"The Forum provides a unique opportunity and is a veritable event." At the opening ceremony of the 5th World Top Scientists Forum held yesterday, Roger Kornberg, President of the World Association of Top Scientists (WLA) and winner of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, commented on the significance and value of the Top Science Forum.
If science is a beacon that condenses the wisdom of human civilization, then top scientists are undoubtedly "lookouts on the spire". In 2018, Shanghai opened its arms to the world's top scientists and issued an invitation to open innovation to the world: a group of "lighthouse lookouts" carrying the highest wisdom of the planet gathered in Shanghai, the city of innovation, with the three missions of promoting basic science, advocating international cooperation and supporting the growth of young people, colliding ideas, stimulating wisdom, and pledging the "importance of science".
Today, the spillover effect of this annual scientific event continues to appear, and it also witnesses the attraction of Shanghai's integration of global wisdom and the world's talents. "Last forum was fortunate to invite 70 Nobel laureates and top science award winners, and this number will not stop here in the future." For five consecutive years, Kornberg is confident in the attractiveness of the forum.
Michael S. I. Jordan
Michael M. Smith, the winner of the first Ding Science Association Intelligent Science or Mathematics Award and professor at the University of California, Berkeley, who came to Shanghai to receive the award. According to I. Jordan, the "three missions" are surprisingly consistent with his vision in the field of machine learning and artificial intelligence. He praised China for grasping the pulse of the times so accurately, "this forward-looking layout is enough to illuminate the present and illuminate the future."
Basic research is the foundation and beginning of everything
"If basic science is ignored and you want to build applied science, it is like cutting corners on the foundations of a construction site, delusionally trying to use the money saved to pile the building higher, but in fact it is only a matter of time before the entire building collapses." Kornberg pointed out that although the impulse to profit from science exists, one must not forget that basic science is the foundation of everything, the beginning of everything. The Association of the World's Top Scientists Award, presented for the first time in Shanghai this year, was created with the original intention of promoting basic research to encourage more people to do more "difficult but right" things in the field of science.
In yesterday's opening keynote speech, the importance of basic research was repeatedly mentioned by the "strongest brains". James Rothman, a professor at Yale University and winner of the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, shares the story of a century-old marathon of basic research that ultimately saved the lives of hundreds of millions of patients. He told people that basic research is largely unpredictable and that it is necessary to be patient and give long-term support to basic research.
Dirk Görlich
How important is curiosity-driven research? Andre Gaim, winner of the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics and a professor at the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom, said: "Curiosity-driven research is the driving force of human progress, without which humans might still be a herd of orangutans sitting on banana trees. "Twenty-five years ago, the "father of graphene" was doing scientific research in the kitchen to study how to remove scale from tap water, and later he invented the magnetic descaler.
Today, it does not take a hundred years for basic research to become applied research, and not only that, the integration of basic research and cutting-edge technologies is accelerating. "We can't predict what basic research will bring, but we can be sure that the disruptive innovation of the future will come from today's basic research," Rothman said. ”
The key to the "healing power of science" lies in international cooperation
At present, climate change, energy crisis, food security and infectious disease prevention and control have become common challenges facing mankind. John Hennessy, winner of the 2017 Turing Award, said that science has made the "impossible" become "possible", and in the future, science will also play a key role in human response to the crisis. He said that the theme of this year's Dingke Forum, "Science for the New and Creating the Future," pointed out to us the "healing power of science," and the key to whether science can successfully meet challenges lies in international cooperation.
This year, 60 top scientists from more than 20 countries and regions across 12 time zones attended the forum online or offline, including 27 Nobel laureates. At the same time, this is also the largest number of offline participants since the epidemic, which shows the appeal and attractiveness of the forum.
At the opening ceremony, American and German scientists made a special trip to Shanghai to receive the first World Top Scientists Association Award, which is a vivid picture of international scientific and technological cooperation and exchanges. Jordan admits that computer science and mathematics have "disappeared" from the Nobel Prize for nearly a hundred years, and the history of computers is less than a hundred years, but they have had a huge impact on mankind. He is very pleased to see that the Dingke Forum, founded in Shanghai, has paid attention to this field and established an international science award to inspire more people to devote themselves to it.
Jordan has been involved with the Chinese scientific community for more than 20 years, and his recent paper published in the British journal Nature is the result of a collaboration with Tsinghua University. He firmly believes that machine learning and artificial intelligence must work together to prosper and realize their vision.
At the opening ceremony of this forum, the WLA International Joint Laboratory was announced to launch in Shanghai. The three Nobel laureates have become the first batch of "cornerstone scientists" of the laboratory, focusing on the research of gene regulation at the bottom and core of the origin of life, cell biology research that reveals the laws of life activities, and click chemistry to carry out cutting-edge research.
Scientific inheritance and innovation go hand in hand
In fact, it's not just scientists who benefit from the Top Science Forum. Kornberg revealed that millions of people participated in the event online last year, and perhaps a Shanghai high school student "collected" the autographs of a number of Nobel Prize-level scientists in his notebook. He said that it is not enough to rely on scientists to deal with challenges such as disease and global warming, and it is necessary to convey the voice of science and disseminate scientific knowledge through popular science. The Forum conveys the joy of participating in science to the scientific community and non-scientific people and further defends the mission of science.
The "top science effect" does not stop there, and the forum is working to become "takeable". At the opening ceremony yesterday, the WLA World Top Middle School Alliance jointly launched by the Top Science and Technology Association and 13 middle schools including Shanghai Middle School, Beijing People's University Affiliated High School and Shenzhen Middle School was announced. The Alliance will give full play to the advantages of WLA's top scientists resources, and continue to carry out a variety of science popularization activities represented by "top scientists entering campus" for the majority of young people.
Yang Wei, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that this initiative has a strong exemplary and leading role, which can not only indicate the new direction of discipline development, but also set up a beacon for the growth of young talents. Groups of young scientists have followed the footsteps of their mentors and predecessors, constantly achieving new leaps, and the inheritance of science and innovation have been born together, which has effectively promoted the vigorous development of human science.
Author: Shen Xiangsha Xu Qimin
Editor: Shen Yusha