華人諾獎得主朱棣文哈佛大學畢業演講

朱棣文(1948——)，美籍華裔科學家，1997年諾貝爾物理獎獲得者，現任政府能源部長。在2009年哈佛大學畢業典禮上朱棣文作了演講，該演講熱情洋溢，對畢業生們殷殷鼓勵，對環境問題憂心忡忡，表現了其作為一名大科學家的人文情懷。

朱棣文演講中英文對照版

Madam President Faust, members of the Harvard Corporation and the Board of Overseers, faculty, family, friends, and, most importantly, today’s graduates：

尊敬的Faust校長，哈佛集團的各位成員，監管理事會的各位理事，各位老師，各位家長，各位朋友，以及最重要的各位畢業生同學：

Thank you for letting me share this wonderful day with you.

感謝你們，讓我有機會同你們一起分享這個美妙的日子。

I am not sure I can live up to the high standards of Harvard Commencement speakers. Last year, J.K. Rowling, the billionaire novelist, who started as a classics student, graced this podium. The year before, Bill Gates, the mega-billionaire philanthropist and computer nerd stood here. Today, sadly, you have me. I am not wealthy, but at least I am a nerd.

我不太肯定，自己夠得上哈佛大學畢業典禮演講人這樣的殊榮。去年登上這個講台的是，英國億萬身家的小説家J.K. Rowling女士，她最早是一個古典文學的學生。前年站在這裏的是比爾·蓋茨先生，他是一個超級富翁、一個慈善家和電腦天才。今年很遺憾，你們的演講人是我，雖然我不是很有錢，但是至少我是一個書呆子。

I am grateful to receive an honorary degree from Harvard, an honor that means more to me than you might care to imagine. You see, I was the academic black sheep of my family. My older brother has an M.D./Ph.D. from MIT and Harvard while my younger brother has a law degree from Harvard. When I was awarded a Nobel Prize, I thought my mother would be pleased. Not so. When I called her on the morning of the announcement, she replied, “That’s nice, but when are you going to visit me next.” Now, as the last brother with a degree from Harvard, maybe, at last, she will be satisfied.

我很感激哈佛大學給我榮譽學位，這對我很重要，也許比你們會想到的還要重要。要知道，在學術上，我是我們家的異類。我的哥哥在麻省理工學院得到醫學博士，在哈佛大學得到哲學博士;我的弟弟在哈佛大學得到一個法律學位。我本人得到諾貝爾獎的時候，我想我的媽媽會高興。但是，我錯了。消息公佈的那天早上，我給她打電話，她聽了只説：“這是好消息，不過我想知道，你下次什麼時候來看我?”如今在我們兄弟當中，我最終也拿到了哈佛學位，我想這一次，她會感到滿意。

Another difficulty with giving a Harvard commencement address is that some of you may disapprove of the fact that I have borrowed material from previous speeches. I ask that you forgive me for two reasons.

在哈佛大學畢業典禮上發表演説，還有一個難處，那就是你們中有些人可能有意見，不喜歡我重複前人演講中説過的話。我要求你們諒解我，因為兩個理由。

First, in order to have impact, it is important to deliver the same message more than once. In science, it is important to be the first person to make a discovery, but it is even more important to be the last person to make that discovery.

首先，為了產生影響力，很重要的方法就是重複傳遞同樣的信息。在科學中，第一個發現者是重要的，但是在得到公認前，最後一個做出這個發現的人也許更重要。

Second, authors who borrow from others are following in the footsteps of the best. Ralph Waldo Emerson, who graduated from Harvard at the age of 18, noted “All my best thoughts were stolen by the ancients.” Picasso declared “Good artists borrow. Great artists steal.” Why should commencement speakers be held to a higher standard?

其次，一個借鑑他人的作者，正走在一條前人開闢的最佳道路上。哈佛大學畢業生、詩人愛默生曾經寫下：“我最好的一些思想，都是從古人那裏偷來的。”畫家畢加索宣稱“優秀的藝術家借鑑，偉大的藝術家偷竊。”那麼為什麼畢業典禮的演説者，就不適用同樣的標準呢?

