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如何创新?—How to find something new

 新用户06711368 2022-10-06 发布于安徽
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

Misty Mountains (From 'The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey')



 第一页:

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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?'

翻译: 
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的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:
                
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科学家中有收藏家,分类者和强迫症患者。从性格上讲,他们之间许多是侦探,许多是探险家;有些是艺术家,有些则是工匠。

图片

---彼得·梅达瓦爵士

因对免疫学所做的杰出贡献而获得1960年诺贝尔生理学或医学奖

讲稿:
I think a good scientist must be very enthusiastic and very curious. To be successful, as well, you must be very ambitious.
 
But there are many kinds of scientists.
 
Sir Peter Medawar, a Nobel Laureate in Medicine, said:

“Among scientists are collectors, classifiers, and compulsive tidiers-up; many are detectives by temperament and many are explorers; some are artists and others artisans.”
 
Im basically an explorer. Even if exploration doesnt come naturally to you, I believe scientists of every temperament can learn to explore. I'd like to help everyone here become more creative, more open to opportunity, and, perhaps, be able to experience the thrill of making a discovery.

翻译:

我认为一位优秀的科学家必须非常热情且充满好奇。同时,他若想成功,野心也必不可少。

然而,科学家的种类很多。

诺贝尔生理学或医学奖得主彼得·梅达瓦(Peter Medawar)爵士曾说:

“科学家中有收藏家,分类者和强迫症患者。从性格上讲,他们之间许多是侦探,许多是探险家;有些是艺术家,有些则是工匠。”

我基本上是一位探险家。即使探索未知的能力并不是与生俱来的,但我相信各种性格的科学家都可以学习去探索。我想帮助在座各位变得更有创造力,在科学发现过程中能有更多的机遇,并且也许能体会到科学发现带来的那种激动人心的感受。


第三页:

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千里之行,始于足下。

---《道德经》

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讲稿:As it says in the TAO TE CHING:

The journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step.

翻译:正如《道德经》所言:

千里之行,始于足下。


第四页:

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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.

翻译:

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。

并不能保证何时,甚至是否一定有新发现,也没有任何可能预测你所找到的新事物是否就是你希望寻找的。

根据新事物的定义,在已知范围内推理出真正的新事物是不可能的,因此你必须踏上通往未知之路。


第五页:

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若想成功,必须冒失败的风险。

---王安

美籍华人电子学先驱

讲稿:
I have a personality that's very comfortable with uncertainty. I actually stayed a couple of extra years at Stanford in graduate school (doing the research equivalent of three Ph.D. theses) because I loved having total freedom—just running reactions in the lab or doing research in the library, no paperwork, no responsibilities to teach courses or write research grants.
 
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毕业后额外做了几年(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。

在做化学反应的闲暇时,我喜欢与其他化学家在黑板上进行“粉笔交谈”。

我从不担心个人的安全感或未来将给我带来什么。


第六页:

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不怕惨败,才能有伟大的成就。

---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.

翻译:

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。


第七页:

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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

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。

---阿尔弗雷德·诺贝尔

(对!就是那个诺贝尔,你没想错:)

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.

This helped me develop independence and confidence and maturity.

When I was at the bench, most of my reactions didn't work---but I never regarded them as failures.

My ideas that didnt work always generated lots more ideas about what to do next.

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。


第八页:

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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。

---查尔斯·凯特林

美国著名工程师、发明家

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!

翻译:

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,一位发明家“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!


第九页: 

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我的那些失败启发了我最重要的发现。

---汉弗莱·戴维爵士

笑气、钙、钠、矿工安全灯的发现者/发明者

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.”

翻译:

一定不能将失败视为浪费时间。

我亲身的经历和汉弗莱·戴维(Humphrey Davy)爵士的经历相近:

“我的失败启发了我最重要的发现”


I Will Survive

第十页:

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第二步

迎接SERENDIPITY(意外发现)的到来

讲稿:
It’s not a contradiction to say that failures become a success, not when you understand the special role SERENDIPITY plays in making new discoveries.
 
Serendipity is the accidental discovery of something fortunate, often when you are looking for something entirely different.
 
The search for something new can never be an arational process.
 
What is really new is unknowable—by definition, the unknown can not be described or predicted.
 
So serendipity is ubiquitous among scientific discoveries.
 
For example, Kepler's proof for elliptical planetary orbits grew from his attempts to measure the areas & volumes of wine casks.
 
Likewise, nearly all the most valuable chemical processes in use today have an element of serendipity in their history.

翻译:

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。


第十一页:

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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 a nasty, 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.

