Graduate Speaker Jiang He | Harvard Commencement 2016
美國東部時間5月26日上午10點，哈佛大學生物系博士畢業生何江作為優秀研究生代表發表演講。何江是哈佛大學歷史上第一位享此殊榮的中國大陸學生。
這位1988年出生於湖南農村、家境一般的中國學生，憑藉自己的努力，在中國科技大學獲得了最高榮譽獎——郭沫若獎學金後，進入哈佛大學碩博連讀，如今又獲得了相當於哈佛大學給予畢業生的最高榮譽——從全校數万名畢業生中各選出一名本科生和研究生代表作畢業演講。(Source: china.caixin.com)
何江畢業演講英文原文：
The Spider’s Bite
When I was in middle school, a poisonous spider bit my right hand. I ran to my mom for help—but instead of taking me to a doctor, my mom set my hand on fire.
After wrapping my hand with several layers of cotton, then soaking it in wine, she put a chopstick into my mouth, and ignited the cotton. Heat quickly penetrated the cotton and began to roast my hand. The searing pain made me want to scream, but the chopstick prevented it. All I could do was watch my hand burn - one minute, then two minutes –until mom put out the fire.
You see, the part of China I grew up in was a rural village, and at that time pre-industrial. When I was born, my village had no cars, no telephones, no electricity, not even running water. And we certainly didn’t have access to modern medical resources. There was no doctor my mother could bring me to see about my spider bite.
For those who study biology, you may have grasped the science behind my mom’s cure: heat deactivates proteins, and a spider’s venom is simply a form of protein. It’s cool how that folk remedy actually incorporates basic biochemistry, isn’t it? But I am a PhD student in biochemistry at Harvard, I now know that better, less painful and less risky treatments existed. So I can’t help but ask myself, why I didn’t receive one at the time?
Fifteen years have passed since that incident. I am happy to report that my hand is fine. But this question lingers, and I continue to be troubled by the unequal distribution of scientific knowledge throughout the world. We have learned to edit the human genome and unlock many secrets of how cancer progresses. We can manipulate neuronal activity literally with the switch of a light. Each year brings more advances in biomedical research-exciting, transformative accomplishments. Yet, despite the knowledge we have amassed, we haven’t been so successful in deploying it to where it’s needed most. According to the World Bank, twelve percent of the world’s population lives on less than $2 a day. Malnutrition kills more than 3 million children annually. Three hundred million people are afflicted by malaria globally. All over the world, we constantly see these problems of poverty, illness, and lack of resources impeding the flow of scientific information. Lifesaving knowledge we take for granted in the modern world is often unavailable in these underdeveloped regions. And in far too many places, people are still essentially trying to cure a spider bite with fire.
While studying at Harvard, I saw how scientific knowledge can help others in simple, yet profound ways. The bird flu pandemic in the 2000s looked to my village like a spell cast by demons. Our folk medicine didn’t even have half-measures to offer. What’s more, farmers didn’t know the difference between common cold and flu; they didn’t understand that the flu was much more lethal than the common cold. Most people were also unaware that the virus could transmit across different species.
So when I realized that simple hygiene practices like separating different animal species could contain the spread of the disease, and that I could help make this knowledge available to my village, that was my first “Aha” moment as a budding scientist. But it was more than that: it was also a vital inflection point in my own ethical development, my own self-understanding as a member of the global community.
Harvard dares us to dream big, to aspire to change the world. Here on this Commencement Day, we are probably thinking of grand destinations and big adventures that await us. As for me, I am also thinking of the farmers in my village. My experience here reminds me how important it is for researchers to communicate our knowledge to those who need it. Because by using the science we already have, we could probably bring my village and thousands like it into the world you and I take for granted every day. And that’s an impact every one of us can make!
But the question is, will we make the effort or not?
More than ever before, our society emphasizes science and innovation. But an equally important emphasis should be on distributing the knowledge we have to where it’s needed. Changing the world doesn’t mean that everyone has to find the next big thing. It can be as simple as becoming better communicators, and finding more creative ways to pass on the knowledge we have to people like my mom and the farmers in their local community. Our society also needs to recognize that the equal distribution of knowledge is a pivotal step of human development, and work to bring this into reality.
And if we do that, then perhaps a teenager in rural China who is bitten by a spider will not have to burn his hand, but will know to seek a doctor instead.
在我讀初中的時候，有一次，一隻毒蜘蛛咬傷了我的右手。我問我媽媽該怎麼辦，媽媽並沒有帶我去看醫生，而是決定用火療的方法治療我的傷口。
她在我的手上包了好幾層棉花，棉花上噴撒了白酒，在我的嘴裡放了一雙筷子後，媽媽打火點燃了棉花。熱量逐漸滲透過棉花，開始炙烤我的右手。灼燒的疼痛讓我忍不住想喊叫，可嘴裡的筷子卻讓我發不出聲來。我只能看著我的手被火燒著，一分鐘、兩分鐘，直到媽媽熄滅了火苗。
你看，我在中國的農村長大，那個時候，我的村莊還是一個類似前工業時代的傳統村落。在我出生時，我的村子裡面沒有汽車，沒有電話，沒有電，甚至也沒有自來水。我們自然不能輕易獲得先進的現代醫療資源。那個時候，我媽媽也找不到一個合適的醫生可以來幫我處理蜘蛛咬過的傷口。
在座各位如果有生物背景的，你們或許已經理解到了我媽媽使用的治療手段背後的基本原理：高熱可以讓蛋白質變性，而蜘蛛的毒液就是一種蛋白質。這樣一種土方法實際上有它一定的理論依據，想來也是挺有意思的。但是，作為哈佛大學生物化學的博士，我現在知道在我初中那個時候，已經有更好的，沒有那麼痛苦的，風險也沒那麼大的治療方法了。於是我忍不住會問自己，為什麼我在當時沒有能夠享用到這些更為先進的治療方法呢？
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