中国人的诺贝尔奖情结

中国人的诺贝尔奖情结

每年诺贝尔奖揭晓的时候，中国人总有几分落寞。很多人不由自主地追问：为什么获奖的都是西方科学家？中国人离诺贝尔奖有多远？在中国人的心底，似乎隐藏着一种挥之不去的“诺贝尔情结”。

客观地说，诺贝尔奖并不能完全反映一个国家的科学研究水平，但是，诺贝尔奖又是一个独特的标志，代表了一个国家科学家的素质。当我们仔细回望历届诺贝尔奖获得者时，就不难发现：在他们的身上，除了有一种执着求真的科学精神外，更有一种关注人类命运的博大情怀。而这恰恰是比诺贝尔奖本身更重要的东西，也是容易被世人忽略的。

由此可见，诺贝尔奖与其说是一个光环，不如说是一种精神。对于中国科学界来说，最缺少的不是光环，而是“诺贝尔精神”。眼下，中国不乏才智过人的学者，但鲜有兼具科学精神与人文情怀的巨匠。真正的科学家，必须怀着造福人类的心胸，才能孕育出非凡的科学之果。也许，科学家的重要性并不在于是否获奖，而在于是否为造福人类而献身。懂得了这一点，中国人就离诺贝尔奖近了一步。(424)

“Nobel Prize Complex” of Chinese People

Every year when the Nobel Prize winners are announced, Chinese people would somehow feel a little depressed and disappointed. They could not help asking the following questions: why are the winners mostly scientists from western countries? When will the Nobel Prize come to a Chinese scientist? It seems that there is a so-called “Nobel Prize Complex” lingering in the hearts of the Chinese people.

Objectively speaking, the Nobel Prize does not fully reflect the level of the scientific researches of a country, but it is a unique symbol which represents the scientists’quality of a country as a whole. If we carefully look back onto the previous Nobel Prize winners, it is not difficult for us to see that, in addition to their perseverance in exploration of truth, they also have a serious concern about the future of the human society. This is something more important than the Nobel Prize itself but easily to be ignored by the world.

Thus we can see that the Nobel Prize is better to be regarded as a kind of spirit rather than a halo. What the Chinese scientific community lacks most is not the halo, but the “Nobel Spirit”. At present, China is not short of talented scholars, but of masters who are both great scientists and humanists. A real scientist must be willing to devote himself to the service of the whole mankind before he can make extraordinary achievements in his scientific research.What is important for him is not his winning of the Nobel Prize, but his dedication to work for the human society. Understanding this, the Chinese will be closer to the Nobel Prize.