“There is something fascinating about science.  One gets such wholesale returns of conjecture out of such a trifling of fact.” – Mark Twain

“科学这东西挺妙的，能让人从微不足道的小事中得出一箩筐一箩筐的猜测”

——马克吐温

Science has always been of particular interest to me.  After spending a week learning about insects and arachnids in 7^th grade, it became my goal to become an “arthropod expert.”  While that dream quickly faded, my interest in science remained as strong as ever.  Coming into high school, I knew I wanted to pursue a science-related career.  For some time, I played with the thought of becoming a doctor, but it wasn’t until the summer of my junior year that I found my true calling: research.

      我从小就对科学特别感兴趣。初一那年我们学生物的昆虫纲和蜘蛛纲，一周之后我就立志要做个节肢动物学家。这个梦想很快就褪去了光泽，但我对科学的兴趣却未曾动摇过。上高中以后，虽然我知道我以后会从事跟科学有关的工作，但有好一阵子我还在想是不是要做个医生。直到高三那年的暑假，我才领悟到我天缘注定该做科研。

I had originally planned on taking a physics class over the summer, but it was cancelled when they, astonishingly, could not find enough students interested enough to sign up.  Left with three weeks of free time, I had to find something else to do.  I decided to contact my soon-to-be organic chemistry teacher, Professor David Hall at Lawrence University, to see if I could work with him in the biochemistry lab and get a feel for what real research was like.  The next week, I was in his laboratory.

      那年夏天我本来准备上一门物理课的，可是学校竟通知我说那门课因为凑不满学生而取消了。平空多出了三个礼拜，我得找点什么事来做才行。我决定跟劳伦斯大学化学系的郝大伟老师联系（我下学期要跟他上有机化学），看看能不能到他的生化实验室实习，体验一下真正的“科研”是什么感觉。周末过后，我就进了他的实验室。

I showed up early on the first day in high spirits, lab notebook in one hand and a pen in the other.  I said hello to Professor Hall and, in return, was given a thick stack of honor theses to peruse.  The first couple days consisted of reading through various research papers, zoning out occasionally to the whir of the centrifuges, and marveling at all the high-tech equipment my high school could not afford: P1000 Pipettors, centrifuges, electrophoresis kits, and a mysterious “Belly Dancer.”  However, I was not on the sidelines for long.  By the end of the first week, I was given my first assignment.  I set to it with much enthusiasm, not quite sure what an SDS page gel was, hoping the protocol would take me where I needed to go.  In between finding reagents and waiting for the gel layers to polymerize, I spent most of my time trailing Professor Hall as he poked around the lab, needle in hand, for undergrads willing to donate blood for the good of science.

      那天我一大早兴致勃勃地去了，一手拿着笔记本，一手握着原子笔。我向郝老师道好，他回敬了我厚厚一叠的学士论文，让我好好念。开头几天我忙着念几篇研究论文，偶尔被离心机的嗡嗡转动声弄得脑中一篇空白，偶尔还要赞叹一下那些我们高中买不起的高科技仪器：P1000型吸量管、离心机、电泳器、还有那个神秘的“肚皮舞机”。可是，场边坐冷板凳的日子并不长，第一个礼拜结束前，我得到了第一个任务。我满怀热情地开张动工，虽然我并不十分清楚那个十二烷基硫酸钠聚丙烯酰胺凝胶电泳是干嘛的，只希望照实验步骤去做就能顺利完成。在寻找试剂或等候胶层聚合的空当，我就跟在郝老师身后，在实验室里四处晃荡，看他手里举着针管，专扎那些为了科学愿意奉献鲜血的大学生。

By the second week, Professor Hall and I had come up with several projects to pursue.  One idea, working with the human rhinovirus, soon died following the inexplicable contamination of our A549 cell cultures.  With that out of the picture, Professor Hall decided to have me help him with an anticancer project he had unsuccessfully pursued with three other undergrads for over year and a half.  However, with a stroke of luck we discovered the DNA construct of interest in three out of the eighteen bacteria samples we processed.  Professor Hall was more than ecstatic.  A flurry of experiments and protocols followed this Eureka moment.  Absorbed in the scientific process, the third week flew by without me even realizing it.  At the end of the week, Professor Hall approached me as I was cleaning up my puddle gel lab station and asked me if I wanted to keep going or if I had other plans.  My response?  “I think I’ll stick around for while!”  Whether it was following procedures, analyzing data, or probing frontier science, there were elements of research that just struck a chord with my personality.

