reach a maximum level and the universe will then begin to contract. After a finite span of time, density will be infinite, a singularity that is called “Big Crunch” (major collapse).

There are also those who consider that a threshold situation is possible between these two scenarios.

However, Kleban explained, these hypotheses hold two surprises: the first is that over the last billion years the expansion of the universe has accelerated because of dark energy. The second is that the speed of the expansion seems to be very close to the threshold speed. This would mean that the universe will continue to expand forever and will never reach zero degree or undergo an actual “hot death.”

Multiverse

And how about the beginning of everything, the Big Bang? Kleban said, “some well-intentioned additions to the laws of physics can dramatically affect the nature of the Big Bang and remove the singularity without altering any experiment carried out on Earth.”

One of his main interests is the so-called “multiverse” of string theory. “In string theory, the Big Bang was not a singularity or the beginning of time. It was the birth of a ‘bubble’ of a new ‘phase’.” The multiverse could harbor the emergence of numerous such bubbles.

String theory allows us to understand what existed before the Big Bang and what exists “beyond the universe” (or rather, what exists outside the visible bubble where the observable part of the universe is inserted), according to Kleban. However, he cautioned that the theory does not work with regard to “big crunches” (due to the arrow of time, actually) that the theory itself envisages. “Likewise, the theory does not work in low entropy situations.”

In conclusion, Kleban said that, for him, the most attractive idea is an overall timeless universe, where almost all of time in a state of balance with near‑maximum entropy – only rare fluctuations of reduced entropy, which would produce a local arrow of time. However, “this idea does not seem to work, but rather predicts miracles.”

Photo: Sandra Sedini/IEA-USP

Group photo on the first day of the ICA's second phase.

The activities of the Intercontinental Academia (ICA) have started in Nagoya. This second stage, to be held from March 6 to 18, continues the work begun in 2015, in São Paulo. Thirteen young researchers are preparing an online course on the subject "Time." The Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) will be available for free on a virtual platform, possibly Cousera.

The opening ceremony, held on March 7 at the Nagoya University, was chaired by Hitoshi Sakakibara, and had the participation of the institution's president, Seiichi Matsuo. Further attendees were Martin Grossmann, former director of the IEA-USP and member of the Senior Committee for the ICA, Carsten Dose, executive director of the Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies (FRIAS) and General Secretary for the ICA, and Hisanori Shinohara, director of the Institute for Advanced Research (IAR), co-organizer of the project and host of its second phase in Nagoya. After the welcome remarks, the research team conducted an acquaintance tour on the Higashiyama campus.

Physicist Hideyo Kunieda, advisor and vice president of the Nagoya University, gave the opening speech. He highlighted the motto of the University of São Paulo, "Sciencia Vinces" (Latin for "conquer by science"), drawing attention to the importance of this message to the present day. By presenting an overview of the research conducted at the Nagoya University, Kunieda stressed out the fact that six professors of the institution have recently been awarded the Nobel Prize. Kunieda was in São Paulo participating in the first phase of the Intercontinental Academia from April 17 to 29 last year, and gave a lecture on the theme time in astronomy.

Physicist Hideyo Kunieda presenting an overview of the research conducted at the Nagoya University.

Award-winning research

Ryoji Noyori won the Nobel Prize in 2001 and Osamu Shimomura in 2008, both in Chemistry. Also in 2008, professors Makoto Kobayashi e Toshihide Maskawa shared the award in Physics with Yoichiro Nambu, from the University of Chicago.

In 2014, another Nobel in Physics for the Nagoya University: Isamu Akasaki and Hiroshi Amano shared the award with Shuji Nakamura, from the University of California in Santa Barbara. The white LED, popular for being an economical source of light, was a creation of this trio of scientists.

Kunieda drew attention to the fact that some studies take decades to get to be a relevant invention. Hence the importance of young researchers to build the future. "But the role of a great mentor is also important," he said.

Attracting young talent is among the Nagoya University internationalization strategies, according to Kunieda. The institution promotes student symposiums, offers short and medium-term courses, short and long-term visits, exchanges between researchers, cooperative agreements and other actions.

Among the innovative projects of the Nagoya University there is the Center for Integrated Research of Future Electronics (CIRFE), whose research has resulted in savings of 7% in electricity costs in Japan, and the Institute of Innovation for Future Society, focused on applied research involving several areas.

Intellectual courage

Martin Grossmann thanked whoever has contributed to bring the ICA to life. The project of gathering young researchers from around the world to a work that lasts a whole year was released in 2012 during a meeting of the UBIAS Steering Committee held at Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Advanced Study, in New Delhi.

