【诺奖得主Wilczek科普专栏】青少年科学竞赛如何影响了美国科学

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Frank Wilczek

弗兰克·维尔切克是麻省理工学院物理学教授、量子色动力学的奠基人之一。因在夸克粒子理论（强作用）方面所取得的成就，他在2004年获得了诺贝尔物理学奖。

青少年科学竞赛如何影响了美国科学▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲

作者 | Frank Wilczek

翻译 | 梁丁当

配音 | 李娜（蔻享学术）

1967年，美国副总统休伯特 • 汉弗莱与青少年科学竞赛决赛选手弗朗克 • 维尔切克合影。

图片来源：科学与公众协会

（Society for Science & the Public）

49年前（这么久远？），我踏上了从纽约的格仁欧克斯 (Glen Oaks) 到首都华盛顿的旅程。我当时是一名15岁的高三学生，去参加西屋青少年科学竞赛的总决赛 (Westinghouse Science Talent Search)。在那之前的几个月，我参加了一个考试，写了一篇短文，说服老师们推荐我，并完成了一个小的研究项目（细节见后）。为时一周的行程让我经历了很多第一次：第一次坐飞机，第一次住旅馆，第一次穿燕尾服，第一次见到诺贝尔奖得主等等。我获得了第四名，副总统休伯特•汉弗莱(Hubert Humphrey) 为我颁了奖。

Forty-nine years ago (can it be?), I traveled from Glen Oaks, N.Y., to Washington, D.C. I was a 15-year-old high-school senior, on my way from Queens to the finals of the Westinghouse Science Talent Search. A few months before, I had taken an exam, composed an essay, persuaded some teachers to endorse me and written up a little research project (more on that later). That weeklong trip featured many firsts for me: my first airplane trip, first stay in a hotel, first black-tie event, first meeting with a Nobel Prize-winner and more. I won fourth prize and got to shake hands with Vice President Hubert Humphrey.

这个经历改变了我的人生。最重要的是它给了我信心，让我顺利完成了从学习到创新的艰难转折：学习就是接受和掌握知识，单纯而快乐；创新则是一个挫败和沮丧常伴的过程，只是偶尔会有成功的惊喜。

The experience changed my life. Above all, it gave me a sense of confidence that let me make the difficult transition from the simple joys of absorbing information to the routinely frustrating but intermittently ecstatic work of creating something new.

上周（编注：指今年3月下旬）我从波士顿来到华盛顿，再次参加这个已更名为英特尔青少年科学竞赛 (Intel Science Talent Search) 的总决赛。这次我的身份是前参赛者和这个比赛的组织者科学和公众协会(the Society for Science and the Public)的理事。不再有那些“第一次” 带来的激动，但这次回头之旅依然从很多新的角度深深触动了我。

Last week, I traveled from Boston to Washington to participate again in what is now known as the Intel Science Talent Search. I went as an alumnus and a trustee of the Society for Science and the Public, which runs the search, rather than as a contestant. There was none of the excitement of personal “firsts” on this trip, but it was deeply moving in new and different ways.

玛德琳蛋糕的美味没能勾起我美好的回忆（虽然它勾起了普鲁斯特 * 的 )。真真打开我记忆闸门的是穿燕尾服和对着镜子调整黑领带，它们把正为这次英特尔盛会准备的我送回了1967年的西屋颁奖典礼。

The taste of a madeleine doesn’t prompt nostalgic reveries for me (as it did for Proust), but the logistics of getting myself into a tuxedo, and the subsequent mirror-check, reliably shifts my memory’s drive into high gear. As I prepared for the Intel gala, I reexperienced the Westinghouse award ceremony of 1967.

赛事已经变了很多。女性有了更多的代表：今年参加决赛的女生人数头一次超过了男生。奖金更丰厚了，研究项目更复杂和有分量了。孩子们可以通过互联网广泛接触到最前沿的科学知识，现代技术让数据的收集和分析不再昂贵。

Some things are different now. Women are much better represented: This year, for the first time, the majority of finalists were female. The prizes are bigger, and the projects sophisticated. The Internet allows easy access to information at the frontiers of knowledge, and modern technology helps to put the gathering and analysis of data within the reach of modest budgets.

