钱学森系统谈话：国家要培养会动脑子的科技创新人才（上）
Qiang Xuesen talks: The nation should cultivate talents engaging in scientific and technological innovations (I)
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| 我是在上个世纪30年代去美国的，开始在麻省理工学院学习。麻省理工学院在当时也算是鼎鼎大名了，但我觉得没什么，一年就把硕士学位拿下了，成绩还拔尖。其实这一年并没学到什么创新的东西，很一般化。后来我转到加州理工学院，一下子就感觉到它和麻省理工学院很不一样，创新的学风弥漫在整个校园，可以说，整个学校的一个精神就是创新。在这里，你必须想别人没有想到的东西，说别人没有说过的话。拔尖的人才很多，我得和他们竞赛，才能跑在前沿。这里的创新还不能是一般的，迈小步可不行，你很快就会被别人超过。你所想的、做的，要比别人高出一大截才行。那里的学术气氛非常浓厚，学术讨论会十分活跃，互相启发，互相促进。我们现在倒好，一些技术和学术讨论会还互相保密，互相封锁，这不是发展科学的学风。你真的有本事，就不怕别人赶上来。我记得在一次学术讨论会上，我的老师冯·卡门讲了一个非常好的学术思想，美国人叫“good idea”，这在科学工作中是很重要的。有没有创新，首先就取决于你有没有一个“good idea”。所以马上就有人说：“卡门教授，你把这么好的思想都讲出来了，就不怕别人超过你？”卡门说：“我不怕，等他赶上我这个想法，我又跑到前面老远去了。”所以我到加州理工学院，一下子脑子就开了窍，以前从来没想到的事，这里全讲到了，讲的内容都是科学发展最前沿的东西，让我大开眼界。 |
I went to the United States in the 1930s and first studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). MIT is a very famous university in the United States. But I did not feel anything special about it, and I obtained my master’s degree in one year with top grades. Actually, I learned nothing innovative during that year. Later, I transferred to Caltech and immediately felt that it was different from MIT. The innovative study atmosphere permeated the entire campus. One can say that the one word to describe the spirit of the university is “innovation.” Here, you have to think of something that has never crossed other people’s minds and say things other people have never mentioned before. There were many top talents here and I had to compete with them in order to be the best. And at Caltech, innovation could not be normal. A small step forward was not enough, and you would soon be surpassed by others. What you thought and did had to be much better than others. Caltech had a strong atmosphere of learning, and active academic symposiums helped the students to inspire and encourage each other. Now, some technological and academic symposiums keep secrets from each other. This is not the style of learning in order to develop science. If you are truly talented, you are not afraid of being others catching up to you. I recall that at an academic symposium, my professor, Theodore von Karman, gave us a very good academic idea. The Americans called it a “good idea.” And this “good idea” was very important for scientific research. Whether you are innovative or not depends on you having a “good idea.” Immediately, some one asked, “Professor Karman, you have disclosed such a good idea. Aren’t you afraid of being overtaken by others?” Karman said, “I am not afraid. When some one catches up with me on this idea, I already have much better ideas.” That’s why I sharpened my mind once entering Caltech. They taught a lot of things that I had never expected. They were all the most advanced scientific developments, which largely broadened my vision. |
| 我本来是航空系的研究生，我的老师鼓励我学习各种有用的知识。我到物理系去听课，讲的是物理学的前沿，原子、原子核理论、核技术，连原子弹都提到了。生物系有摩根这个大权威，讲遗传学，我们中国的遗传学家谈家桢就是摩根的学生。化学系的课我也去听，化学系主任L·鲍林讲结构化学，也是化学的前沿。他在结构化学上的工作还获得诺贝尔化学奖。以前我们科学院的院长卢嘉锡就在加州理工学院化学系进修过。L·鲍林对于我这个航空系的研究生去听他的课、参加化学系的学术讨论会，一点也不排斥。他比我大十几岁，我们后来成为好朋友。他晚年主张服用大剂量维生素的思想遭到生物医学界的普遍反对，但他仍坚持自己的观点，甚至和整个医学界辩论不止。他自己就每天服用大剂量维生素，活到93岁。加州理工学院就有许多这样的大师、这样的怪人，决不随大流，敢于想别人不敢想的，做别人不敢做的。大家都说好的东西，在他看来很一般，没什么。没有这种精神，怎么会有创新！ |
I was a graduate student from the department of aeronautics, and my teachers encouraged me to learn various kinds of useful knowledge. I went to attend lectures in the department of physics. They taught the most advanced developments of physics, such as atomic theory, theory of atomic nucleus, nuclear technology and even the theory of atom bombs. The department of biology had an authority, Thomas Hunt Morgan, who taught genetics. Chinese geneticist Tan Jiazhen was once Morgan’s student. I also went to attend classes in the department of chemistry where Linus Pauling was the head of the department. He taught structural chemistry, which was also the frontier of chemistry. He also won the Nobel Prize for his research in structural chemistry. Our former President of the Chinese Academy of Sciences Lu Jiaxi once studied in the department of chemistry at Caltech. As I was a graduate student from the department of aeronautics, Linus Pauling had no objection to my attending his course and taking part in the academic symposiums of the department of chemistry. He was ten years older than I, and we later became good friends. In his later years, he insisted on taking large doses of vitamins. This idea was universally opposed by the biomedical circle, but he stuck to his view and held constant debates with the entire chemical circle. He took large doses of vitamins daily until he died at the age of 93. Caltech had many such masters, such strange creatures who went against the grain and dared to think about and do things others would not. Things everybody else said were good were as nothing to him. Without such spirit, how could innovations be possible?
(China.org.cn translated by Zhang Ming'ai)
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