I also want to point out the irony of speaking to graduates of an institution that would have rejected me, had I the chutzpah to apply. I am married to “Dean Jean,” the former dean of admissions at Stanford. She assures me that she would have rejected me, if given the chance. When I showed her a draft of this speech, she objected strongly to my use of the word “rejected.” She never rejected applicants; her letters stated that “we are unable to offer you admission.” I have difficulty understanding the difference. After all, deans of admissions of highly selective schools are in reality, “deans of rejection.” Clearly, I have a lot to learn about marketing.

我還要指出一點，向哈佛畢業生髮表演説，對我來説是有諷刺意味的，因為如果當年我斗膽向哈佛大學遞交入學申請，一定會被拒絕。我的妻子Jean當過斯坦福大學的招生主任，她向我保證，如果當年我申請斯坦福大學，她會拒絕我。我把這篇演講的草稿給她過目，她強烈反對我使用“拒絕”這個詞，她從來不拒絕任何申請者。在拒絕信中，她總是寫：“我們無法提供你入學機會。”我分不清兩者到底有何差別。不過，那些大熱門學校的招生主任總是很現實的，堪稱“拒絕他人的主任”。很顯然，我需要好好學學怎麼來推銷自己。

My address will follow the classical sonata form of commencement addresses. The first movement, just presented, were light-hearted remarks. This next movement consists of unsolicited advice, which is rarely valued, seldom remembered, never followed. As Oscar Wilde said, “The only thing to do with good advice is to pass it on. It is never of any use to oneself.” So, here comes the advice. First, every time you celebrate an achievement, be thankful to those who made it possible. Thank your parents and friends who supported you, thank your professors who were inspirational, and especially thank the other professors whose less-than-brilliant lectures forced you to teach yourself. Going forward, the ability to teach yourself is the hallmark of a great liberal arts education and will be the key to your success. To your fellow students who have added immeasurably to your education during those late night discussions, hug them. Also, of course, thank Harvard. Should you forget, there’s an alumni association to remind you. Second, in your future life, cultivate a generous spirit. In all negotiations, don’t bargain for the last, little advantage. Leave the change on the table. In your collaborations, always remember that “credit” is not a conserved quantity. In a successful collaboration, everybody gets 90 percent of the credit.

畢業典禮演講都遵循古典奏鳴曲的結構，我的演講也不例外。剛才是第一樂章——輕快的閒談。接下來的第二樂章是送上門的忠告。這樣的忠告很少有價值，幾乎註定被忘記，永遠不會被實踐。但是，就像王爾德説的：“對於忠告，你所能做的，就是把它送給別人，因為它對你沒有任何用處。”所以，下面就是我的忠告。第一，取得成就的時候，不要忘記前人。要感謝你的父母和支持你的朋友，要感謝那些啟發過你的教授，尤其要感謝那些上不好課的教授，因為他們迫使你自學。從整體看，自學能力是優秀的文科教育中必不可少的，將成為你成功的關鍵。你還要去擁抱你的同學，感謝他們同你進行過的許多次徹夜長談，這為你的教育帶來了無法衡量的價值。當然，你還要感謝哈佛大學。不過即使你忘了這一點，校友會也會來提醒你。第二，在你們未來的人生中，做一個慷慨大方的人。在任何談判中，都把最後一點點利益留給對方。不要把桌上的錢都拿走。在合作中，不要把榮譽留給自己。成功合作的任何一方，都應獲得全部榮譽的90%。

Jimmy Stewart, as Elwood P. Dowd in the movie “ Harvey” got it exactly right. He said: “Years ago my mother used to say to me, ‘In this world, Elwood, you must be … she always used to call me Elwood … in this world, Elwood, you must be oh so smart or oh so pleasant.’” Well, for years I was smart. ... I recommend pleasant. You may quote me on that.

電影《Harvey》中，Jimmy Stewart扮演的角色Elwood P. Dowd，就完全理解這一點。他説：“多年前，母親曾經對我説，‘Elwood，活在這個世界上，你要麼做一個聰明人，要麼做一個好人。’”我做聰明人，已經做了好多年了。……但是，我推薦你們做好人。你們可以引用我這句話。

My third piece of advice is as follows: As you begin this new stage of your lives, follow your passion. If you don’t have a passion, don’t be satisfied until you find one. Life is too short to go through it without caring deeply about something. When I was your age, I was incredibly single-minded in my goal to be a physicist. After college, I spent eight years as a graduate student and postdoc at Berkeley, and then nine years at Bell Labs. During that my time, my central focus and professional joy was physics.

