何江在哈佛 在演讲中,何江回顾了自己成长的湖南乡村,告诉台下3万多名听众,知识、医疗与教育的资源落差,是一个多么巨大的鸿沟,而消弭这样的落差,是需要所有人为之努力的。 “教育能够改变一个人的生活轨迹,能够把一个人从一个世界带到另一个不同的世界。我希望我的成长经历,能给那些还在路上的农村学生一点鼓励,让他们看到坚持的希望。”此前,何江在接受记者采访时,也曾强调这样的观点。
何江:三名演讲毕业生之一 回溯1642年,第一届哈佛大学的毕业典礼上一共只有九个毕业生,他们每一个人都被要求做演讲,来捍卫自己的毕业论文,无论用何种语言,拉丁语、希腊语,抑或是希伯来语。 而此次毕业典礼,哈佛大学2000多名毕业生中,只有3名学生才能扛起这样的重任,也恰恰只有他们,不必再为自己的论文答辩。他们用自己的演讲激励所有2016年毕业的哈佛学子们,传递以鼓励、建议和思想的结晶。其中一人用拉丁语做演讲,另外两人都用英语。 三位毕业生在哈佛大学Tercentenary Theatre举行的的Morning Exercise中,以记忆为起点,向超过30000人分享他们的故事。 何江以一个被蜘蛛咬伤的经历,开始他的分享故事。在何江小的时候,有次被一只有毒的蜘蛛蛰到手,母亲让他咬上一支筷子,并用被白酒浸泡过的棉布缠在伤口上,然后点着了棉布来帮他治病。 在何江的此次演讲中,提到了这段只来自于他的故乡湖南的民间医术的科学依据。然而,当年这种治疗给他带来的撕心裂肺的疼痛也敦促着他在未来的求学中,在生物化学领域不断寻求更加现代化的治疗方法。 何江毕业演讲三连拍 从传统农村到哈佛大学 从偏远地区的农家子弟,到哈佛大学毕业生,何江的成长历程颇为艰辛。他曾经居住的小镇直到九十年代才通电,而何江一家不仅始终点油灯来节省开支,更和邻居们自己挖井打水喝。 “教育资源也是相当的有限。” 何江这样说道。他和他的哥哥每天要走90多分钟才能翻山越岭到达他们那个曾经因暴雨而垮塌的简陋的学校,甚至连那里的数学老师都是一个屠夫兼职的。那时候,何江从没有想过自己会有机会来到哈佛这样的学校学习。他从没有出过他所在的村镇,更没有用过电脑,直到2005年成为他们家族的第一位大学生。 已经在哈佛大学获得分子细胞生物学博士学位的何江最近已被麻省理工大学聘为博士后研究者,并在《细胞生物学》(The Journal of Cell Biology)、《实验医学》(The Journal of Experimental Medicine) 等多家学术期刊中发表研究成果。他在哈佛的研究着重于单分子成像技术以及这项技术在生物过程研究,尤其是病毒感染领域的应用。 更宽泛地说,何江希望把这项医学领域的进步带到依然欠发达的地区,比如他的故乡。他更希望毕业典礼上,在座的每一位即将成为科学家、成为医生的毕业生,能和他有一样的想法。 “我经历了从乡野到现代化生活的巨大反差,更清楚地了解到知识和科技分布的不均衡性。” 何江说,“我们可以非常容易地通过分享和交流现代世界的知识给欠发达的地区来帮助在那里的人们,这就是一直激励我写下这篇演讲稿并把这个理念传递给更多人的动力。我希望在这全新的航程的起点,能够唤醒所有哈佛毕业生的初心。” You see, the part of China I grew up in was a rural village, and at that time pre-industrial. When I was born, my village had no cars, no telephones, no electricity, not even running water. And we certainly didn’t have access to modern medical resources. There was no doctor my mother could bring me to see about my spider bite. For those who study biology, you may have grasped the science behind my mom’s cure: heat deactivates proteins, and a spider’s venom is simply a form of protein. It’s cool how that folk remedy actually incorporates basic biochemistry, isn’t it? 在座的如果有生物背景的人,你们或许已经理解到了我妈妈使用的这个简单的治疗手段的基本原理:高热可以让蛋白质变性,而蜘蛛的毒液也是一种蛋白质。这样一种传统的土方法实际上有它一定的理论依据,想来也是挺有意思的。 But I am a PhD student in biochemistry at Harvard, I now know that better, less painful and less risky treatments existed. So I can’t help but ask myself, why I didn’t receive one at the time? 但是,作为哈佛大学生物化学的博士,我现在知道在我初中那个时候,已经有更好的,没有那么痛苦的,也没有那么有风险的治疗方法了。于是我便忍不住会问自己,为什么我在当时没有能够享用到这些更为先进的治疗方法呢? Fifteen years have passed since that incident. I am happy to report that my hand is fine. But this question lingers, and I continue to be troubled by the unequal distribution of scientific knowledge throughout the world. We have learned to edit the human genome and unlock many secrets of how cancer progresses. We can manipulate neuronal activity literally with the switch of a light. Each year brings more advances in biomedical research-exciting, transformative accomplishments. 蜘蛛咬伤的事故已经过去大概十五年了。我非常高兴的向在座的各位报告一下,我的手还是完好的。但是,我刚刚提到的这个问题这些年来一直停在我的脑海中,而我也时不时会因为先进科技知识在世界上不同地区的不平等分布而困扰。现如今,我们人类已经学会怎么进行人类基因编辑了,也研究清楚了很多个癌症发生发展的原因。我们甚至可以利用一束光来控制我们大脑内神经元的活动。每年生物医学的研究都会给我们带来不一样突破和进步---其中有不少令人振奋,也极具革命颠覆性的成果。 