两获诺奖的Sharpless教授:如何发现新事物|董佳家课题组
The following article is from 佳家课题组 Author 李翰政 董佳家
作者|
中国科学院上海有机化学研究所
董佳家课题组
导言|
Sharpless教授是2001年、2022年两次获得诺贝尔化学奖的科学家,诺奖史上出现过5位两次获得诺奖的人物,其中两次获得诺贝尔化学奖的有2位
【风云之声注:此文长达三万余字,董佳家课题组做了翻译,袁岚峰在此基础上做了一些修正与注释】
这里我们给大家推送的是Karl Barry Sharpless教授2008年11月在中国天津大学Honeywell Nobel Lecture 上给过的一个异常而且极为精彩的演讲。报告的题目是:“How to find something new”(如何发现新事物),Barry一生做过很多重要的演讲,但这个演讲可以说是其中最特殊的一次(不论形式还是内容)!
他告诉过我,这里是他数十年科研工作中最精华的一次总结和自述。(可能前后花的时间比他获得诺奖的汇报还要长,还要认真!)但是这个汇报并不是关于化学,而是关于科研方法和他自己关于科研创新的思考。我个人和这个PPT也结下了不解之缘:2009年3月份,也就是Barry在进行完这次报告后几个月,我加入了Scripps研究所他的课题组,没几天他就看穿了我的弱点/特点—于是他将PPT和原稿赠送给了我,这也是他给我的最重要的一份礼物。这个报告看了不下数百次,结合老先生十多年的教诲,学习感悟至深。直到自己建立了课题组,更是觉得有必要将这个翻译传播。这里我们会结合Barry的PPT逐页忠实地翻译他的PPT和原讲稿:
第一页
如何发现新事物
讲稿:
Thank you, I am greatly honored to be visiting Tianjin University as the Honeywell Nobel lecturer.
How wonderful to see all the distinguished citizens and members of the Tianjin University community; and how exciting to see so many eager young scientists and engineers—I am looking at the future of China!
I am often asked, 'How do you find new reactions? Where do you get your ideas?"
谢谢各位,我很荣幸受邀以霍尼韦尔诺贝尔奖演讲者的身份访问天津大学。
我非常高兴在此见到天津大学的所有杰出成员,也非常激动在此见到这么多热情年轻科学家和工程师—在你们身上我看到了中国的未来!
经常有人问我:“您如何找到新的反应?您是从哪里得到那些新的想法的?”
第二页
讲稿:
But there are many kinds of scientists.
翻译:
正如《道德经》所言:
如果你想发现新事物,千里之行的第一步就是要学会与不确定性共存,并学会接受失败如常,因为寻找未知事物的风险就像成为一名从不系安全绳的高空杂技演员一样大。
讲稿:
The
very first of the thousand steps, if you want to find something new, is
to learn to live with uncertainty, and to learn to accept failure as
the norm, because looking for the unknown is like being a trapeze artist
who never works with a safety net.
There's no guarantee when, or even if, you'll make discoveries; no way of predicting whether what you find is what you went looking for.
By definition, you can't reason your way to anything really new, so you must journey into the unknown.
如果你想发现新的事物,千里之行的第一步就是要学会与不确定性共存,并学会接受失败如常,因为寻找未知事物的风险就像成为一名从不系安全绳的高空杂技演员一样大。
若想成功,必须冒失败的风险。
While my reactions were running, I loved chalk-talking chemistry at the blackboard with other chemists.
I have never worried about security, or what the future might bring.
翻译:
我的性格使我乐观拥抱不确定性。实际上,我在斯坦福大学研究生院多待了几年,这期间做了很多(做相当于三个博士学位论文工作量的)研究,因为我热爱完全的自由—只需在实验室中开反应或在图书馆中进行研究,除此之外没有文书工作、授课或撰写研究基金的的职责。
—约翰·肯尼迪(美国前总统)
讲稿:
My Ph.D. supervisor, E.E. van Tamelen, was one of the most creative chemists of his generation, and he thought about the big problems. Since these are also the hardest problems, working for vT contributed even more to my being comfortable with uncertainty.
When you're pushing into the unknown, there's no guarantee of success, and so-called failure is your constant companion.
我的博士导师范塔梅伦(E.E. van Tamelen)是他这一代中最具创造力的化学家之一,他所想的都是化学中的重要问题,同时这些科学问题往往也是最困难的,因此和他共事更使我乐观拥抱不确定性。
当你踏入未知世界时,就无法保证一定能成功,所谓的失败才是永恒的伴侣。
我已经得到了很多实验结果,我已经知道了几千种不会成功的想法!
—托马斯·爱迪生(美国发明家)
讲稿:
I was very lucky. Prof van Tamelen gave us all a lot of freedom--he didn’t lay down explicit directions about what to do in the lab.
So 'failure' became a concept I practically eliminated from my mental vocabulary.
翻译:
我很幸运,范塔梅伦教授给了我们很大的自由—他并未就我实验室的工作制定明确的方向。(感同身受!)
这有助于我获得独立性,增强信心和成熟度。
当我在实验台上工作时,我的大多数反应都行不通,但我从来没有将它们视为失败。
我行不通的想法总会给我带来关于下一步尝试的更多想法。
因此,我的词典里没有“失败”这个概念。
我们要做的最重要的工作就是教会新雇员如何明智地失败。
我们必须训练他们一遍一遍地进行实验,不断尝试和失败,直到他知道什么方案是行得通的。
发明家并不是一个墨守成规、死守书本的人。
他尝试上千次可能都失败了,但只要成功一次,他就上道了。
讲稿:
From
1920 to 1947, Charles Kettering was head of research at one of the
world’s largest companies, the auto manufacturer General Motors, and I
share his views completely.
“Failing intelligently’ is a wonderful concept. You all need to learn how to fail intelligently.
Kettering says an inventor ‘tries and fails maybe a thousand times.’ From my experience, it’s closer to ten thousand times.
I imagine for most of you, it’s a big surprise to learn that, where making new discoveries is concerned, failure is really the path to success!
从1920年到1947年,查尔斯·凯特林(Charles Kettering)曾担任全球最大的公司之一——通用汽车的研发总裁(被誉为创新之父),我非常赞同他的观点。“明智地失败”是一个很棒的概念。你们都需要学习如何明智地失败。
凯特林说,一位发家“尝试后可能会失败上千次。”而根据我的经验,失败的数量更接近上万次。
对于新的发现来说,失败才是真正的通向成功之路,我认为对你们在坐的大多数人来说(因为Barry认为下面的观众群都是精英,都认为自己很成功,一直都很成功,听到这个道理真是一个很大的意外)!
讲稿:
You must not think of failures as wasted time.
