There are only two types of science, one is applied science, the other is science to be applied.
The second “World’s Top Scientists Forum” was sponsored by the Shanghai Municipal People’s Government, initiated by the World’s Leading Scientists Association, and the China Association for Science and Technology as the guiding unit. The Sequoia China Charity Foundation is a global strategic partner. There are 44 Nobel Prize winners, 21 Wolf Prize, Lasker Award, Turing Award, MacArthur Award, Fields Medal and other award winners, more than 100 outstanding young scientists and Chinese and foreign academicians.
At the Mobius Forum held on October 31st, 44 Nobel Prize winners, 21 Wolf Prize, Lasker Award, Turing Award, MacArthur Award, Fields Medal, etc. Each person speaks for 3 minutes independently, or imagines and predicts the science, the universe and the human form in the next 20 years, or deduces the future picture of human science and technology, or puts forward suggestions and opinions on current scientific research.
Among them, some of the guests also shared the current difficulties in their research direction and possible future development directions. For example, the 2012 Lasker Foundation Medical Research Award winner Michael Hitz is concerned about whether it is possible to kill cancer cells mechanically; in 2014, Wolf Prize winner Weng Qihui was very concerned about research and development for cancer and Alzheimer’s disease or Vaccine of Parkinson’s disease; MacArthur’s genius winner Yang Peidong is concerned about liquid sunlight.
We think these ideas are very instructive, so they have been sorted out accordingly. The following is the relevant finishing content.
The 2012 Lasker Foundation Medical Research Award winner Michael Hitz
The next biology I am going to talk about is now emerging. We have been studying how cells create the form of biology in the past 12 years. This is the mechanical biology I am going to talk about. There are a lot of biological changes in the cells, and now we have some results and findings. In the past few years, the research colleagues have had some important findings. For example, by culturing for two weeks on the FN rectangle to form pluripotent stem cells, and more than 80% efficiency, we can also define the rigid sensor as rigid = sarcomere unit pulling 100nm force.
Look at cancer cells again, because Tpm2.1 depletes tumor cells lacking a rigid sensor. As the state changes, the mechanical sensitivity of tumor cells becomes higher. We can kill cancer cells mechanically. We hope to bring such results to the clinic and give some biomedical mechanisms to benefit everyone. Thank you all.
Wolf Award Winner in 2014Weng Qihui
I am here to present some of the challenges facing chemical biology, which is based on my own research experience.
The first one, a better understanding of post-translational modification interactions. We have heard some interactions now, but there are many other types, including the nervous system, and how do the tumor systems interact? We have to look at its structure and function. In fact, post-translational modification of the human body is different from other species.
Second, we hope to develop a method for rapid sequencing of glycans. Some methods are now difficult to identify isomers.
Third, a molecule used to control glycosylation.
The fourth, predicting glycosylation and glycoprotein folding, we know that glycosylation affects the folding of glycoproteins, so we need a better predictive mechanism.
The fifth one, to understand the role of individual immune cells, we have thousands of immune cells, we need to be able to isolate immune cells and understand their function.
The sixth, universal flu vaccine.
The last one is a vaccine for cancer and Alzheimer’s disease or Parkinson’s disease. I have actually found nine antibodies that might help us achieve these goals. Thank you
Biophysical chemistXie Xiaoliang
When the Human Genome Project was completed in 2003, it was difficult to understand the grammar of the human genome. Now we can look at a person’s genome or the genome of one of his cells, and cost less than a thousand dollars. But now the goal and challenge is to decode the human functional genome, which has different functions. Last year we reported the 3D genome in human cells. We can locate a specific gene or a mutation point. The green part is euchromatin and the pink part is heterochromatin. There are two steps. The structure of genes and the structure of 3D are determined by translation factors. These are some proteins that turn on and off like a switch.
