issue40 永不言弃小组第四次作业by 花生 1号

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40"Scholars and researchers should not be concerned with whether their work makes a contribution to the larger society. It is more important that they pursue their individual interests, however unusual or idiosyncratic those interests may seem."
观点：两面派
1.
在科学研究结束以前，研究成果对社会的贡献是不确定的，所以不需要太关心
    谁也不能知道在研究前该成果有什么作用。
Who is to decide which areas of academic inquiry are worthwhile? Scholars cannot be left to decide; nor can regulators and legislators.
例子：电的发现：The discovery of electricity is a case in point. When the scientist first found the phenomena of electricity, some reporters asked him to predict the potential use of it. The scientist replied like this: could you predict the contribution of a man when he was just a baby? As time passes, electricity becomes one of the fundamental factors in people's everyday life in modern world.

现在看起来没什么用将来可能有大用处。
如：Einstein 发展了 the principle relativity, the quantum theory, 当时没用，现在奠定了当代物理学的基础。以及发端自数学的game theory
2.承认兴趣可以提高科学家研究的积极性。
在自己感兴趣的领域做事，科学家们更容易出成果。
By human nature we are motivated to pursue those activities in which we excel.
Not for Edison’s sustained work, we wouldn’t have benefited so much from his marvelous inventions.

It is inherent in the human spirit to be more effective and productive when they are in pursuit of something that is of interest to personal level. Only by inner motivation can one perform various abilities to most extent, no matter in which human endeavor. In the endless monotone process of accumulating knowledge, someone sticks to while someone gives up, someone succeeds while someone fails, the reason lies in that the former perceives the process meaningful with a high spirit while the latter feels anguished and bored. Therefore, scholars and researchers should be given the freedom to choose their own areas, no matter how unusual or seemingly useless those fields may be. Consider, for example, …
例子：
Einstein Albert who simply put his effort in the theoretical physics eventually promoted the advances in natural science. Watt James who just interested in the mechanism of the steam engine eventually propelled the Industrial Revolution in the eighteen century.

3.但是科学家必须承担一定的社会责任。（
不能因为个人兴趣去研究对社会有害的东西，去做很有争议的事情。他们靠的是社会的资助）
例子：克隆人，核泄漏。

Dolly the sheep, the first ever cloned animal died at the age of 3 suffering from a numerous amount of abnormalities. As the human race advances into the 21st century ask yourselves, do we really want scientists in labs creating embryos in test tubes using the same procedure?

I am sure that the idea of scientific research producing cloned humans is something that probably disturbs most of you. Human lives are not research material, & scientists should not have control over a person’s identity & unique characteristics

TOPIC: ISSUE40 - "Scholars and researchers should not be concerned with whether their work makes a contribution to the larger society. It is more important that they pursue their individual interests, however unusual or idiosyncratic those interests may seem."
WORDS: 676

DATE: 2009-2-8 22:26:57

In the last hundred years, with the contributions made by scholars and researchers appearing, science has been advancing at a rate faster than ever before in the history of human civilization. People naturally put more and more emphasis on the visible contributions rather than scholars and researchers' interests. In my eyes, I concede that it is important to concern with their individual interests, however unusual or idiosyncratic those interests may seem. However, we also should consider whether the researches which interest the scholars and researchers are significant to society.

Firstly, research work is, in one sense, not well purposed action, but rather some exploration of the unknown world around us. Thus, it is unreasonable to ask every scholar and researcher to be concerned with whether their work makes a contribution to the larger society. What is more, who is to decide which areas of academic inquiry are worthwhile?
The discovery of electricity is a case in point. When the scientist first found the phenomena of electricity, some reporters asked him to predict the potential use of it. The scientist replied like this: could you predict the contribution of a man when he was just a baby? As time passes, electricity becomes one of the fundamental factors in people's everyday life in modern world. Additionally, some research work which seems useless at right now may be significant in the future. For instance, the principle relativity, the quantum theory developed by Einstein became the foundation of contemporary physics, but it appeared useless at that time.
So unlike technicians whose major work is to solve problems, scholars and researchers are taking their roles as explores, trying to find new theories and facts. We can anticipate the contributions, rather than put more emphasis on them before scholars and researchers make them.

Admittedly, interest is the best teacher. It is inherent in the human spirit to be more effective and productive when they are in pursuit of something that is of interest to personal level. Only by inner motivation can one perform various abilities to most extent, no matter in which human endeavor. In the endless monotone process of accumulating knowledge, someone sticks to while someone gives up, someone succeeds while someone fails, the reason lies in that the former perceives the process meaningful with a high spirit while the latter feels anguished and bored. Therefore, scholars and researchers should be given the freedom to choose their own areas, no matter how unusual or seemingly useless those fields may be. For example, Einstein Albert who simply put his effort in the theoretical physics eventually promoted the advances in natural science. Watt James who just interested in the mechanism of the steam engine eventually propelled the Industrial Revolution in the eighteen century. Thus, by human nature we are motivated to pursue those activities in which we excel.

However, even though interest is import for scholars and researchers to make contribution, we cannot ignore considering the interests' byproduct. In other words, the scholars and researchers have a responsibility to make contributions to the large society. They cannot do some controversial and harmful researches with the supports from the society. For instance, dolly the sheep, the first ever cloned animal died at the age of 3 suffering form a numerous amount of abnormalities. As the human race advances into the 21st century, do we really want scientists in labs creating embryos in test tubes using the same procedure? In my opinion, i am sure that the idea of scientific research producing cloned humans is something that probably disturbs most of you. Human lives are not research material. Scientists should not have control over a person's identity or unique characteristics.

To sum up, sometimes, research is ideal as well as practical. Yet today's useless theories may be where tomorrow's great benefits rise from. If refrained by pragmatic requirement, most work of scholars and researchers may seem to be quite futile and whimsical to contemporaries. Therefore, they merit the freedom to pursue their own interests, as long as the safety and security of others are not abused.