翻译:

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。


第十二页:

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在观察所及的领域内,

机会只青睐有准备的头脑。

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---路易斯·巴斯德,1854

神之巴斯德,如果这句名言没听过的话,他另外一句你们一定听说过:科学虽然没有国界,但学者却有自己的祖国。

讲稿:
If you wish to make discoveries, you must actively open the door and invite serendipity to come in.
 
But there is one person who I think has described it best. In 1854, Louis Pasteur famously wrote:

“Where observation is concerned, good luck favors only the prepared mind.”

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,路易斯·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。


第十三页:

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幸运与勇者为友。

幸运不是偶然,而是辛劳;

幸运之神昂贵的微笑是靠辛劳赢得。

不知何时黎明会来,我打开了所有的门。

希望意味着时刻为尚未出生的事物做准备。

---艾米丽·狄金森

(女)美国著名诗人

讲稿:

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,但她的小说《傲慢与偏见》却最为出名,其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。

简·奥斯丁的天才之处在于对人性的理解。艾米莉·狄金森的天才之处在于她可以理解人类创造力和发现的本质我个人认为,在这方面,没人能比她描述得更加精妙。

她写的诗中的这些句子很好地表达了意外发现在生活以及科学中的作用:

幸运与勇者为友。

幸运不是偶然,而是辛劳;

幸运之神昂贵的微笑是靠辛劳赢得的。

不知何时黎明会来,我打开了所有的门。

希望意味着时刻为尚未出生的事物做好准备。


第十四页:

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讲稿:
Call it serendipity, or good fortune, or chance, or luck.
 
But if you want to find something new, you follow it.
 
Discard your own plans in order to take advantage of good luck.

 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。


第十五页:

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讲稿:Where’s the best place to look to make new discoveries?

翻译:哪里才是寻找新发现的最佳点?

第十六页:

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你想在哪里寻找新发现?我的建议是:寻找新性质;研究过程

讲稿:
I sometimes say, if you want to get hit by a car, go stand in the middle of the freeway.
 
My lifelong method for 'standing in the middle of the freeway’ started early.
 
Prof George Hammond from CalTech was a seminar speaker when I was a graduate student.
 
He was a real maverick, and what he said was heresy, because in those days the primary research targets of organic chemistry were synthesizing complex natural products, and making analogs of useful chemical compounds.
 
What Prof. Hammond said was:
“ Look for processes, not for products.”

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。”


第十七页:

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合成最根本和最持久的目标并不是合成新的化合物,而是合成新的功能。

---乔治·哈蒙德

加州理工教授

讲稿:
His message resonated in me—it was like an areligious 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.

翻译:

他的话引发了我的共鸣,就像一场宗教转变。尽管实际上他的观点与当时有机化学的惯例相反,但他所说的却是非常合理的。

虽然现在我知道那时我在违背当年有机化学的“圣律”,但当时我并没有这样想。我偏离了公认的常识,并正在解放思想。

他后来写道:

“合成最根本和最持久的目标并不是合成新的化合物,而是合成新的功能。”

生产意味着过程。此外,若想在化学中找到新的东西,那么我相信研究过程仍然是最好的选择。

这条古老的建议至今仍然成立—找到过程之中漏洞并将它们填补。


第十八页:

图片

第四步

治好你的“瘟疫”

Imagine that everyone has The Plague and that The Plague has a lot of different causes and symptoms.
 
Also, imagine that everyone is unaware of having any symptoms because it’s easy to live a normal life when you have The Plague.
 
Normal, in fact, means having The Plague!
 
Also, imagine that when someone recognizes plague symptoms, and he goes to the doctor and says, 'I think I'm sick,' all the doctors say, ” No, you’re normal, you're just fine.”
 
Here’s the problem:
 
Most doctors don’t know The Plague exists;
 
Some doctors have heard about The Plague, but don't believe in it because they weren’t taught about it in medical school;
 
A few doctors do know about The Plague, but their colleagues treat them like their nuts, and they can’t get published.
 
Why can’t they get published?
 
Because the very powerful doctors who run the medical journals and control government research funds are either disbelievers, or, what’s worse, they know about the Plague, but admitting that they know would be bad for their own business.
 
To me, The Plague is a metaphor for all the mental obstacles that stifle creativity and discovery, and scientific advances.
 
The biggest obstacle to creative thinking is all the baggage we carry around without realizing it.

想象每个人都患有“瘟疫”,而“瘟疫”有很多不同的病因和症状。

继续想象每个人都没有意识到他们有任何症状,因为人们即使在患“瘟疫”时也能继续过正常的生活。

实际上,“正常”意味着患有“瘟疫”!

