0910G[Splendid Sun] 第3次作业 ISSUE119 By 远迹

远迹UID: 2649151

119"When research priorities are being set for science, education, or any other area, the most important question to consider is: How many people's lives will be improved if the results are successful?"
为科学、教育或其他任何领域设定研究优先级时，最需要考虑的问题是：如果研究成功，多少人将从中受益？


In response to cases of swine influenza A(H1N1), reported in Mexico and the United States of America, the Director-General convened a meeting of Emergency Committee to assess the situation and advise her on appropriate responses. The global human beings are now tensely focusing attention on such a horrible epidemical disease, which research priorities in most countries are being set for at present. Considering this troublesome difficulty may cause another poser, that is, shall we prioritize the researches mostly caring about the improvement that can benefit a multitude of people? Controversy may appear when confronting benefit that results from what we strive for, but virtually, how well the research will be validated by later performance depends upon the amount, reliability, and appropriateness of the investment used and on the skill and wisdom with it is interpreted.

When people are talking about researches such as mathematics, physics, chemistry and many other scientific researches, hardly can we find out the direct relationship that prior researches in science realm may immediately ameliorate the status quo of current people. Namely, researches on science are long-term project and oftentimes the prospects of such studies can never be distinguished clearly in the reason of they might be beyond our eyes. However, the goal of science is to search out how the world works, to seek what regularities there may be, to penetrate to the connections of things—from subnuclear particles, which may be the constituents of all matter, to living organisms, the human social community, and thence to the cosmos as a whole. Research on these aspects, we defined as fundamental research or basic research, are principally measures for the sake of exploring the phenomena in the world we live in and acquiring the cognizance of who we are, and some of these studies perhaps provide little instant interests but a future benefit. Michael Faraday, an English chemist and physicist who contributed to the fields of electromagnetism and electrochemistry, studied the magnetic field around a conductor carrying a DC electric current, and established the basis for the electromagnetic field concept in physics. He discovered electromagnetic induction, diamagnetism, and laws of electrolysis. Early people seemed to get not a bit of interests but merely to know that these laws illuminate some complicated regulations of science. Only when the later people set much more endeavors on these researches, such as James Clerk Maxwell, who took the work of Faraday, and others, and consolidated it with a set of equations that lie at the base of all modern theories of electromagnetic phenomena. Thanks to the fundamental researches before, people nowadays can enjoy a faster communication with the ambidextrous use of electromagnetic wave. Thus, research priorities on the basis but not those studies that can soon ameliorate people’s lives are definitely and significantly indispensable for our future development.

Certainly, as developing and diversifying the innovation and intricacy of technologies and cultures are, the rhythm of nowadays modern people’s lives are expediting drastically, which leads to an unprecedentedly epoch that we must confront a great many of new and complicated problems. When it refers to some crisis such as the explosion of a deadly disease, the one like swine flu, bird flu, SARS and so on, imperils our people’s lives savagely and cruelly, some immediate solutions should be undertaken to cope with these epidemic disasters. Dealing with these intractable problems needs powerful strength that reminds us prioritizing the researches on the improvement of human beings instantly. And of course, this statement may be a bit of extreme, as the researches on some other scopes that will benefit people greatly not only when comes the calamity shall we bring up against the severity. Admittedly, many studies do not face with such crisis and absolutely will improve the life standard of people, which we named as applied research. But all these researches depend on the establishment of basis research, and another question is: How long will these researches benefit people whilst the complicated and new affairs well up?

Actually, the ultimate aim of any scientific or educational undertaking is to facilitate people’s lives, and thus, we should strike a balance between basis research and applied research when set research priorities. Hardly can we point out whether the research priorities will expedite the development of our society at short notice or not. Imagine that a man promises a piece of candy to an impatient child who wants it today and ten pieces of candies to a patient child who can stay silence till a week later. The current benefit may please a child for a moment, but a long-term benefit will bring a much greater joyance. However, sweet enjoyment depends on the present conditions, and this is why we should strike a balance between the short-term and long-term researches.

家家☆yoonjaeUID: 2646910

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