Author | Zinc Scale Wave Eagle
Edit | Chen Dengxin
Title Map | Oriental IC
April 11, 33 years ago, after 76 years, Halley’s comet dragged the mysterious long tail and appeared on the earth.
In the spring night of countless teenagers around the world looking up at the stars, in the emerging coastal city of Shenzhen, a 15-year-old junior, claiming that he was the first person in the school to see Halley’s comet and wrote an observation report. , delivered to Beijing, won a 40 yuan bonus – this is the first bucket of gold in his life.
The creation of a man, the boy named Ma Huateng did not become an astronomer, but went the other way and founded an Internet company on November 11, 1998.
After more than 20 years, this Internet company has profoundly changed people’s lives in all aspects. But for Ma Huateng, the astronomical dream of 30 years ago, or the scientific dream, has never been forgotten, but the pattern and meaning are even greater. In the first week of November, he personally launched an unrelated business “Tencent.” Science Week” – from the thinking of basic science to the science of the most advanced scientific and technological achievements, to care for human beings, look up at the stars, and explore the universe.
The world is so wonderful. The spring night of Halley’s comet, let a teenager see the power of the vast stars and science. Nowadays, this young boy who is famous for his fame is using another way to awaken the scientific dreams of more young people.
After all, who dares to deny, after 10 or 20 years, the people who are sitting at the table and listening to the speech will not have the next great scientist?
Let science stand at “C” position
There is rarely such a scientific conference. In the past week, it has been able to attract many mainstream media and celebrities to continue to pay attention to it – from the 7th consecutive Tencent Science WE Conference, Science Discovery Awards, the first ME Tencent Science Week, which consists of three events of the conference, has done this.
For example, Cao Lin, a member of the editorial board of the mainstream official media “China Youth Daily” and a well-known commentator, published a theme article on November 7th. The first Tencent Science Week was successful in terms of making science more concerned. In addition, CCTV, People’s Daily, and Xinhua News Agency are not arrogant about this science week.
In fact, scientific exploration, this should not be a week of things, but perseverance every day, one year, ten years, and even countless years in the future, in order to let people see the power of science until they move the universe. string.
This is also the mission and significance that Ma Huateng hopes to bring when he personally launches Science Week: use science to satisfy the public’s curiosity and desire for the world, and make science a chase point for young people.
For countless teenagers before 00, scientists are distant and mysterious dreams of countless young children. When they grow up, they gradually become strangers. Most of them are retreating because science is too mysterious and even more difficult to get involved. It is actually lucky to see the horse of Hua Lei, the comet of Halley.
Fortunately, the selected “small reporters” have had the opportunity to have a live dialogue with the world’s top scientists for several years. Their problems are also full of science and childlike fun: “Is Mars? A plant similar to Earth, or a similar living environment?” “Can particle robots simulate the universe in a small space?”
In fact, at the WE conference, seven of the world’s top scientists talked about the advances in cell therapy, string theory, brain chips, particle robots, etc.; or the “Hepatocellular Cancer” in Tencent Medical ME Conference “Questions of Life” Targeted treatment programs, “AIDS patients with combined drug control, life expectancy is close to normal people”, “suicide problem intervention”, its essence is to promote the connection between cutting-edge science and technology popular science, enlighten the public’s true scientific understanding.
The naming of these two conferences is also very interesting: from the Way to Evolve into the Medical Enlightenment, Tu Yu even wrote a letter to the ME Assembly, saying : “Life and health are related to the common destiny of mankind.”
It’s not hard to understand that these basic sciences, which sometimes seem too esoteric for adults, are more attractive and resonating for young people – a Tencent staff member said that from WE conference to upgrade The Science Week, the audience is getting younger and younger, this is a good thing. At the ME conference, a father who took his son to listen to the speech said: I hope that even if I don’t understand it, as long as I am immersed in science in this process, it will play a key role in promoting children’s education.
The fire of the stars can be restored. It doesn’t matter how much you can play now. If you don’t understand it, it’s not important. The important thing is to have the continuation and exploration of the scientific dream. On November 3, Tencent CXO (Chief Exploration Officer) network cheered “10 million online viewers” when they appeared on the show. This is the public’s interest in the science dream.
