Books, a technology that has been constantly tested and updated for centuries, encountered new challenges not long ago because one of the largest bookstores in the world-Amazon Online Bookstore developed a technology that can compete with Rival equipment. This device is a digital reader named "Kindle" (which means "igniting the love of reading
"). Its purpose is to try to rekindle readers' appreciation for literature just as the iPod does for music. Spark interest. The "Ignite" reader weighs only 290 grams and can wirelessly download a book in less than a minute and can store more than 200 more. Readers can read on its "electronic ink" screen that feels very similar to a traditional book page. You can read it online and make marginal notes. Although "Ignite" has replaced paper books on a large scale this past Christmas and has become the "darling" in gift boxes under the Christmas tree. It is currently only sold in the United States, but many British people (especially middle-aged British people and above) ) has become suspicious of it. A columnist in the "Book Review" section of The Times bluntly declared: "I still have a soft spot for old technology - those covers, pages, margins and printed words. My love for them will last a lifetime. "However, if we look back, we will find that in the 1990s, the literary world was still discussing whether computer writing hinders literary thinking, but today there are still several writers who are scrambling to submit manuscripts with 400 squares. ? It seems that it is inevitable that information technology will set off a prairie fire, and nostalgia cannot prevent the book form from being further simplified and practical.
Obviously, technology is very penetrating. It will not stay away from you because you refuse it. It will always enter your life and be enough to change you, whether you want it or not. However, there is a kind of universal judgment made in the name of science and technology, which is superficial and specious, but it is far from bringing us happiness. Historical experience tells us that if this kind of judgment is further used by conspirators and dictators, it will cause disaster for mankind. Professor James D. Watson (1928-), a famous American chemist and molecular scientist, discoverer of the double helix structure of DNA, and winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine; in recent years, he has visited Peking University, Tsinghua University, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Zhejiang University and other prestigious universities. Zhejiang University has also established the Watson Institute for Genome Science. Over the past decades, it has made inappropriate and insufficient scientific basis for remarks about the intelligence level of black people and women, which caused an uproar in the world. This is an example. Last year, he spoke to a reporter from The Sunday Times about the issue of black mental retardation. (He began by expressing a desire for equality, but then said "those who have to deal with black employees have discovered that this is not the case.") This first ignited a long-dormant debate about the genetic differences between races, and then a large-scale of noise and commotion. As a result, his promotional activities for his new book in the UK were suddenly cancelled, and he was recalled by the boss of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York) where he worked and was responsible, and was forced to go through the retirement procedures. Not only did the Nobel laureate lose his job, he also lost his reputation irrevocably, because people will never easily forget the condemning term "racist" when it comes to him in the future.
But after Watson made a serious "political mistake", the book he had prepared to travel across the Atlantic to promote was still published as scheduled. This is his third book about himself - "Avoiding Being Obnoxious and Other People from Lifetime" Avoid Boring People and Other Lessons from a Life in Science.Oxford University Press.347pp. The other two books are "The Double Helix" published in 1968, which specifically tells how Discovered the structure of DNA with his colleague Crick; published "Genes, Girls, and Gamow" in 2002, describing his life from the major discovery in 1953 to 1958), and He reviewed and explained his life and scientific career, especially the complexity of his personality and behavior. The time span is 1928-1976.
Watson can be described as a young success. He was first interested in ornithology, but turned to genetics as an undergraduate at the University of Chicago and studied at Indiana University under the guidance of his mentor, Professor Luria, who later won a Nobel Prize for his research on viral genes. Obtained a doctorate degree at the age of 22. The guidance of famous teachers made him realize that the key issue in biology is the nature of genetic material. In 1952, his continuous exploration of genes finally bore fruit. This year, at the age of 24, he and Crick discovered the double helix nature of DNA, for which they won the Nobel Prize in 1963. Subsequently, Watson entered Harvard University to engage in scientific research. Much of "Avoiding Being Obnoxious" is devoted to his arduous and successful efforts to strengthen the school's biology department during his tenure at Harvard. Another important part of the book that may be of interest to scientists is his description of how he single-handedly transformed Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory from a scientific backwater into a research powerhouse. However, there is another peak of his scientific career that people would like to see more - the human genome project, but its role is not presented in this book. At that time, he persuaded the U.S. government to intervene in the human genome sequencing project, and initiated and was actually responsible for the project until 1992. However, because he opposed allowing genes to be patented for commercial purposes (which in his view was not conducive to the development of science and society) ) and was forced to resign.