还要想象一下,当有人发现其症状时,他对医生说:“我觉得我病了”,

而所有的医生都说:“不,你很正常,你没得病。”

这才是问题所在:

大多数医生都不知道“瘟疫”的存在;一些医生只是听说过“瘟疫”,但并不相信它真正存在,因为在医学院上课时,没人教过他们这类“瘟疫”。

一些医生确实了解“瘟疫”,但他们的同事们像对待疯子一样对待他们,因此这些医生的观点无法发表出来。

他们的观点为什么不能发表?

因为管理医学期刊和控制政府研究资金的那些非常有能力的医生要么不相信,要么,更糟的是,尽管他们知道“瘟疫”的存在,但承认他们所知道的会损害其利益。

对我而言,“瘟疫”是扼杀创造力、发现和科学进步的所有精神障碍的隐喻。

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。


第十九页:

图片

图片

你是多么容易被欺骗

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?
 
They may seem to move around. I can see them—can you? Raise your hand if you can see them!
 
Now focus on just one of those intersections; focus on a single grey spot.
 
Is it there?
 
No, of course not, because ALL those little grey spots are visual illusions. There's nothing in between the boxes.
 
You can have a lot of fun—just type 'VISUAL ILLUSIONS' into your web browser and you can see hundreds, probably thousands, of examples.
 
See how easy it is to be fooled? It's happening to you all the time. Visual illusions are physiological phenomena.
 
Our brains make unconscious assumptions for us, but they're not always right.
A lot of those assumptions are things you've learned. And many of them make your life a lot more difficult than it needs to be.

讲稿:

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。

你们可以从中获得很多乐趣—只需在Web浏览器中输入“VISUAL ILLUSIONS(视觉错觉)”,就可以找到成百上千个例子。

看到被欺骗是多么容易了吗?这一直在你身上发生。视觉错觉是一种生理现象。

我们的大脑为我们做出了无意识的预设,但它们并非总是正确的

这些预设中有很多是你们已经学到的,但也有很多使你们本来容易的生活变得更加困难。

(关于视觉欺骗和错觉,这里我补充一个Barry经常和我分享的极为有启发的视频。)


第二十页:

图片

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

(Barry在这里用“亲情”点到的是科学家经常会犯的一个错误,也是科学研究方法的一个最关键问题,详见于“多重假设研究法”)

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'sautobiographies 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

我称其为“瘟疫”。

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(其中最糟糕的是父母的爱—最不理性地对你的想法照单全收)—我可以继续列举下去。

这些就是“瘟疫”的病因。如果你想痊愈,就必须靠自己—这不是在课堂上能教的。

理查德·费曼(Richard Feynman)是诺贝尔物理学奖得主,也是我最伟大的英雄之一,他曾说:

“首要原则是,切勿自欺欺人—而你自己是最容易被欺骗的人。”

他还说过:

“我很聪明,因为我知道我自己很傻。”

我强烈建议你们阅读费曼的自传和传记。我想你们会看到费曼的童年,尤其是他与父亲的关系如何赋予他如此清晰的洞见力,而不是像我们大多数人一样通过犯错而习得。

当他们散步时,他的父亲会指向一只鸟,二人一同观察。此外他的父亲会告诉年轻的理查德关于这只鸟他所知道的一切。费曼后来写道:

你可以用世界上所有的语言描述这只鸟的名字,但除此之外你还是对它几乎一无所知……所以让我们观察一下这只鸟在做什么—这才是有价值的。

我很早就学到了知道某物的名称和真正知道某物的区别。

如果你是一名科学家,就有可能落入有很多错误的陷阱。文献可能是错误的。一门学科衰败而另一门学科兴起带来了心理上的障碍。当前研究的“时尚”可能是基金驱动、个人崇拜甚至是期刊编辑偏见的结果。

这才是我想知道的事情:有机化学专注于一件事(复杂合成)已经50多年了,但那些我们日常使用中的最重要化学反应均在此之前就被发现了。这传递出什么信息?有机化学和穿着5英寸高跟鞋的女性是否都可能是“时尚”的受害者?

Stayin' Alive

第二十一页:

图片

自尊和他人的期望

不要在意别人所想

学会寻找尊敬、倾听、学习的对象

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。

这就是我所谓的“第一步”的必然结果,即学会如何与不确定性共存。

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。


第二十二页:

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复杂不是美德

国际象棋可能是娱乐活动中最深入,最耗费精力的项目,但仅此而已。对国际象棋天才而言,他也只是将大量的,难以被理解的智力天赋和努力集中在一个最终微不足道的人类事业上。

---乔治·史泰纳,1929—

一个真正的文艺复兴式的人物,

哥伦比亚大学,哈佛大学和牛津大学前教授

现就职于剑桥大学

讲稿:
One of the most difficult cults a scientist can join is complexity worship.
 
