◇◇新语丝(www.xys.org)(xys.dxiong.com)(xys.3322.org)(xys.freedns.us)◇◇ 在2004年北京科技电影电视节开幕式上的致辞 (2004年11月8日,中国科技会堂) 评委会主席、英国广播公司科技部主任 约翰·林奇(John Lynch) Good morning Ladies and Gentlemen, fellow jury-members. 女士们,先生们,评委们,早上好! Thank you. 谢谢! It is very exciting for me to be here to chair the jury for the 3rd Beijing Science Film Festival, and I would like to express my particular thanks to Zhang Yutai, the President, and to Zhou Guangzhao, the Honourable Chairman of the Festival. Thank you for your kindness in inviting me. 我到此担任第三届北京科技电影电视节评委会主席,感到非常激动,我要特别 感谢大会主席张玉台先生和大会名誉主席周光召先生的热情邀请。 I have not been to Beijing for over 12 years, and it feels so different, so full of energy and drive. I have been in the city less than 24 hours, but I have been struck by the busy pace of modern life around me. 我本人有12年不曾来北京了,我感觉北京变化很大,到处充满生机活力。尽管刚 到这个城市不到24小时,我已经被这里忙碌紧凑的现代生活氛围所感染! And you can see everywhere in that modern lifestyle that there is science at work. We don’t have to list all the examples: the cars, the buildings, the electronics, the medicine – and many, many more activities depend on the work of science. 现代生活中你无处不能感受到科学的作用。我们不必列出所有的例子:汽车,建 筑,电器,医药以及很多依赖科学的作用而存在的事物。 In fact nothing today remains untouched by the process of science. Try to think of something – anything, any activity – that has not been improved, changed, or simply better understood by scientific endeavour. Put simply, science is everywhere. 事实上,今天没有任何一样东西是科学进程所不曾触及的。试着想一想有哪些事 情,哪些活动不曾因科学力量而得以改进、改变或是被更好地理解呢?!简单来 说,科学无处不在! So today, perhaps more than at any other time in history, it is important that everyone has some understanding of science, and above all some understanding of the principles that underlie scientific thinking. Because they need it in their everyday lives. 那么今天对每个人来说,理解科学,更重要的是,理解科学思维的原则,也许比 历史上任何时候都更加重要,因为人们在日常生活中都需要它。 Of course many people today, certainly in the West, do not realise that understanding science may help them. Many fear science, and hold it responsible for some of society’s ills. But when you sit down and talk to them, as we have recently done in some BBC audience research, and you show them the science in their lives – in their food, in their transport; or in their stereo headphones, or even their make-up – they all, all of them, have a moment of realisation of the importance of science and its benefits: a moment of enlightenment. 当然,现在有很多人,在西方肯定有很多这样的人,他们并不明白科学能够帮助 他们。很多人畏惧科学,认为它是许多社会弊病的根源。但当你坐下来和他们交 谈的时候,就象我们最近在英国广播公司观众调查中所做的那样,当你向他们展 示科学就存在于他们生活中,在他们的食物,他们的交通工具,他们的立体声耳 机,甚至是他们的化妆品中……他们全都就能够在一瞬间意识到科学的重要性及 其益处:一个深受启迪的瞬间。 The late, great physicist Richard Feynman once expressed it beautifully, thus. If you ask an artist to appreciate a rose, they will describe its form, its colour, the light dancing on the leaves waving in the breeze, the emotional impact of the scent, the romance and beauty of it. 已故的伟大物理学家理查德·费曼曾这样描述科学的美丽。如果你让一位艺术家 来欣赏一朵玫瑰,他们将会向你描述它的形状,它的颜色,微风中它在叶中轻盈 的舞姿,花香带给人们的情感,它的浪漫与美丽。 If you ask a scientist to do the same thing, he or she is likely to talk about the structure of the petals, the process of photosynthesis that harnesses the energy from the sun, the growth of cells in the stem, the pollen in the reproductive organs, the ecological balance with the insects and fungi that depend on it, the chemistry of the smell – the list could go on. 如果你让一个科学家做同样的事情,他或她很可能会讲述花瓣的结构,从太阳吸 收能量的光合作用,茎中细胞的生长,生殖器官中的花粉,花和昆虫、真菌之间 的生态平衡,花香的化学原理等等,还有许许多多类似的问题! And yet for the scientist it is still no less a rose – in all its romantic beauty. Science only adds to your depth of understanding. It takes nothing away. 但对于科学家来说,它仍然是地地道道的玫瑰,拥有其全部的浪漫之美。科学只 会加深你的了解,并不剥夺任何东西。 So we all have a job to do. All of us in this room. I believe that it is our role as science film and television programme makers to help people reach that moment of insight – to help them see the power of science, its underlying presence, and how it can only add to their appreciation and understanding of the wonder and beauty of the world around us. We have to help them see that science is far from something to be afraid of, but instead is something that can help us all deal with the pressures of the modern world. 因此,在座的每一位都有事儿做了,我相信这是我们每一个科技电影电视工作者 的职责,帮助人们拥有洞察力,帮助他们看到科学的力量,科学的无处不在,以 及为何它只会让人们更好地欣赏和了解我们周围世界的奇妙和美丽。我们帮助人 们了解到,科学绝并不令人生畏,正好相反,它能帮助我们所有的人应付现代社 会带来的各种压力。 So how do we do that? Well here I turn to Zhao Zhizhen, the Director of the Festival, but also the man who, as we all know, was the inspiration for the creation of the very first Beijing Festival in 2000. 那么我们该怎么做呢?让我们先谈谈本次大会办公室主任赵致真先生,正如我们 全都知道的,他也是2000年第一届北京科技电影电视节的发起人。 