As in his two previous autobiographical works, Watson is unsparing in his evaluation of others in this book. His attitude towards his colleagues was as usual candid and harsh. In "Double Helix Structure", he once started with a criticism of his colleague Crick, which is very memorable: "I have never seen Francis Crick humble." Similarly, he was famous for his discovery of genes that produce enzymes. George Wells Beadle (1903-), Edward Tatum, who also won the Nobel Prize, he dismissed him as "a polite but boring man who had no other choice but to find Beadle." Can go”. He was indignant about the deteriorating situation of Harvard's biology department in recent years, and evaluated the recently dismissed president Larry Sumner as "arrogant and ignorant of science, but determined to expand Harvard's biological research. As a result, it became second-rate.” But ironically, the president stepped down not because of his faulty scientific vision, but because he also spoke freely and attributed the lack of women in science to the inherent differences in the abilities of men and women in this field. It seems that they are brothers in need! A constant theme in all of Watson's autobiographical works is the search for a mate. Here, he also tells how, after unsuccessfully searching for a "suitable blonde," he eventually married a brown-haired Harvard undergraduate 21 years his junior.
The writing feature of "Avoiding Being Obnoxious" is also extraordinary. The author integrates his life narrative into the lessons learned at each stage of his career.
Each chapter begins with "Manners" (e.g., "Manners Maintained When Reluctantly Leaving Harvard"). Some of these lessons--such as "Let your intellectual interests exceed the goals of the topic"--will be very useful to budding scientists. However, he does not seem to have any reflection on the excessive and even inflammatory remarks he has made about science and society in recent years, let alone draw lessons from them. On the contrary, he insists at the end of the book: "It is entirely possible that peoples in different regions have differences in intelligence during their evolution. Therefore, in the next 10 years, we may find out what causes these "Genes of difference." This is no different from what he has stated in the past that "genetically inferior people may exist, and this genetically caused intelligence difference will not disappear with education." Therefore, the book actually reiterates that or Strengthening its inherent prejudice of "viewing black people as a permanent drag on human progress". The scientific community almost unanimously pointed out the absurdity of his conclusion because he "lacked statistical knowledge of population genetics. Although there was sufficient evidence to show the impact of environmental factors on intelligence test results, he turned a blind eye and stubbornly insisted on unchangeable genetic determination." Argument".
Modern people believe in science, and any matter or slogan with the word "science" can gain orthodox status; but 400 years ago, God occupied the same position as science today, so if anyone at that time People who seriously declare that they "do not believe in God" are just like some people today who say that they "do not believe in science" will find it unreasonable. So, how did this transformation from 400 years ago to 400 years later begin and take place? The Emergence of a Scientific Culture (The Emergence of a Scientific Culture. By Stephen Gaukroger.572pp.Oxford University Press. This is the first of a planned five-volume series) is dedicated to answering this question.
In the author's view, along with the scientific revolution that began in the 16th century, the West broke the prosperity and decline pattern of all other scientific cultures and began a continuous and cumulative development process, forming the modern sense of the general laws of scientific development. Therefore, the author raises the question: Why can the pace of scientific revolution in the West continue to move forward and its achievements be consolidated, while scientific progress in other cultures cannot last? Why can science gradually become the dominant intellectual practice in the West? The author abandons the long-standing main method of explaining the above phenomena - what he calls "enlightenment explanation". In his opinion, the reason for this unique phenomenon comes from "various accidental factors" and must be found from the origin and uniqueness of Western culture. Under the guidance of the above research ideas, this volume is actually written as a chronological history of Western science and scientific thought from the 13th century to the end of the 17th century, or in other words, a history of Western science and related philosophical thought in the Middle Ages and modern times. Of course, the Enlightenment concept has been deeply rooted in the hearts of Western intellectual circles, which does not mean that it can be abandoned completely. Although the author verbally says that he no longer cares about "Enlightenment" in his analysis, his long historical narrative cannot but be based on the pantheon of great scientists of the Enlightenment era.