【权威观点】冯达旋教授：爱因斯坦引力波发现的反思

爱因斯坦引力波发现的反思:“亚洲人与生俱来的自信”!

冯达旋

海南大学“一带一路”研究院名誉院长

2016年2月17日

2016年1月11日，在华盛顿特区举行的新闻发布会上，宣布经过近20年的艰苦工作，激光干涉引力波天文台（LIGO）探测到了爱因斯坦在一个世纪前提出的引力波。在当今的“平坦世界”中，这一重大科学观测也在地球另一端的香港和澳门掀起了涟漪。

李国锋教授(Professor Tjonnie G.F.LI）于一月十二日及十九日分别为香港中文大学(中大)物理系以粤语及英文作报告。1月20日，澳门大学邀请了澳门当地人、香港中文大学理论物理学博士候选人甘骏辉先生（Mr. Chon-Fai Kam），为全校师生作专题讨论。甘先生演讲的题目是“爱因斯坦的引力涟漪:一个世纪的征服”。由于课题的时效性，澳门大学尽力让澳门的中学注意到这次报告。

地球另一端的香港和澳门的即时反应，使我想起1957年新加坡发生的另一件大事。那一年，我上小学五年级。10月，我在中国报纸上读到一篇报道，说两个中国人——李政道（Tsung-Dao Lee) 和杨振宁（Chen-Ning Yang）——获得了“某某某”的高度赞誉。我清楚地记得报纸上刊登的一张李宗道站在黑板前的照片。黑板上有一些看起来很潦草的字。

杨(左)和李(右)站在黑板前。现在我知道黑板上写的是角动量的3j和6j符号。图片来自

https://www.pinterest.jp/pin/chenning-yang-and-tsungdao-lee-at-institute-for-advanced-study-princeton-nobel-prize-laureates-in-physics-1957--64457838393699026/

我记得我对这份报道非常兴奋。我激动的原因并不是李和杨获得了诺贝尔物理学奖。毕竟，在我人生的那个阶段，我既不知道物理学是什么，也不知道诺贝尔奖意味着什么!我很兴奋，因为“就像我一样”，李政道和杨振宁都是中国人!当然，事后看来，“就像我一样”是我想象力的延伸!

然而，当我的兴奋消退后，随之而来的是一连串的失望。令人失望的是，我对这两位先生的伟大成就一无所知。接下来让我失望的是，无论我问谁，我都得不到一个明确的答案，或者根本得不到任何答案。作为一名小学生，我认为初中或高中的学生一定比我拥有更多的知识。然而，我很快发现，我在初中和高中认识的人知道的并不比我多，这不算什么。当时新加坡有两所高等学府，新成立的南洋大学和新加坡大学。据我所知，这两所大学都没有公开解释李政道和杨振宁的伟大之处!最后，我得出了一个结论:“在这里不会有好事发生!”这就是我现在所说的“第三世界的思维”!

香港和澳门对发现引力波的反应与近60年前对李政道和杨振宁的反应形成了强烈的对比。今天，我可以很轻易地想象，一个五年级的学生也不会有任何困惑。毕竟，他/她可以上网，可以问他/她的同学，父母，甚至他/她的老师。更糟糕的是，他/她甚至可以去中大、香港科技大学或澳门大学参加关于这一伟大发现的公开讲座。在年轻人(他/她)的心中，“第三世界的思维”无处可藏!

近年来，我经常在演讲中明确提到，培养亚洲青年的“内在自信”，即使不是教育的唯一使命，也是教育的重要使命。从这个角度来看，澳门大学在宣布发现引力波后迅速作出反应固然是一件好事，但更重要的是，作为一所大学，它把帮助青少年培养“内在自信”视为根本。

对我来说，允许“好事会在这里发生”是灌输“内在自信”的重要一步!

Reflections on the Discovery of Einstein’s Gravitational Wave: “Inherent Asian Self-Confidence”!

Da Hsuan Feng

February 17, 2016

On January 11, 2016, in a news conference held in Washington D. C., it was announced that after nearly two decades of arduous work, the gravitational wave proposed by Einstein a century ago was detected by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO.) In today’s “flat world,” this major scientific observation also created a ripple in Hong Kong and Macau at the other end of the globe.

