Oct 31, 2008

Science and China's Modernization -- Jiabao 322 (5902): 649 -- Science

Science and China's Modernization -- Jiabao 322 (5902): 649 -- Science: "The history of modernization is in essence a history of scientific and technological progress. Scientific discovery and technological inventions have brought about new civilizations, modern industries, and the rise and fall of nations. China is now engaged in a modernization drive unprecedented in the history of humankind.

Over the past half century, China has made great achievements in basic science and technological innovation. It now ranks among the top nations in the annual number of papers published internationally and patent applications filed. China has also made achievements in such areas as manned space flight, high-performance computers, super-large-scale integrated circuits, and third-generation telecommunications technology. High-tech industry has experienced rapid growth, accounting for over 15% of the manufacturing industry.

Francis Bacon, the 16th-century English philosopher, referred to science as a means to improve humankind's lot. Today, the hybrid rice variety developed by Chinese scientists has been adopted for planting in over three million hectares and has become a 'golden key' to meeting China's own food needs and boosting world cereal production. Scientific and technological development in the realm of health has also increased average life expectancy in China to that in developed countries.

To encourage further innovation, the Chinese government has formulated a Mid- to Long-Term Plan for Development of Science and Technology (2006-2020), which highlights research in the basic sciences and frontier technologies, with priority given to energy, water resources, and environmental protection. We strive to develop independent intellectual property rights in areas of information technology and new materials, while strengthening the application of biotechnology to agriculture, industry, population, and health.

The future of China's science and technology depends fundamentally on how we attract, train, and use young scientific talents today. Thus, at the core of our science and technology policy is attracting a diverse range of talents, especially young people, into science and providing them with an environment that brings out the best of their creative ideas.

In the field of science and technology, we will intensify institutional reform, restructure scientific research, rationally allocate public resources, and enhance innovation capability. We advocate free academic debate under a lively academic atmosphere, where curiosity-driven exploration is encouraged and failure tolerated.

Science has no boundaries. China's endeavors in science and technology need to be more integrated with those of the world, and the world needs a China that is vibrant and able to deliver more in science and technology. Just as collisions generate sparks, exchange and communication enrich imagination and creativity. Many Chinese scientists have stepped into the international academic arena, where they and their foreign colleagues learn from each other and jointly contribute to the worldwide development of science and technology.

To encourage the learning and application of science among the general public, we need to embrace a scientific culture by promoting scientific rationality while cherishing Chinese cultural heritage. Enlightened by science, the rich and profound Chinese culture is bound to shine more gloriously.

I firmly believe that science is the ultimate revolution. At a time when the current global financial turmoil is dealing a heavy blow to the world economy, it has become all the more important to rely on scientific and technological progress to promote growth in the real economy. Economic and social development must rely on science and technology, and science and technology must serve economic and social development. We will rely on science and technology to promote economic restructuring, transform development patterns, safeguard food and energy security, and address global climate change. We are confident that China will reap a rich harvest in science and technology and that this will have positive and far-reaching effects on human civilization and the well-being of humankind."

This is the highest level of thinking you can get from anyone in China. It's very much in consistent with what we were taught at school. What he didn't say is that China learned the importance of science and technology from its painful history. But this omission represents a win-win thinking that focuses on the future rather than on the past. Only this thinking can lead to a better future, with due diligence on the problems at present , of course.

Image source: www.chinese-tools.com

Oct 26, 2008

Achievable goals

Delivering a commencement address is a great responsibility; or so I thought until I cast my mind back to my own graduation. The commencement speaker that day was the distinguished British philosopher Baroness Mary Warnock. Reflecting on her speech has helped me enormously in writing this one, because it turns out that I can’t remember a single word she said. This liberating discovery enables me to proceed without any fear that I might inadvertently influence you to abandon promising careers in business, law or politics for the giddy delights of becoming a gay wizard.

(Audience laugh...)

You see? If all you remember in years to come is the ‘gay wizard’ joke, I’ve still come out ahead of Baroness Mary Warnock. Achievable goals: the first step towards personal improvement.

I started to "swim" properly at age of 1, or maybe even earlier, if playing in water can be counted as swimming. There is always a solid place shallow enough to stand on in a bathtub or a swimming pool. However, the situation changed when I am not allowed in the children's pool anymore. So I decided to swim, really, but I have to learn it first.

I asked family members how they learned to swim. They said, back in the old days, they had a pond besides their home, and they played in the pond, dived in the pond, and then they just started to swim. It seems to me another story of the family's tradition of despising formal education, but they also suggested that I can learn it without being taught. Since studies have shown that babies can swim right after being born, I said to myself, swimming should be my natural ability, and I just need to find it back. So I listed being able to swim as one of my goals of that year.

So I spent most of my Friday afternoons in a swimming pool during my exchange days in Singapore, observing, swimming, and, occasionally, getting half-drowned. I realized that getting the "natural ability" back isn't something easy. But fortunately, it wasn't too hard either. After a few months, I was able to swim back and forth in a lane, breaststroke of course. After another few months, free-style. A very achievable goal for a year, I thought.

