Westbank西岸集团陪你品读《加拿大年轻一代有望成为世界创新的推动者》.docx

Westbank西岸集团陪你品读加拿大年轻一代有望成为世界创新的推动者该文章摘自于加拿大权威报刊：The Globe and Mail作者：Neil Turok (Perimeter 研究所所长)题目：Young Canadians can be the innovators the world needs作为一个宇宙学家，我经常被问到，“如何从这些与我们地球日常生活息息相关的黑洞到大爆炸，去深入研究宇宙?”我的回答是：完全投入其中。我们环顾四周，看着天上的星星，我们想要知道它是如何运转的。令人惊讶的是，我们可以寻找到美丽动人的答案去解释它。我们从宇宙万物中学习，无论是近在咫尺的眼前还是遥不可及的远方，都为每一项改变世界的技术奠定了一定的基础。我们对运转规律、电力和光的理解使飞机、计算机和无线通信成为可能。所有被探索出来的答案也都渐渐解开了宇宙大爆炸、宇宙是由什么构成、量子论如何连接一切等谜团。我相信，是我们人类的探索渐渐打开了难以想象的技术之门。我们能够理解自然的运作规律，并运用知识与智慧去改变我们的世界，使我们成为我们想要成为的人。我们思考和想象，实验和观察，理解与行动。在这个过程中，我们不断地重新认识这个世界。我们都是创新者“创新”是近期非常流行的一个词，许多公司和经营组织都将这视为他们的择人标准。我相信我们都需要拥有它，因为创新是人类定义的重要特征之一。可以肯定的是，创新将成为我们未来的关键，而加拿大在这方面可以扮演“领头人”的角色。今年，我将在加拿大发表一个以“我们都是创新者“为题的互动谈话活动，庆祝加拿大一百五十周年生日。我们希望在欢庆加拿大的独创性同时能继续挖掘其潜力，更好的推动创新。我们希望借此机会鼓励所有加拿大人，尤其是年轻人，通过努力与创新，造福社会。届时我将站在制高点，从环境恶化和日益加剧的不平等、偏见与误解来讨论我们所面临的挑战。每一个挑战中都伴随着一个机会，拥有创新者的思想和行为才是使得我们未来变得更好的更大动力之源。创新在某种意义上，与生命的起源一样古老，它是后天与我们的DNA相连，逐渐形成的。 生物进化只不过是一系列的试错创新，每一个个体在进化过程中都被赋予生存优势。但是今天的不同之处在于，通过创新，我们获得了控制我们人类进化和地球继续演变的力量。 这也将赋予了我们更大的责任与使命。许多创新是双刃剑，汽车和飞机使得我们对化石燃料产生了依赖，把我们宝贵的蓝色领域变成了温室。同样，我们对电磁和电子的掌握使得智能手机彻底改变了人类的联系方式。但也以牺牲更丰富，更人性化的情感交流为代价使得我们越来越依赖手机。技术只是一种工具，我们要学会如何明智地利用它，如何去创建一个更光明的未来。一个真的创新者需要具备什么?我总结了四点：好奇心、勇气、创造力与合作。当然每个人看待这些特质的方式都不同，作为一个物理学家，我自然关注我所在领域的先驱。一个叫Michael Faraday的年轻人，在他帮助他的导师修缮实验室的过程中，由于他强烈的好奇心，发明了首台电动马达和发电机。结果，电磁的发现，开启了无线电和移动通信的改革。Marie Curie，一个勇敢的年轻波兰女人，克服了极端的偏见，执着于诺贝尔获奖的物理和化学的研究，结果启动了量子革命并形成了二十世纪的科学和医学诊断。近期，艺术麦当劳和他的Snolab团队在创造力和合作的共同引导下，将位于萨德伯里两公里外的镍矿变成超清洁的实验室，在那里他们还检测出中微子并对物理超能量有了一个深入了解，因此获得了2015诺贝尔奖。这些创新者的共同之处是我们天生就具备的特质好奇心、勇气、创造力和合作精神，当然还有他们对真相的执着探索与追求。但发现只是一部分，同样重要的是用创新的智慧，去使得人类不断的进步。古人说，“没有正义就没有真理，没有真理也没有正义。”克服分歧并为所有人创造机会，这对社会创新者、科学家，技术专家和企业家都一样重要。我出生在南非。我很早的一些记忆是关于我的父母与Nelson Mandela由于反对歧视性种族隔离政权一起被监禁的那段日子。他们敢于挑战权威，敢于想象或创造一个更好的社会，是创造力与合作使得他们整个同盟团体联合起来，共同对抗。我的父母和他们的盟友为我树立了榜样：无论挑战有多大，都不要选择逃避。正是这个信念一直鼓舞着我在物理理论方面的研究，因为在这个领域中，我们所面临的问题通常不是一蹴而就的。积极分子在改变南非并取得成功彻底激励了我和我的同事创建非洲数学科学研究所(AIMS)，这是一个泛非洲网络中心，为非洲年轻人提供先进的科学培训。 AIMS认识到非洲的年轻人才是其未来，为他们提供所需的技能，是解决非洲大陆所面临许多挑战的好的方式。在加拿大，我也看到了一个非常特殊的机会。我被这个国家开放、多元、包容的文化深深吸引。我相信，只有在加拿大，我正担任主任的研究中心Perimeter理论物理研究所才更有能力强调前沿研究和教育拓展。 我们生活在一个充满危机的糟糕世界英国退欧，唐纳德特朗普选举成功和民族主义的兴起，可能会在一定程度上阻碍我们跨越国界完成共同目标的进程。在此背景下，加拿大可以成为一个启蒙的灯塔。在这里，我们的人类价值观得到很好的支撑，教育和批判性思维受到重视，创新也会在非常广泛、非常包容的环境里得到发挥。我相信，当今世界的危机给加拿大提供了一个明确的机会：吸引优秀和聪明的人才，成为全球知识宝库。就像发生在十七世纪的荷兰，望远镜和显微镜的发明推动了科学的复兴;就像发生在第十八世纪的苏格兰，伴随着亚当斯密，大卫休谟和罗伯特伯恩斯的突然出现。二十一世纪，我相信世界会把加拿大看作是我们共同所想象的愿景那样。不可能没有工作，因为还有许多事情要做。整个社会都需要支持创新，这涵盖了学校，社区，大学，公司，工会，政府甚至每个人。 加拿大在近期的国际学生评估计划(PISA)关于科学绩效的报告中排名第四(在新加坡，中国和爱沙尼亚之后)。报告指出：“科学素养越来越与经济增长挂钩，并且对于解决复杂的社会和环境问题是必要的。不仅是未来的科学家和工程师，所有公民都需要愿意并且有能力去面对科学研究的相关困境”。为了使加拿大成为一个创新的，以知识为基础的社会，整代的加拿大人要有所成长，欣赏他们拥有的技术，自由和支持。 他们获得教育，研究和创业的机会在增加的同时，我们必须加强这些措施，使他们更加充满信心去解决问题。加拿大的文化和理念的多样性将是其很大的力量来源之一，因为它往往来源于创新与旧观念的交流与碰撞中。 至关重要的是，我们必须维护加拿大作为多样性被珍视、包容为进步的驱动力、人才被重视的这样一个国家的声誉，无论在何处，每个人都有责任。 我热爱物理学研究，因为它使得我的好奇心，创造力，勇气，合作精神都得到充分发挥，并且让我懂得了很宝贵的一个道理：能力主宰我们的命运。我乐观地认为，只要我们提供更多的机会，加拿大的年轻人就能成为世界所需要的创新者。原文如下:As a cosmologist, Im often asked how research into the universe from black holes to the Big Bang is relevant to our everyday lives here on Earth.My answer: completely.We look around us and up at the stars and we wonder how it all works. Amazingly, we can find answers, and those answers are beautiful.Learning from the universe both nearby and far away has laid the foundation for every technology that has shaped our world. Our understanding of the laws of motion, electricity and light made airplanes, computers and wireless communication possible. Solving todays great mysteries, like what banged at the Big Bang, what the universe is made of and how quantum theory connects it all, will, I