After the science "Big Bang" sharing meeting, Sheldon took a group photo with the Chinese paper engraving works donated by the student representatives of Wenzhou Middle School. Photo by Zheng Peng
On the morning of October 27, Sheldon Glashaw, a world-famous physicist, the father of the "Standard Model of Particle Physics" and the prototype of Shea's ear in "The Big Bang Theory", brought a sharing of "scientific top thinking" in the lecture hall of 800 people of Wenzhou Middle School. This is one of the science sharing sessions of the 2019 World Young Scientists (Wenzhou) Summit, with the theme of "Science 'Big Bang'". After the sharing, the student representative of Wenzhou Middle School presented Sheldon with a traditional Chinese paper engraving work.
As Sheldon shared, "Science and Serendipity," Sheldon unexpectedly pulled a USB stick out of his pocket before he began his lecture—he changed the subject of his planned speech.
At the beginning of the sharing, Sheldon explained the connotation of serendipity - the word is derived from the Persian mythological story "The Three Princes of Ceylon", which tells the story of three Persian princes who go on an expedition to ceylon and accidentally discover many precious things along the way that they did not seek. In his view, the same is true of the road adventures of scientific exploration.
From chemical elements and drugs to physical theories and even everyday objects, many scientific discoveries actually come from "unexpected discoveries."
"So I would like to remind many institutions that support scientific research, whether it is the government, universities, or industrial capital, that our scientific discoveries actually have two paths, one is based on a clear plan, and the other is unplanned, and in the absence of a clear task, amazing discoveries have been made." Sheldon said that in addition to various "supersystems", such as superstring theory, superfluids, and superconductors, he would especially recommend "superserendipity". "Commitment to pure scientific and mathematical research may seem abstract and have no commercial value, but they can have the most profound and unexpected impact on socioeconomic change."
During the question-and-answer session, Sheldon answered four questions. Sheldon shared his upbringing on how to prepare to be a scientist, from high school, to 4 years of undergraduate study at Cornell University, to 4 years of graduate study at Harvard University, and two years of study and research life in Copenhagen, he said that the secret of his success, in addition to solid theoretical study, is to find the best mentor (team) to learn and work with.
In terms of the future direction of scientific development, Sheldon said that although the pace of development in some scientific fields has slowed down, there are still many development directions worth looking forward to. Among the many development directions, someone will build a new large particle accelerator in the future, which he hopes will be a Chinese. At the same time, he also hopes that the next ring proton collider will be born in China. "I know that there has always been such a voice from the Chinese side, and when Chinese can win the Nobel Prize in Physics again, I think there will be." In my personal experience, because I have brought several Chinese students who are very good, some of them have returned to China and are already world-class experts. Sheldon said. (Reporter: Yang Xiaoyan)
Source: Wenzhou Metropolis Daily
Source: Today's WeChat public account of the Association for Science and Technology
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