My own experience is similar to that of SirHumphrey Davy:
“The most important of my discoveries have been suggested to me by my failures.”
第二步
迎接SERENDIPITY(意外发现)的到来
Likewise, nearly all the most valuable chemical processes in use today have an element of serendipity in their history.
当理解了SERENDIPITY(意外发现)在发现新事物中所起的特殊作用后,失败转变为成功则是不矛盾的。
Serendipity通常指的是在寻找完全不同的事物时的偶然幸运发现。
寻找新事物永远不可能是一个理性的过程。
真正的新事物是未知的—根据定义,未知事物不可能被描述或被预测。
因此,意外发现在科学发现中无处不在。
例如,开普勒对椭圆形行星轨道的证明源于他对酒桶的面积和体积进行测量的尝试。
同样地,几乎当今所有最有价值的化学过程的发现都有意外的因素。
讲稿:
In fact, the birth of the modern chemical industry was due entirely to serendipity.
In
1856, W H Perkins was an 18yr old student trying to synthesize quinine.
The reaction failed, and, as is so common with failures in the lab, he
ended up with anasty, black solid residue in the bottom of his flask.
While cleaning the flask, he found that the mess contained a
purple-colored compound that was soluble in alcohol.
Perkins
followed up on this curious and totally unexpected result, and he
discovered that the compound could dye textile fibers. He patented the
new dye and started his own dye works.
Through
pure serendipity, Perkins had discovered the first aniline coal-tar
dye. But it was by seizing the serendipitous opportunity that Perkins
became the modern chemical industry founding father.
The list of serendipitous discoveries is almost endless:
Columbus
stumbled upon America while looking for the East Indies; the accidental
discovery of polypropylene transform petroleum into the world we live
in.
Teflon,
penicillin, chemotherapy, X-rays, the pap smear, vaccination, Newton's
law of gravitation, safety glass, artificial sweeteners, Vulcanized
rubber, the Big Bang theory of creation, Silly Putty, popsicles, Coca
Cola, the discovery of DNA, even the telephone—they all came along when
something else was being looked at or looked for.
Many
common drugs were created to treat different ailments: a candidate for
treating angina with a remarkable side effect found a higher calling as
Viagra!
I'm sorry to say that 'serendipity' was voted to be one of the ten most difficult words in the English language to translate. I hope it translates well into Chinese because scientific discoveries almost always owe a big debt to serendipity.
实际上,现代化学工业的诞生完全是出于意外的发现。
1856年,珀金(Perkins)还是一名18岁的学生,他正在试图合成奎宁。他的反应失败了,这在实验室中稀松平常,他最后在烧瓶底部得到了一块令人不悦的黑色固体残渣。在清洗烧瓶时,他发现该固体残渣中含有一种可溶于乙醇的紫色化合物。
珀金对这个奇怪而完全出乎意料的结果进行了跟踪,他发现该化合物可以用于给纺织纤维染色。他为新染料申请了专利,并创建了自己的染料工厂。
通过纯粹的意外发现,珀金发现了第一种苯胺煤焦油染料。但是,正是通过抓住这个意外发现的机会,珀金才成为现代化学工业的奠基人。
意外发现的例子几乎是无止境的:
哥伦布在寻找东印度群岛时偶然发现了美洲大陆。聚丙烯的偶然发现将石油带进了我们所生活的世界。
特氟龙、青霉素、化学疗法、X射线、巴氏涂片、疫苗接种、牛顿万有引力定律、安全玻璃、人造甜味剂、硫化橡胶、宇宙大爆炸理论、橡皮泥、冰棒、可口可乐、DNA的发现,甚至是电话—它们都是在人们寻找其他事物时偶然发现的。
许多常见的药物在创制初期的目的都是用来治疗不同的疾病:一种治疗心绞痛的候选药物由于其显著的副作用——被称为“伟哥”,而被人们更加熟知!
很遗憾的是,“serendipity”被选为英语翻译中最困难的十个单词之一。我希望它能被很好地译成中文,因为其几乎所有的科学发现都欠她(serendipity)一个巨大的人情。
在观察所及的领域内,
机会只青睐有准备的头脑。
——路易·巴斯德,1854
If you wish to make discoveries, you must actively open the door and invite serendipity to come in.
翻译:
如果你想有新发现,则必须积极主动地开门邀请serendipity进入。
我认为有一个人将这件事描述得最好。1854年,路易·巴斯德(Louis Pasteur)曾写下他的名言:
在观察所及的领域内,机会只青睐有准备的头脑。
希望意味着时刻为尚未出生的事物做准备。
Perhaps you know about the famous British novelist Jane Austen. She never left home, never married, never traveled, but her novels--Pride and Prejudice is most famous--reveal a profound understanding of human nature--she was a true genius.
Less well known is a reclusive young woman from Massachusetts named Emily Dickinson. She and Walt Whitman are considered the greatest American poets of the 19th Century.
Jane Austen’s genius was for understanding human nature; Emily Dickinson had a genius for understanding the nature of creativity and human discovery. No one else expresses what I personally feel as well as she.
These lines from her poems beautifully express the role serendipity plays in life, as well as in scientific discovery:
Fortune befriends the bold.
Luck is not chance, it's toil; fortune's expensive smile is earned.
Knowing not when the dawn will come, I open every door.
To hope means to be ready at every moment for that which is not yet born.
翻译:
也许你知道英国著名小说家简·奥斯丁(Jane Austen)。她一生从未离家,从未结婚,也从未外出旅行,但是她的小说——其中《傲慢与偏见》是最著名的——揭示了对人性的深刻理解,她是一个真正的天才。
鲜为人知的是一位来自马萨诸塞州的名叫艾米丽·狄金森(Emily Dickinson)的隐居年轻女士,她和沃尔特·惠特曼(Walt Whitman)被认为是19世纪最伟大的美国诗人。
翻译:
称其为意外发现、好运、机会或运气吧。
如果你想发现新事物,请遵循它。
放弃你固执的计划,欢迎好运上门吧。
讲稿:
翻译:
你想在哪里寻找新发现?我的建议是:寻找新性质;研究过程
翻译:
我有时会说,如果你想被汽车撞到,请站在高速公路的中间。
我毕生的“站在高速公路中间”的研究方法很早就开始使用了。
在我读研究生时,曾在研讨会上听过一次来自加州理工的乔治·哈蒙德(George Hammond)教授的演讲。
他是一个真正的特立独行者,他所说的内容在当时的被视为异端,因为在那时,有机化学的主要研究目标是合成复杂的天然产物及相关类似物。
哈蒙德教授那时说的是:
“ 关注过程,而不是产品。”
合成最根本和最持久的目标并不是产生新的化合物,而是产生新的功能。
——乔治·哈蒙德
加州理工教授
讲稿:
His message resonated in me—it was like an religious conversion. What he said made perfect sense, despite it being practically the opposite of what was common practice in organic chemistry at the time.