believe, open doors to unimaginable new technologies.Our ability to comprehend the workings of nature, and to apply that knowledge with ingenuity to improve our world, makes us who we are. We contemplate and imagine, experiment and observe. When we understand, we design and we make. In doing so, we continually reshape the world.We are innovators.Innovation is a bit of a buzzword these days. Many companies and organizations claim it as their raison dtre. But I believe we all need to lay claim to it, to own it, because innovation is one of humankinds defining traits. It will, almost certainly, be the key to our future. And I believe Canada can play a vital leadership role.This year, I will be travelling across Canada to deliver an interactive talk called “We Are Innovators,” as part of Innovation150, a nationwide celebration of Canadas sesquicentennial. Our goal is to celebrate Canadian ingenuity and Canadas potential to foster innovation. We hope to encourage all Canadians, especially youth, to effect positive change both at home and abroad.I will discuss the challenges our planet now faces from environmental degradation and growing inequality to growing prejudice and misinformation and how we must rise to them. In every challenge lies an opportunity; in thinking and behaving as innovators lies our best hope for the future.Innovation is, in a sense, as old as life itself; it is hard-wired into our DNA. Biological evolution is nothing more than a series of trial-and-error innovations, each conferring a survival advantage.But what makes things different today is that, through innovation, we have gained the power to control our evolution and that of our planet. This places an enormous collective responsibility upon us.Many innovations are double-edged swords; cars and planes drove our dependence on fossil fuels, turning our precious blue sphere into a warming greenhouse. Likewise, our mastery of electromagnetism and electronics enabled smartphones, which connected us in new ways but has also glued us to our screens at the expense of richer, more human interactions. Technology is merely a tool. It is up to us to use it wisely if we are to build a brighter future.What does it take to be an innovator? As a handy mnemonic, I use four Cs: curiosity, courage, creativity and collaboration. Everyone sees these traits differently; as a physicist, I naturally focus on the pioneers of my field.The playful curiosity of a young Michael Faraday, an apprentice tinkering in his mentors lab, led to the first electric motors and generators and, eventually, to the discovery of electromagnetism, which allowed radio and the mobile-communication revolution.The courage of Marie Curie, a young Polish woman who overcame extreme prejudice to pursue Nobel-winning research in both physics and chemistry, helped launch the quantum revolution that shaped 20th-century science and medical diagnosis.More recently, the creativity and collaboration of Art McDonald and his SNOLAB team enabled them to transform a nickel mine two kilometres underneath Sudbury into an ultra-clean lab, where they detected neutrinos and gained deep insights into physics at super-high energies, earning the 2015 Nobel Prize.What these innovators share in common are traits we are all born with curiosity, courage, creativity and a collaborative spirit combined with their intense focus on discovering the truth.But discovery is only part of the equation. Equally important is using innovations wisely, for the betterment of our species. As the ancients said, there can be no truth