我的第三個忠告是，當你開始生活的新階段時，請跟隨你的愛好。如果你沒有愛好，就去找，找不到就不罷休。生命太短暫，所以不能空手走過，你必須對某樣東西傾注你的深情。我在你們這個年齡，是超級的一根筋，我的目標就是非成為物理學家不可。本科畢業後，我在加州大學伯克利分校又待了8年，讀完了研究生，做完了博士後，然後去貝爾實驗室待了9年。在這些年中，我關注的中心和職業上的全部樂趣，都來自物理學。

Here is my final piece of advice. Pursuing a personal passion is important, but it should not be your only goal. When you are old and gray, and look back on your life, you will want to be proud of what you have done. The source of that pride won’t be the things you have acquired or the recognition you have received. It will be the lives you have touched and the difference you have made.

我還有最後一個忠告，就是説興趣愛好固然重要，但是你不應該只考慮興趣愛好。當你白髮蒼蒼、垂垂老矣、回首人生時，你需要為自己做過的事感到自豪。物質生活和你實現的佔有慾，都不會產生自豪。只有那些受你影響、被你改變過的人和事，才會讓你產生自豪。

After nine years at Bell labs, I decided to leave that warm, cozy ivory tower for what I considered to be the “real world,” a university. Bell Labs, to quote what was said about Mary Poppins, was “practically perfect in every way,” but I wanted to leave behind something more than scientific articles. I wanted to teach and give birth to my own set of scientific children.

在貝爾實驗室待了9年後，我決定離開這個温暖舒適的象牙塔，走進我眼中的“真實世界”——大學。我對貝爾實驗室的看法，可以引用Mary Poppins的話，“實際上十全十美”。但是，我想離開那種僅僅是科學論文的生活。我要去教書，培育我自己在科學上的後代。

Ted Geballe, a friend and distinguished colleague of mine at Stanford, who also went from Berkeley to Bell Labs to Stanford years earlier, described our motives best:

我在斯坦福大學有一個好友兼傑出同事Ted Geballe。他也是從伯克利分校去了貝爾實驗室，幾年前又離開貝爾實驗室去了斯坦福大學。他對我們的動機做出了最佳描述：

“The best part of working at a university is the students. They come in fresh, enthusiastic, open to ideas, unscarred by the battles of life. They don"t realize it, but they"re the recipients of the best our society can offer. If a mind is ever free to be creative, that"s the time. They come in believing textbooks are authoritative, but eventually they figure out that textbooks and professors don"t know everything, and then they start to think on their own. Then, I begin learning from them.”

“在大學工作，最大的`優點就是學生。他們生機勃勃，充滿熱情，思想自由，還沒被生活的重壓改變。雖然他們自己沒有意識到，但是他們是這個社會中你能找到的最佳受眾。如果生命中只有一段時間是思想自由和充滿創造力，那麼那段時間就是你在讀大學。進校時，學生們對課本上的一字一句毫不懷疑，漸漸地，他們發現課本和教授並不是無所不知的，於是他們開始獨立思考。從那時起，就是我開始向他們學習了。”

My students, post doctoral fellows, and the young researchers who worked with me at Bell Labs, Stanford, and Berkeley have been extraordinary. Over 30 former group members are now professors, many at the best research institutions in the world, including Harvard. I have learned much from them. Even now, in rare moments on weekends, the remaining members of my biophysics group meet with me in the ether world of cyberspace.

我教過的學生、帶過的博士後、合作過的年輕同事，都非常優秀。他們中有30多人，現在已經是教授了。他們所在的研究機構有不少是全世界第一流的，其中就包括哈佛大學。我從他們身上學到了很多東西。即使現在，我偶爾還會週末上網，向現在還從事生物物理學研究的學生請教。

I began teaching with the idea of giving back; I received more than I gave. This brings me to the final movement of this speech. It begins with a story about an extraordinary scientific discovery and a new dilemma that it poses. It’s a call to arms and about making a difference.