Doing scientific research that impresses because of its cerebral demands is not by itself a virtue: the question is, what has been accomplished that is of real value?
 
George Steiner says that a chess genius
“focuses vast, little-understood mental gifts and labors on an ultimately trivial human enterprise.”
 
I’m afraid a lot of our so-called leading scientists have vast mental gifts which they squander on
“ultimately trivial human enterprises.”

翻译:

科学家们最难以摆脱的狂热之一是复杂性崇拜。

进行因其研究方向的高智力需求而给人留下深刻印象的科学研究本身并不是一种美德:真正的问题是,已完成的哪些工作才具有真正的价值?

国际象棋天才乔治·斯坦纳曾说,

“将大量的,难以被理解的智力天赋和努力集中在一个最终微不足道的人类事业上。”

恐怕我们许多所谓的一流科学家都有超常的智力天赋,但他们把它浪费在“最终微不足道的人类事业”上。


第二十三页:

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人—包括科学家在内,不理性地抗拒改变。

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

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。

---彼得·梅达瓦爵士

诺贝尔生理学或医学奖得主

讲稿:
PEOPLE—SCIENTISTS, TOO—IRRATIONALLY RESISTANCE.
 
We all resist change--it’s always easier to stay in the mainstream. It takes real effort to head off on your own.
 
The whole system fights change—funding agencies don’t want to finance speculation; groups of scientists create self-perpetuating empires.
 
As Sir Peter Medawar said:

“The human mind treats a new idea the way the body treats a strange protein: it rejects it.
 
To be a discoverer, you must be able to change whenever circumstances change.
 
I used to drive my research group crazy because my circumstances changed so often!

If one group member had a very interesting result, within 24 hours I might have pulled everyone off their existing projects and sent them in a new direction. And when that research thread collapsed, because, of course, most do collapse, everyone might have their projects changed again within days, either following new opportunities that had been uncovered or returning to existing ideas.
 
I’m not saying this is a good way to run a research group--it’s not! But it is the fastest way to cover new scientific ground.
 

I succeeded because my group members have always been a hardy bunch. The best of them were like me, more excited about doing good science than the certainty of publications or a job.

 
Bless them all!

 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—资助机构不想资助风险大的研究;一群科学家创建了永存的科研帝国体系。

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,因为我的研究情况经常改变!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。当新的研究线索崩溃时,当然,因为大多数情况下这些线索确实崩溃了,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。

祝福他们!


第二十四页:

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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:

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毫无关系。

---彼得·梅达瓦爵士

诺贝尔生理学或医学奖得主

如果我们所有人的工作都基于这个假设:即那些被接受为“真”的理论就是真的,那么人类就没有什么进步的希望了

---奥维尔·莱特

飞机的共同发明人

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.
 
I’m only aware of having made a real error in the literature once. It was due to a structural mistake. My co-workers and I accepted the absolute configuration of a structure that appeared in the literature. It was wrong, and we should have checked it.
 
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。

我知道我曾经在发表的文章中仅犯过一次真正的错误,这是由于结构上的错误所致。我和我的同事们接受了文献中某结构的绝对构型。但它是错的,我们本应该检查一下。

在实验室中的后续工作中发现了该错误后,我们立即发布了撤稿声明。

我经常看到结构的错误,但我很少看到有人撤稿。

作为科学家,如果你发现结果中有任何可疑之处,则必须通过重复实验,将假设一直追溯到其起源。

这很枯燥,就像在金字塔的底部工作一样。但是,这是成为一位优秀的科学家所必需的素质。

我认识一人,因为相信文献中的某些错误而毁了他的事业。这破坏了他研究的准确性,并使他失去了其天赋配得上的职务。


第二十五页:

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了解极限

不可能以不被误解的某种方式表达观点。

我们的知识只可能是有限的,而我们的无知一定是无限的。

---卡尔·波普尔

科学哲学家

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可靠之处后再等待发表。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。我知道我的文章一开始就提供了正确的信息,若正确阅读可防止糟糕的结果和时间的浪费。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。”

发表的文章过多,但实际价值却提得太少,以至于发表的文章中许多内容根本没用。在发现反应真正可靠之前,很少有科学家会将发现视为追求。

在当今的化学领域,大多数作者甚至都不承认他们的主张与已发表文献中的主张类似,更不用说进行比较了。

这要么是自欺欺人,要么是不那么道德的自我推销。


第二十六页:

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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。

图片

---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 'I's and crossing all the 'T’s’ – 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.
 
