Jobs' suggest

Text ｜ Liang Songping (the author is the former vice president of Hunan Normal University)

Unknown mystery and valuable scientific issues continue to attract new joys. As a graduate student, you will become one of them today. You will enter the field of scientific exploration and academic research.

In the field of science and academics, even a small branch field is a pioneer or contemporary peer (including your mentor), which has gradually established the relay of exploration and innovation for natural mysteries and scientific issues. It records the stories of many pioneers and explorers in the field, and the classics of knowledge and research methods in the field, and new progress reported by the world in the world.

For the first time you enter this academic hall, you have to experience a transformation from outsiders from outsiders to entering the room. In this process, there are two mentality or two concepts that are very important, and it can even be said to be necessary. This is curiosity and awe.

Einstein once said, "I have no special talent, I only have strong curiosity."

Curiosity is the nature and instinct formed by humans in the process of long -term evolution, and its origin and evolution. Curiosity also exists in animals with different degrees of evolution, and there is more curious animal adaptability.

Human curiosity has a qualitative leap with the formation and development of human cerebral cortex, from the sensual curiosity of animals to cognitive curiosity, and the impulse to pursue better cognition, that is, a kind of wanting to want It is necessary to understand the driving force of the things that I don't know and their internal laws, and finally develop into a natural mystery, and pursue the driving force for step by step. This driving force eventually leads to the accumulation of human knowledge.

The mechanism of curiosity at the level of genes and brain neuroscience is still unclear, but some studies have found that curiosity is related to the reward system of the brain. The reward system is a neural circuit with dopamine neurons as the main axis, which can inspire animals to make behaviors that help individual survival and species continuity, and make it a sense of pleasure. This is why curiosity is the reason why this desire for new things often bring pleasure.

Therefore, curiosity is a natural endowment obtained by human long -term evolution, and it is not a characteristic of a few talents. The question is how we stimulate, maintain, and enhance our inner curiosity, and how to discover natural phenomena and scientific issues that stimulate our curiosity.

For the new graduate students, this is related to whether there is a high starting point, whether there is interest in the heart, the surprise discovery, whether they can enjoy the process in the hardships, and finally get the success of self -expectation.

Although human curiosity is inherent, the phenomenon of curiosity decline is very common. Psychological studies have found that excessive self -confidence and excessive self -confidence may make curiosity indifferent.

After long -term learning, adults accumulate some knowledge through long -term memory in the brain, and have their own answers to many questions, which causes self -confidence to reduce curiosity. On the other hand, the curiosity of too much inferiority, arrogance, and often worried people is relatively indifferent.

In addition, the curiosity of people who are too busy and too specific, and they will also be affected, especially the current information bang and the Internet make information too easy to obtain, and it will also weaken people's curiosity.

So, how can graduate students raise curiosity about the upcoming research? Psychological research believes that it is not completely ignorant about a problem that makes us curious, but the gap of existing information makes us curious.

Specifically, curiosity about a natural phenomenon and scientific issues is not caused by out of thin air. People generally do not feel curious about things that know nothing. German philosopher Ferbaha said "people only want to know what they can understand." The famous British psychologist and writer Ian Lessley believes that "curiosity is caused by understanding and is inspired by unknown."

The more we know about something, the stronger the curiosity of its unknown part. Therefore, for graduate students, we must first learn and establish a reasonable knowledge structure in this field, widely involve basic knowledge of disciplines, and in -depth understanding of all aspects of the research field.

Try to put forward the key "why" the key level, understand what scientific issues are not resolved, what scientific and practical significance, and which issues you are more curious, which stimulates your interest. In other words, learning arouses curiosity, curiosity is the motivation for interest and research.

Ding Zhaozhong, a Chinese physicist and the Nobel Prize winner, said, when he talked about his biggest pursuit of his life: "My lifelong pursuit is to satisfy my curiosity, that is, interest."

For graduate students who have just entered the academic field, it is like entering a solemn temple, and there should be a sense of awe.

What is awe is a fear because of respect. Respect for people's heartlessness and fear of self -alertness.

From ancient times to the present, human beings often have awe of mysterious and unknown things. Like the above curiosity, the initial awe has its biological basis and its origin.

When an adult holding a child into the water from the banks of the river, the child will shrink or retreat. Animal studies have found that behavioral suppression will occur when animal hits will occur.

Studies have found that serotonin and its receptor system in the brain participated in this spontaneous behavioral suppression. When hungry, dopamine will increase the motivation of animal behavior, and when the hunch is dangerous, the serotonin system will calm it down.

Human fear of danger, with the formation and development of human cerebral cortex with a qualitative leap, from animal sensitivity to danger, jump into a sense of awe of mysterious but unknown things, evolved into a belt into a belt A wisdom with cognitive ingredients. In a sense, the awe of the heart has its wise connotation and positive significance.

The ancient Chinese also summarized the importance of awe in practice to behavior and career. Zhu Xi said in "The Golden Meter Note": "The gentleman's heart often has awe." Zeng Guofan once said: "The heart is in awe, so I can do something." The solemn and lofty righteousness of the stock. With awe, there will be a bottom line, advancement and retreat, self -restraint, and self -alert.

Awe is a state, a state of humility due to respect. But the awe is not equal to timidity, cowardice and inaction. Awe is not only a serious, serious, cautious, and thin ice attitude towards things, but also a kind of wisdom, but also a guidelines for behavior. For researchers in the academic field, my heart is the foundation of standing. For graduate students, awe is an important "homework".

The awe of science and academics requires us to adhere to meticulous rigorous attitude. Seek truth from facts, do not bully, do not make fakes, not to be controlled by foreign objects, not interfered with fame and fortune, have bottom lines, and do personally and clean people.

The awe of the heart also requires us to be honest and upright. Honesty integrity is the bottom line of every scientific researcher. There are stress at the graduate stage, there are many experimental failures, good results that can not be produced, the papers cannot be published, and unable to graduate on time. At the same time, there is a temptation to easily obtain a degree, that is, speculation, plagiarism, and even false plagiarism, or even fakes to violate the honest and upright bottom line.

The awe is also reflected in the criticism of independent thinking and the spirit of self -criticism. The pursuit of academic truth is higher than everything. Once you find that you have mistakes, you must bravely admit and correct your mistakes. It is common for people to make mistakes in cognition and judgment, and the results of errors in research are also common. This is why we have a positive and negative comparison on the results of the experimental results obtained, especially the results of important significance. Sometimes confirm or falsify through different experimental routes.

In addition to the awe of scientific and academic research above, as a graduate student, as a graduate student, you should also be in awe in many aspects, such as the risk factors of the laboratory and the rules of the use of major instruments and equipment. We also respond to all the colleges and research rooms, including classmates, teachers or experimenters, as well as security guards and cleaners.

In short, Chang Huai's awe is a kind of wisdom choice to face nature, face scientific research, and society.

When the founder of Apple Computer Steve Jobs gave a speech at Stanford University after the pancreatic cancer surgery in June 2005, the two suggestions made to the students were "Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish". The translation is "if you are hungry, if you are hungry, if you are foolish". In a certain sense, Stay Hungry can be understood as keeping curiosity, and Stay Foolish can be understood as awe.

Curiosity and awe are the basic qualities that every scientific researcher should have, so it is also an indispensable homework for graduate students who have just entered the scientific and academic field.

"China Science News" (2022-09-09 The 4th edition of the 4th edition of the original title "Curiosity and Awe")

Edit | Li Yun

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