I didn't think of it this way then, but I know now that I was violating a 'sacred cow.' I was deviating from accepted practice. I was freeing my mind.
He later wrote:
“The most fundamental and lasting objective of synthesis is not the production of new compounds, but the production of new properties.”
Production
means processes. And if the chemistry is where you might want to find
something new, process research is still, I believe, the best place to
go.
And the old advice still holds true--find holes and fill them.
讲稿:
Imagine that everyone has The Plague and that The Plague has a lot of different causes and symptoms.
翻译:
讲稿:
We are all so very, very easy to fool.
Look at this picture.
Can you see all the little grey spots in the spaces between where the corners of the boxes intersect?
翻译:
我们都非常,非常容易被欺骗。
大家请看这张图片。
你们能看到方格相交处的所有小灰点吗?
它们似乎四处移动。我可以看到它们—你们可以吗?如果你们可以看到,请举手!
现在只关注其中一个交点,专注于一个小灰点。
它还在吗?
不,当然不在,因为所有这些小灰点都是视觉错觉,方格之间并没有任何东西。
期望、傲慢、偏颇、恐惧、幻觉、妄想、神话、偏见、圣律、政治、资助、
非理性的忠诚
其中最糟糕的是:“亲情”——不理性地对你自己的想法照单全收
讲稿:
I repeat: the biggest obstacle to creative thinking is all the baggage we carry around without realizing it.
What I called The Plague.
Expectations, pride, biases, phobias, illusions, delusions, myths, prejudices, sacred cows, politics, patronage, irrational loyalties (the worst of which is parental affection—irrationally loving your own ideas best)--I could go on and on.
These are the causes of the plague. If you want to be cured, you have to do it on your own--it’s not taught in the classroom.
Richard Feynman, the Nobel prize-winning physicist, and one of my greatest heroes said:
“The first principle is that you must not fool yourself - and you are the easiest person to fool.”
He also said:
“I'm smart enough to know I'm dumb.”
I urge you to read any of Feynman's autobiographies and biographies. I think you'll see how Feynman's childhood, and especially his relationship with his father, gave him such a clear vision, a vision without the faults that most of us have.
When they went walking, his father would point out a bird and they would observe it, and his father would tell young Richard everything he knew about it. Feynman later wrote:
You can know the name of a bird in all the languages of the world, but when you're finished, you'll know absolutely nothing whatever about the bird... So let's look at the bird and see what it's doing -- that's what counts. I learned very early the difference between knowing the name of something and knowing something.
If you're a scientist, there are lots of false traps to fall in. The literature can be wrong. The definitions of where one discipline ends and another begin create mental barricades. Current fashions in research can be the result of funding trends or personality cults or even the biases of journal editors.
Here's something I wonder about: organic chemistry has had a single focus for well over fifty years, yet the most important reaction themes at our disposable were discovered before that time. What's the message? Is it possible that organic chemistry and women in 5" high heels are both fashion victims?
翻译:
我愿重申:创造性思维的最大障碍是我们随身携带的所有没有被意识到的思维上的包袱。
讲稿:
Not wanting other colleagues to think you’re dumb is probably the biggest impediment on Earth to thinking creatively.
It’s a kind of corollary of what I called Step 1, learning to live with uncertainty.
You can’t be creative if you can’t admit you’re wrong if you care too much about what others think of you.
You have to keep believing in yourself and your goals when you don’t have the full respect of your colleagues.
You must choose between what you want to do, and what others think you should do.
But if you want to be an explorer, you won’t be alone--there ARE others out there who want to follow the discovery path, and there ARE real role models who can support you and give you guidance.
My greatest role models, in addition to Prof van Tamelen, were Henry Taube, Jim Collman, and Bill Johnson at Stanford; Derek Barton at Imperial College, London; Gilbert Stork at Columbia, Albert Eschenmoser of the ETH (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology) in Zurich, and Saul Winstein at UCLA. I got to know them all when I was a young scientist, and I learned so much from my interactions with them.
Professors Taube and Barton later became Nobel Laureates, and I hope there may be yet more Nobelists on my list. These are scientists whose entire careers have been characterized by breadth of thinking and by discovery.
So to be an explorer, seek out good mentors and like-minded contemporaries, and learn to live without the support of the mainstream.
翻译:
不希望其他同事认为你很愚蠢,这可能是创造性思考的最大障碍。
这是我称为 “第一步”的东西,即“学习和不确定性共存”的一个推论。
如果你不能承认自己错了,或者过分在意别人对你的看法,那么就无法发挥创造力。
即使当你缺乏同事的充分尊重时,也必须继续相信自己和你的目标。
你必须要在你自己想做什么和其他人认为你应该做什么之间进行选择。
但是,如果你想成为一名探险家,你将不会孤单—的确有人愿意遵循发现之路,也的确有真正的榜样可以为你提供支持和指导。
除了范塔梅伦教授,我最杰出的榜样是斯坦福大学的亨利·陶布(Henry Taube),吉姆·科尔曼(Jim Collman)和比尔·约翰逊(Bill Johnson)、帝国理工的德里克·巴顿(Derek Barton)、哥伦比亚大学的吉尔伯特·斯托克(Gilbert Stork)、瑞士联邦理工的阿尔伯特·埃申莫瑟(Albert Eschenmoser)和加州大学洛杉矶分校的索尔·温斯坦(Saul Winstein)。当我还是一个年轻的科学家时,我就认识了他们,从从与他们的交流中学到了很多。
陶布(Taube)和巴顿(Barton)教授后来都成为诺贝尔奖得主,我希望我的列表上还会有更多的诺贝尔奖得主。这些科学家的整个职业生涯都以思维广度和重要的科学发现为特征。
因此,要成为一名探索者,就需要寻找好的导师和志同道合的当代人,并学会在没有主流支持的情况下进行研究。
亨利·陶布(Henry Taube)(1915-2015):美国无机化学家,因对金属配位化合物电子转移机理的研究获1983年诺贝尔化学奖。
吉姆·科尔曼(Jim Collman)(1932-):美国无机生物化学家、有机生物化学家,揭示了呼吸和能量所必需的金属酶以及血液中氧运输所必需的血红蛋白和肌红蛋白的关键结构和功能细节。
德里克·巴顿(Derek Barton)(1918-1998):英国化学家,因在研究有机化合物的晶体结构和络合物分子复杂的空间三维结构中对立体化学的发展作出巨大贡献获1969年诺贝尔化学奖。
吉尔伯特·斯托克(Gilbert Stork)(1921-2017):美国有机合成化学家,研究方向为天然产物全合成,并发展了一系列以他命名的有机合成反应,如Stork烯胺化反应、Stork-Zhao烯基化反应等。
阿尔伯特·埃申莫瑟(Albert Eschenmoser)(1925-):瑞士有机化学家,有机合成大师,以合成维生素B12成名。
索尔·温斯坦(Saul Winstein)(1912-1969):加拿大物理有机化学家,碳正离子研究领域的代表人物,亲核取代反应中紧密离子对理论的提出者。
One of the most difficult cults a scientist can join is complexity worship.