Martin Grossmann, former director of the IEA-USP and member of the Senior Committee for the ICA.

Grossmann remembered the master classs given by Professor José Goldemberg, former president of USP and current president of the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP), during the first meeting of the ICA, in São Paulo. Goldemberg was asked what a young researcher profile should be to meet the challenges of career and the university of the future. "They should be aggressive," he said.

Grossmann pointed out that the meaning of "being aggressive" in the world of science could be translated to "being bold" or "having intellectual courage", which coincides with the motto of the Nagoya University: "cultivate the intellectual courage."

Interdisciplinary approach is fundamental to the university of the future, according to Grossmann, speaking of the research at the IEA-USP. "To listen to the others, even if from different disciplines, is fundamental to the advancement of science," he said.

"How can a network of young researchers have some relevance when there is a secular institution like university? The answer is to promote research and interdisciplinary encounters that allow to associate science, culture and technology," said Grossmann.

Facilitating interdisciplinary dialogue

"The Nagoya University has been playing a leading role and giving decisive support for the activities of the UBIAS," said Carsten Dose. "This is a leading institution on a global scale and, therefore, to be here in the second phase of the ICA is a privilege."

Carsten Dose, from the Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies (FRIAS) and General Secretary for the ICA.

Dose recalled the origins of the ICA and the UBIAS network, thanked the hospitality of the host university and the partnerships that enabled all the activities. "The ICA reminds us of what is essential for our institutions, which is to bring together young researchers in a work that facilitates dialogue between different disciplines and different countries," he said.

He remembered the advantages of having institutes for advanced studies related to universities, because these units have bases for producing science more freely, in a way that conventional institutions can not.

In a direct message to the young researchers of the ICA, Dose said he wanted "ambition" to be maintained, as well as the search for "new ideas to make the ICA keep advancing."

The IAR in expansion

Hisanori Shinohara presented the principles, activities and structure of the IAR. "We work with a small staff, as required by the modern institutions, but we intend to expand during my management, not only in terms of human resources but also in terms of budget," he said.

Hisanori Shinohara, from the IAR-Nagoya, presenting the Institute's activities

Shinohara highlighted that the principles governing the IAR are reporting research excellence produced at Nagoya University and the IAR to the academic community, giving substantial support to research excellence and promoting the independence of prominent researchers.

The academic advisory board of the IAR has 13 members, including the six scientists that have been awarded with the Nobel Prize. The institute currently has six research projects in progress. It seeks to encourage and promote informal interdisciplinary activities, promote meetings between young researchers and renowned academics, promote research exchanges with international institutions and manage a research fellowship program.

Hideo Iwasaki presents papers on the interface between science and art during the biology workshop.

Synthetic biology is a new approach to bioengineering. It involves modeling and the construction of organisms at the molecular scale, or the redesign of parts, devices or natural biological systems. It is a technology that seeks specific objectives through an intentional design. Instead of evolutionary pressures, the world of the living beings becomes a product of design choices. Through a fast progress, it has generated expectations to produce new biological applications in medicine, agribusiness, genomics, energy and other areas.

"It is a field that offers a new insight on how to relate to life. Its rapid advancement has resulted in many scientific and philosophical debates because it produces advances that lead to some exaggerations. Therefore, synthetic biology causes interest in some designers and artists involved in biotechnology," said biologist and artist Hideo Iwasaki, from the Waseda University, at the Biology Workshop of the second day of the Intercontinental Academia (ICA).

Grossmann and Iwasaki debating.

Martin Grossmann, former director of the IEA-USP and member of the Senior Committee for the ICA, chaired the debates of Iwasaki's presentation and drew attention to the unusual union between biology and art. According to Grossmann, Iwasaki has innovated with the presented theme, a mix of science, technology and design.

Coordinator of the Laboratory for Molecular Cell Network & Biomedia Art at Waseda University, Iwasaki talked about the work of the Synthetics Aesthetics, an experimental project run by the University of Edinburgh and Stanford University. In 2010 the most renowned synthetic biologists, artists and social scientists gathered to explore collaborations focused on the conception, construction and understanding of the living world.

At the time, Iwasaki developed the project "Biogenic Timestamp" in partnership with Oron Catts, from the Aalto University of Helsinki. The work was defined by the microbiologist as a "critique to the hype of synthetic biology, a provocation on the link between the scale of geological time and the biological one."

