主题：纪念激光发明50年曁NB颁奖季节讨论NB奖 -- nua

套一句激光他爷爷Charles Hard Townes的话:

Science is exploration. The fundamental nature of exploration is that we don't know what's there. We can guess and hope and aim to find out certain things, but we have to expect surprises. Look at Columbus: He was aiming for India. Well, he missed it. He found something else. Listen to other people, but don't necessarily follow them. God is very difficult to define, but I feel his presence. I feel an omnipresence everywhere and something, at the same time, rather personal. In religion, people talk about revelations. In science you find many revelations, too, it's just that people don't talk about them that way. When the idea for the laser came to me, I was sitting on a park bench thinking, Now, why haven't I been able to do this? Suddenly a new idea comes to me, a new creation. Where did it come from? Did God give me this idea? Who knows? I didn't suddenly have a view of God's face, if that's what you mean. In science we just don't talk about it much. You say, Well, I had an idea.

“科学是探索. 探索的本质就是我们不知道有什么. 我们也许可以猜想或希望得到某个发现,但我们必须要面对完全出乎意料的结果. 哥仑布就是最好的例子:他想到印度,他却没找到,找到却是新的大陆. 要听别人讲的,但是不必要跟从. 上帝是非常难定义的,但我感觉他的存在. 我感到上帝无所不在,有时在有些事情上甚至很具体到人. 宗教信仰上常说’启示’,在科学上你也常有’启示’---只是科学家不叫’启示’. 当我想做激光的时候,我坐在公园的椅子上长考---为什么没法做出激光? 突然间,一个想法带出了一个发现. 这想法从哪来的?是不是上帝给我的’启示’? 又有谁知道呢? 上帝没有突然间在我眼前浮现来告诉我,而是一直在天上’启示’着---科学里,我们躲避这个’启示’,却常说’欧,我有了一个妙计’.”

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