Science Leadership Program
(8-20 April, 2024)
From 8th to 20th April, 2024, the Sikkim Science Leadership Program was held at the Pal Zurmang Monastery in Gangtok. This workshop aimed to familiarise participants with the principles and concepts of Quantum Physics. We had a total of 37 participants, representing 12 different monasteries and nunneries. The two-week workshop was led by two visiting teachers from the U.S. George Musser, a renowned planetary scientist, and Ian Durham, a respected physicist. The science department staff of LTWA provided valuable support, offering interpretation assistances for participants who did not understand the English language.
In the first week, George Musser led some intellectually stimulating discussions on unity in diversity, general relativity, and the hidden universe. Further, wave-particle duality has been elaborated with an interesting activities with the participants. Additionally, how the collapse of the wave function and measurement problem of quantum mechanics have also been discussed. These topics gave insight into the central issues of physics, evoking further interest in and study of the subjects.
Another large element of discussion was light dualism, where the class further discussed how it acts like a wave and like a particle. An activity was held to further the learning by deeply probing participants into the phenomenon of wave-particle duality. The next point that participants looked at was wave function collapse, considered one of the basic symptoms of quantum mechanics, and what it means for reality. Finally, the measurement problem in quantum mechanics—specifically, whether observation creates behaviour relating to quantum systems—was the last topic covered in class. These wide- ranging but interconnected topics offered students a broad proficient grasp of central concepts in physics, provoking interest and deepening further inquiry.
In the second week, Ian gave a deep talk on Quantum Mechanics and Consciousness, covering a number of important themes. He started with the question of what implications scientific methods have upon our understanding of physical reality. Different applications within quantum mechanics, including the Mach-Zehnder interferometer, were discussed. He spoke at great length about wave-particle duality and its relation to the measurement problem. Ian also shared the most exciting idea about the role of consciousness in quantum measurement processes. The intersection of quantum mechanics and consciousness raises some very interesting questions about reality and how the observer shapes it.
About the teachers:
Ian Durham
Ian Durham is a mathematician and physicist whose research focus is on quantum information, quantum foundations, quantum gravity, the foundations of mathematics and physics, and whatever else happens to interest me at a given moment. Lately he have been focused on resource theory in quantum information, particularly from a relativistic quantum information standpoint. In terms of foundations, he is interested in the limits of physical knowledge, specifically where does physics “end” and philosophy “begin?” In relation to that, he has always been interested in the work of Arthur Eddington (my PhD was a study of his Fundamental Theory) and have recently become interested in some of Wheeler’s ideas, and he had begun to delve into this stuff a bit more recently.
George Musser
George Musser is an award-winning journalist, a contributing editor for Scientific American magazine, and the author of three books on fundamental physics, most recently “Putting Ourselves Back in the Equation.” He is the recipient of the Jonathan Eberhart Planetary Sciences Journalism Award from the American Astronomical Society and the American Institute of Physics Science Communication Award for Science Writing. He was a Knight Science Journalism fellow at MIT from 2014 to 2015. He attended Brown University as an undergraduate and Cornell University for graduate studies.