人们对“新事物”有非常开放的态度,只需要这些“新事物”与旧事物完全一样。
——查尔斯·凯特林
美国工程师、发明家
PEOPLE—SCIENTISTS, TOO—IRRATIONALLY RESISTANCE.
翻译:
人—包括科学家在内,不理性地抗拒改变。
我们都抗拒改变—始终跟随主流很容易。但掉头开创你自己与众不同的研究领域却需要付出真正的努力。
整个系统都在抗拒改变—资助机构不想资助猜测;一群群的科学家创建了自我延续的帝国。
正如彼得·梅达瓦爵士所说:
“人脑对待一个新想法的方式就像身体对待一种陌生蛋白质一样:拒绝它。”
要成为发现者,我们必须能够在情况发生变化时改变计划。
我曾经使我的课题组陷入疯狂,因为我的研究情况过去常常改变!如果小组成员中做出一个非常有趣的结果,我可能会在24小时内让每个人都放下他们现有的课题,转入这一新的研究方向。当那条研究线索崩溃时,因为,当然了,大多数研究线索确实会崩溃,每个人都可能会在几天内再次改变他们的课题,要么是继续研究已经发现的新机会,要么是回到之前的课题。
我并不是说这是管理课题组的好方法—并不是!但这是覆盖新科学领域的最快方法。
我之所以能够成功,是因为我的团队成员历来都是顽强的。他们中最优秀的人就像我一样,对出色的科学本身感到兴奋,这种追求胜过发表文章或找工作的确定性。
有些著名的科学家也不总是正确的,我们很多“已知”事实上是错误的。
我无法给任何年龄阶段的科学家们提供比这更好的建议:
讲稿:
Sir Peter hits the nail on the head again:
“I can not give a scientist of any age better advice than this: the intensity of a conviction that a hypothesis is true has no bearing over whether it is true or not.”
How do you combat the illusion that what we ‘know’ is right? If you’re a chemist, it means you must take the time to run the reactions all the way back to the origins of the chain of assumptions you are making.
It’s tedious but necessary.
Subsequent work in our lab discovered the error and we immediately published a retraction.
I see structural errors all the time. I rarely see retractions.
As a scientist, if you ever see ANYTHING questionable in your results, you must trace your assumptions all the way back to their origins by repeating the work in your own lab.
It's tedious. It’s working at the bottom of the pyramid. But it’s required of a good scientist.
I personally know someone whose career was destroyed by believing something in the literature that was wrong. It destroyed the veracity of his research and made him unemployable at the level someone of his brilliance deserved.
翻译:
彼得爵士再次一语中的:
“我无法给任何年龄的科学家提供比这更好的建议:关于一个假设成立的信念的强烈程度与该假设事实上是否真的成立成立毫无关系。”
如何应对我们认为我们所“知道的”是正确的这一错觉?如果你是化学家,则意味着你必须花时间将反应一直追溯到所做的假设链的起源。
这很枯燥,但有必要。
了解极限
不可能以不被误解的某种方式表达观点。
讲稿:
KNOW THE LIMITS :
You must assume you will be misunderstood.
My way of dealing with that is not publishing a discovery immediately, but waiting to publish after real robustness has been demonstrated. Then I can provide a whole cookbook of examples of how to run my reactions. I try to cover all the obvious potential applications. I try to find and publish, the limits of a reaction's utility.
And yet, time and time again, I will see papers that complain about not getting the expected results from my reactions. I know my papers provided the correct information in the first place, and just proper reading of them would prevent poor results and wasted man-hours, but, as Karl Popper said:
“It is impossible to speak in such a way that you cannot be misunderstood.”
Too much is published, and too little of value is said. Much of what is published in the literature is simply not useful. Too few scientists pursue a discovery until they know it is genuinely robust.
In chemistry today, most authors don't even acknowledge, let alone compare, their claims with all similar claims that already exist in the literature.
This is either self-deception on a grand scale or unethical self-promotion.
翻译:
了解极限:
必须假定自己会被误解。
我解决该问题的方法不是将所发现的成果立即发表,而是在证明了该反应真正的稳健性后再等待发表。之后,我可以提供一个完整的指南以说明如何进行反应。我尝试将反应覆盖至所有明显的潜在应用。我试图找到该反应效用的极限所在并将其发表出来。
然而,一次又一次,我会看到一些文章抱怨我的反应没有得到预期的结果。仅仅正确地阅读它们就可以防止糟糕的结果和浪费的人力。然而,正如卡尔·波普尔(Karl Popper)所说:
“不可能以不被误解的某种方式表达观点。”
知道何时停止
你错过的并不重要,重要的是你所找到的
在某些事业中,谨慎的无序才是真正的方法。
——赫尔曼·麦尔维尔
经典美国小说《白鲸》作者
讲稿:
KNOW WHEN TO STOP:
You need to know when what you miss doesn’t matter.
You need to remember: the only thing that is important is what you FIND.
In the discovery process, speed is everything. Remember, thousands of things won't work before you find something important.
It really upsets me to see time being lost when a member of my research group doesn't know when to stop.
Two things are very hard for tidy-minded people to learn:
First of all, MOVE on as soon as you know what's GOING on--dotting all the Is and crossing all the Ts – is simply unnecessary.
Second, stop when your patient is dead. Dispose of the body and don’t bother with an autopsy. Resurrection later is always possible.
There's just so very, very much out there to discover, and so little time to do it.
翻译:
科学研究的方法并不科学,因此不要证明,而要证伪。
关注所有看似真的句子然后质疑它们。
——戴维·里斯曼
哈佛大学社会学家
科学中的真理可以定义为能够为通往下一个更好的理论开辟通道的最适合假说。对研究科学家来说,每天早餐前抛弃一个自己宠爱的假说是一个就像“早上好”一样的锻炼,这使他保持年轻。
——康拉德·洛伦茨
因对个体和社会行为的构成和激发方面做所做贡而献获得
1973年诺贝尔生理学或医学奖
THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD ISN'T SCIENTIFIC—SO DON'T PROVE—DISPROVE
翻译:
科学研究的方法并不科学,因此不要证明,而是证伪。
你曾经学过的但需要忘记的最明显例子是所谓的“科学方法”。科学的方法是提出一个假设,然后证明它。
实际上,优秀的科学家应该始终在脑海中有多个可行的平行假设,其目的是证伪它们。
每当我在实验室中取得好结果时,我就下意识的认为哪里出了问题。还记得阿尔弗雷德·诺贝尔(Alfred Nobel)所说的话吗?
