发信人: forrestgump (阿甘), 信区: Biology
标 题: Re: 俺也来 讨论一下学生物的出路问题
发信站: Unknown Space - 未名空间 (Fri Feb 20 10:28:15 2004) WWW-POST

Again, this is still about the defination of "usefulness".
In your opinion, anything that is of immediate use is useful. otherwise, it is
useless. However, my point is that this is an oversimplified way of defining
"usefulness".
There are tons of examples in the history of science discovery, that things
with seemingly "no future" or "no use" turned out to be big hits of human
history. Why do we explore the universe? why are we interested in biology (not
just specific questions regarding to improvement in medicine) in general? why
are we interested in science at all? Are these all for the very immediate
"use" of the knowledge we can gain from our studies? not necessarily. to
explore, discover, and invent, is what makes us think and is therefore the
very characteristic that makes us different from lower organisms. and because
of that, we are here today as the dominant specie on this planet.
but again, of course, this is my definition for "usefulness", and it may not
be "correct" or "meaningful" to other people. All i am trying to say is that
science is different, and should not be judged soly on the basis of
profit-generation.
as to my own research, it does have some clinical relevance and i guess is
"useful", although whatever it is I would consider it useful anyway. :)


【 在 oil (brother) 的大作中提到: 】
: obviously you are a thinker, I am happy to see this
:
: 1. "usefulness" is not that elusive.
: for example, people find the bacterial origin of many diseases;
: people find the blood type control as ABO;
: people find the immune rejection control as MHC type;
: etc.
:
: 2. there are times when a trend totally goes nowhere.
: for example, before genetics, people just can not understand many things,
: they focus on protein biochemistry, that is "useless".
:
: 3. can you think out any practical appilcation, or growth point from
: you own research on hand now? if not, very likely useless.
:
:
: 【 在 forrestgump (阿甘) 的大作中提到: 】
: : well, then how do u define "useful"? :)
: : my opinion, research and science is the ultimate driving force to the
: : evolution of the human race and our society. in that sense, research and
: : science is more than just "personal satisfaction" for individuals.
instead,
: it
: : is THE most important thing for us all as human beings. we are here today,
: : because we did our research and we made progresses.
: : however, evolution is such a long-term thing, that in any immediate
future,
: it
: : is seemingly contradictory to the "human nature": profit-seeking, and is
: : therefore seemingly "useless" to almost all of us.
: : so, back to the question: how can we prove, or can we practically prove at
: : all, that research, or more specifically, bio-research is "useful"?
: :
:
:

--
LIfe is like a box of chocolate.
You'll never know what you are gonna get.

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