In Changhua, Taiwan Province, a little girl with a schoolbag on her back walked along a country road with an earthy smell and came to us. One day in the future, she will stand high at the top of the pyramid of life science, and she will shock the whole world-
Prophecy; Forecast; preview; trailer
God said, "We will make man in our image, and let them rule the fish in the sea, the birds in the air, the livestock on the earth and all the reptiles on the earth." (Genesis of the Old Testament) Therefore, after creating everything, God created man in his own image; Made a woman out of a man's rib.
According to religious interpretation, life and human beings were born in this way.
From 65438 to 0859, Darwin, a British bachelor of theology, published The Origin of Species, which made a groundbreaking exposition on the variation, heredity and survival competition between human beings and biological species. His core theory "survival of the fittest" laid the foundation of biological evolution mechanism. The classic "God created everything" was destroyed.
Since then, generations of scientists have turned their attention to the field of "the origin of life". It should be said that their research is fruitful, which also gave birth to two most famous schools in the history of life science, protein School and Nucleic Acid School. The former thinks that protein is the most basic and important substance that constitutes life, and protein existed before nucleic acid. Protein is the source of life. The latter's assertion is just the opposite: nucleic acid preceded protein, and nucleic acid created life. In the past hundred years, the dispute between the two factions has been intermittent. Eastern and western philosophers have long summarized the essence of their argument with a vivid metaphor: which came first, the chicken or the egg?
The philosopher's metaphor is quite helpless; Scientists' doubts are much clearer. Margulies, a famous American scholar and biochemist, once said with great anxiety: What are the relations between inanimate molecules and living macromolecules such as nucleic acids and protein in the chemical evolution of the origin of life? When will the chaotic state be clarified?
In fact, margulies is not the only one. Many experts and scholars engaged in biochemical research are poor in their brains, and they can't enter the door of chaos all their lives, and they haven't really solved the mystery of the origin of life. Their grief and helplessness during their lifetime left many latecomers deeply confused.
Therefore, some prophets predict that this top problem in the history of world science will continue to haunt scientists for at least two centuries!
The teacher's kindness is hard to repay.
At the beginning, this girl named Zhao, walking on the earthy ridge of her hometown, was not easy at all. At that time, she couldn't imagine that in the last decade of this century, she would become the most striking figure in the world scientific community; The history of life science on earth will be written by her. For scientists, this is the beginning of a new era-but at that time, she was obsessed with it and only hoped that her father's illness would get better as soon as possible and the burden on her mother's shoulders would be lighter. In addition to finishing her studies, she also hopes that she can spend more time helping her mother, embroidering, harvesting hemp and drying rice.
In Taiwan Province Province, physics and chemistry in junior high schools are linked together, collectively referred to as physics and chemistry classes. Zhao's physics and chemistry teacher is the 72nd generation descendant of Kong and Kong Sheng. It is this young female teacher who led Zhao into the world of chemistry. The demonstration of chemistry experiment made by the teacher in class made Zhao ecstatic at once. "How amazing the world of molecules is!" 13-year-old girl's heartfelt admiration, like Aladdin's magic lamp, illuminates her future life path.
In high school, chemistry has a relatively strict system. The teacher who teaches inorganic chemistry has a great influence on Zhao. The young student studying in Germany strengthened Zhao's interest in chemistry with his fresh and lively teaching style. After graduating from high school, Zhao was admitted to the Department of Chemistry in Hsinchu, Tsinghua University, which contributed greatly.
1992, Tsinghua scholars from both sides exchanged visits. At that time, Zhang Zhaoding, who worked in Tsinghua and Hsinchu, led a team to Beijing. On the campus of Tsinghua, I met Zhao, a student 30 years ago. At that time, he was already a famous professor in Tsinghua and the youngest academician of China Academy of Sciences. When the teacher met the students, it was an excitement that Zhao would never forget. A few years later, in June, 1996, Zhao returned to his alma mater, Taiwan Province, to give a lecture at the invitation of Mr. Shen Shishan, president of Tsinghua University Hsinchu Branch. She met Mr. Kong in junior high school. Zhang Zhaoding, the teacher who met her four years ago, has left. The voice is there, but the Sri Lankan is gone; In front of teacher Zhang's portrait, Zhao burst into tears and could not control himself-this is another story!
When I was a sophomore in Changhua Girls' Middle School, something almost ruined Zhao Qiancheng: that year, my father died and life at home was even more difficult. Some relatives and friends suggested that Zhao send her to a Catholic church, because nuns can go to middle school without tuition and living expenses. Because of his mother's opposition, Zhao was able to finish high school and was admitted to the Chemistry Department of Tsinghua University in Hsinchu as his first choice. She is the first girl in Changhua Girls' Middle School in Hsinchu to be admitted to Tsinghua.
Studying in America
In A.D. 197 1, he graduated from Zhao University and immediately received a full scholarship to study in the United States. In the entrance examination of the State University of New York at Stony Brook, the total score was the first, so Zhao chose Professor Nomitz as his tutor. Although she has heard of it, one of the grandfathers of phosphorus chemistry is an extremely strict old man. After reading Zhao's grade book, the old man immediately decided to accept this female disciple. Among the students who can form a mini-UN in Milz, Zhao is the only one from China. Later, someone asked Zhao, "Are you afraid of that old man?" Zhao smiled and looked very happy: "Why are you afraid! It's too late for him to praise me! "
As outsiders have said, the severity of Milz's elderly people is really daunting. Soon after Zhao Gang arrived in his laboratory, he witnessed an American postdoctoral fellow being scolded by the old man and leaving the laboratory with his head drooping. Since then, Zhao has never seen this postdoctoral "brother". When asked, I realized that my tutor had resigned as a "senior brother".
But to everyone's surprise, this strict tutor is more attentive to his female disciple. When Yang lectured people, he praised Zhao.
Never hesitate to praise.
Nomitz asked Zhao to do the experiment of magnesium bromide according to a document. According to the rules, she only needs to finish the results in the literature before she can go to work. However, due to her active way of thinking and the precious sensitivity and intuition of women, she quickly discovered five new chemical structures that have never been mentioned in the literature and have never been reported in the world. She immediately determined their exact absolute structures by X-ray diffraction, wrote a high-quality paper and published it in the journal of the American Chemical Society ... Similar things often happen. The experiments she does always exceed the expectations of her tutor.
Nomitz is the founder of five-coordinated phosphorus chemistry. Learn from the teacher. Zhao's doctoral thesis is also about pentacoordinated phosphorus. In her paper, she explained the transition state of ATP, the most important molecule in biochemistry (that is, energy currency, because the transformation within the organism depends on ATP). Zhao Dui's rigorous exposition and a large number of experimental results, in the tutor's words and existing literature records, can not find any source, fresh and unique. Therefore, after the publication of the paper, it immediately caused a shock in the field of phosphating. The book Five-coordinated Phosphorus Chemistry published in the United States is introduced in the preface, pointing out that this paper has made a "great contribution" to the development of phosphorus chemistry. Nomitz always warns his doctors and postdocs in class: "Tracking and monitoring; When a chemical reaction has no predicted result, don't think it is a failure easily; Go in and see what it is. This result, not measured by your old way of thinking, is probably an innovation-that's what Zhao among you did. She walks in front of all of you. " When the old man spoke at the end, his eyes were full of smiles and he was intoxicated by his unique opinions.