Do not face scientific instruments

On July 5, 2007, the People’s Daily published a talk on science and technology. The title is: Please don’t do “rich fools”. On June 29th, the “Innovation and Development of Instrument Science and Technology—An Academician Wang Dazhao’s Report on the Important Thoughts of Scientific Instruments” organized by the China Instrument and Metering Society commented.

Without scientific equipment, what kind of twists and turns the human innovation process will encounter? With scientific instruments, we will certainly be able to harvest the fruits of innovation?

On June 29th, the Instrumental Science and Technology Innovation and Development held by the China Instrument and Control Society - Academician Wang Dazhao's report on the important ideas of scientific instruments, guided people's attention to two seemingly contradictory issues.

The telescope opened the starry sky above us. The seismograph revealed the treasures deep in the earth. As Academician Wang Dazhao said, "Instrumentation is the 'multiplier' for industrial production, the 'predecessor' of scientific research, and the 'combat power' in military affairs. "Materialized judges" and "instruments are tools for understanding and transforming the material world" in social life. Among the previous Nobel Prizes in natural science, 68.4% of the physics prizes, 74.6% of the chemistry prizes, and 90% of the biomedical awards were made using a variety of advanced scientific instruments.

The role of scientific instruments is so important, it is no wonder that every scientific research unit we go to, we must always be pulled to visit the cost of millions, tens of millions of instruments and equipment. However, these valuable treasures are mostly imported products that consume a lot of foreign exchange purchases. During the "10th Five-Year Plan" period, about 20% of the "863" plan, the "973" plan, and the national science and technology plan will be used to purchase scientific instruments. The "985" project, "211" project, and knowledge innovation project will be even more substantial. The funds are used for the purchase of scientific instruments, but investment in scientific instrument research and development is seriously insufficient.

According to statistics, during the “Tenth Five-Year Plan” period, the state’s three major science and technology projects invested a total of 33 billion yuan, but only 085 million yuan was used for the “Scientific Instruments and Equipment Research and Development” project. The United States, on the other hand, only uses the U.S. Science Foundation as an example. In 2003 and 2004, it invested in university-related projects. The funds used for the development of scientific instruments or functional improvements actually accounted for 25.3% of the total amount of scientific instruments supported.

The major achievements in the field of science and technology depend on major breakthroughs in scientific thinking, scientific methods, and scientific tools. As the premise and result of thinking innovation and method innovation, scientific instrument innovation has often become the most valuable, most dynamic, most competitive and promising development innovation. In the history of the 100th year of the Nobel Prize, more than 50 scientists won awards for their direct results in scientific instrument methods and techniques.

“The people who transform and invent equipment are true masters, and spending a lot of money to buy instruments just repeats the experiments of others. That is what the rich fool will do.” We relive today Wang Dazhao’s thoughts on scientific instruments. In order to make more masters, less money as a fool.