In advance of my visit, I did my homework. I looked at all the stories of how Zhao Zhizhen became involved in science programming – many of you will know them already. I saw a portrait of a man with a passion for science, and a passion for communicating science to others. 在我来之前,我做了些准备工作。我阅读了有关赵致真如何开始从事科普节目制 作的故事,也许在座的很多人已经知道了。我认为他是一个对科学充满了热爱, 并积极传播科学的人。 Zhao Zhizhen, I share your passion for science. I too am passionate about communicating and popularising science. I too believe we need to care about ecology and the environment, as you do. We need to expose scientific fraud, as you do. We need to counter pseudo-science, which is such a dangerous force in misusing the principles of science to make false claims. We both know that. 赵致真先生,我和你一样对科学充满热爱。我也是个积极传播和普及科学的人。 我也相信我们需要关心生态和环境,就象你一样。我们需要揭露科学骗局,就象 你一样。我们必需与伪科学做斗争,伪科学是一种非常危险的力量,他们错误的 运用科学原理炮制不实之词。我们两人都知道这一点。 Also we need to make people aware of the history of science, and how it has come to underpin so much of our culture - which is one of my personal passions. 同时我们也应该让人们了解科学的历程,以及它是如何如此深刻地影响了我们的 文化,当然这也是我个人的兴趣之一。 And by the way, we also both seem to like space science, and the planets. 另外,看来我们两人也都热爱太空科学和星球。 But of course it is not only Zhao Zhizhen and me. We are just two. Everyone here in this hall is passionate about science. That is why you are here. And ultimately, that is at the heart of what we as science programme-makers have to do. We must harness that passion, that belief in, and that love for, science. 当然这不仅仅是赵致真和我两个人的事。我们只是两个人。在座的每一位都对科 学充满了热爱。这也是我们集聚一堂的原因。这最终也是我们做为科技节目工作 者所必须从事的事业的核心所在。我们必须善用我们对科学的热情,对科学的信 念和对科学的爱。 After 25 or more years of making television programmes about science, I have come to realise that if you can reveal this passion to the audience then that is half the battle in getting them to engage in the subject. 超过25年从事科技电视节目制作的经历让我意识到,如果你能够把这种热情展示 给你的观众,那么就会有事半功倍的效果。 And seated here in front of me there is a huge amount of passion for explaining science; passion for investigating science; passion for telling stories about science; passion for revealing new science discoveries; passion for debating science; passion for delving into the past of science. 在我面前有一股巨大的热情:解释科学,研究科学,讲述科学故事,揭示科学新 发现,辩论科学真理以及钻研科学历程的种种热情。 So over the next three days, I think the juries are going to experience a lot of passion, and I expect there will be some heated discussions between my colleagues, as we try to reach the right decisions for the awards. For it is going to be a difficult task. 在未来的三天里,我想我们评委们将感受到大量这样的热情,我期待我的同行将 展开激烈的讨论,以便我们对各奖项有正确的决定,因为这会是一个艰巨的任务。 A year ago, I attended the World Congress of Science Producers’ in Paris. This is an annual gathering, in a different city each year, where the best and the most committed of all the world’s television producers who specialise in science programmes gather to debate current issues, talk about new techniques and watch out for new talent and trends in the industry. I hope one day that we may attend the Congress here. 一年前,我参加了在巴黎举行的世界科技制片人大会。每年在不同的城市,我们 参加这个一年一度的聚会,在那儿,全世界最好的和最致力于科技电视节目的制 片人齐聚一堂,对热门的问题展开讨论,探讨新技术,注意科技电视界的新人才 和新走向。我希望有一天我们能在这里参加该大会。 Anyway, some of the delegates there were worrying that the popularity of science programmes was past its peak, but at the opening session I was simply amazed at the range of science programmes that are being made today: from studio shows for children, to full historical dramas. Always with science at their heart. 总之,虽然那次大会的某些代表担心科技节目已过了其颠峰时期,但在那次开幕 式上,我惊奇地发现今天有种类如此之多的科技节目:从演播厅里的儿童节目, 到全景式的科学史再现,全都以科学为中心。 And that growth in diversity is also reflected in the extraordinary range of entries to the Beijing festival, this year. Some 66 productions to be judged. Now I haven’t seen the programmes yet, but the range of titles looks astonishing. Everything from the “Genius of Junk”, through “The Stench of Hell”, and “Sparrow Elegy”, to “Who Owns the Key to Your Life?” (me, I thought!), and “Transplanting Memories” (which is what I increasingly need, as I get older!). 本届北京科技电影电视节范围广泛的参选作品也反映了节目多样性的日益增长, 有66部入围节目参加角逐。现在我还没看到这些节目,但从节目名称看,以足以 让人对其涉及范围之广感到震惊。从“垃圾天才”,“恶臭的苦痛”,“麻雀悲 歌”,到“谁掌管着你生命的钥匙?”(我想是我吧!),还有“移植记忆” (这正是我越来越需要的,因为我的年纪越来越大了!) This remarkable diversity is going to make it very tough to choose the winners. But it suggests to me that the science film and TV industry is in very good health, and that it is an exciting place to be. 从这么多体裁丰富的片子中选出赢家将是非常困难的一件事情。但这说明科技电 影电视产业的繁荣昌盛,是一个令人兴奋的领域。 Above all it reflects your passionate belief in the importance of science in society. Wherever you turn, science matters. 总而言之, 这反映出你们对科学在社会中的重要性的坚定信念。无论你到哪里, 科学都至关重要。 Thank you all for coming to the festival. I look forward to enjoying the next few days of hard work. 谢谢诸位的到来,我期待着未来几天紧张而愉快的工作。 Thank you. 谢谢! (XYS20041108) ◇◇新语丝(www.xys.org)(xys.dxiong.com)(xys.3322.org)(xys.freedns.us)◇◇