“如果我有上千个想法,而最终只有一个想法是好的,我就心满意足了。”
实际上,试验的结果越令人兴奋,它们出错的可能性就越高。
我之前提过的斯坦福导师亨利·陶比(Henry Taube)在开研讨会时总会坐在前排,我记得他经常对当天的演讲者说:
“这让我感到担心,结果太好了倒不像是真的——大自然并没有那么滑头。”
尝试扼杀好的结果,尝试把它们弄成碎片。在推进至下一步之前,请尽可能去证伪。
戴维·里斯曼(David Riesman)曾说:
“关注那些所有看似真实的句子并质疑它们。”
康拉德·洛伦茨(KONRAD LORENZ)曾说:
每当一个理论在你看来是唯一可能的解释的时候,就把它当作一个征兆:说明你既不理解该理论,也没有理解它打算解决的问题。
——卡尔·波普尔
科学哲学家
讲稿:
As usual, the great Karl Popper expressed it beautifully:
“ Good tests kill flawed theories; we remain alive to guess again.”
AND Popper again:
“ Whenever a theory appears to you as the only possible one, take this as a sign that you have neither understood the theory nor the problem which it was intended to solve.”
伟大的卡尔·波普尔(Karl Popper)仍然完美地诠释了这一点:
注意不要爱上你自己的理论
一旦一个人形成一个理论,他的想象力在每件事上看到的都只是符合这个理论的特征。
——托马斯·杰弗逊
美国前总统
——彼得·梅达瓦爵士
诺贝尔医学奖得主
讲稿:
“The moment a person forms a theory, his imagination sees in every object only the traits that favor that theory.”
Medawar was right, as always:
“[Such an]author can be excused of dishonesty only on the grounds that before deceiving others he has taken great pains to deceive himself.”
变得更有创造力
创造力往往是由于其存在缺陷,或与有缺陷家庭成员一起成长的结果。
创造力更多的是关于过程,而不是关于结果。
创造力更多的是由后天成长的经验带来的,而不是与生俱来的。
讲稿:
Is it possible to teach yourself to be more creative?
Yes. Emphatically, yes!
There's a clear connection between creativity and brain dysfunction like dyslexia, attention deficit disorder, autism, Asperger'ssyndrome, depression, and others.
It seems creativity is frequently the result of having such disabilities or growing up with family members with disabilities.
The child who can't provide the correct answer quickly enough explores other pathways to solve problems.
Or maybe the problems don't get solved, but lots of new ways to look at the problems are investigated.
So creativity is more about journeys than it is about destinations. It is the opposite of rigid certainty, the shortest line between two points.
And because I believe creativity is created more by experience than it is by genes, more nurture than Nature, I believe you can become more creative.
Over the years I've seen it happen many times in my research group. One of my students described it as "learning how to think weird."
To learn creativity, it is necessary to flex, to forget you know so much, to unteach your brain how to connect dots, to practice thinking outside the box, to look at every problem as if you've never seen anything like it before.
There are books to guide you through the process, but the easiest way to learn is to associate with creative people and to talk, talk, talk with them.
有没有可能使自己更有创造力?
毫无疑问可以!
创造力和大脑功能障碍有明显的联系,如阅读障碍、注意力缺陷障碍、自闭症、亚斯普杰氏症候群(注:常发生在小学低年级学生中的精神紊乱,症状为社交能力差和重复性的行为模式)、抑郁症等。
似乎创造力往往是由于其存在心理缺陷,或与有心理缺陷家庭成员一起成长的结果。
不能快速给出正确答案的孩子正探索其他解决问题的途径。
或者也许问题没有得到解决,但许多看待问题的新方法正被研究。
因此,创造力更多的是关于过程而不是结果。它是严格确定性的对立面,是连接两点之间的最短线。
因为我相信创造力更多的是由经验积累的,而不是与生俱来的,所以我相信你们可以变得更有创造力。
多年来,这在我的研究小组屡见不鲜。我的一个学生把它描述为“学习如何奇思妙想”。
关于创造力的观点
(女)美国诗人
理性越多,创造越少。
讲稿:
Here are some of my favorite sayings about creativity.
My favorite poet, Emily Dickinson, of course:
“Tell all the truth, but tell it slant.”
J ROBERT OPPENHEIMER:
“There are children playing in the street who could solve some of my top problems in physics because they have modes of sensory perception that I lost long ago.”
Novelist Raymond Chandler:
“The more you reason the less you create.”
翻译:
以下是我最喜欢的一些关于创造力的名言。
我最喜欢的诗人,艾米丽·狄金森(Emily Dickinson)曾说:
“倾诉实情,然有婉转。”
罗伯特·奥本海默(J ROBERT OPPENHEIMER)曾说:
“有些孩子在街上玩耍,他们可以帮我解决物理上的一些大问题,因为他们有我很久以前失去的感知模式。”
小说家雷蒙德·钱德勒(Raymond Chandler)曾说:
“理性越多,创造越少。”
生物化学家
一个人必须内有喧嚣,才能成为一位舞蹈明星。
哲学家
ALBERT SZENT-GYORGYI, the biochemist who isolated vitamin C:
“Discovery consists of looking at the same thing as everyone else and thinking something different.”
FREDERICK NIETZCHE:
“One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star.”
Also NIETZCHE:
“Many men fail as an original thinker simply because his memory is too good.”
From the playwright and philosopher GEORGE BERNARD SHAW:
“What the world calls originality is only an unaccustomed method of tickling it.”
精神分析师、哲学家
讲稿:
ERIC FROMM:
“Creativity requires the courage to let go of certainties.”
And, finally, FREDERICK VON SCHILLER:
“It hinders the creative work of the mind if the intellect examines too closely the ideas as they pour in.”
Schiller was speaking to the relationship between creativity and intuition.
翻译:
埃里克·弗罗姆(ERIC FROMM)曾说:
“创造力需要勇气去放弃确定性。”
最后,弗里德里希·冯·席勒(FREDERICK VON SCHILLER)曾说:
“如果智力在灵感涌现时过于仔细地检查,就会阻碍创造性工作。”
席勒在这里谈到了创造力和直觉之间的微妙关系。
直觉是一个真实的现象
直觉是上天的恩赐,理性只是它那忠实的仆人。
然而我们营造的社会,
却把荣耀赠给了仆人,
——阿尔伯特·爱因斯坦
讲稿:
I don't know if it can be taught, but you can try to learn to be receptive to insights from intuition.
