Peking University, Nov. 1, 2010: “I’m going to talk about two kinds of people today. One is geniuses and the other is Bo Le (talent scouts).” Prof. Rao Yi started his lecture, “Through their story, I hope to illustrate how a person should do scientific researches and what decisions should a scientist make during his or her life. On the other hand, I want to say that one should have the capability to discover and cherish geniuses especially the young, supporting talented students to make academic researches.”
This was the fourth lecture of Caizhai Lectures held by Peking University Graduate School on Oct. 28. Prof. Rao Yi, Dean of School of Life Sciences, was the speaker lecturing the theme “Genius and Talent scout.”
"I think there are events of prime importance in the history of biology.” Prof. Rao talked about his own understanding of the development of biology during the last few hundreds of years. “One is the finding of the double helix structure of DNA, and the other is the devising of two fundamental laws in genetics by Gregor Mendel in his famous genetics thesis ‘Experiments in Plant Hybridization’ in 1865.”
"Gregor Mendel is a real but lonely genius. When he first put forward his theory, it wasn’t accepted. He did scientific researches not for his own benefit, but others constantly queried the authenticity of his experimental statistics before or after his death. ”
"In the 19th century, a scientific understanding of genetics hadn’t been formed yet in the biological academic circles. After ten years of persistent researches, Gregor Mendel revealed and demonstrated two fundamental laws of genetics-Law of Segregation and Law of Independent Assortment.”
Although Mendel’s immortal thesis was published, his finding didn’t attracted any attention from the biological circles in as long as 35 years because of the huge differences between the ideas of him and the ones of people before him. It was not until his findings were verified by other botanists who did their pea hybridization experiments in 1900 that Mendel’s achievement was valued and acknowledged. However, Mendel had passed away 16 years before that time.
Mendel was born in a poor family. Who helped him enter University of Vienna for further study? Who supported him both physically and mentally so that he made such an amazing contribution to the development of genetics? Prof. Rao Yi introduces another hero of the story, a talent scout, Napp.
As the abbot of the monastery where Mendel worked, Napp had a great interest in science, although he was not an academic authority. On the occasion that funds of the monastery were limited, Napp still insisted in subsidizing Mendel to go to university. Moreover, he built a greenhouse in the the monastery for Mendel to do his experiments. It is him who gave Mendel the strongest, the most persistent and the most important support. “Napp is Mendel’s ‘Bo Le’ for Mendel’s whole lifetime.”Prof. Rao Yi summarized.
“It is very hard to find a genius, yet talent scouts are in desperate need to discover people with talents, to trust him, and to support his researches. . Therefore, I wish teachers could try to find talented young students and support their researches.” At the end of the speech, Prof. Rao Yi expressed his hope in scientific education.
When it came to the Q&A session, a student asked, “As a ‘Bo Le’, what do you think about the relationship between teachers and students?” Prof. Rao Yi answered, “I think students, especially graduate students, should do researches with their tutors, but not for their tutors. I’m badly against the word ‘boss’ which some students use to call their tutors. In fact, tutors also need students to bring something new to the research project. To do researches is essentially to explore the unknown world together.”
When the over-two-hour lecture came to the end, the students and Prof. Rao Yi were still heatedly discussing the theme.
Translated by: Xu Xinyi
Edited by: Zhang Chunlan
Source: PKU News (Chinese)
