加载中…探索者林宇民：执著地超越科学极限
(2012-02-13 14:35:08)
标签：
杂谈 |
分类： 美国人物 |
林宇民（Albert Lin）正在查看加利福尼亚大学圣地亚哥分校（UCSD）的HYPERspace墙，这面墙显示着蒙古（Mongolia）一个地区的高分辨率数字地图。
美国国务院国际信息局（IIP）《美国参考》Louise Fenner从华盛顿报道，探索者、工程师林宇民曾三次率领探险队到蒙古探寻无人知晓的考古遗址，包括传说中勇猛彪悍的蒙古帝国的缔造者成吉思汗（Genghis Khan）的陵墓。
30岁的林宇民是加州大学圣地亚哥分校的一位科研人员，为了帮助开辟新的探索领域，他执著于超越技术极限——从最先进的科学仪器直到社会媒体和因特网。
他说：“科学和工程学的真谛就是提出问题，那些问题依然存在，你仍然可以做一个探索者，对于世界的很多方面人类至今仍然一无所知。”
林宇民表示，由于有了因特网，“几乎任何人在世界的任何地方都可能获得相同的信息，现在人们能够以一种相互关联的方式来进行学习”。
林宇民是华裔美国人，他拥有工程学位和加州大学圣地亚哥分校的材料科学博士学位。
高科技探索
林宇民和他的团队在蒙古各地进行的探索中使用了卫星成像、无人机、探地雷达、磁力仪和其他地球物理仪器，这些先进的非侵入性技术能够确保具有文化敏感性的遗址不受破坏。林宇民说，挖地三尺是不尊重蒙古人的传统与观念的，他们把成吉思汗的陵墓视为圣地。
这几次探索活动都是成吉思汗谷（Valley of the Khans）项目的一部分，该项目由加州大学圣地亚哥分校、蒙古科学院（Mongolian Academy of Science）、国际蒙古研究协会（International Association for Mongol Studies）和国家地理学会（National Geographic Society）合作进行。
在蒙古期间，探索队每天用高科技仪器扫描下层土并通过卫星电话把数据发送到设在意大利的实验室，仅仅几小时后实验室便把下层土的地图发送回来。
该项目还邀请大众参加探索活动，人们可以帮助筛选数以千计的卫星图像以寻找成吉思汗墓和其他遗址的线索——这是一种叫做“众包”（crowdsourcing）的方法。林宇民说，我们还请大家搜寻任何可能显示有古代建筑物存在的迹象。公民科学家们的发现使探索队在蒙古注意到了几个很有可能性的地点。
在对中亚地区（Central Asia）的一次访问中，林宇民骑马而行。
林宇民还负责“工程师参与探险”（Engineers for Exploration）项目，该项目激励UCSD的学生为国家地理学会的探索者和探索活动开发创新性技术。2010年，林宇民被国家地理学会命名为该年度的最优秀探险家（National Geographic Society Adventurer of the Year）。
林宇民说：“如果你发现了你真正热爱的事业，你的职业生涯就再也不仅仅是一份工作，它将永远是你的挚爱。”
谷歌科技博览会
林宇民是谷歌科技博览会（Google Science Fair）的一位评审。谷歌科技博览会是一个国际性的在线竞赛，要求13至18岁的学生对实际生活中存在的课题进行研究。去年，从近7500件参选作品中脱颖而出的大奖得主发现了一种更有效地治疗卵巢癌的方法。
参加今年竞赛的截止日期是4月1日，参赛作品可以用13种不同语言提交。
林宇民介绍说，“参加决赛的90名选手将从世界各地汇集在一起，相互了解并讨论他们的好点子。你绝对无法预见最终结果：某个来自一个遥远的小村落的孩子可能带来绝妙的点子、理念和激情……并开始拓展科学前景”。
Explorer Albert Lin: A Passion for Pushing the Limits
By Louise Fenner | Staff Writer | 09 February 2012
Albert Lin examines UCSD's HYPERspace wall, which displays a high-resolution digital map of an area in Mongolia.
Washington — Explorer and engineer Albert Lin has led three expeditions to Mongolia in search of lost archeological sites, including the tomb of Genghis Khan, the legendary warrior and founder of the Mongol empire.
Lin, 30, a research scientist at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), is passionate about pushing the limits of technology — from cutting-edge scientific instruments to social media and the Internet — to help open up new frontiers of exploration.
“Science and engineering are meant to ask questions,” he said. “Those questions still exist out there — you can still be an explorer. So much of the world is totally unknown.”
Because of the Internet, Lin said, “it’s possible for almost anybody, from anywhere around the world, to have access to the same information. People can learn now in a very connected way.”
Lin, who is Chinese American, has engineering degrees and a Ph.D. in material sciences from UCSD.
HIGH-TECH EXPEDITIONS
For the Mongolian expeditions, Lin and his team used advanced, noninvasive technologies such as satellite imaging, unmanned aerial vehicles, ground-penetrating radar, magnetometers and other geophysical instruments. These techniques preserve the integrity of culturally sensitive sites. Digging up the ground would be disrespectful to the traditions and beliefs of Mongolians who consider the Khan tomb to be sacred, Lin said.
The expeditions are part of the Valley of the Khans project, a collaboration among UCSD, the Mongolian Academy of Science, the International Association for Mongol Studies and the National Geographic Society.
While in Mongolia, the expedition team scanned the subsoil with high-tech instruments and sent data via satellite phone to a laboratory in Italy each day. The lab sent back maps of the subsoil in just a few hours.
The public was invited to participate in the expeditions by helping search through thousands of online satellite images for clues to the location of the Khan tomb and other sites – a technique called crowdsourcing. People were asked to look for anything that might indicate the presence of ancient structures, Lin said. The findings of these citizen scientists alerted the team to several promising locations in Mongolia.
Lin on horseback during a vist to Central Asia
Lin also directs the Engineers for Exploration program, which challenges UCSD students to create innovative technologies for National Geographic explorers and expeditions. In 2010, Lin was named a National Geographic Society Adventurer of the Year.
“If you find out what you’re really passionate about, your career will never be a job; it will always be something you love,” he said.
GOOGLE SCIENCE FAIR
Lin is a judge for the Google Science Fair, an international online competition that challenges students age 13–18 to investigate real-world problems. Last year’s grand-prize winner, selected from nearly 7,500 entries, discovered a way to improve ovarian cancer treatment.
The deadline for the competition is April 1, and entries can be submitted in 13 different languages.
“The 90 finalists will come together from all over the world and get to know each other and talk about their ideas,” Lin said, “and you never know where it can take us. Somebody in the middle of a village very far away can bring ideas and concepts and passions … and start pushing the future of science.”
Find out about the expeditions to Mongolia and the Google Science Fair, as well as Lin’s Exploration Laboratory.
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