On the road of exploring science, compared with applause and flowers, it is more thorns, hardships and loneliness. It also needs care from the outside world – there are honors, and material snow.
The world-famous Nobel Prize, Turing Award, Abel Prize, Wolf Prize, etc. are all medals of honor for the world’s science. However, China lacks a natural science tradition in history and lacks the tradition of charitable funding for science.
In the past 100 years, China’s modern scientific system has been gradually established from scratch, from small to large, and there is an urgent need for an award for young scientists to provide sustainable development for China. The driving force behind science.
Therefore, after a meal at Ma Huateng and Peking University’s Tencent headquarters, Tencent announced that it has invested 1 billion in the “Scientific Discovery Award” – starting in 2019, 50 young scientists up to 45 years old will be awarded each year. The Science Discovery Award is awarded 600,000 yuan per person for 5 consecutive years.
Using “nomination system” with many well-known international and domestic awardsDifferently, the judges and finalists of the Science Discovery Award only need to answer one question: Is the research direction and potential of the finalists worth the prize?
These bonuses are still at the discretion of the living expenses such as mortgages and car purchases. Ma Huateng’s idea is: “In fact, early, talented, especially potential young scientists, providing some necessary support may be more important in this regard.”
Looking for the future from basic science
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Hawkin also gave a speech on the WE in video mode
From the WE conference in 2013, this is Ma Huateng’s dream, a dream that has nothing to do with business.
In 2013, in the opening remarks of the first WE conference, Ma Huateng once said: WE conference is the most different meeting. Here, we put down our business concerns, focusing only on science and using science to satisfy our curiosity and desire for the world.
Love has seven years of itching, but from the first WE conference in 2013 to the science week in 2019, dozens of top scientists from around the world came to the conference to share their scientific discoveries and cutting-edge ideas. Tencent played in it. Forever, it’s just a huge sum of money to match the bridge, just like the “connector” that Ma Huateng said.
Insist on the “connector” of basic science for many years, Microsoft did not, Google did not, Apple did not, Huawei did not, Alibaba did not. Tencent is the only one, and there is no semicolon.
This is still closely related to the night of 33 years ago. Although Ma Huateng chose the Internet road, the enthusiasm for astronomical science has always been – when Ma Huateng’s birthday in 2004, the board gave him a special gift. Professional-grade astronomical telescopemirror.
“I like astronomy, it makes me feel very small, maybe we have always been an accident in the universe,” he said.
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As Apple has always belonged to Jobs, Tencent only belongs to Ma Huateng in the sense of temperament and soul. The continuation of the astronomical dream is reflected in Tencent’s products. It is the WeChat that has more than 1.1 billion monthly users. WeChat has been using the “blue marbles” as the splash screen from 2012 to 2018. It is Apollo 17 The astronaut on the number, taking a real photo taken with an 80mm lens Hasselblad camera, is also the first photo that can clearly capture the bright side of the earth.
However, for Ma Huateng, who has risen in the era of the Internet, when Tencent products penetrated into the daily lives of billions of users, he would not only think about astronomical dreams.
On November 11, 2010, Tencent’s 12th anniversary was established. Ma Huateng did not get together like everyone else. He drove back to the office and sent out the famous e-mail titled “Open the Door to the Future”: “Maybe Today, I can’t say to you what changes will happen, but we will try to inject more open and shared elements into Tencent’s future development. Because Tencent’s dream is not to make itself the strongest and largest company, but the most A company that is respected.”
In the early morning of October 24 last year, Ma Huateng was asking questions: Which basic scientific breakthroughs will affect the Internet technology industry in the next decade? What changes will be brought about by the integration of industrial Internet and consumer Internet?
Two “questions for the future” are separated by 8 years, but the meaning is probably the same: how to find this door to the future, it belongs not only to Tencent, but to the fate and mystery of the entire Chinese science and technology, and even the entire human race. The vast universe.
This door is the basic science. Ma Huateng likes astronomy, which is one of the seven university subjects in basic science.