Intuition is defined as the act or faculty of knowing or sensing without the use of rational processes.
Other ways of describing it are gut feelings, informed guessing, acting on a hunch, and intuitive leaps.
Current research indicates that intuition is a kind of non- or extra-verbal thinking.
But it's a quality scientist almost sneer at, because it's not a rational process or a quality that can be measured, like school performance or I.Q.
I’ve been described as being intuitive, with the clear implication being that I Wasn't really as smart as the person who was talking about me.
But Einstein said:
“The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.”
翻译:
直觉是一个真实的现象!
我不知道它是否可以被传授,但你可以尝试学会接受直觉的洞察力。
直觉被定义为在不使用理性过程的情况下产生认识或感知的行为或能力。
肚子感觉(gut feelings)是有根据的猜测、凭直觉行事和跳跃性思维。
当前的研究表明,直觉是一种非语言或超语言思维。
但这是科学家们嘲笑的品质,因为这既不是一个理性过程,又不是可以被衡量的品质,例如学校的表现或智商。
2001年的一课
我相信凭直觉就能找到这些主题,我只凭直觉写作。当刚有想法时我仅有一个大致的轮廓。但我几年后才能完全理解自己当时的作品。
——奈保尔
2001年诺贝尔文学奖得主
讲稿:
V.S.Naipaul says:
I have trusted my intuition to find the subjects, and I have written intuitively. I have an idea when I start, I have a shape, but I will fully understand what I have written only after some years.
Taking a long shower with my head directly under the water is one of my best times for receiving intuitions. My subconscious will reveal---often in a flash--exciting, new intuitions about things I’ve been mulling about for years and years.
我相信自己的直觉,其他2001年诺贝尔奖得主(Barry于2001年获得诺贝尔化学奖)也是如此。
奈保尔(V.S. Naipaul)曾说:
我相信凭直觉就能找到这些主题,我只凭直觉写作。当刚有想法时我仅有一个大致的轮廓。但我几年后才能完全理解自己当时的作品。
将脑袋直接放在淋浴器下洗个长澡是我获得直觉的最好时机之一。我的潜意识会(常常是转瞬即逝)揭示出我多年来一直在思考的事物的令人兴奋的新直觉。
讲稿:
Geneticist Barbara McClintock was a fellow intuitive thinker. Her theories were first rejected, then considered controversial, but eventually universally accepted.
She couldn't prove her theories to colleagues because the process was intuitive--subconscious, and impossible to translate into verbal language.
It took decades before confirmation came from other scientists before her work could be rationally, linearly explained.
McClintock describes having 'a feeling for the organism.’
My wife tells me that when we first met, when I was a graduate student, I told her that I could think like a molecule.
I don't remember that, so I don't know if I was joking or if I really felt that way!
历史上的每个发现都要经历三个阶段:
当它首次公布时,
人们认为这是不正确的。
不久之后,当事实如此明显以至于他们无法再否认时,
他们认为这并不重要。
此后,如果它的重要性变得足够明显,他们会说,
美国哲学家
讲稿:
William James’s observations apply especially to intuitive discoveries:
There are three periods in the history of every discovery:
When it is first announced, people think that it is not true.
Then, a little later, when the truth is so obvious that they can no longer deny it, they think it unimportant.
After that, if its importance becomes sufficiently manifest, they say, in any case, it's not new.
翻译:
威廉·詹姆斯(William James)的观察尤其适用于科学发现:
历史上的每个发现都要经历三个阶段:
当它首次公布时,人们认为这是不正确的。
不久之后,当事实如此明显以至于他们无法再否认时,
他们认为这并不重要。
此后,如果它的重要性变得足够明显,他们会说,
无论如何,这不是新的。
“新的科学真理的胜利不是因为说服了它的对手们,使他们看到了光芒,而是因为他的对手们终于死掉了,新的一代在成长过程中就对它熟悉了。”
——马克斯·普朗克
讲稿:
MAX PLANCK held a similar view:
A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it.
Resisting the new, resisting change--why is it so difficult for ‘normal’ people?
翻译:
马克斯·普朗克(MAX PLANCK)持类似观点:
“新的科学真理的胜利不是因为说服了它的对手们,使他们看到了光芒,而是因为他的对手们终于死掉了,新的一代在成长过程中就对它熟悉了。”
抗拒新事物,抗拒改变—为什么“正常”人这么难接受它们?
没有一个全新的想法可以遵循的已知的路线。你必须凭直觉进行飞跃。
但其中微妙之处在于,一旦实现了飞跃,
你必须通过填补中间步骤来证明其合理性。
——史蒂芬·霍金
讲稿:
Intuition is the most difficult mental process to understand because it lies outside language.
What Stephen Hawking calls ‘filling in the intermediate steps’ isn’t easy.
In my case, the assignments I gave my research team were often about filling in what was missing between known chemistry and my intuition.
Remember Naipaul describing how it sometimes took many years before he understood his own writings?
The subconscious is amazing--it seems the switch is always on!
讲稿:
I'VE DESCRIBED SOME OF THE SKILLS REQUIRED FOR DISCOVERY, NOW HERE ARE MY OWN PERSONAL TECHNIQUES
翻译:
我已经描述了一些发现所需的技能,接下来是我个人最爱的一些研究技巧。
讲稿:
Nothing is as exciting as an anomaly!
Look for the unexpected in your research and in the literature—and the literature goes back to the 19thC!
For my entire career--and it’s still what I do--I look for hints of unexpected chemical reactivity.
When I read an article in the literature, and see the reaction conditions, there’s a range of resulting chemical structures that I expect to see. When there are discontinuities between the structure that appears in print and the ones in my head, my discovery antennae start vibrating!
The structures can be virtually any type of compound--polymers, lipids, proteins, sugars, enzymes--you name it--and I have a feeling for what the outcomes should be.
讲稿:
Pioneering geneticist Alfred Sturtevant constructed the first genetic map of a chromosome in 1913. He bred house flies--drosophila--and logged the characteristics of each generation. What he looked for, in particular, were anomalies.
Chromosomal anomalies were the clues from which Sturtevant developed his theories.
翻译:
开拓性的遗传学家阿尔弗雷德·斯特蒂文特(Alfred Sturtevant)于1913年构建了第一个染色体遗传图谱。他饲养了果蝇,并记录了每一代的特征。他寻找的正是其中的异常情况。
染色体异常正是斯特蒂文特发展其理论的线索。
去黑暗、可怕的地方寻找发现的线索吧
利用真实或想象的恐惧症
寻找那些从没人敢向下翻看过的石头
讲稿:
You
all know who Stephen King is, don't you--raise your hands? Over 350
million copies of his creepy, scary books have been sold.
