Intellectuals id:The-Intellectual Written by Ye Shui
Is the new coronavirus man-made or natural? Before this, it caused intense controversy at home and abroad. Although many scientific studies have clearly shown that the new coronavirus is formed naturally, many people still believe that the new coronavirus is synthesized in the laboratory or leaked by the laboratory. Even Nobel Prize winners are no exception.
On April 17, the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, Luc Montagnier, claimed in an interview that the new coronavirus contains the nucleic acid sequence of HIV, and the new coronavirus is spreading It is caused by man-made addition of an HIV virus sequence to the virus of bat origin. He further explained that the reason why scientists want to do this is to "try to make an HIV vaccine."
The winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine said that he “does not believe that the new crown virus originates from the natural environment.” The picture is taken from CNEWS
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This amazing phrase has been widely criticized by colleagues. A former colleague of Montagny called this "baseless", and biologist Rao Yi criticized his remarks as "deceptive".
The World Health Organization has warned that misinformation about the new crown virus will make the work of medical staff more difficult, and spread fear to the public and cause confusion.
What many people don't know is that Montagny had a "notorious reputation" in the scientific community before he came to China. In his early years, he published a series of pseudo-scientific theories and had no place in the French scientific community, so he set his sights on the east. In 2010, Shanghai Jiaotong University hired Montagny to become a chair professor of Jiaotong University. It also plans to build a research center named after him, the Montagny Institute of Biomedicine, to study the phenomenon of electromagnetic waves generated by DNA in water. In the eyes of the scientific community, this theory is considered pseudoscience.
Montani was hired as a full-time professor at Shanghai Jiaotong University, the picture is from People.com.cn
1 What did the Nobel Prize winner say? "Amazing words"?
On April 17, a piece of news reported by Agence France-Presse caused intense discussion in the scientific community. Montagny said that the new coronavirus has been added with several small fragments of the HIV gene sequence. Therefore, he believes that “the new coronavirus is not a natural virus, but the result of professional work. It was done by a molecular biologist. It is a particularly delicate work, as delicate as a watchmaker.”
Whether the new coronavirus is artificially generated, the academic circles have already conducted in-depth analysis and refuted this conclusion. "The theory of inserting HIV fragments has long been criticized in a decent way," a famous domestic virologist told The Intellectual.
In March of this year, Kristian Andersen, a scholar from Scripps Research in the United States, wrote in Nature Medicine recently, “By comparing the existing new coronavirus genome sequence, It is confirmed that SARS-CoV-2 originated from naturally occurring, and there is no indication that it was artificially cultivated." (See "Scholars from the United States, Britain and Australia: The new coronavirus cannot be produced in the laboratory, and its origin has two possibilities.")
Francis Collins, Dean of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Collins) also posted a blog (see "NIH Dean Collins Refutes Conspiracy Theories: The New Coronavirus Is Really Not Man-made"), citing and supporting this researchResearch, pointed out that any bioengineer trying to build a coronavirus weapon is impossible to design a virus with a spike protein conformation like SARS-CoV-2.
Earlier, Richard Brennan, Director of the Emergency Operations Department of the World Health Organization, also stated in February that there is no evidence that the new coronavirus was made in a laboratory, and there is no evidence that The new coronavirus is manufactured as a biological weapon, and the new coronavirus comes from the animal kingdom.
However, Montagny still does not believe that the new coronavirus comes from wild animals on the contaminated market. Due to the halo of the Nobel Prize winner, Montagny's remarks naturally attracted widespread media attention.
In 2008, Montagny discovered the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), with German scholar Harald zur Hausen (Harald zur Hausen) and French scholar Francoise Françoise Barré-Sinoussi shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine that year.
Simon Wain Hobson, a scholar from the Pasteur Institute in France who had worked with Montagny, said that Montagny’s claims were baseless. Surprisingly, Montani’s judgment was based on a research by a team in India who claimed that “someone forced them to withdraw the article”.
The research mentioned by Montani refers to a preprint paper that has been published on the biopreprint website bioRxiv and has caused widespread controversy. The paper has not been peer reviewed, but also Due to "extremely imprecise and selective use of data research", it was widely criticized by academic colleagues, and the author took the initiative to withdraw the manuscript. (See "Rumors: New Corona Virus Man-made? The Hindu God Thesis That Causes Conspiracy Theories Will Be Retracted"; "Beijing University's third-party independent analysis: Data analysis and conclusion errors of Indian God texts")
preprint The platform bioRxiv has also been widely criticized by the academic community for this preprinted paper. Although it has a speed advantage, it ignores quality and some research is not credible. Horton, editor-in-chief of The Lancet, commented, “Some papers in the preprint are not helpful. These false news, false news and rumors will exacerbate panic and pain.”