They worked with tissue culture from cyanobacteria, a group of bacteria that obtains energy by photosynthesis and is among the most primitive forms of life. The community was applied to a computer board, which has undergone the action of these organisms to date. The work was exhibited in Austria and Japan. According to the creators, the experiment shows that the bacteria are able to internalize our technologies and creations, and modify them as they please.

Engineering principles applied to the complexity of living systems: biology transformed into a new design material.

Another project, no less surreal by Western standards, is inspired by a relatively ancient habit in Japan, which is to create monuments in memory of insects, snails, plants, various objects and even the spirit of sperms.

Iwasaki showed that in some medical and research institutions, such as the Department of Human Sciences at the Waseda University, there is the habit of annual celebrations held in honor of animals used in experiments. In zoos there are funeral ceremonies for animals that have died. In 1971 a monument was created to honor the spirit of sperms.

Iwasaki thought of a memorial for artificial cells. "I am a microbiologist, so I can finally pray for the bacteria we use in experiments," he compared.

“The memorial service for synthetic cells” is the name of the technical and artistic work by Iwasaki, which will be displayed during the Kenpoku Art Festival 2016, a great show that dialogues with nature and art, incorporating science and technology. It is held in six cities in the northern Ibaraki Prefecture.

According to Iwasaki, his work is scientifically "stimulating, because it forces to think what life is in fact." The two projects that the scientist presented at the workshop seem to handle different things, but they actually "deal with the issue of time and how humans are involved with life," he said.

He cited a paper on the establishment of a bacterial cell from a chemically synthesized genome. "There is no common sense among scientists to answer if it is a living organism or a type of synthetic life. So I see that each one's subjective criterion of what life is is required for this kind of judgment," he added.

Photos: IAR/Nagoya

syntheticaesthetics.org

10⁻¹⁸ of a second. With this degree of accuracy a clock would be only one second too early or too late over a period of 30 billion years, more than twice the age of the universe. This is the challenge of a new type of atomic clock in development since 2003: an optical lattice clock.

The cutting edge construction of this type of clock was presented by Masao Takamoto, a researcher at the Quantum Metrology Laboratory of the Institute of Physical and Chemical Research (RIKEN) during the Physics Workshop of the second phase of the Intercontinental Academia (ICA), on March 9.

At the conference Precision Metrology with Optical Lattice Clocks, Takamoto said that atomic clocks are the reference for accurate measurements with 15 digits (10^-15 of a second) and emphasized their importance to infrastructure sectors as they allow a greater accuracy in services such as systems Global Positioning (GPS) and the synchronization of high speed networks. He added that they are also very important for measurements in physical experiments, such as precision spectroscopy in quantum physics.

The international standard of the second duration was defined in 1967 by cesium atomic clocks. The International Atomic Time (TAI, from the French name Temps Atomique International) is established by the average of such interconnected clocks. According to Takamoto, the best results in terms of accuracy so far have been obtained by cesium clocks of the SYRTE (Space-Time Reference System), in France, and of the NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology), in the USA, which reached 3 x 10^-16 of a second.

The search for an even greater precision and greater stability has motivated researchers to design optical atomic clocks. There are two types of them trying to occupy the role of reference in second measurement, according to Takamoto:

• a single-ion clock in an electric field with ability to achieve a precision of 10^-18 s (proposed by Hans Dehmelt in 1982);
• an optical lattice clock, in which the potential of the optical lattice captures about 1 million atoms in separated "traps". It is able to achieve a precision of 10^-18 s and its stability is provided by the simulation of 1 million single-ion clocks in parallel (proposed by Hidetoshi Katori in 2001).

The RIKEN and the Katori Laboratory of the University of Tokyo's School of Engineering have developed optical lattice clocks. Takamoto is the first researcher and assistant director for research of the laboratory.

The first demonstration of an optical lattice clock took place in 2003. In 2005 one of them had its absolute frequency measured. In 2006 the frequency measurement was made by three groups:. SYRTE, JILA (USA) and the National Metrology Institute of Japan. From these results, a new definition for the second has been proposed, Takamoto said.

In 2008-2009 experiments were carried out to measure the absolute frequency of the strontium optical lattice clock using optical fiber between Tokyo and Tsukuba (an actual distance of 50 km that required 120 km of optical fiber). "This and other international experiments have shown an excellent agreement between the clocks with a degree of accuracy close to 6 x 10^-16 s," according to Takamoto.

In September 2006 the Consultative Committee for Time and Frequency (CCTF) adopted four types of optical clocks as "secondary representations of the second," according to the researcher: the strontium optical lattice clock and the single-ion clocks of strontium, mercury and ytterbium.