Someone asked him if he had bad nightmares. He said, "NO! I GIVE THEM ALL TO YOU.”
It was years before I realized just what I was doing, but my most prolific discovery technique has been to go looking for new chemical reactivity in dark, scary places.
That’s where you’ll find new frontiers and plenty of elbow room.
I spent decades taking advantage of other scientists' fears and phobias—many of which were untrue or based on misunderstandings.
I turned other people’s phobias into rich opportunities.
翻译:
你们都知道斯蒂芬·金(Stephen King)是谁,不是吗?知道的举手?他的那些令人毛骨悚然的恐怖小说已售出超过3.5亿册。
有人曾经问他做过噩梦吗,他说:“不!我把噩梦都留给你们。”
几年之前,我才意识到自己在做什么,我最有效的发现技巧一直是在那些所谓的黑暗,可怕的地方寻找新的化学反应性。
在这里,你们会发现新的领域和充足的可探索的空间。
我花了数十年的时间利用其他科学家的害怕和恐惧—这其中许多是不科学或是基于误解的。
我把别人的恐惧症变成了丰富的机会。
我需要兴奋
讲稿:
I
think I went this route because, as a child, I liked being surprised, I
liked being shocked, and I loved being scared to death.
When I grew up, the chemistry lab was the only place where I could still get the kind of thrill I loved when I was a child. What’s so great about chemistry is that it’s an infinite source of novelty and surprises.
People often ask, “Isn’t it thrilling, making such wonderful discoveries?”
No, that’s not the way I am. Whatever I did yesterday fades away today.
I am always looking for the next thing.
翻译:
我想我走上这条路是因为,作为一个孩子,我就喜欢被惊讶,喜欢被震惊,尤其喜欢被吓到死。
讲稿:
I turned a lot of phobias into opportunities.
I made an international name for myself with selenium chemistry after only two years as an assistant professor at MIT—the field was wide open because of misunderstandings about selenium's toxicity. For me, it was like walking through a gem field and just picking up jewels.
翻译:
我把很多恐惧症变成了自己的机会。
在麻省理工学院担任助理教授仅两年后,我就凭借硒化学的研究发现而享誉国际。由这个领域广为开放,因为人们对硒的毒性充满误解。对我来说,这就像走过一块遍地是宝石的田野,然后顺手捡起那些而已。
讲稿:
For
decades I had little or no competition as I systematically moved
through the Periodic Table, mining areas others were reluctant to work
in.
Seleno-,Peroxo-, Hydro-, Osmo-, Azido-, Hydrazino-, Aziridino-, and Acetyleno phobias—I took advantage of them all!
几十年来,当我的研究系统性地漫游元素周期表时,我几乎甚至没有碰到竞争者,因为其他人都不愿意研究这些(Phobia)。
简单就是更好,所以请遵循KISS原则:
KISS是KEEP IT SHORT & SIMPLE(大道至简)的缩写
讲稿:
SIMPLE IS BETTER, SO FOLLOW THE KISS PRINCIPLE:
KISS IS AN ACRONYM FOR KEEP IT SHORT & SIMPLE
Generally speaking, broadly useful processes are rather simple. In economic terms, as cost goes down, usefulness goes up. So what's the virtue in being complex when simplicity usually has higher utility?
Kevin Kelly is one of my gurus, and his book OUT OF CONTROL is like a bible to me.
简单就是更好,所以请遵循KISS原则:
KISS是KEEP IT SHORT& SIMPLE(大道至简)的缩写。
凯文·凯利曾说:
“这有效,为什么要担心呢?”是生命最深刻的哲学。
复杂性只能从已成功的简单体系中产生。
我们只能从愚蠢的东西中得到聪明的东西。
讲稿:
Scientists devote far too much time to trying to understand systems that are far too complex to ever be comprehended by the feeble human mind.
Kelly says
“It works, why worry?” is life’s deepest philosophy.
Complexity must be grown from simple systems that already work.
We can only get smart things from stupid things.
Remember the KISS principle, Keep It Short & Simple.
There’s so much out there to be found. Why look for complex things when simple things are just as easy to find, and much more useful when you find them.
科学家花了太多的时间来试图理解那些虚弱的人类思维根本难以理解的复杂体系。
凯利说:
“这有效,你还担心什么呢?”是人生最深的哲学。
复杂性只能从已经可用的简单体系中产生。
我们只能从愚蠢的事情中学到聪明的东西。
记住“KISS”原则,“大道至简”。
有太多的东西等待我们去发现。当找寻简单的事物同样容易,而且更加有用时,为什么要寻找复杂的事物呢?
讲稿:
ALBERT EINSTEIN said:
“Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler.”
LEONARDODA VINCI said:
“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”
但,最重要的是,放手去做!
美国喜剧作家
讲稿:
One of the most important discovery techniques is one of the hardest to teach my research group members: JUST DO IT!
Often the so-called ‘smartest’ students--the ones who attended the best universities and had the highest grades as undergraduates--have the hardest time doing discovery research.
I’ll say ‘try this,’ and they’ll give me a million reasons why what I’ve asked them to do won’t work. In the time they spend convincing themselves why what I want them to do won’t work, they could have run a hundred reactions.
But they resist me--they’re slaves to what they think they know, and by now all of you here know just how much we all fool ourselves--not intentionally, of course--about what it is we know.
The reason I succeed more often than most chemists--the reason I make more discoveries than most chemists--is that I’ll try anything!
So, most important, is to just get in the lab and DO IT!
There’s a Chinese Proverb that says it all: TALK DOES NOT COOK RICE.
翻译:
有一个好主意的最好办法就是有一大堆主意。
——莱纳斯·鲍林
1954年诺贝尔化学奖得主、1962年诺贝尔和平奖得主
我从未听说过一个学生死于过度工作。
——德里克·巴顿爵士
1969年诺贝尔化学奖得主
(他要求学生每周工作80小时)
讲稿:
Just do it!
The more experiments you run, the more things you try, the more likely you’ll have a good idea. It worked for Linus Pauling, and he won TWO Nobel Prizes.
Derek Barton, one of my mentors and role models, was a very demanding research director who expected his group members to be in the lab all day (and late into the night), every day. He said he never heard of a student dying from overwork.
And, of course, it’s true: the harder you work, the more hours you put in working in the lab, the more experiments you can run, the more you will find.
翻译:
放手去做!
你做的试验越多,尝试的事情越多,那么你就更可能有更好的想法。这在莱纳斯·鲍林(Linus Pauling)身上应验,他获得了两次诺贝尔奖。
我的导师和榜样之一德里克·巴顿(Derek Barton)是一位非常苛刻的研究主管,他希望他的小组成员每天整天(直到深夜)都在实验室里。他说“从未听说过一个学生死于过度工作”。
当然,这是事实:工作越努力,你在实验室中投入的时间越多,可以进行的试验越多,就会发现更多。
讲稿:
I understand that my talk and slides will be available to you as a download, and that will include some recommended reading from me.
