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 “世外学子说 OurVoice”　科学与实验之于我们

 

　　我在这里和大家探讨两个严肃的问题：为什么我们要学习科学？为什么实验在科学中如此重要？

 

　　显然，有很多人认为我们学习的科学毫无用处。是的，电磁感应与篮球的运动毫无关系；一个化学反应是单分子还是双分子不会影响你买那种菜的决定。那么，我们究竟为了什么而学习科学。

 

　　我们学习科学，因为科学不仅优美而且强大。在一代一代的科学家的工作下，我们将这个这个混乱无序的世界抽象成几组简单的数学公式。我们将这些公式再运用到我们的真实生活中，定量精确地分析任何我们感兴趣的系统。

 

　　于是有人又会问：为什么我们不直接用这些公式对付考试，不要去做那些永远失败的实验？因为只有那些重复了无数次的实验，才使我们了解到什么是真的，什么是编的。在实验中，我们仔细地设计实验方案、重复多次实验、比较理论实际结果。正是科学中实验的严谨给予了科学如此之高的可信度，给予我们勇气把人类送上月球而不用担心阿波罗11中途坠毁，给予我们勇气大量进购原材料而不用担心生产不出预期产品，给予我们勇气放心吃药而不用担心中毒而死。物理化学生物领域的工作者花费大量时间来追求真理；伪科学的工作者也花费了大量时间创造各种星座运势来——浪费你的时间。我们只有做实验才是追随真正的科学、真正的科学精神。

 

　　最后，让我用一个小故事来总结演讲。当物理学家 R.R. William 游说国会希望建立加速器实验验证量子力学时，会员议员问他：“这个加速器回到我们的国防有任何帮助吗？”他回答说：“这对保卫国家没有任何直接帮助，除了它使我们的国家更加值得保卫。”　谢谢。

 

 

Dear teachers and students, 

 

　　I am here to address two serious questions: Why shall we learn science? Why experiments in the field of science are so important?

 

　　It is evident that there is an increasing voice yelling that the science we are learning is useless. Yes, the electromagnetic induction has nothing to do with the motion of a basketball, and whether a chemical is unimolecular or bimolecular does not affect your choice of buying vegetables in the supermarket. So, why should we learn science? 

 

　　We learn science because science is elegant and powerful. With the work of generations of the scientists, we are able to describe and decompose the chaotic world in terms of several sets of mathematical equations. We then apply those equations into the real world situations to quantitatively and accurately analyze the systems of our interest. 

 

　　Here, someone may ask: why don't we just apply those equations in the exam, and save our time from those always failing experiments? Because we conduct those experiment to verify what is true and what is not. We carefully design the methodology, repeat the trials, and discuss on discrepancies. That seriousness in the field of science earned it with the highest credibility. Only with this credibility repeatedly confirmed by the experiments, we are dare to put our men in Apollo 11 without the fear of sudden explosion, to purchase large amount of chemicals as raw materials without the fear of producing nothing, and to take the medicine as granted without the fear of being poisoned. Workers in physics, chemistry and biology devote their hours on seeking the truth. Workers in pseudoscience devote their hours on wasting your hours. We conduct experiments to become those renowned workers in science instead of those in pseudoscience. 

 

　　So far, let me end the speech with a historical anecdote. When a physicist R.R. William was asked by Congressman "Is there anything connected in the hopes of this accelerator that in any way involves the security of the country?". He answered "It has nothing to do directly with defending our country except to help make it worth defending."

 

　　Thanks you for listening. 

 

 

 

　　　演讲者：周天祎