The Time and Frequency Department of the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (Bureau International des Poids et Mesures - BIPM), which is responsible for the TAI, will discuss criteria for the redefinition of the second in the next 5 to 10 years, Takamoto said. Atomic clocks to serve as a reference shall:

• be fully described and have advanced research available on them;
• be developed by various groups and laboratories;
• be marketed (preferably).

The chemical element and the clock scheme will be chosen from the performance of the various existing types. However, after the second is redefined by a clock with a precision of 10^-18 s it will be necessary to find a way to share time with 18 digits under the influence of the Earth's gravitational potential: "According to theory of general relativity, time goes faster on higher ground. The height difference of 1 cm makes a difference between two clocks with a precision of 10^-18 s. This is a problem from the point of view of a standard establishment."

Among the applications that this type of clock with extreme precision will allow, Takamoto cited:

• the production of precise proof for the gravitational potential by using the Theory of General Relativity;
• the demonstration of relativistic geodesy by comparing clocks connected by very long optical fiber;
• the geopotential mapping for the search for mineral resources;
• the monitoring of the variation in the gravitational potential time due to tidal effects;
• the detection of the Earth's crust movements and of volcanic activity.

For measuring the gravitational potential, research aims at the development of transportable clocks with stable long-term operation and clocks with hollow core photonic crystal fiber.

Kirill Thompson addresses the perception of time in consciousness.

Daoism, Zen, Time Awareness, and the Reality of Time was the title of the lecture given by Kirill O. Thompson, from the National Taiwan University (NTU), during the Humanities / Social Sciences Workshop of the second phase of the Intercontinental Academia (ICA), on March 10.

An expert on neo-Confucian philosophy and Chinese philosophy, Thompson has examined the perception of time in the human consciousness according to Eastern traditions such as Taoism and Zen Buddhism, and compared this notion to the Western philosophy of Immanuel Kant (1724-1804).

Taoism and Zen Buddhism are religious philosophical traditions of East Asia intended to reorient the common personal experience to a broader life experience. The consciousness of time is a part of that shift, said Thompson.

For Kant, time is not simply inserted in the experience: time is the very condition of the experience, the pure form of inner intuition. Time summarizes the flow or the pulse of consciousness and thus the mind synchronizes and applies this time to the world's events flow, said Thompson, who is a professor at the Foreign Languages and Literatures Department, and serves as Associate Dean for Humanities at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences (IHS) of the NTU.

The German philosopher also conceptualizes the perception of objects as a basic experience that requires "time" to allow the mind to refer to memory and identify the object. Neurologically, this happens in a "self-centered" way because it is molded by mental filters. It is a sensory response that requires "time" to be filtered by personal experience, said Thompson.

The recognition or perception of objects or people is an experiential phenomenon reasoned by the Noumenon, which for Kant is inaccessible. The Noumenon (from the German Ding an sich, meaning "the thing itself") is the sphere of higher reality within the philosophic mind. It can also be understood as the essence of something or that what makes something what it is. The Noumenon exists in itself regardless of the conditions of the common experience phenomena, including time and space. In neurological terms the Noumenon is independent of mental filters of experience, said the professor.

Thus, the common experience is never a raw sensation; it is always conditioned by the forms of intuition and categories of understanding. The object, as a phenomenon, is seen in the context of subjective needs, desires, dislikes, goals or in addition to its own character and relationships.

According to the professor, the social sciences tend to value a self-centered point of view, referring rational interests as the great guide of ideal personal conduct. On the other hand, the Taoist response to existence is the negation of the ego and the dissolution of the mind filters.

Thus, the oldest Taoist text, the Laozi, challenges and refutes the independence and the ultimacy of objects, showing its origin from the non-being (invisible, formless) and mutual codependency. "But how could it be possible to experience that?," asked Thompson.

First, he said, we should note that the common egocentric experience is based on ego as a unified system or a set that brings together the expertise and its categories, and forms of intuition which filter and shape the experience. In this case, linear time is a condition for the exercise of memory, recalling past events and planing the sequence of future events.

In Taoism, the appropriation of time requires a "step back" in the common experience of being, and of its forms and categories of understanding. This involves a change of perspective, a general reorientation so that Laozi and Zen Buddhism can convey their message. The key is to relax and focus the mind through meditation.

One can directly see things as co-emerging and interdependent, according to Thompson. If this mindset - meditation - is successful, the result will be a dissolution of the intuition model, of the understanding categories, of the mind filters simultaneously including the dissolution of the ego, and of course of linear time. Meditation opens the path to be holistic and time gets suspended, said Thompson.