我1967年的研究项目几乎是个纯数学问题。数学里有个概念叫群，一组东西之间如果满足一定的条件，它们就构成群。我想看看如果放松里面的一些条件会有什么后果。但是竞赛要求有一个实物。我于是设计了一个机械装置来模拟群里的运算。帮我建造完这个装置后，父亲露出了少有的笑容。

My project back in 1967 was a minor bit of pure mathematics, seeing what you get if you slightly weaken the requirements (axioms) for the important concept of a “group” to allow a wider class of structures. Since a physical object was also required, I designed a simple mechanical model that managed to behave like an “almost group.” My father took rare pleasure in helping with its construction.

今年的获奖项目--都是17岁少年完成的--远远超越了我们那些项目。Paige Brown研究了她位于缅因州坂格市 (Bangor) 的家附近的水质，她发现有大肠杆菌和磷酸盐问题并找到了解决的办法。来自麻省马尔博罗 (Marlborough) 的Amol Punjabi利用生物信息学和计算生物学发现了一些排序混乱的蛋白，这可能会对设计药物有帮助。而加州库珀提诺 (Cupertino) 的Maya Varma做了一个便宜而好用的肺活量测量仪，可以用来监测呼吸效果和帮助肺病患者。

This year’s winning projects—all by 17-year-olds—were vastly more impressive. Paige Brown studied the water quality of several streams near her home in Bangor, Maine, found problems with E. coli and phosphates and began developing effective solutions. Amol Punjabi of Marlborough, Mass., used bioinformatics and computation biology to identify intrinsically disordered proteins, which are promising targets for drug design. And Maya Varma of Cupertino, Calif., built cheap, convenient devices called spirometers to monitor breathing efficiency and manage lung disease.

但最根本的东西没有改变：我们那个年代对科学的追求和发明创新带来的快乐依然随处可见。我觉得我和参赛学生已经融为一体，那个少年时代的我也穿越了时间来到了现场。

The core spirit of striving and joyful discovery that made such an impression on me decades ago rippled through the event. I felt at one with the student participants—and through them, with my earlier self, translated through time.

这个青少年科学竞赛在美国科学中一直扮演着非常重要的角色，在资源有限的情况下，人们用传统作支点努力坚持着。相比许多奖金更丰厚的同类竞赛，这个竞赛取得了更大的成功。原因是它的比赛方式是经过深思熟虑的。每个参赛项目包含了很多部分，需要参赛学生、老师和学校的共同参与。特别是这个总决赛，安排了一周内容丰富和引人入胜的活动，让每个参与者都有一种归属感。

The Science Talent Search has played a huge role in American science, leveraging modest resources on the fulcrum of tradition and sustained commitment. It has outperformed many more lavish prize competitions because of its thoughtful design. Each entry has many components, and it comes together as an integrated experience for the participants, their teachers and their schools. And the finals—an immersive week of events—build a lasting community.

回来后，我感到自己是一个有传承的大家庭的一员，随着时间扮演着不同的角色。爱因斯坦在1950年有一段优美的文字，完全抓住了这种解放的感觉：“ 每个人都是宇宙这个整体的一部分，这个部分受限于时间和空间......和其他部分分开--但这只是意识里的光学幻觉......不要深陷于这个幻觉，努力克服它，以获取内心的宁静。”

Coming back, I felt like one element of a larger, more enduring whole, assuming different roles over time. Albert Einstein beautifully captured this liberating possibility in 1950: “A human being is a part of the whole, called by us ‘Universe,’ a part limited in time and space…separated from the rest—a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness...Not to nourish the delusion but to try to overcome it is the way to reach the attainable measure of peace of mind.”

注：普鲁斯特(Marcel Proust，1871.7.10－1922.11.18)：法国意识流作家，代表作是《追忆逝水年华》(In Search of Lost Time， À la recherche du temps perdu)。

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声明：该文章曾于2016年--2017年间以专栏形式发表于《赛先生》公众号，后经作者授权发布于蔻享学术平台。

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