Each gene has a key in bacteria, but in human cells, mammalian cells, we have a series of keys to control the switch, and then the previous technology has no way to identify these elements. If we use chips, you may need to set 200 factors, but in fact not so much. At Peking University we hope to have a map of the genome to decode the 3D human functional genome by mapping transcription factor light localization. It takes a long time and a lot of energy, but I think this can help us better understand the expression of genes, gene regulation, stem cells, etc., of course, can help to better develop new drugs for different diseases, thank you.
Abel Kaiser, winner of the 2013 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
Next, I will tell you how to resist anti-gene resistance. After we invented an effective drug, we will have mutations, and the treatment will be mutated. The original drug will be useless. We have such a principle in chemistry. If you have a change, the whole system will fight against such changes. The question is, is there any way we can make new drugs take longer to slow down the emergence of drug resistance? I think there is a way to combine artificial intelligence with basic computer simulation. We can use machine learning to achieve a 99% success rate, but this is only for what we know, and for new drugs, the effect is worse.
The direction we try is not very successful. It is to calculate the vitality of the body and then combine it with the ability to learn deeply. We can have a lot of work to do in this direction, maybe in the next 30 years. During the year, computers will have the ability to make a variety of recommendations for us.
Dunkin Haldane, winner of the 2016 Nobel Prize in Physics
There are a lot of new discoveries in this era, because of quantum physics, and we can also develop some new materials. These developments come from a series of our unexpected discoveries, and together with three people. It will only prosper when we cooperate. We are looking at some very abstract quantum physics.
This requires some mathematical knowledge to understand why something happens, but to achieve a lot of things, we must join the material scientist, our new material should not be shot out of the head, but should be found inside nature Existing treasures. Some structures are presented through quantum physics, which can be inspired by material scientists. According to our experience, if there is a thing that is theoretically possible, even if it looks abstract or very strange, it is difficult to know, but very clever material. Universality, they can finally find a way to achieve such materials. That’s why I am very optimistic. I feel like topology, quantum computers, and some of my ideals. In theory, if possible, there will be some smart people who will eventually implement them.
Recently, if you read about molecular dynamics, you will find that this can help us achieve some topological forms that are very difficult to materialize. For example, two layers of graphene rotate at a certain angle, which can actually achieve some superconductivity and the like. I feel that we have entered the era of raw materials. In addition to relying on nature to give us existing materials, we can design ourselves. This may help us solve problems that cannot be solved by traditional science and better protect our planet. Thank you.
George Smoot III, winner of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physics
Look at the impact of technology on humans, science will cause peopleWhat kind of impact? I think there will be a so-called superman in the future. We are now approaching this starting point. Such a creature can do 80-90% of human work. The black picture may look a bit scary. We can foresee many things. I will do it, but I think there will be more in the future. Now we are looking at three superhumans, one is a genetically modified person. I actually did some research. I asked students, would you like to give your child a genetic modification? So that makes them smarter? Now that technology can do this, but everyone’s views are different, we still hesitate. Technology already exists, we don’t know all the genetic editing methods, but we already know some of them. I have students who say that if they are given a thousand dollars, they are willing to use their mobile phones for one year.
The second one is now more and more like steel. In the medical field, we have seen some new joints developed, or some new capabilities.
The third, electronic human or IT human beings, with electronic humans, we can process information faster and our life rhythm will accelerate. Our WLA has always been the strongest brain of human beings. I think it should be the last time I said this because some super brains may be human beings in the future. There will be some new forms of super brains in the next few decades. I think it must be at the end of this century. There will be a real super brain. With the arrival of Superman, he may have the same impact as we found aliens.
Wolf Chemical Prize Winner John Hartwig in 2019
What I am asking for is some challenges beyond human health. The world economy is growing at a rate of about 3.6% per year. At this rate, the global economy will double after 20 years. That is to say, the number of cars will double in 20 years, and the demand for food will double in 20 years. Of course, we will produce more and more plastics. It is possible that the plastics produced in the next 10 years will be produced more than ever. There are so many, so we need cars that run long distances, and we want to be able to charge them with sunlight or good batteries. We also want good ways to produce food and store food. Our materials hope to be developed in the future, not only once, but reuse.