Thompson cited American neurologist James H. Austin, who engaged in holistic trial through Zen Buddhism. Author of Zen and the Brain, Austin seeks to relate the neural activity of the human brain and the practice of meditation. His book was awarded the Scientific and Medical Network Book Prize in 1998.

"Austin underwent Zen Buddhist trial and tracked its impact on the neural processes during meditation. He confirmed that the internal neural metronome turns off in relation to clock time and thus time ceases. Such dissolution of the filters that connect the experience and divide subject and object open the path for a direct and holistic orientation," he said.

The sense of achronia (cessation of time, eternity) accompanies the deep kenshi and the satori experience when a person opens into the void. Thompson defines achronia as the absence of any sense of time during meditative detachment. It is not a sense of timelessness or loss of time.

The horizon of consciousness opens beyond all notions of previous limits. There are neither past nor present. This lack of time enters the nonverbal experience as eternity. Neurologically, this kind of orientation contrasts with the egocentric pattern of the Western experience outlined above.

In the allocentric experience - which has interests and considerations centered on the other, contrary to the egocentric orientation - the being can grasp objects as they really are. Instead of a subjective perception filtered by wants and needs, a person acquires an objective perception to themselves and to others.

When consciousness is freed from rigid categories and mental filters, the path will be open to more flexibility and fluidity in thought and action, which enhances creativity in the arts, in problem solving, in life management and in the field of ideas.

Ultimately, the Zen notion about the nature of Buddha in regard to "empty" and "enlightenment" complements Kant's Noumenon (Ding an sich), said Thompson. The philosopher's ideas are static and logically chained, and posit the object as it is, ie, prior to the intuition of taxes, categories and mental filters that shape the common experience.

In theory, the concept of the Noumenon (Ding an sich) encourages us to see through the phenomena as they primarily appear.

Linear time as pure form of inner intuition is a common experience condition. Given this form of intuition, the internal neural metronome follows the pulse and the flow of the experience from within, which also keeps us in sync with the flow of events in the world.

In contrast, at the deepest level of allocentric experience, when the ego is dissolved and the internal neural metronome stops, time is suspended. Therefore, time such as distance is related to the forms or time measuring systems, said Thompson.

The panel discussion The Future of UBIAS, held during the Intercontinental Academia's second phase, in Nagoya, on March 11, did not deal with the agenda for the coming years of the University-Based Institutes for Advanced Study network, but with the specific characteristics of associated institutes for advanced study (IASs) and how they contribute to the advancement of knowledge and to the revitalization of the academic environment.

The concern of the panelists is natural once that the strengthening of the IASs leads directly to the consolidation of the UBIAS as an international collaborative network.

The event has brought together directors and representatives of IASs, as well as coordinators, participants and some of the lecturers of the Intercontinental Academia. Much of the discussion revolved around the importance and peculiarities of interdisciplinary research. Issues such as freedom of research, the variety of institutional profiles, the thematic diversity of each institute, the emphasis on internationalization, the participation of young researchers and the barriers that the IASs must overcome within the universities in which they are based have also been addressed.

However, according to most of the debaters, all these aspects are subordinated to the primary mission of the IASs: the research of key issues for the natural, social and human sciences.

To Eliezer Rabinovici, from the Israel Institute for Advanced Studies of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) in Princeton is an important parameter, "but one should not emulate it totally because each IAS reflects the academic culture in which it appears."

He hopes that the IASs that have arisen in various universities around the world do not end up being experiments doomed to disappear in 10 or 15 years. To avoid this, he said, universities should think of long-term activities and lay the basis for the IASs' perpetuation.

Rabinovici advocated an international participation of the institutes: "An IAS can be evaluated by the quality of its international participation and one of the ways to undergo a quality control is to expose, to be known by others and to meet them."

A strong international presence can also be a safeguard to certain risks that are inherent to the importance of the IASs, according to Rabinovici. One of these risks is to be controlled by groups with power in universities, drawn to it by the "ability the IASs have to become powerful tools in academia."

As for the role of interdisciplinarity, Rabinovici exemplified the case of his institute, of which he has been director: "Interdisciplinarity is not the goal; the goal is to study interesting problems."

To Hisanori Shinohara, director of the Institute for Advanced Research (IAR) of the Nagoya University, the current academic trends give more emphasis on scientific applications, while his institute gives more importance to the fundamental questions of the natural and social sciences.

