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Letters and Blogs
(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-10-10 08:41 Why no Nobel for China's scientists? Charles Kao, a physicist born in China, was awarded half of the Nobel Prize in physics this year. He is the eighth ethnic Chinese Nobel laureate in sciences. Among the eight laureates, however, no one has conducted scientific research and won the prize in China. Why have scientists of China not been able to win the Nobel Prize? First of all, China's investment in sciences, especially in basic sciences, is relatively minimal. Compared with advanced countries, the share of investment in scientific research from the total GDP is much less. The input in research and development has been always lower than 1 percent of the GDP. Worse, money spent in basic sciences is much lower because application research takes the bulk of R&D investment funds. Second, the current education system in China stifles progress in scientific studies. The Chinese education system emphasizes the ability to pass an exam. Chinese students forged by this system are usually very diligent and perform well in exams, but perform poorly in creative or innovative outlets. Third, I believe that rampant plagiarism in the Chinese academia hampers real scientific research. In the past decade, published science papers have surged, while the quality has been hardly pleasing. Some researchers committed multiple submissions, some use old or unreliable data to write papers, and some even brazenly copy others' works. Because there is no rigorous control on plagiarism, plagiarists could flourish and honest researchers become disadvantaged. Fourth, against the materialist social background, many science researchers are seemingly lost trying to seek personal interests instead of devoting themselves to the sciences. Since the income of a researcher is related to the projects he or she conducts, researchers have to spend most of their time looking for projects. Many researchers are keen on seeking promotion as officials since the administrative departments rather than researchers possess real power in research institutions. San Fen Si Kao Zhe blog.sina.com.cn Reduce sacrifice of lives in work Cheng Ming, a 39-year-old police officer in Chongqing, died on Oct 1 from reportedly being overworked. Bo Xilai, Chongqing municipal secretary of the CPC, approved a 1-million-yuan compensation ($147,000) to his family. Bo said that Cheng set a good example for the Chongqing police and that his tireless spirit should be praised. I do admire Cheng's enormous devotion and professionalism, while I strongly oppose that others should follow his behavior. Reportedly before his death, Cheng worked for 15 hours a day while suffering from various diseases. His time at work apparently kept him from seeing a doctor. In fact, I bet if he had taken a short break and gone to the hospital, he could have saved himself and served the country for a longer period of time. We have seen a number of cases where heroes decline the advice of their families and friends, and stubbornly trudge into work until small maladies turn into tragedies. The bureaucratic system is designed to be strong enough to withstand an official's sick leave. Furthermore, the overworked ultimately neglect their families, which is a tragedy unto itself. Thus, when honoring the heroes who have died at their posts, we should also try to prevent such tragedy from happening again. Every working person should be protected with the right to rest as well as the right of health. Only then will it be good for both the country and our heroes. Yi Jun Ming Zhu blog.sina.com.cn Readers' comments are welcome. Please send mail to Letters to the Editor, China Daily, 15 Huixin Dongjie, Chaoyang District, Beijing, 100029 China. Send faxes to (86-10) 6491-8377. Send e-mail to opinion@chinadaily.com.cn or letters@chinadaily.com.cn or to the individual columnists. China Daily reserves the right to edit all letters. Thank you. (China Daily 10/10/2009 page4) |