On January 12 and January 19, Professor Tjonnie G. F. LI presented to the Physics Department of the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) in Cantonese and English, respectively. On January 20, the University of Macau invited Mr. Chon-Fai Kam, a native of Macau and a Ph.D. candidate in theoretical physics of CUHK to also present a discussion to the university community at-large. The title of Mr. Kam’s talk was “Einstein’s Gravitational Ripple: The Conquer of a Century.” Due to the great timeliness of the subject, the University of Macau made a special effort to bring the notice of this presentation to the attention of the secondary schools in Macau.

The instant reaction of Hong Kong and Macau at the other end of the globe made me thought of the reaction of another great event in 1957 in Singapore. That year, I was in my fifth grade in elementary school. In October, I read in the Chinese newspaper a report that two Chinese, Tsung-Dao Lee and Chen-Ning Yang, received “something something” high accolade. I remember vividly in the newspaper showed a picture of Tsung-Dao Lee, standing in front of a blackboard. On the board there were characters that looked like squiggles of some sort!

Yang (left) and Lee (right) standing in front of the blackboard. Haha, nowadays, I know what’s written on the blackboard are 3j and 6j symbols for angular momentum. Haha. Photo taken from

https://www.pinterest.jp/pin/chenning-yang-and-tsungdao-lee-at-institute-for-advanced-study-princeton-nobel-prize-laureates-in-physics-1957--64457838393699026/

I remember that I was quite excited by the report. The reason for my excitement was not because Lee and Yang won the physics Nobel Prize. After all, at that point in my life, I neither knew what physics was, nor what the Nobel Prize meant! I was excited because “just like me,” Lee and Yang are Chinese! Of course, in hindsight, the “just like me” was very much an over stretch of my imagination!

However, as soon as my excitement subsided, what happened subsequently was a string of disappointments. One of the disappointments was because I knew nothing about the great achievements these two gentlemen. The next disappointment was whomever I asked, I could not get a clear answer, or any answer at all. As an elementary school student, I considered students in Junior High School or Senior School surely compare to me, possess an infinite amount of knowledge. Yet I soon discovered that those I knew in Junior and Senior High Schools knew no more than me, which was nothing. At that time in Singapore, there were two institutions of higher learning, the newly created Nanyang University and the University of Singapore. As far as I could recall, neither made any effort to publicly explain the greatness of Lee and Yang! Eventually, I came to the conclusion that “good things cannot happen here!” This is what I refer to nowadays as a “third word mentality!”

The reaction in Hong Kong and Macau to the discovery of the gravitational wave is indeed a strong contrast to the reaction to Lee and Yang nearly sixty years ago. Today, I can easily imagine that no bewilderment will bestow a fifth-grade student. After all, he/she could go online, could ask his/her classmates, parents, even his/her teachers. Worse come to worse, he/she could even go to and be welcomed by CUHK, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) or the University of Macau to attend the public lectures on this great discovery! In the youngsters (his/her) mind, there is no room where “the third world mentality” can hide!

In recent years, I have often given lectures where I explicitly mentioned that nurturing the “inherent self-confidence” of Asian youth is an important, if not the only mission of education. From this perspective, while it is obviously a good deed that the University of Macau rapidly reacted to the announcement of the discovery of the gravitational wave, but it is even more important that as a university, it deems assistance to youngsters to develop “inherent self-confidence” as fundamental.

To me, allowing “good things can happen here” is an important step in instilling “inherent self-confidence!”

译者：梁慕祺

冯达旋教授

海南大学“一带一路”研究院名誉院长

海南大学国际顾问委员会主席

海南大学“一带一路”研究院

HUBRRI

海南大学 “一带一路”研究院在光明日报社和南京大学联合发布的“一带一路”领域全国最新专项排名中，媒体影响力名列全国第一，综合实力名列全国第五。

海南大学 “一带一路”研究院与清华大学公共管理学院研究中心、北京大学汇丰金融研究院等机构一起，于2019年底入选中国智库索引（CTTI）来源智库，并于2022年入选“中国智库索引（CTTI）高校智库百强榜”，获评为A等级智库。海南大学“一带一路”研究院并成为海南大学及海南省首个也是目前唯一一个荣登CTTI高校智库百强榜的高校智库。

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原标题：《【权威观点】冯达旋教授：爱因斯坦引力波发现的反思》

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