Peter Goddard, former director of the IAS in Princeton, has also participated in the panel discussion and agreed to Rabinovici's view that the IASs should be devoted to fundamental issues in science. As an example, he cited the work of a group at the IAS whose theme is the boundaries of immigration. "The group is not interested in providing guidance on how to deal with immigration, but in studying it in its fundamental aspects," he said.

The diversity between the institutes and their research topics was commented by Martin Grossmann, former director of the IEA-USP and a member of the Senior Committee for the Intercontinental Academia. As an example, he explained the profile of the Brazilian institute: "Sometimes people ask me why we are not forming future Nobel prize winners or why we do not discuss the reasons for Brazil not having a Nobel. The institute is inserted in USP's context and what differentiates us is to work with public policies, a very important issue for developing countries."

Still regarding the mission of the institutes, Goddard said that whenever he is asked to evaluate an IAS he questions whether they are doing things that can not be done in other parts of the university. "To serve as a funding mechanism or to provide additional income to some researchers is important, but this is not what an IAS should be," he said.

To Shinohara, one of the important things to which an IAS can help is to enable an environment of freedom for reflection and research. "We are always busy with classes, administration, meetings, among others. It would be great if we could provide a space with freedom, particularly to promising young researchers. Is it possible to provide freedom to scientists? At the Nagoya University this is a very difficult task."

Rabinovici agreed that this is another difficulty of the UBIAS and that, therefore, when a researcher enters their institute they must commit to stop teaching, participating in committees and getting involved in administrative activities.

Carsten Dose, general secretary of the Intercontinental Academia and moderator of the panel, said that universities in general are made up of people that respect each other, but when an IAS creates a possibility for some to have a freer activity this is seen as a privilege. "Granting privileges tends to lead to some envy in the academic environment."

Grossmann agreed with Dose's comment. He said that university administrators know how to think the university and would like to go on with it. However, they are constrained by the obligation of managing a large institution. According to him, in addition to managers, other members of the teaching body of the university see the IEA-USP as a privileged place since it has a light structure, no students or permanent researchers and a completely different atmosphere from what they experience.

Opening the discussion to the participants of the Intercontinental Academia, Shinohara asked them if young researchers should engage in interdisciplinary themes or focus on a specific field.

Philosopher Valtteri Arstila, from the University of Turku, said that before obtaining a PhD one should be devoted to a specific area. "I do not think anyone can do a good interdisciplinary work before doing a good job in a specific discipline."

The disciplinary restriction for postgraduates defended by Arstila is not shared by historian Kazuhisa Takeda, from the Waseda University. In his view, interdisciplinarity is a global trend and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science somehow encourages it to constantly improve their methods of evaluating research proposals by adopting broader criteria that involve close fields of knowledge.

Biologist Eduardo Almeida, a professor at USP, agreed with Arstila, but stressed that in Brazilian and American institutions there is a certain stimulus for undergraduate students to get interested in what is happening in areas different from their own. "However, this is difficult to do, because we receive a lot of information by e-mails, brochures and other materials. Maybe the IASs could help in this quest for knowing what is happening in other fields."

Competition in the disciplinary context was questioned by historian David Gange, from the University of Birmingham. He said that the most uncomfortable moment during the first phase of the Intercontinental Academia in São Paulo was when physicist José Goldemberg, professor emeritus from the USP's Institute of Physics and an honorary professor of the IEA-USP, advised the young researchers to be aggressive. "We are not competing against each other. If we think so, we will be contributing to the problems that universities increasingly face. As young researchers we must understand the university as well as understand our disciplines. And the only way to understand the university is being interdisciplinary," he said.

The discussion on interdisciplinarity is misconceived, according to Goddard, for whom the confluence of disciplines should always result from the topic chosen to study. "If a researcher wants to study the movement of people in the past they will need to involve biologists, study the information obtained in burials and understand the genetics of those people."

Hideaki Miyajima, director of the Waseda Institute for Advanced Study, agreed with the requirement cited by Goddard, but thinks that there are some risks in recommending young people to undertake interdisciplinary work, for "issues with this feature are difficult to identify" .

Shinohara argued that the IASs seek to connect areas of knowledge that are distant from each other: "There are numerous variations on interdisciplinarity in terms of distance between the research fields. This group at the Intercontinental Academia, for example, is quite challenging, but when talking about physics and mathematics these are relatively close fields. "

Dose said that everyone agrees with this view of Goddard, but what happens is an intersection of disciplines, careers and institutions, "complicating choices, especially for young researchers."

