Issue 40 麻烦同学们看一下，谢谢

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TOPIC: ISSUE40 - "Scholars andresearchers should not be concerned with whether their work makes acontribution to the larger society. It is more important that they pursuetheir individual interests, however unusual or idiosyncraticthose interests may seem."



There are thousands of scientific researches conducted every year, some of them contribute to our lives directly, such as the medical researches on cancer and AIDS or material experiments on new energy while others may only meet the scientists' own interests. So problem arouses between whether scientists should concern their own interest solely? I think as a scientist, personal interest is important, but cannot conflict with the society and waste public resources.

First,personal interest plays a significant role in propelling the scientists to achieve their goals. Without interests, they just like a boat sailing on thesand, although may move forward, but with unbearable speed. Interest, like alight tower on the endless sea in night, will eagerly enlighten your boat to the destination. The Nobel Prize winner, Louis De Broglie, who was a physicist,famous for his wave-particle theory, succeed by his personal interest. De Broglie was a historian student and after his graduation, he encountered a conference report, dealing with the light theory, belongs to his brother. After that, hebecame interested in the light theory and applied to college to study physics.Finally, his graduate treatise focus on wave-particle theory surprised all physicians at that time, including Albert Einstein. From De Broglie's success,we can see the importance of interest in the scientific research.

Second,some researches originally seem idiosyncratic and unusual may actually bring much benefit to human beings. In 1980s, BobMet-Calfe, who was a scientist onInternet and regarded the father of Internet, said: "the value of Internet equals to the square of people using it". This speech was opposed greatly by the leading scientists at that time when Internet was in its infancy. However,Calfe's prediction becomes reality. Today, Internet plays a crucial role inevery day life, from mundane activity to business. Scientific research is to explore the unknown and the real value of it may be underestimated the time it is conducted, but who knows something extraordinary will happen later.

Aside from the above two points, I think scientists should concern whether their researchresult contributes to the larger society and for three reasons.

The first reason lies in the requirements of society. There are myriads of social problems exist nowadays, such as AIDS, shortage of food and environment problem,etc. These challenges hamper human beings moving forward and should be resolved by our scientists. If scientists only pursue their own interests and end withtheir research without serving any beneficial function to society, social problems may worsen in future and will jeopardize the whole global society.

The second reason is the side effects of scientific research. If scientists only pursue their own interest, they may do some research which result may bringharmful effect to human beings. Imaging the following scenario, one bio-scientistis interested in bacteria and invents several fatal ones. Such research may only bring doom to human beings.

The third reason is the opportunity cost of scientific research. Even in current society, we are limited to our social resources, no matter in money, human resources and places. Some researches may take much resources but without definite result. One example is the Fifth Generation Computer Project (FGCP), aimed to let computers to have human intelligence, conducted in Japan and partially in U.S.A. When this research finally failed, it already spent billions of dollars.But at the same time, Apple Computer Inc has produced the human-computer interaction technology and Internet is in its maturity. The opportunity cost of FGCP is too high and serves no benefits to human beings.

In sum, scientific research is propelled by the interest of scientists and mayseem unusual and idiosyncratic. But, only with interest is not enough. Science and technology finally serves to benefit human beings and whether their research contributes to society should be concerned by scientists before their research.