I'm going to give your library a subscription to Science News if it's not already being received. The world would be a better place if everyone read it, scientist and nonscientist, alike.
I also urge you all to look online at the Tuesday issue of the New York Times, the day the Science Section appears. The Times has great science bloggers, too.
I will end now with one final bit of advice for you, advice from one of the greatest Western explorers and discovery of all time, James Cook, captain of the ship Endeavor:
“If you plan to make a voyage of discovery, choose a ship of shallow draft.”
Speed, flexibility, maneuverability--essential characteristics when you set out to make your discoveries.
For your own journey into the unknown, select a flexible, speedy craft and keep all windows open all the time to let serendipity pour in.
And good luck! I wish you all the very best of luck!
期刊:
Science News is a bi-weekly news magazine covering the most important research in all fields of science. Its pages are packed with concise, accurate articles that appeal to both general readers and scientists. Whether or not their editors know it, they have a genius for picking things completely unexpected, if not unimaginable -- in other words real discoveries! In hindsight, we all seem fascinated by the unexpected, but funding agencies hold steady to their ‘safe’ style. This system elicits proposals that are barely worthy of the name research. They exist in an illusory world which views discovery as the consequence of a logical sequence of events, not the actual world we experience, where blindsiding events hit suddenly, and instantly change the rules.
Sciencenews.org纽约时报科学版
书籍:
1、Out of Control:
The New Biology of Machines,
Social Systems, and the Economic World
《失控:机器、社会系统和经济的新生物学》
2、Kevin Kelly, Perseus Books, 1994, and see his terrific website: www.kk.org (lots of his writing is online)
Conceptual Blockbusting: A Guide to Better Ideas
《突破思维的障碍:更好的创意指南》
3、James L Adams, Perseus Publishing, 2001
Inevitable Illusions: How Mistakes of Reason Rule Our Minds
《不可避免的错觉:理性的错误如何统治我们的思想》
4、MassimoPiatelli-Palmarini, John Wiley & Sons, 1994
Sparks of Genius: The Thirteen Thinking Tools of the World's Most Creative People
《天才的13个思维工具》
5、Robert & Michele Root-Bernstein, Mariner Books, 2001
Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets
《随机致富的傻瓜》
6、NassimTaleb, Random House, 2008
The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable
《黑天鹅:极不可能事件的影响》
7、Nassim Taleb, Random House, 2007
The Discoverers: A History of Man's Search to Know His World and Himself
《发现者:人类探索世界和自我的历史》
8、Daniel J Boorstin, Random House, 1983
Anything by or about Richard Feynman, including:
任何理查德·费曼写的或者关于他的书,包括:
(1)Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman
《天才:理查德·费曼的生命与科学》
(2)James Gleick, Random House, 1992
[WONDERFUL! YOU MUST READ THIS! KBS]
(极好的书!必读的书!KBS)
(注释:KBS是作者Karl Barry Sharpless的姓名缩写)
(3)Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!
(Adventures of a Curious Character)
《别闹了,费曼先生》
(4)What Do You Care What Other People Think?
(Further Adventures of a Curious Character)
《你干吗在乎别人怎么想》
Success in Circuit lies
Too bright for our infirm Delight
The Truth's superb surprise
With explanation kind
The Truth must dazzle gradually
Or every man be blind--
别直接讲出真相——
要迂回才行
真相令人敬畏的惊奇
会映照我们脆弱的心情
像对儿童耐心解释
消除闪电带来的惶恐
真相也得一点点发光
人才不会失明 ——
“一生隐居在其出生地(波士顿附近),作为超现实主义代表之一的狄金森,其诗歌主要受到宗教和莎士比亚诗的影响。这里首先要指出,在Dickinson之前的所有跟宗教主题有关的诗歌中,运用“直接接触真相(真理)的致盲效应”来说明真理必须以迂回婉转的方式揭示已属常见。这也是新约里的主旨之一,即来自上帝/事实的真理/真相,是不宜直接为凡夫俗子所拥抱的,而需通过上帝在人间的代表(耶酥以及少数几个被选择的先知如摩西等)以寓言等婉转的形式来展示。”
——引用互联网某高人解析
这首狄金森的诗用来理解Barry这篇传世之作最好不过,但这首诗哪怕美国人自己去理解争议都很多,我英文能力远远不及,只能挑选一个最简单的版本,仅供参考而已。Barry本人的表达和语言艺术与这个特别一致,他精研莎士比亚,谈话机锋尖锐,酷爱双关与暗喻,从不愿意直接回答任何问题,但却总能从侧面娓娓道来,让人回味无穷,(最后往往你会发现其实自己的问题不太对,好的问题比答案重要多了)……他的演讲试图探究最为微妙复杂且极端重要的科学发现的哲学,真相其实就在爱因斯坦那段名言之中!但是真理强光太甚,他深知世人/庸人无法直视,所以精心准备了这个演讲,借用自己的一生实践与历史上科学伟人们的隔空对话模式娓娓道来。天才如此,顶礼膜拜!
为了帮助大家理解这篇演讲,我还需要提及一下这个背后的故事:Barry在2001年诺奖颁奖仪式上推出了他的Click Chemistry,之后受到大量的抨击和批判,其中包括很多著名的合成化学家和他的老朋友们。他夫人告诉我,曾经有一段时间他出去作报告(其中包括哈佛大学,甚至包括2004年在有机所,我当时在现场,但也正是那次演讲让我眼界大开)特别多人喜欢来看,不是因为众人想看看什么是Click Chemistry,而是大家听说Sharpless疯掉了,想来现场看看究竟他疯到了什么程度?
Barry受到巨大打击,仍然初心不改,坚持了下去,终于发现了那从天而降的伟大反应。值得注意的是,正是在2008年左右,科学家群体已经意识到了Click Chemistry的巨大潜力并且极有可能超越Barry的诺奖成就。就在Barry做完这次演讲第二年,福布斯杂志发表了:“The Great reaction”的专题访谈,当时科学界已经意识到:“Click chemistry might have an even bigger impact than his Nobel-winning work.” Barry站在了成就的巅峰,回顾一生研究历程,心有所感,于是萌生了撰写这个演讲的念头……
本文2021年9月17日发表于微信公众号 佳家课题组 (如何创新?—How to find something new),风云之声获授权转载。
特别致敬 | 梅开二度,连续预测两年的沙普莱斯凭借 “点击化学”再获2022诺奖!
现为中国科学院上海有机化学研究所工作人员
被授予“第二届全国创新争先奖状”
风云之声
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