      第二周开始之前，我跟郝老师已经商量出好几个课题。有个研究人体犀牛病毒的构想，但是因为我们的A549细胞培养莫名其妙遭到污染而提前放弃。做不成那个，郝老师就决定让我帮他做一个有关抗癌的课题，一个他先前跟另外三个本科生做了一年半都没有成果的课题。结果，幸运之神降临，在我们培养的十八个细菌样本中我们发现了三个有用的去氧核糖核酸结构，把郝老师乐得不行。“中奖”之后，接下来是一大堆的后续实验和程序，于是第三周就在我专心于科研步骤下悄然溜走。那一周快结束的时候，我正在清理凝胶搅拌器，郝老师走过来问我是愿意继续跟他做还是有别的打算。我的答复是什么？自然是想继续下去咯。无论是按部就班做实验、分析数据、还是尝试开拓未知的科学领域，科研中就是有一股说不出的力量在拨动我的心弦。

By the end of six weeks, I had run a Western blot, poured several SDS page gels, run multiple minipreps, cloned viral DNA, and finally got to use “The Belly Dancer” laboratory shaker.  Dave and I had gotten to be close lab buddies, he got the data he had been going after for over a year, and I had a new sense of direction as to where I wanted to go in life.

      六个礼拜下来，我已经做过了西方墨点法、几次SDS凝胶电泳、多次的小型实验准备、复制病毒性DNA，甚至我还终于用上了那个会跳肚皮舞的实验室搅拌器。“大伟”跟我成了实验室的好伙伴，对他来说，他收集到追求了一年多的数据，对我来说，则是清楚地知道我人生该走的方向和追寻的目标。

“Equipped with his five senses, man explores the universe around him and calls the adventure Science.” – Edwin Hubble

“凭着天赋五官，人类在环绕他四周的宇宙中摸索，并称这种探索为科学”

——爱德文 哈勃

一些美国名校比较看重的项目，例如：体育、社团、夏令营、研究性活动，或者参加实习、做义工、旅游、参加比赛，甚至还包括兴趣和爱好，哪怕是逛街买东西、玩电脑游戏和听音乐……

　　“年轻人最大的课题，就是找到自己，找到自己喜欢什么、要做什么。做自己喜欢的事，加之不懈努力和坚持，成功离你就不远了。”
高考除了分数外还能看到什么？

　　马振翼在台湾读小学时，教师是可以体罚学生的。不好好念书，老师可以用藤条抽学生手掌。“错一个字，打一下。错了300个，就打300下。我没有一周是不被打的。”至今，最让马振翼耿耿于怀的是，一个男老师骂过他：你是我教过的最笨的学生！这让他很没有自信。

　　到美国上学后，人也没多少起色，还是老样子，玩、混，就是不念书。到初中为止，他转了7所学校。直到上高二，遇到一个教数学的白人女老师。

　　“她对我特别有耐心，像妈妈一样关心我。在她的课上，我常受到夸奖。我喜欢上了数学，每次考试都考满分，每天作业都做。”后来，她又把马振翼介绍给一个教高年级数学的老师。很快，马振翼学完高中数学，又跑到离家不远的伯克利，修完了大学一、二年级的数学和物理，并顺利通过考试。

　　申请大学时，马振翼除了数学和物理，其他科目的成绩都很差。既然这个学生，一年跳了好几年的数学课程，肯定不笨，有天分。于是他被伯克利录取，双攻物理和数学。

　　“是那个女老师改变了我，她给了我自信心。否则，我现在可能还是混。”马振翼当高中老师时，也教数学，“一个好老师，一定要启发学生，启发他的潜力。如果半年里，能有一个学生被我启发了，对数学产生兴趣，那我就成功了。”

　　“人在年轻时学到的课本知识，可能会被忘掉。但一个启发、一个感动、一个梦想，可能会影响你一辈子。”

　　什么样的教育，才是好的教育？

　　从自己读书、教书经历中，马振翼得出的结论是：教育的重点，就是启发人。

    这些年，马振翼在中美两地，接触过的学生不下几万。聊到两地学生的差异，他的回答是：最大的不同，就是中国学生没有梦想。

　　美国的教育，从小开始就教你发现自我，鼓励小孩敢想、敢做。它的文化也一再告诉人：只要你想到、你做到、你充分努力了，那你一定会得到。

　　中国的教育，没有给人理解梦想的空间。

　　“难道高考，就是你的梦吗？可它除了分数外，关于你是谁，你要什么，你想做什么，你的梦是什么，这些能看到吗？没有梦想，你会成为一个真正的人吗？没有梦想，中国能出乔布斯吗？”