The situation is also difficult for the institutions, according to Dose, since "they have responsibilities both in the production of advanced research and in relation to young researchers, to whom they need to provide opportunities not found elsewhere in the disciplinary environment while establishing safeguards to follow not only one single path (even if interdisciplinary) and to stay disconnected from the disciplinary structure of the university."

The IASs need to deal with old and new academic and institutional challenges, as one can infer from the discussion. However, to Grossmann, the main issues to be addressed are related to "glocal" (global + local) aspects. "We have to worry about the challenges faced by our universities and how they correspond to global change," he said.

Photo: IAR/Nagoya University

The novelty of integrating an interdisciplinary activity in which a series of conferences and discussions should lead to the production of a concrete product was one of the main challenges of the Intercontinental Academia, according to the interactions of the participants in the evaluation panel of the project's second phase in Nagoya, on March 11.

The need to get used to 13 different academic languages, corresponding to the areas of expertise of the participants, has also been highlighted. However, the challenges are not obstacles to the gains that the project will offer, according to the researchers. Some of them said they have benefited from participating in the Intercontinental Academia since they have adopted a new approach with their students, seeking to incorporate the views of other areas to usual and new problems of their disciplines.

The general expectation is that the MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) on "Time" and the documentary on the project let students, researchers and institutions intereseted in organizing and participating in similar interdisciplinary activities.

Several suggestions for the improvement of future editions of the Intercontinental Academia have been presented: the importance of achieving a greater balance of gender, areas of expertise and cultural representation, and the organization of joint activities for participants and senior researchers.

Eduardo Almeida, a professor at USP, said that the big issues, such as time, are very important for discussions and experiments like the Intercontinental Academia. "It is good to be relatively young, but when we are in our 30s we are a bit matured and end up losing the link with these major issues."

He also pointed out the convenience of a group of people with eclectic education and able to build bridges between them. Almeida believes that the philosophers are the best ones to play this role. He said he learned this in practice thanks to the interaction with the representative of the University of Turku, Finnish philosopher Valtteri Arstila, and two other members "with philosophical inclinations": neuroscientist André Cravo Mascioli, from UFABC, and architect and art historian Nikki Moore, from Rice University.

Education

German oceanographer Marius Müller, a researcher in postdoctoral studies at USP, said that one of the results that he is already experiencing is to have started to deal with new issues with his students without leaving behind the view of other disciplines. Müller believes that the project stimulates thinking research as a process applicable to various fields, "something that natural scientists tend to forget given the emphasis on obtaining results in the academic world."

Biologist Norihito Nakamishi, from the Nagoya University, also said to have benefited in his teaching activities. "In my case, this is not a big increase for research, but it is a great contribution to my work as a professor."

Communication

Mathematician Adriano De Cezaro, from UFRGS, highlighted the communicational development of who takes part in such a project: "Here we have 13 different "languages" and to learn them is something extraordinary." Specialist in medieval narrative Eva von Contzen, from the Ruhr University of Bochum, also considers communication as one of the key ingredients of the Intercontinental Academia: "We learned to communicate with each other, to listen to other 'languages', not only from other disciplines, but also from other cultures."

What has let communication easier was the possibility of the researchers to spend a good time together, according to Arstila. For him, this has been the differential in relation to other interdisciplinary projects in which he participated and that have not been very successful.

Interdisciplinarity

Boris Roman Gibhardt, a researcher at the University of Bielefeld's Center for Interdisciplinary Research, said that the project's emphasis on interdisciplinarity is important but not enough. "We should have greater ambitions and concern ourselves with critical thinking, for example," he said. For him, the Intercontinental Academia is a great project, but not something that lasts: "In academic life there is not much interest in supporting interdisciplinarity, unless in specific projects. This is a problem. In the humanities, the disciplines were established in the early 19th century. We must question whether they are still updated. There will only be interdisciplinarity when disciplines are dissolved."

Interdisciplinarity is a challenge, but its perspective is important for researchers and students, according to Kazuhisa Takeda, from Waseda University, one of the project's supporters. He said he shared the experience of participating in the São Paulo workshop with his students and noticed how this approach is attractive to young people. "Maybe the young researchers will be able to continue this approach and attract new students to it in the future."

Academic reflections

Mediator of the panel, von Contzen said that the project presented two common problems in academic life: the disproportion between genders in the group with only two women among the 13 participants, and the tiering among researchers: juniors (participants) and seniors (coordinators and speakers).

Mascioli added two further aspects that have emulated the academic routine: many workshops instead of more time to work and the need for a final product. "But here we have the freedom to question these things, which does not happen in academia and in other experiences that I took part in."