我懷着回報社會的想法，開始了教學生涯。我的一生中，得到的多於我付出的，所以我要回報社會。這就引出了這次演講的最後一個樂章。首先我要講一個了不起的科學發現，以及由此帶來的新挑戰。它是一個戰鬥的號令，到了做出改變的時候了。

In the last several decades, our climate has been changing. Climate change is not new: the Earth went through six ice ages in the past 600,000 years. However, recent measurements show that the climate has begun to change rapidly. The size of the North Polar Ice Cap in the month of September is only half the size it was a mere 50 years ago. The sea level which been rising since direct measurements began in 1870 at a rate that is now five times faster than it was at the beginning of recorded measurements. Here’s the remarkable scientific discovery. For the first time in human history, science is now making predictions of how our actions will affect the world 50 and 100 years from now. These changes are due to an increase in carbon dioxide put into the atmosphere since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. The Earth has warmed up by roughly 0.8 degrees Celsius since the beginning of the Revolution. There is already approximately a 1 degree rise built into the system, even if we stop all greenhouse gas emissions today. Why? It will take decades to warm up the deep oceans before the temperature reaches a new equilibrium.

過去幾十年中，我們的氣候一直在發生變化。氣候變化並不是現在才有的，過去60萬年中就發生了6次冰河期。但是，現在的測量表明氣候變化加速了。北極冰蓋在9月份的大小，只相當於50年前的一半。1870年起，人們開始測量海平面上升的速度，現在的速度是那時的5倍。一個重大的科學發現就這樣產生了。科學第一次在人類歷史上，預測出我們的行為對50~100年後的世界有何影響。這些變化的原因是，從工業革命開始，人類排放到大氣中的二氧化碳增加了。這使得地球的平均氣温上升了0.8攝氏度。即使我們立刻停止所有温室氣體的排放，氣温仍然將比過去上升大約1度。因為在氣温達到均衡前，海水温度的上升將持續幾十年。

If the world continues on a business-as-usual path, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicts that there is a fifty-fifty chance the temperature will exceed 5 degrees by the end of this century. This increase may not sound like much, but let me remind you that during the last ice age, the world was only 6 degrees colder. During this time, most of Canada and the United States down to Ohio and Pennsylvania were covered year round by a glacier. A world 5 degrees warmer will be very different. The change will be so rapid that many species, including Humans, will have a hard time adapting. I’ve been told for example, that, in a much warmer world, insects were bigger. I wonder if this thing buzzing around is a precursor.

如果全世界保持現在的經濟模式不變，聯合國政府間氣候變化專門委員會(IPCC)預測，本世紀末將有50%的可能，氣温至少上升5度。這聽起來好像不多，但是讓我來提醒你，上一次的冰河期，地球的氣温也僅僅只下降了6度。那時，俄亥俄州和費城以下的大部分美國和加拿大的土地，都終年被冰川覆蓋。氣温上升5度的地球，將是一個非常不同的地球。由於變化來得太快，包括人類在內的許多生物，都將很難適應。比如，有人告訴我，在更温暖的環境中，昆蟲的個頭將變大。我不知道現在身旁嗡嗡叫的這隻大蒼蠅，是不是就是前兆。

We also face the specter of nonlinear “tipping points” that may cause much more severe changes. An example of a tipping point is the thawing of the permafrost. The permafrost contains immense amounts of frozen organic matter that have been accumulating for millennia. If the soil melts, microbes will spring to life and cause this debris to rot. The difference in biological activity below freezing and above freezing is something we are all familiar with. Frozen food remains edible for a very long time in the freezer, but once thawed, it spoils quickly. How much methane and carbon dioxide might be released from the rotting permafrost? If even a fraction of the carbon is released, it could be greater than all the greenhouse gases we have released to since the beginning of the industrial revolution. Once started, a runaway effect could occur.

我們還面臨另一個幽靈，那就是非線性的“氣候引爆點”，這會帶來許多嚴重得多的變化。“氣候引爆點”的一個例子就是永久凍土層的融化。永久凍土層經過千萬年的累積形成，其中包含了巨量的凍僵的有機物。如果凍土融化，微生物就將廣泛繁殖，使得凍土層中的有機物快速腐爛。冷凍後的生物和冷凍前的生物，它們在生物學特性上的差異，我們都很熟悉。在冷庫中，冷凍食品在經過長時間保存後，依然可以食用。但是，一旦解凍，食品很快就腐爛了。一個腐爛的永久凍土層，將釋放出多少甲烷和二氧化碳?即使只有一部分的碳被釋放出來，可能也比我們從工業革命開始釋放出來的所有温室氣體還要多。這種事情一旦發生，局勢就失控了。