Yesterday, I went to swim again with my labmates, and one of us started to try free-style. Seeing her swimming in free-style reminded me almost instantaneously of myself three years ago, and a quote:

That which you persist in doing becomes easier to do. Not that the nature of the thing itself has changed, but that your ability to do it has increased.

--Ralph Waldo Emerson

Image Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ikoka/2763601145/

Oct 14, 2008

The Dark Knight

The movie is almost Shakespearean in its fascination with the good and evil that resides within all of us. It suggests that the greatest challenge of life is not to reject dark impulses outright, but to learn how to control them so they don't overwhelm our loftier goals.
-- Peter Howell, Toronto Star

...Mr. Nolan has found a way to make Batman relevant to his time — meaning, to ours — investing him with shadows that remind you of the character’s troubled beginning but without lingering mustiness. That’s nothing new, but what is surprising, actually startling, is that in “The Dark Knight,” which picks up the story after the first film ends, Mr. Nolan has turned Batman (again played by the sturdy, stoic Mr. Bale) into a villain’s sidekick.
-- Manohla Dargis, The New York Times

You will hunt me, you will condemn me, set the dogs on me, because it's what needs to happen, because sometimes truth is not good enough, sometime people deserves more, sometimes people deserve to have their faith rewarded.
-- The Batman, The Dark Knight

Frankly speaking, before watching the movie, I was so attracted to the Joker, partly because of his taglines: "why so serious" and "madness is like gravity, all it needs is a little push". At the beginning of the movie, his murderous grin, freakish gaze and demonic voice pulls me in at once. As the movie progress, the war between the Batman and the Joker unfolds the ambivalence within the Batman, and that's what in the end fascinates me the most, and what makes the movie a masterpiece of our time.

Seeing his beloved Rachael being attracted to the new district attorney Harvey, Bruce/the Batman showed his principle, still aligning himself with Harvey in prosecuting Gotham criminals. Without any melodrama, the moment of choice came when he has to choose who to save, Rachael or Harvey. He went for, without any hesitation, Rachael (even though he eventually saved Harvey because of Joker's scheme). His choice reminds me of Neo's choice in Matrix, when he has to choose either to save Trinity or the last human city Zion. Neo chooses Trinity. Moral dilemma poses greatest challenge to heros, who in essence are still human.

The moral dilemmas extends from inside the Batman to the prisoners and common citizens trapped on two different boats. People on each boat have to decide whether to blow up the other boat in order to save theirs. Though eventually no one died on either of the ships, it is still poignant and thought-provoking to see the common citizen going through a vote for blowing up the other boat. However when the moment of execution came, the man who reluctantly volunteered, simply cannot turn on the detonator.

I remember my teacher on Traditional Chinese philosophy once pointed out that the most fundamental and deepest moral instinct is often the right instinct, and we are not allowed to talk about it, just as the soldier on the boat initially said: "we are not going to talk about this." But because of it's so deep and sometimes unconscious, it is impossible to put such a instinct into words, let alone to have any reasoning and logic based upon it. This inability to describe our deepest nature makes us human, I think.

Image Credit: The New York Times

Oct 11, 2008

Boston Consulting Group

I went to the BCG's info session for PhD student at the end of the summer. Some of its core values are exactly the ones I am looking for. To list a few.

Chart your own course. The company promises a diverse learning experience and flexibility of roles. What's more important to me is the global mobility. When I reflect on my own career choice, I will definitely put growth and mobility on the top.

Challenge your mind. The presenter says BCG is an academic firm. I thought, that's where the skills of a PhD is needed.

Making a difference. That's me.

Team with leaders. I learn the most from the best people.

Image credit: http://www.bcg.com

Money


"Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do." -- Steve Jobs
I always have this believe, do not work for money. And I always believe that one has to be passionate about what he works on. Recently, I met a girl who has to work to support her life as a undergrad. It generates certain respect in me, and makes me re-think my belief on work. When I search for the roots of my belief, I realize that throughout my education, I haven't worried about financing my education. High school and college tuition fee were not even a topic of discussion in my family, and in graduate school, tuition and stipend are taken care of by the school. What left to me to consider is only whether or not I like the topic I study or the work I do.

An interesting statement from one of the postdoc in my lab is that the best minds follow the money. It sounds ridiculous to me when I first heard it. But she backed up her argument by stating that all those law schools, business schools and med schools attract the top students in US because entering those schools almost guarantee a career with high income. It is a point that people in those school could hardly agree with, but I feel it has certain truth in it. I believe that there are certainly people who enter those schools because of the high-paid jobs.

The question becomes more complicated when I start to consider why the US social system in general rewards lawyers, businessman and medical doctors the most. Is it because those are really the careers that generate the most value to a society, or is it because they are just hard to get in.

Stephan Covey's whole person paradigm sheds some light on my confusion. It stresses that a life with true happiness and fulfillment (or in his words, voice) needs to consider all four parts of a human being: the body/the material needs for survival, the mind/to grow, the heart/to love, and the spirit/to live a legacy. In the current context, money is necessary for survival; passion is also crucial if one wants to truly enjoy the work; and meaningfulness in work is also crucial because in the end, we need to answer the question, what I contribute for the society.

Still on the way of searching for such a life.

Image Credit: http://www.alwaysauditioning.com