I agree with HERMAN MELVILLE, the author of the great American 19th Century novel Moby Dick:

 “There are some enterprises in which careful disorderliness is the true method.”
 'Careful disorderliness.’ Isn’t that a great concept!

翻译:

知道何时停止。

需要知道的是,从何时开始,你错过的将不再重要。

需要记住的是,唯一重要的事就是你发现的。

在发现的过程中,速度就是一切。请记住,在找到重要的结果之前,会有成千上万次的失败。

当我的组员不知道何时停止时,看到他们把时间浪费了真的令我很沮丧。

思维定势的人很难学习两件事:

首先,只要知道发生了什么就立即继续前进—过分关注没有意义的细节耗时费力而且是完全没有必要。

其次,当你的“病人”(研究对象,假设等)死亡时停止。处理掉“尸体”,不要费心解剖尸体。以后总有机会复活。

其实可以发现的东西非常非常多,只是我们的时间不够用。

我同意美国19世纪伟大小说《白鲸》的作者赫尔曼·麦尔维尔HERMAN MELVILLE)在书中所写:

“在某些事业中,谨慎的无序才是真正的方法。”

“谨慎的无序”难道不是一个好主意吗?


第二十七页:

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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。对于科学家来说,每天早餐前放弃自己喜欢的假设是一项很好的锻炼,这使他们的思想保持年轻。

­­­---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

讲稿:
THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD ISN'T SCIENTIFIC—SO DON'T PROVE—DISPROVE
 
The most obvious case of something you’ve been taught that you need to forget is the so-called Scientific Method. the scientific Method says to propose a hypothesis and then prove it.
 
In fact, a good scientist should always have multiple working hypotheses in mind, and the object is to disprove them.
 
 Whenever I have good results in the lab, I assume that something's wrong. Remember what Alfred Nobel said?
 
“If I have a thousand ideas and only one turns out to be good, I am satisfied. “
 
In fact, the more exciting your results are, the higher the probability that they’re wrong.
 
Henry Taube, the Stanford mentor I told you about, would sit in the front row at departmental seminars. I often remember him saying to the day's speaker something like:

'This worries me. It sounds too good to be true--Nature’s just not that slick.'
 
Try to kill good results; try to knock them to pieces. Disprove all you can before moving on. David Riesman said:

“ Look at all the sentences which seem true and question them.”
 
KONRAD LORENZ said:

“Truth in science can be defined as the working hypothesis best suited to open the way to the next better one. It is a good morning exercise for a research scientist to discard a pet hypothesis every day before breakfast. It keeps him young.'

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—大自然并没有那么精明。”

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:

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。对于科学家来说,每天早餐前放弃自己喜欢的假设是一项很好的锻炼,这使他们的思想保持年轻。


第二十八页:

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好的实验会扼杀有缺陷的理论;但我们的思想仍然活跃,可以再次猜测。

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,也没有理解你打算解决的问题­­。

---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:

“好的实验会扼杀有缺陷的理论;但我们的思想仍然活跃,可以再次猜测。”

波普尔还说过:

“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,也没有理解你打算解决的问题。”

That's the Way (I Like It)

第二十九页:

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注意不要爱上你自己的理论

相信世界上只有一个真理,然后自己拥有它,是世界上一切邪恶的根源。

---马克思·波恩

因对量子力学的基础性研究而获得1954年的诺贝尔物理学奖

当一个人形成一个理论的时候,他的想象力看到的每一件事都只能够­符合这个理论。

---托马斯·杰弗逊

美国前总统

那些作者可为自己的不诚实找借口,只是因为在欺骗他人之前,他已经费尽心思欺骗了自己。

---彼得·梅达瓦爵士

诺贝尔医学奖得主

讲稿:

DON'T FALL IN LOVE WITH YOUR OWN THEORIES.

Your own theories are like your children, and you love them like a parent loves a childyou tend to overlook faults, and you magnify virtues. And the last thing you want is for your child to die.

In 1890 the American geologist T. C. Chamberlainpublished an article in Science that proposed an antidote to such self-delusion: TheMethod of Multiple Working Hypotheses.

Every science student should be taught it. Multiple working hypotheses not only keep you honest but are an excellent discovery technique, too.

The physicist MAX BORN had vehement feelings on the subject:

“The belief that there is only one truth, and that oneself is in possession of it, is the root of all evil in the world.”

Thomas Jefferson, the author of the American Declaration of Independence and the 3rd president of the United States said:

“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.”

