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Preface
In 2008, when Chinese-American scientist Qian Yongjian won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry , there was a lot of cheers in China.
can be followed by the interview, as the nephew of Qian Xuesen , Qian Yongjian actually said publicly:
"I am not a Chinese. I grew up in the United States. My bloodline cannot determine a person's identity." What kind of story does
have in this Chinese scientist? How should we view his public statement in the interview?
Qian Yongjian's Oriental Destiny
Speaking of Qian Yongjian's Oriental Destiny, it can be traced back to Hangzhou in the late Qing Dynasty.
At that time, there was a famous silk merchant named Qian Chengci there, and he had two sons, one named Qian Zefu and the other named Qian Junfu .
Qian Junfu is Qian Xuesen's father, and Qian Zefu also has a son named Qian Xueju.
Qian Xuesen and Qian Xueju have a good relationship. In addition, they were raised by Qian Junfu, and there are many similarities between them.
cousins, the cousins, were admitted to Shanghai Jiaotong University , and then went to MIT in the United States to further study.
They both have the same school and department, and their grades are very excellent. They are both talents that were urgently needed when the new China was first established. But in the face of the call of the motherland, the two brothers responded completely differently.
Qian Xuesen was full of joy and wanted to return to China to build the motherland. Qian Xueju felt it was difficult to perform when he returned to China, so it was better to stay in a better academic environment in the United States.
In fact, Qian Xueju also returned to the country in his early years, but he was still in the War of Resistance Against Japan , and with a heart full of serving the country, he hit a wall with the Kuomintang.
He originally wanted to return to China to build aircraft, but found that the funds allocated by the government to the airport were all divided by Kuomintang officials at all levels, and there was no money for research and construction of aircraft at all.
He was so angry that he came to the United States again, but this time he was unwilling to go back.
In 1955, Qian Xuesen finally returned to China after going through hardships. Since then, the two brothers have parted and embarked on completely different paths.
After returning to China for many years, Qian Xuesen became a meritorious minister of two bombs and one satellite , and was also the founder of many Chinese disciplines.
Qian Xueju took root in the United States and became an academician of the American Academy of Engineering and a senior engineering consultant for Boeing. In addition, he and his wife have three sons.
The youngest son is Qian Yongjian, the winner of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, which we mentioned above.
Qian Yongjian was born in New York, USA in 1952 and has been growing up and going to school in the United States. He can use chopsticks, but he doesn't use them much and is not familiar with Chinese, so he is not suitable to use Chinese to communicate with others.
Even his famous uncle Qian Xuesen and Qian Yongjian have never seen him.
It is said that after Sino-US relations eased, Qian Yongju and his family returned to China, but for many reasons, Qian Yongjian and Qian Xuesen failed to meet, which can be said to be the closest moment between them.
But the uncle and nephew finally passed each other, which is really a pity, but Qian Yongjian still has a lot of longing for this uncle.
Even he himself said that the reason why he engages in scientific research is more or less "family influenced":
"Family blood may be destined, I was born to do this."
So, what achievements did Qian Yongjian achieve in scientific research? How did he win the Nobel Prize for ?
illuminate science with fluorescent protein
Qian Yongjian has been a little interested in chemical experiments since he was a child. In addition, he suffered from asthma at that time and rarely went out, which gave him a lot of time to do experiments in the basement.
Relying on hard work and talent, 16-year-old Qian Yongjian wrote a paper that won the American Westinghouse Science Genius Award on the topic of "How metals are combined with thiocyanate salt" . The award
was called the "Youth Nobel Prize" at that time, which shows how valuable it is. It is precisely because of this award that Qian Yongjian knocked on the door of Harvard University in the United States, and then further studied at Cambridge University and University of California , and accumulated a deep academic background.
Since the 1980s, Qian Yongjian has gradually gained fame in the American scientific community.
Because he invented the dye molecule that detects the concentration of calcium ion , many people invited him to do academic reports on biology and chemistry. Some even joked:
"He may be the scientist who was invited to make the most academic reports in the world."
This is also attributed to Qian Yongjian's research field, which involves both biology and chemistry, and can even be linked to physiology. When he teaches, he is also vivid and vivid, with content and fun coexisting.
Later, Qian Yongjian turned his research direction to the field of fluorescent proteins. Qian Yongjian was very interested in recombining fluorescent proteins into E. coli and nematode and allowing them to continue to express this.
However, at that time, there were relatively few studies on this aspect, because the intensity and stability of the light emitted by fluorescent proteins are not enough.
So Qian Yongjian used the method of gene mutation to modify it, and the protein luminescence of 's weak green light became brighter and more continuous.
On this basis, Qian Yongjian led the team to produce a variety of proteins, transforming the fluorescent proteins to stabilize the release of various colors, some appear yellow, blue, and red, and some are activated and discolored.
Nowadays, the "fluorescent protein marker" used in our laboratory comes from here.
In fact, the reason why Qian Yongjian had such wonderful ideas was largely due to his natural interest in color.
He likes to draw and also likes the harmony of colors. Even the first chemical experiment he did was to adjust the colors using various chemical dyes.
The parents support his interests very much, and later he expanded his interests to work, which made this extraordinary achievement.
Some people say that Qian Yongjian used his work to illuminate science because the fluorescent protein he developed is known as one of the most important tools in contemporary scientific research.
In the past and even now, these are all "guidelines" for biologists and medical scientists, and have played a huge impact in the fields of genetically modified, cancer cell therapy, etc.
Of course, Qian Yongjian's research results are far more than that.
The living cell dye he developed subverts the fields of cell physiology and neurobiology; the key technology he pioneered in the next-generation sequencing (NGS) is one of the core of NGS sequencers.