The 2016 MacArthur Genius Award winner Yu Jinquan
I have been studying molecules. I find it very difficult, even impossible to make some predictions, because in my opinion, molecules should be the most naughty thing. As a synthetic chemist constantly experimenting, creating new structures, new functions, such as better materials, better drugs for the benefit of mankind. Honestly, not only are we more creative, no matter how great the experiments we design, good findings are usually beyond our expectations, much better than what we design. Therefore, I hope to give you some perspectives. Let us go back 25 years ago. Can you see what I was doing at the time?I will tell you what I am doing now? Think about it, what do we do together after 10 years? On the left hand side is the reaction I was responsible for when I found a perfume. The daily output of the perfume is 10 tons. The middle picture is a factory, the sky is still blue, and by the sea, we produce 10 tons of compounds in this factory every day. Of course this is also very limited, because this is just a reaction to a product.
On the right hand side, what we are doing now is the concept of Molecular Editor. We can’t edit the molecules precisely, just like through genetic editing. Some people say that they will create Superman. We are not sure. At the molecular level, once we edit, we can generate supermolecules. Our colleague’s project hopes to create better molecules to treat autism. The molecules in the lower right corner can be obtained from the coal industry without cost. If we can accurately edit these 5 hydrocarbon bonds, we can produce good drugs.
We haven’t implemented it yet, but in principle we use geometry, distance, and simple mathematics. We don’t use some of the textbook theories to help us make great progress. This has been the case in the past 10 years. We expect more progress in the next 10 years, but I don’t know if it can be achieved or when it will be implemented, but I will do my best to achieve it. Thank you
2015 MacArthur Genius Award winner Yang Peidong
I want to talk about energy. Liquid sunlight can be used as a new type of chemical energy. It can be stored in chemical parts. I think we can develop the necessary artificial light and function in the future. We can store energy through chemical parts. There will be unlimited massive free energy storage.
Like what we call carbon dioxide chemistry, we also discussed yesterday, how can we have some catalysts at the nanometer level to help us activate carbon dioxide? We can also use some liquid fuel, etc., plus sunlight to react. You can also imagine that in the future, our chemical, energy and pharmaceutical industries will come from renewable sunlight, instead of relying entirely on traditional chemical materials, so that we can also solve carbon dioxide emissions and global warming. , the issue of climate change. This should be the best solution to help us recycle carbon dioxide.
At the same time, we can also conduct space exploration, such as Mars exploration. Because liquid sunlight can provide energy, food, etc. to people living in outer space, such liquid sunlight requires interdisciplinary research and thinking. Of course, there are still many basic problems to be solved. I encourage more and more young scientists to join us. Together, create a liquid sun, thank you.
Phila Baran, winner of the 2013 MacArthur Genius Awards
Thank you all, I want to tell you the oldest chemical synthesis, which is very important in organic chemistry. In the 80s we discovered that natural thingsIt can also be synthesized by humans. Through some reactions, we can generate many things, just like being an astronomer and being a scientist at the same time.
Here I have a book for everyone to talk about how to generate molecules, which actually creates a boom in the industry. Any complex molecule can be used as long as you have enough money or you have enough time. Generated, this is called the viable era. I think there will be more innovations in the future. This must be less raw materials and more harvest. In the past 10 years, we have proposed new ways to do synthesis. We call it the ideal era, that is, if you can There is no need to detour from point A to point B, instead of using some things to generate B directly, so that you can democratize the process of reaction.
For example, some of the molecules I have listed for you have taken a lot of steps to synthesize in the past, but now with very simple principles, we can simplify it to synthesize these compounds, not just for me. Some of the biomolecules can also be used in the above list of taxol.
We saw the drugs passed by the FDA, injecting 130,000 compound stereoisomers into the patient’s body to treat the disease. Finally, in the process, we often have innovative ways to make molecules. When we were forced to end, we could only innovate and invent something new. For us, this may also be a direction for full synthesis in the future, and we as a group of scientists can embrace this way. Thank you.