Advancing technology enables continuous human innovation; however, not all innovations have positive impacts. One such example is artificial lighting, which illuminates the night but also creates light pollution.
Light pollution refers to excessive artificial brightness produced at night, particularly in urban areas. Although it may seem trivial, its effects can disrupt astronomical observation, human health, and energy efficiency.
This issue was raised by Dr. Rinto Anugraha NQZ in his inaugural address as a professor of socio-physics and complex networks at the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Universitas Gadjah Mada (FMIPA UGM).
His lecture was titled “Universality, Phase Transition, and Emergent Phenomena in Interdisciplinary Physics: From Socio-Physics and Electroconvection to Light Pollution.”
In his speech, Professor Anugraha elaborated on universality, phase transitions, and emergent phenomena in physics, linking them to social, technological, and environmental contexts.
The principle of universality, he explained, indicates that changes in microscopic details do not affect macroscopic behavior.
“Universality allows physicists to formulate general predictions for various systems as long as they fall within the same universality class with the same critical exponent values,” said Professor Anugraha on Thursday (Sep. 25) at the UGM Senate Hall.
Phase transition, he continued, is a common phenomenon across disciplines that enables a system to shift from one state to another.
He further explained that emergent phenomena help explain why large-scale patterns in society can arise from simple interactions between individuals.
One example of such emergent phenomena is socio-physics (an interdisciplinary approach that applies statistical physics methodologies to study social phenomena).
It examines how interactions between initially unstructured individuals can produce macroscopic order, such as consensus, a shared language, or a dominant culture.
According to Professor Anugraha, opinion models in socio-physics resemble spin models in physics, with possible outcomes including consensus, polarization, or fragmentation.
Light pollution, he noted, is another form of emergent phenomenon, where individual light sources collectively generate global effects such as obscuring views of the Milky Way.
“These three fields are interwoven by a common thread of fundamental science, giving rise to technological innovation, while technological innovation guides sustainable socio-environmental applications,” he concluded.
Secretary of the UGM Board of Professors, Professor Wahyudi Kumorotomo, stated that Professor Anugraha is one of UGM’s 541 professors and one of 57 active professors among the 77 professors FMIPA UGM has ever had.
Author: Leony
Editor: Gusti Grehenson
Post-editor: Rajendra Arya
Photographer: Donnie Trisfian