MOOC

On the other hand, Mascioli considers it important that the project has the production of a MOOC as practical activity, for "doing an introductory course is good in order to bring the discourse to an understandable level to everyone." Arstila also enhanced the production of the course as a way to create a commitment between the participants."

Helder Nakaya, from USP, said he supported the MOOC from the beginning, "not because it is something new, but because it is something modern and a good way to communicate, as well as a great exercise." Moreover, he believes that society deserves to have access to such a product in exchange of the "investment to be in extraordinary places with extraordinary people." He believes that the MOOC can encourage many young people to try to attend university.

Three other possible changes have been suggested during the panel: Moore proposed that in future editions each participant should have the opportunity to present a paper at the beginning, for everyone to know them better and for them to be questioned by senior researchers; Arstila said that perhaps the work would be more productive if the number of involved disciplines were minor; Nakaya suggested that the speakers are asked to make more accessible presentations to all researchers in all areas.

Comments

At the end of the panel, the interventions of the participants were commented by Till Roenneberg, Eliezer Rabinovici and Martin Grossmann, members of the Senior Committee, and by Carsten Dose, general secretary of the project.

Roenneberg expressed his admiration for the commitment of the participants and agreed that during the immersions in São Paulo and Nagoya, given the need to build the scientific background (workshops and conferences) for the production of the MOOC, there was little time left to work directly for the outcome. The difficulty, he said, is how to get time to do this work at the same time as the participants return to their normal academic activities.

The merit of the project, according to Rabinovici, has been to provide the participants with knowledge of quality and the possibility of creating a network. "I do not know how much the created links are strong and durable, but the possibility of them lasting a few years is valuable. The project to be developed (MOOC) may succeed or not, but it will work as a test for the participants."

He considered the gender imbalance a major problem to be solved in the future, but stressed how the process of selection of participants was hard. He admitted, however, that there could have been made additional efforts to more women to sign up."

Dose reported that the feedback from the participants of this first edition of the Intercontinental Academia and the first phase (in Jerusalem) of the ongoing second edition (on human dignity) will be an important part of the discussion at the UBIAS directors' meeting next June at the University of Birmingham.

Theme

He considered it curious that the participants have discussed almost every aspect of the project but the central theme: time. For him, this shows that the theme was an appropriate intellectual challenge to work with.

Dose wanted to know what alternative theme could have been chosen; something that considered one of the great problems of society, as some of the participants commented. He also asked about another outcome of the project: some of the participants wanted to create a website together, accessible to a wide audience.

De Cezaro said that few issues are as comprehensive as time. For him, discussing time in specific societies would be more appropriate, however, restrictive. Regarding the usefulness to society, he said it occurs in the form of pure knowledge.

Part of the group aims to develop a parallel project, according to von Contzen, who cited the established connections: "The idea is to make a website that functions as a platform for publishing content in various formats, including academia and art, addressing a different topic on each update, and produced by people linked to the UBIAS."

Grossmann said that since the beginning of the planning of the project, the idea was to invest in risk and that the only concern with regard to the selection of the 13 participants was the quality of their work. The challenge now, he said, is the continuation of the cooperation network between researchers. In this regard, "the creation of a joint website is great news."

Critical thinking

Grossmann asked Gibhardt to talk more about his advocacy of greater concern to produce critical thinking. The representative of the University of Bielefeld said that this is a special issue for the humanities: "They can contribute to the future of academia particularly through critical thinking. We should be more intellectual and try to develop ideas in different contexts, such as the political and the social ones. The development of the right ideas, and at the right places and the right times, would be more important than developing a MOOC, a book or something similar. My idea has to do with education, which is not a specific product. It is invisible. This is idealism, I know, but I think it is a matter of attitude."

Time was chosen as the main theme, since its concept is usually different in each area of knowledge, whether in the humanities or in natural sciences. For a comprehensive overview of the impacts of these ideas in science and culture in general, there must be an academic dialogue among people that work with different concepts of time.

Two meetings of immersion are planned to occur in March 2015, at the University of São Paulo, and in January 2016, at the Nagoya University, besides other activities during this period.

Those interested in applying should be aged up to 40, hold a PhD or post-doctorate (completed or in progress) in any field of knowledge and be fluent in English. A letter of interest and a updated curriculum, both in English, should be sent to one of the Ubias members. The IEA-USP will receive the letters until the 7th of August, when the pre-selection process starts.

More information on the Intercontinental Academia: http://intercontinental-academia.ubias.net.

Related

• The Intercontinental Academia will bring together researchers from various countries to interdisciplinary studies on time