翻译:

别爱上你自己的理论。

你自己的理论就像你的孩子,你爱他们就像父母爱孩子一样—你倾向于忽视缺点,放大优点。此外,你最不想发生的事就是你孩子的离世。

1890年,美国地质学家张伯伦(T. C. Chamberlain)在《科学》杂志上发表了一篇文章,提出了一种解决这种自我欺骗的方法:多重假说研究法

每个科研人员都应该学习这种方法。多重工作假说不仅让你保持诚实,而且也是一种实用的发现技巧。

物理学家马克斯·波恩MAX BORN)对这个问题有强烈的感情:

“相信世界上只有一个真理,然后自己拥有它,是世界上一切邪恶的根源。”

《美国独立宣言》的起草者、美国第三任总统托马斯·杰弗逊(Thomas Jefferson)曾说:

“当一个人形成一个理论的时候,他的想象力看到的每一件事都只能够­符合这个理论。”

梅达瓦(Medawar)的话一如既往的正确:

“那些作者之所以为自己的不诚实找借口,只是因为在欺骗他人之前,他已经费尽心思欺骗了自己。”


第三十页:

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变得更有创造力

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。

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.

翻译:

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”。

要学会拥有创造力,就必须灵活变通,忘记你知道的那么多知识,并使你的大脑忘记如何连点成线,练习跳出框架思考,把每一个问题都看得好像你从来没有见过之前类似的问题一样。

有书籍可以指导你完成这个过程,但最简单的学习方法是与有创造力的人一起工作,并与他们交谈、交谈、再交谈。


第三十一页:

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关于创造力的观点

倾诉实情,然宜婉转。

---艾米丽·狄金森

(女)美国诗人

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。

---罗伯特·奥本海默

诗人,原子弹之父,物理学家

理性越多,创造越少。

---雷蒙德·钱德勒

侦探小说作家,1888-1959

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,然有侧重。”

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。”


第三十二页:

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发现就是和其他人观察同样一件事情,却想着不一样的答案。

---阿尔伯特·森特—吉奥吉

生物化学家

一个人必须达到迷醉的顶峰,才能催生他善舞者的本能。

许多人不能成为一个有创造力的思想家只是因为记性太好。

---弗里德里希·尼采

哲学家

世人所说的独创性只不过是一种不正常的“挠痒” 办法。

---乔治·萧伯纳

剧作家、哲学家

讲稿:

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.”

阿尔伯特·森特—吉奥吉(ALBERT SZENT-GYORGYI),发现维生素C的生物化学家曾说:

“发现包括和其他人观察一样的事情,想着不一样的答案。”

弗里德里希·尼采(FREDERICK NIETZCHE)曾说:

“一个人必须达到迷醉的顶峰,才能催生他善舞者的本能。”

“许多人只是因为记忆力太好而不能成为一个有创造力的思想家。”

剧作家、哲学家乔治·萧伯纳(GEORGE BERNARD SHAW)曾说:

“世人所说的独创性只不过是一种不正常的“挠痒” 办法。”


第三十三页:

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创造力需要勇气去放弃确定性。

---埃里克·弗罗姆

精神分析师、哲学家

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。

---弗里德里希·冯·席勒

德国诗人、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,就会阻碍大脑的创造性工作。”

席勒在这里谈到了创造力和直觉之间的微妙关系


第三十四页:

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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,

遗忘了那最可宝贵的恩赐。

---阿尔伯特·爱因斯坦

讲稿:

INTUITION IS A REAL PHENOMENON!

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。

描述它的其他方法是直觉、有根据地猜测、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。

有人说我很有直觉,这其实同时明显地在暗示我并不像他(评论Barry有直觉之人)那么聪明。

但是爱因斯坦说:

“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,遗忘了那最可宝贵的恩赐。”

Misty Mountains

第三十五页:

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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。

图片

---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.

翻译:

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。


第三十六页:

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如果你知道自己在正确的轨道上,如果你具有这种内在知识,那么没有人可以阻止你……无论他们说什么……我对自己正在做的事情(基因研究)非常感兴趣,以至于我从未想过要停下来,而我只是痛恨睡觉。我无法想象拥有更好的生活……当你知道自己是对的时,你不会在乎别人的想法,你知道迟早它会被做出来的。

---芭芭拉·麦克林托克

人类最伟大的三位遗传学家之一,

1983年因为其在1938年提出的“转座因子”理论获得诺贝尔奖

在此之前很长一段时间学术界评论她都是:

“。。。这个女人也许是发疯了。”

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!

基因学家芭芭拉·麦克林托克(Barbara McClintock)是一位富有直觉的思想家。她的理论首先被拒绝,然后被认为是有争议的,但最终被普遍接受了。

她无法向同事证明自己的理论,因为该过程是直觉的—潜意识的,不可能翻译成口头语言。

在她的工作得以合理地,理性地解释之前,其他科学家花了数十年的时间去证实她的理论。

麦克林托克将其描述为一种“对生命体的感觉”。

我妻子告诉我,当我们第一次见面时,当我还是一名研究生时,我告诉她我可以像一个分子一样思考。

我记不得了,所以我不知道当时我是在开玩笑还是真的有这种感觉!