However, his best-known achievement was to transform green fluorescent protein . He himself and two other American scientists won the 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry together. The news of
was sent back to China, and the whole country was joking for a while, and many people were proud of him.
, but at a subsequent press conference, when the reporter asked him whether he would consider returning to China to develop, Qian Yongjian said directly:
"I was born and raised in the United States. I am an American scientist, not a Chinese scientist, and my bloodline cannot determine a person's identity."
As soon as I said this, the venue fell into silence. Then the news came back to China, and some people even felt that Qian Yongjian "forgot his roots."
So, what should we think about this?
Specific questions, and treat
in detail. In fact, we must deal with specific questions in detail whether scientists "forget their roots" and cannot blindly make conclusions. For example, the two most typical examples in the past are Tsinghua Talent Lin Ye , and the genius of the youth class Yin Xi.
Let’s talk about Lin Ye first. He was the famous "Golden Treasury International Student" at that time. He belonged to the same category as him, including Mei Yiqi , Hu Shi , and Deng Jiaxian and others.
Among them, Lin Ye showed his talents in Tsinghua University , and achieved outstanding results when studying abroad.
So when he was about to graduate, Americans wanted to keep him, and even offered a high annual salary of 300,000 US dollars.
also faced the same choice, Deng Jiaxian and others, but they refused without hesitation and turned back to serve in China.
Unfortunately, Lin Ye failed to withstand the temptation of money and chose to stay there. In the end, he even gave up his Chinese nationality and joined the United States, helping the US scientific research department to study intercontinental missiles.
Like the famous American "Minister III" intercontinental ballistic missile launch, which is also the place where people criticize him: The motherland trained him, but he developed guns and cannons for the United States to point to China.
However, Lin Ye himself doesn't care about these things. He only needs fame and fortune. With his contribution to the militia system, he has become the chief engineer of Boeing .
It is said that in his later years, Lin Ye thought about returning to his roots and returning to his motherland, but he was eventually rejected.
As for Yin Xi, he showed his talent in his youth. He was admitted to the junior class of the University of Science and Technology of China at the age of 12. After completing his undergraduate studies for 5 years, he received a full scholarship from Harvard University and went to study for a Ph.D. in physics.
Harvard University has regulations that postdoctoral research cannot be continued at the school after graduating from a doctorate. But for him, Harvard University finally broke this convention, which shows how much he attaches importance to him.
, and Yin Xi himself has indeed studied the field of theoretical physics , especially in superstring theory.
Originally, everyone had high expectations for him, but later news came out that Yin Xi was about to change her American nationality. As soon as the news of
came out, it naturally triggered a public opinion storm. Why
? Because the superstring theory he studied is pure theoretical research, and the research in this field is currently still at the theoretical stage of mathematical form.
In other words, there is no patent or technical barrier in this regard, and even if the results are achieved, it belongs to the whole world.
As many people jokingly call it, atomic bomb and lithography machine may have borders, but superstring theory really does not. We cannot find that Lin Ye and Yin Xi’s “Studying in the United States” are not the same nature at all.
, one is to help the United States build missile systems, threatening the security of the motherland; the other is to simply study pure theory in the United States, and achieve results can benefit the whole world, which cannot be generalized.
Similarly, the principle of treating specific problems is also applicable to Qian Yongjian.
He was born and raised in the United States, and the results he has studied are also something that benefits all mankind, and there is really nothing to criticize.
Seek truth from facts and forge ahead
After winning the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Qian Yongjian was not blinded by fame and fortune, but was always very clear. He said:
"The hero behind the scenes is also worth a medal."
The hero behind the scenes here refers to a scientist named Preshe.
He was the first person to see the jellyfish protein gene, and it was he who studied the gene sequence of luminescent proteins. Other people's research was based on him, including Qian Yongjian.
It’s a pity that this research took time and effort. Preshe spent all his money during the research process and had to stop.
Later, Preshe could not find a job in the scientific community, and there was no way to continue his research in , so he could only drive in an car dealer in Alabama.
But even so, his enthusiasm for scientific exploration of has not yet been extinguished.
When Qian Yongjian and other scientists found him in hope of continuing this research, he generously delivered his results, which is the luminescent protein gene sequence we mentioned above.
Preshe did not regret the past decision, but just said humorously:
"If they come to Alabama again, they should invite me to a meal."
It can be seen that in the eyes of this group of real scientists, scientific research is far higher than medal honors.
Qian Yongjian also said: "There are also unspoken rules in the American academic community. It is not good to compete with the Nobel Prize ." Although
says that the United States has a strong academic atmosphere and abundant academic soil, what is little known is that there is also fierce competition there.
For example, if a scholar does not have a professional title or has few qualifications, it will be difficult for him to obtain financial support, and it will be difficult to conduct research.
So as we said above, some scientific research is divided into national boundaries, but some theoretical research that contributes to the whole of mankind can be ignored and cannot be generalized. After winning the award, Qian Yongjian did not continue to work in the field of fluorescent proteins. Instead, he devoted more time and energy to the research of human condition, such as how to use fluorescent proteins to overcome diseases such as cancer and stroke.
Until On August 24, 2016, Qian Yongjian passed away, at the age of 64.
He threw his life into scientific research. Such people are real scientists and deserve our admiration and learning, even if we don’t talk about national boundaries, only academics.
Patriotic scientists like Qian Xuesen and Deng Jiaxian are worthy of our admiration because they attach equal importance to character and talent, and have really given up a lot in order to build the motherland.
But we can't just use them as the standard to require all scientists, because this is destined to be difficult to achieve.
