Nobel Laureate David Gross calls for international cooperation to prevent nuclear war

Nobel Laureate in Physics David Gross emphasized the urgent need for international cooperation to prevent a nuclear war in an interview with China Global Television Network in Beijing on Sunday, on the side lines of the 2025 International Congress of Basic Science.

Gross expressed his hope that scientists can serve as a bridge between nations through scientific diplomacy.

Warning nuclear arms have catastrophic potential over all mankind, with the risk of wiping out whole cities, causing massive death and destruction, the American physicist said cooperation is necessary to dial back doomsday dangers.

"For the last 80 years, nuclear weapons have not been used to kill people. But powerful countries, including this country, my country, Russia, and many other countries have studied this problem over the years. China, the United States, and Russia especially, can definitely start talking. And hopefully they will. But it will only happen, in my opinion, if the people of the world realize the unbelievable danger and demand, in some way, or request from their governments, whose leaders know exactly how dangerous it is. And it's always been a hope of scientists with the international connections that they could serve as a bridge between different countries. It's called scientific diplomacy," Gross said.

Scientific exchange

Gross also called for the removal of hindrances to scientific exchanges between different countries that have been created for industrial and military purposes.

"In scientific culture, we treasure disagreements, arguments, competition between ideas, where the judge is nature, and not power or force or superstition. Science is universal. The laws of science, of physics, apply everywhere in the universe, not to speak of the Earth. We all are asking the same questions and we benefit enormously from collaboration, cooperation, discussion. So, the increasing attempts to isolate people because of industrial secrets and military conflicts are very detrimental to the development of science and, of course, to the international harmony," he said.