2 Jiaotong University had hired Mongolia full-time. Tanny also built a research center for him
However, he is such a scholar who would rather believe in the retracted preprinted paper than in rigorous science, with the halo of the Nobel laureate on his head , Is favored in China.
Montagny joined Shanghai Jiaotong University full-time and has been widely reported
In November 2010, Shanghai Jiaotong University introduced Monta According to the agreement, Shanghai Jiaotong University will establish a research institute named after Professor Montagnier-Montagnier Institute, as the main academic workplace of Montagnier in Shanghai Jiaotong University. Montagny will mainly study the phenomenon of electromagnetic waves generated by DNA in water, and try to transform it from theory to medical application.
Why did Montani choose Shanghai Jiaotong University? An interview with "Science" magazine showed that he could not get funding in France, and tried other channels, which were also useless, while Shanghai Jiaotong University's "mind is very open."
Biologist Rao Yi disclosed his criticism of the introduction of Montagny from Shanghai Jiaotong University in his personal public account "Science". In 2010, Shanghai Jiaotong University proposed to introduce Montagnier and hoped that the country would support the introduction. At that time, the budget for the construction of the Montani Biomedical Research Center exceeded 300 million yuan. For this, the country has conducted two rounds of review. The first round was a committee composed of academicians of Chinese biomedicine, and the opinion was agreed. Then the second round of national-level review was launched.
"In 2011, the state accepted our second critical review and did not provide any support (from name to funding) for the introduction of Montagnier." Rao Yi wrote in the article.
As for whether the Montagny Institute Center finally landed, it is currently unknown. After being frustrated by introducing Montagny through the country, Shanghai Jiaotong University insisted on continuing to "bring in" Montagny and hired him as a chair professor of the University. The then school leader of Shanghai Jiaotong University said, “Professor Montagny is not attracted to the title of Nobel Prize winner, but his strong pursuit of his research field and direction.”
In the eyes of many scholars, Montagny's research in China is "pseudo-science"
So, what research does Montagny mainly engage in at Shanghai Jiaotong University? According to the introduction, Montani’s research is a novel feature of DNA: certain bacterial DNA in a highly diluted aqueous solution can induce electromagnetic signals. In the eyes of many scholars, this is actually "pseudoscience." A scholar who participated in the review of the introduction of Montagne by the Ministry of Science and Technology said to The Intellectual, "Montagne has been doing pseudoscience (the memory function of water) for many years at Jiaotong University. He is notorious internationally. I will believe his speech."
Nevertheless, Montagny still has a “market” in China and is popular. In 2018, he signed a cooperation agreement with the China Institute of Invention Transformation in Foshan, Guangzhou to jointly build the "Luc Montagny Laboratory".
Source: China Academy of Invention Transformation
Actually, the introduction of Montagny is just a microcosm. In recent years, many domestic colleges and universities have vigorously introduced Nobel Prize winners. Although some Nobel Prize winners have helped the development of domestic basic sciences, most colleges and universities do not choose to introduce Nobel Prize winners, and some regions even plan to vigorously develop Nobel Prize winners. "Economy"-through vigorously introducing Nobel Prize winners, transforming their scientific research results, and preparing for local industrial transformation.
was founded in 2018 by the Shanghai Dishui Lake Forum (later renamed the World’s Top Scientists Forum) organized by Shanghai Jiaotong University and other units. It invites dozens of top talents such as Nobel Prize winners and Lasker Prize winners every year. Originally planned to create a "world's top original scientific ideas and scientific research results of wisdom feast". Now the relevant departments hope to upgrade the local industry through the "perfect combination" of industry and science. According to the introduction, "a number of top Nobel scientists have joined the base (Shanghai Lingang), and the projects involve cutting-edge scientific research fields such as biomedicine, artificial intelligence, new energy, new materials, quantum science, etc.". The real value conversion effect of these projects may be clear in a few years.
As Professor Rao Yi commented, “A fake is a fake, and it is very likely to have side effects. It is just a matter of time and occasion”. This time, Montagny’s amazing words may be a good proof.