第三十七页:

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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,这不是新的发现。

---威廉·詹姆斯

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:

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,这不是新的发现。


第三十八页:

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“一个新的科学真理并不是靠说服反对者并让他们看到光明而胜利,而是因为反对者最终逝去了,而新一代的人却熟知新的真理。”

---马克思·普朗克

1918年诺贝尔物理学奖得主

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:

马克思·普朗克(MAX PLANCK)持类似观点:

“一个新的科学真理并不是说服反对者并让他们看到光明而胜利,而是因为反对者最终逝去了,而新一代的人却熟知新的真理。”

抗拒新事物,抗拒改变—为什么“正常”人这么难接受它们?


第三十九页:

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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。

图片

---史蒂芬·霍金

英国物理学家

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!

翻译:

直觉是最难理解的心理过程,因为它不能用语言表达。

史蒂芬·霍金(Stephen Hawking)所说的“填补中间步骤”并不容易。

就我而言,我给研究团队的任务通常是填补已知化学和我的直觉之间缺少的东西。

还记得奈保尔(Naipaul)所描述的,有时他需要多少年才能理解自己的作品?

潜意识是惊人的—似乎创造力的开关总是打开的!


第四十页:

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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


第四十一页:

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寻找异常

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.

翻译:

没有什么比异常更令人兴奋了!

在你们的研究和文献中寻找那些你意想不到的东西—这些文献可以追溯到19世纪!

在我的整个职业生涯中—我现在仍然在做—我一直在寻找意外的化学反应性带来的启示。

当我阅读文献中的研究论文并了解反应条件时,我期望看到一系列的最终产物化学结构。当文章中出现的结构与我脑海中的结构之间存在差异时,我发现的触角开始振动!

该结构实际上可以是任何类型的化合物—聚合物、脂质、蛋白质、糖、酶—随便啥—我对结果应该是什么有一种感觉。


第四十二页:

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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。


第四十三页:

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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自己的发现。

Hot Stuff (In the Style of Donna Summer)

 第四十四页:

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我需要兴奋

图片

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:

我想走这条路是因为,小时候,我喜欢惊讶,喜欢震惊,也喜欢惊恐的感觉。

当我长大后,化学实验室是我唯一仍能得到小时候喜欢的那种快感的地方。化学的优点在于其无限的可能性和惊喜。

人们经常问:“如此惊奇的发现难道不会令你感到兴奋吗?”

不,那不是我。我昨天所做的一切今天都将消逝。

我一直在寻找下一件事。


第四十五页:

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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。由于之前科学界对硒毒性存在广泛的误解,该领域现已广为开放。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


第四十六页:

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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!

翻译:

对于硒(硫-SuFEx)、过氧(环氧化)、on water)、锇(双羟化)、叠氮(CuAAC)、肼、氮杂环丙烷、端炔的恐惧症—而我正是从它们中收获颇丰!

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)。

注:和学生解释过很多次为啥我在啥都不知道的情况下一定要去做FSO2N3,其实很简单,就是因为我反复研究过这张PPT:觉得全部拼起来最吓人的分子就是它了!图片图片


第四十七页:

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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.

翻译:

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。

一般而言,广泛而有用的过程相当简单。从经济角度讲,随着成本下降,有用性上升。那么,当简单性通常具有更高的实用价值时,变得复杂有什么好处?

凯文·凯利(Kevin Kelly)是我的精神导师他的《失控》(out of control)对我来说就像一本圣经。


第四十八页:

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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。

我们只能从愚蠢的事情中学习到聪明的东西。

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.

翻译:

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?


第四十九页:

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一切都应该极简,直到不能更简。

---阿尔伯特·爱因斯坦

简单是终极的复杂。

---雷奥纳多·达芬奇

ALBERT EINSTEIN said:

“Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler.”
 
LEONARDODA VINCI said:

“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”

阿尔伯特·爱因斯坦(ALBERT EINSTEIN)曾说,

一切都应该极简,直到不能更简。

雷奥纳多·达芬奇(LEONARDO DA VINCI)曾说,

简单是终极的复杂。


第五十页:

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但,最重要的是,放手去做!

即使走的路是对的,但如果停滞不前,也会被车撞倒。

---威尔·罗格斯

美国喜剧作家

耍嘴皮子不能把饭煮熟            

---中国谚语

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:

最重要的同时也是最难教会我的研究小组成员的发现技巧是:放手去做!

