Sr TED Fellow & Quantum Physicist Dr Shohini Ghose

President-Canadian Association of Physicists, Dr #ShohiniGhose is a multi-award-winning quantum physicist, Senior TED Fellow and a Professor of Physics and Computer Science at Wilfrid Laurier University. 

In 2019, she was featured on the Star TV show TED Talks India Nayi Baat hosted by Shah Rukh Khan. In 2017 she was elected to the Royal Society of Canada's College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists. Her book Clues to the Cosmos was released in India in December 2019. She is the Co-Editor in Chief of the Canadian Journal of Physics, and the Director of the Laurier Centre for Women in Science.

00:40 How are things in Canada around the pandemic?

02:43 On the *social distancing* front, we are seeing different nations trying to message about it differently. People being not homogenous...they respond differently to these call... *some adhering to these distancing calls while some not*.

...*People take time to process the message*. Some people think the lockdown is over-reaction. Some people think that anything less than strictures is under-reaction...

06:12 *Your own journey as a scientist had this challenge as in the difficulty of seeing women in math and physics.* People not buying into the potential and measures towards it. And here *with Coronavirus, its again science being communicated and people not getting it*. Even people in power don't get the science so easily. 

...*Part of it is to do with psychology*. It is not mere information deficit model of behavior. Sometimes what's missing is that "we have to feel it". Also we need to get at core of how we understand some things better and how some are difficult...psychology has to be brought in. 

*Greater Good Science Centre Berkeley's course on Science of Happiness had a module on co-operation*. It touched on the aspect of humans acting upon feeling for the information or stories of those who are suffering.  

10:37 *In 20th century, we had world wars* and other things came in. In the lives of majority of us who are alive today, we haven't seen anything like this. 

We are in moment of history. *We are part of somebody else's history books now. People talk about movies like "Contagion"*. *Lots of these movies got the escalation right but many nuances were not part of them. What are they?*

13:48 *On one side people debunk science and on the other people think science will solve everything*.

...Science progresses slowly and over many experiments. We will learn more and more about this virus as scientists all over the world keep sharing and working at it. Science is tedious... 

15:05 Your book #CluestotheCosmos" documents the persevering efforts of so many people in science for anything large to come out. And it has some learnings for scientific pursuit in this crisis as well.

16:37 *It is so fresh to hear someone like you who can be candid about "i don't know"*. Whereas there are many people coming and commenting "i know" so blatantly. What do you have to say?

...Failure and being wrong are steps in science... *The humbling and inspiring aspects of our knowledge holds the answer*...take a listen. 

20:42 *People who lead have a duty* towards leading the nation. The duty demands them to appear them in certain manner. Sometimes it *demands them to appear confident and "i know" versus "i don't know" but our collective human enterprise will pull us out*. Where do you stand? 

...Government has put out a call for help in Ontario... manufacturing, equipment, understanding the research...distilleries are making hand sanitizers now...cloth manufacturers are changing to making medical wears and masks now...

24:36 Current crisis is also throwing the need for the enterprise of inter-disciplinary approaches to framing problems and solutions. 

26:46 What role do you see for #quantumphysics to play in the current biological crisis?

Quantum Physics is already participating. From explaining one electron in hydrogen behaving with one proton, it has come a long way...going forward it will have more direct impact with quantum computing taking guard...

29:46 Any anecdotes you would like to share around the new experience amidst social distancing?
...being able to talk about science in a human way...

More about Dr Shohini:
In 2019, she was featured on the Star TV show TED Talks India Nayi Baat hosted by Shah Rukh Khan In 2017 she was elected to the Royal Society of Canada's College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists. Her book Clues to the Cosmos was released in India in December 2019.