Yet, despite the knowledge we have amassed, we haven’t been so successful in deploying it to where it’s needed most. According to the World Bank, twelve percent of the world’s population lives on less than $2 a day. Malnutrition kills more than 3 million children annually. Three hundred million people are afflicted by malaria globally. All over the world, we constantly see these problems of poverty, illness, and lack of resources impeding the flow of scientific information. Lifesaving knowledge we take for granted in the modern world is often unavailable in these underdeveloped regions. And in far too many places, people are still essentially trying to cure a spider bite with fire. 然而,尽管我们人类已经在科研上有了无数的建树,在怎样把这些最前沿的科学研究带到世界最需要该技术的地区这件事情上,我们有时做的差强人意。世界银行的数据显示,世界上大约有12%的人口每天的生活水平仍然低于2美元。营养不良每年导致三百万儿童死亡。将近3亿人口仍然受到疟疾的干扰。在世界各地,我们经常看到类似的由贫穷,疾病和自然匮乏导致的科学知识传播的受阻。现代社会里习以为常的那些救生常识经常在这些欠发达或不发达地区未能普及。于是,在世界上仍有很多地区,人们只能依赖于用火疗这一简单粗暴的方式来治理蜘蛛咬伤事故。 While studying at Harvard, I saw how scientific knowledge can help others in simple, yet profound ways. The bird flu pandemic in the 2000s looked to my village like a spell cast by demons. Our folk medicine didn’t even have half-measures to offer. What’s more, farmers didn’t know the difference between common cold and flu; they didn’t understand that the flu was much more lethal than the common cold. Most people were also unaware that the virus could transmit across different species. So when I realized that simple hygiene practices like separating different animal species could contain the spread of the disease, and that I could help make this knowledge available to my village, that was my first “Aha” moment as a budding scientist. But it was more than that: it was also a vital inflection point in my own ethical development, my own self-understanding as a member of the global community. Harvard dares us to dream big, to aspire to change the world. Here on this Commencement Day, we are probably thinking of grand destinations and big adventures that await us. As for me, I am also thinking of the farmers in my village. My experience here reminds me how important it is for researchers to communicate our knowledge to those who need it. Because by using the science we already have, we could probably bring my village and thousands like it into the world you and I take for granted every day. And that’s an impact every one of us can make! But the question is, will we make the effort or not? More than ever before, our society emphasizes science and innovation. But an equally important emphasis should be on distributing the knowledge we have to where it’s needed. Changing the world doesn’t mean that everyone has to find the next big thing. It can be as simple as becoming better communicators, and finding more creative ways to pass on the knowledge we have to people like my mom and the farmers in their local community. Our society also needs to recognize that the equal distribution of knowledge is a pivotal step of human development, and work to bring this into reality. And if we do that, then perhaps a teenager in rural China who is bitten by a spider will not have to burn his hand, but will know to seek a doctor instead. 如果我们能够做到这些,或许,将来有一天,一个在农村被毒蜘蛛咬伤的少年或许不用火疗这样粗暴的方法来治疗伤口,而是去看医生得到更为先进的医疗护理。 来源:综合自外滩教育(ID:TBEducation)、问校友app、网络 |
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