without justice, and no justice without truth. Social innovators who overcome divisions and create opportunities for all are every bit as important as scientists, technologists and business entrepreneurs.I was born in South Africa. Some of my earliest memories are of my parents being jailed alongside Nelson Mandela for their activism against the discriminatory apartheid regime. They had the courage to challenge authority, the curiosity to imagine a better society, the creativity to forge alliances and the collaborative spirit to work together for change.My parents and their allies taught me by example not to shy away from challenges, no matter how big. The same mindset has driven my work in theoretical physics, a field in which we confront problems that seem (and usually are) impossible to solve on a daily basis.The success of activists in changing South Africa inspired me and my colleagues to create the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS), a pan-African network of centres providing advanced scientific training to young African minds. AIMS recognizes that Africas youth are its future, and that providing them with the skills they need to make a difference is the best way to resolve the continents many challenges.Here in Canada, I also see a very special opportunity. I was drawn to this country by its open, diverse and respectful culture. Only in Canada, I believe, could Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics the centre for which I serve as director, and which emphasizes both cutting-edge research and educational outreach, equally have been created.We live in a troubled world, full of crises.Brexit, Donald Trumps election and the rise of nationalism elsewhere threaten our ability to work across boundaries towards common goals. In this context, Canada can be a beacon of enlightenment, where the best of our human values are upheld, where education and critical thinking are valued, and where innovation is promoted in its widest, most inclusive sense.I believe the worlds current crises provide Canada with a clear opportunity: to attract the best and brightest minds, and to become a global knowledge leader. This happened in 17th-century Holland, where the invention of the telescope and microscope fuelled the scientific renaissance; it happened in 18th-century Scotland, with the emergence of luminaries like Adam Smith, David Hume and Robert Burns.Through the 21st century, I believe the world might look upon Canada as the place where our collective future is imagined.This will not come without work, and there is much to be done. The whole of society needs to lend its energy to supporting innovation. This spans schools, communities, universities, companies, unions, government, everyone.Canada came fourth (behind Singapore, China and Estonia) in the recent Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) report on performance in science, but much more is needed. The report states: “At a time when science literacy is increasingly linked to economic growth and is necessary for finding solutions to complex social and environmental problems, all citizens, not just future scientists and engineers, need to be willing and able to confront science-related dilemmas.”For Canada to become an innovative, knowledge-based society, an entire generation of Canadians must grow up appreciating the tools, freedoms and support they have at their disposal. Their access to education, research and entrepreneurship opportunities are growing; we must enhance these to give them the confidence they need to tackle b