科研中不要和自己的观点谈恋爱

 

  众所周知，科学研究的过程中建立一个可检测的假说或理论模型(testable hypothesis, working hypothesis, working model etc.)是很重要的。有了假说之后该如何求证呢？ 

  前不久碰到一位被英女王授勋为爵士的大生物学家，聊起这个，他的经验是无论那些假说理论开始看上去多么诱人，多么令他有想跳起来的感觉，多么"it's gotta be right"，他一律先抱怀疑态度。不管是以前自己做实验也好，还是后来带研究团队，他都要求必须先用几种不同的办法去论证。

  “I always try to see if I’m wrong first (我总是想先看看我是不是错的)” ，他说。 

   用多种方法求证的目的，一个是要确定结果可不可重复，另外一个是要排除其他的可能性。虽然看上去像笨鸟，虽然有时会导致前期工作进展不快，但他认为从长远来说，这种方法实际上让自己少走了很多弯路，也避免了工作到要发表了才给审稿人或其他人甚至自己发现破绽。

  另一位大生物学家Sydney Brenner对这个问题则有不同看法。Sydney Brenner是2002年诺贝尔生理/医学奖的得主，不仅绝顶聪明，有时还喜欢语不惊人誓不休。以前听过两次他做的报告，他一说话会堂里就没几个能坐得直的，全都笑得弯着腰捂着肚子。在他的半自传“My Life in Science: As told to Lewis Wolpert”(BioMed Central Limited, 2001) 中,他提到创造力对于科学研究的重要性就体现在从哪里着手怎么去证明自己的理论和观点，而不是先去想办法如何推翻自己的观点：

  “And one of the things about creativity (in science) is to absolutely know where and how one can prove something. I know there’s a lot spoken about the philosopher Karl Popper’s approach to this, in which one should work out ways of disproving one's own theories... He may know something about the philosophy of science, but you find me a scientist who's actually going to sit down and work out a way of disproving his results!”

  他还谈到很多时候第一个实验都会是失败的，这并不可怕，只要能勇于发挥创造力去解决实验中必然会碰到的种种问题：

  “The first time an experiment is done it's likely not to work. Not because the theory is wrong, but just because the whole entropic universe is reaching us as soon as we start to dabble in it. So it takes a lot of creativity to actually do something which is a bit irrational – a feeling that this is the right thing, and that one will go to some lengths to realize it.”

  虽然两人的方法不一样，但有一点没有争议的，就是在科研中不要轻易“爱上”自己的观点和理论，因为科学的一个重要特征就在于它的“冷酷无情”，和自己的理论“谈恋爱”就容易造成以后“不能自拔”。Sydney Brenner的原文更能体现他一贯的幽默和玩世不恭，就不翻译啦:

  “What people should realize is that it takes some kind of iron censor within oneself not to fall too much in love with one’s own theories. They should be treated as mistresses to be discarded once the pleasure is over! I think this is a very important thing, and it’s one of the characteristics of science that you must be ruthless toward your loved ones. When your theories go ugly, kill them.”

 

 

 

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