通常,所谓那些的“最聪明”学生(就读最好的大学并获得最高成绩的本科生)在进行探索性发现研究方面最困难。

我会说“尝试一下这个”,他们会给我一百万个为什么我要求他们做的事情行不通的理由。当他们花时间说服自己为什么我要他们做的事情行不通时,如果使用同样的时间去尝试,可能已经够开上一百个反应。

(注:这里点题了,老先生给我PPT的关键原因,那次也是我第一次听说Creative居然是Smart的反应词?回想到自己发现SuFEx前三年无数次和他争论这个硫氟键化学家不太可能活化得了?自己的道理当时总结下来应该可以出一篇更长的文章了!尴尬。。。图片

但是他们反抗我—他们是他们以为自己所知道的东西的奴隶,到现在为止,你们所有人都知道我们对自己认为的所知道的事有多少是自欺欺人—当然不是下意识的。

(注:看来金庸老先生也是对的,葵花宝典的第一句话最关键!图片

我比大多数化学家成功的原因—我比大多数化学家有更多发现的原因是,我什么都愿意尝试!

因此,最重要的是进入实验室并放手去做!

有句中国谚语概括了这一切:耍嘴皮子不能把饭煮熟。


第五十一页:

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找到好点子的最佳办法就是多想些点子。

---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因过度劳累而死。

---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,那么你就更可能就有更好的想法了。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因过度劳累而死”。

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。


第五十二页:

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如果你正在计划你的发现之旅,请选择一艘吃水浅的快船。

---詹姆斯·库克 船长

环球探险家

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!

翻译:

我知道我的讲稿和幻灯片将作为下载内容提供给你们,其中包括我的一些推荐读物。

如果你们尚未收到《科学新闻》(Science News)的话,我将为你们的图书馆提供订阅。如果每个人,无论是不是科学家都能读一读,世界都会变得更加美好。

我还敦促大家在线浏览科学版出版那天的《纽约时报》(New York Times)。《泰晤士报》(The Times)也有出色的科学博客。

在结束我的演讲之前,我将为你们提供最后的建议,这来自有史以来西方最伟大的探险家、发现家之一,“奋进”号船长詹姆斯·库克(James Cook):

“如果你打算开展发现之旅,请选择一艘吃水浅的快船。”

速度,灵活性,机动性—这是开始进行发现时的基本特征。

对于你们自己进入未知世界的旅程,请选择一种灵活,快速的小船,并始终将所有窗户打开,使意外发现涌入。

祝你们好运!

Misty Mountains


推荐阅读—K.B.Sharpless的个人最爱:

元素周期表!

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.

科学新闻每两周一次的新闻杂志,涵盖所有科学领域中最重要的研究。其载有简洁,准确的文章,吸引了广大读者和科学家。无论他们的编辑是否知道,他们有一个天才来挑选完全出乎意料的东西,换句话说就是真正的发现!事后看来,我们所有人似乎都对这种突如其来的事物着迷但基金机构们仍坚持其所谓的“安全”风格。这种体系下提出的提议几乎不值得称之为研究。它们(指现在的科研资助模式)存在于一个魔幻的虚拟世界中,该世界将科学发现视为逻辑顺序事件的必然结果,而不是我们所经历的现实世界。

现实是:

意想不到的事件会突然发生,

并立即改变游戏规则。

Sciencenews.org

纽约时报科学版每周二出版的报纸,Nytimes.com

书籍:

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》

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》

James L Adams, Perseus Publishing, 2001

InevitableIllusions: 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

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》

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》

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》

NassimTaleb, 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》

Daniel J Boorstin, Random House, 1983

Anything by or about Richard Feynman, including:

关于理查德·费曼的书籍包括:

Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman

《天才:理查德·费曼的生命与科学》

James Gleick, Random House, 1992

[WONDERFUL! YOU MUST READ THIS! KBS]

极好的书!必读的书!KBS

Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!

(Adventures of a Curious Character)

《别闹了,费曼先生》

and

What Do You Care What Other People Think?

(Further Adventures of a Curious Character)

《你干吗在乎别人怎么想》

Autobiography

自传

The Pleasure of Finding Things Out:

The Best Short Works of Richard P Feynman

《发现的乐趣》

PerseusBooks, 1999


编者按:

 Tell all the Truth but tell it slant--
Success in Circuit lies
Too bright for our infirm Delight
The Truth's superb surprise

As Lightning to the Children eased
With explanation kind
The Truth must dazzle gradually
Or every man be blind--

---艾米丽·狄金森

(女)美国诗人



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沙士比亚诗的影响。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。。。

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