*** There are; First, science is a professional activity. As we all know, in the 17th century, scientific research was still entirely a personal interest. When the Royal Society was founded, less than 1/3 of the first 96 members were real scientific people. Who were the others? They are all nobles, 14 nobles, 18 knights, doctors, and even theologians. They have no worries about food and clothing. After eating, they come together based on personal interests and an interest in science to study, discuss and communicate. Scientific issues, of course, later some navigators and businessmen also joined this ranks because they wanted to solve the practical problems they encountered in navigation and setting up factories. This was the original scientific research. Today's science has become highly professionalized. Every scientist belongs to a corresponding interest group, has his or her own unit for employment, and needs to receive corresponding income from the research work he or she does to support his family. Therefore, in this case, the driving force and interest of science have been integrated into professionalism, and the motivation or driving force for studying science must go deep into the professionalization of science.
Today's scientific development and technological inventions are different from the situation a century ago. Most of them come from the professional activities of scientists and engineers and are directly related to their profession. I think this interest or driving force related to professional activities mainly comes from four aspects:
First, the interests of scientists that have been professionalized. This is a motivation, but this interest is fundamentally different from the scientific interest of today's so-called "citizen scientists". Because I come into contact with about 20-30 so-called "citizen scientists" every year. They have various professions, and most of them are farmers. In addition to passion and enthusiasm, their education level is not high, and their scientific background is poor. Contemporary scientific research They are far ahead of their level of knowledge. It is almost impossible to rely on their so-called research to support science in the modern sense. It can be seen that the scientific interests of scientists now are closely related to their profession. If a person wants to study science now and it becomes his interest, he must first become a professional scientist. This is the prerequisite. Otherwise, he may get Without funds, peer recognition and social recognition, he will be marginalized and it will be difficult for him to continue his research work. Now we say that scientific and technological innovation must stimulate scientific interest, but it must be linked to professionalization, and we cannot ignore the scientific utility that is linked to profession after professionalization, because scientific interest in today's society has been professionalized.
The second is society’s expectations for the professional role of scientists. In China, the status of scientists is very high. According to the results of our public scientific literacy survey, the social reputation of scientists always ranks first, which is higher than surveys in the United Kingdom and the United States. Since the industrialization of society, especially the knowledge-based economy, the whole world has been full of expectations for scientists. Politicians are looking forward to the improvement of national competitiveness, and companies are looking forward to rising corporate profits... They all look forward to seeking help from scientists, so Scientists face pressure in many ways, as well as competition for roles and status within their profession. The competitiveness among professional scientists comes from the recognition of scientists' peers, which is also an important source of scientific interest and motivation. Therefore, I think scientific research is not entirely about interest, but also about professional expectations, which come from external pressure, push, and temptation. Since you want to be a scientist, your job has corresponding professional requirements for you.
The third is the social responsibility of scientists. As biological and social beings, scientists have a conscience, and scientists bear a social responsibility. The scientific profession is a high-level pursuit of scientists and a manifestation of self-realization. The scientist group is a high-level group. The pursuit of spiritual pursuits such as competitiveness, responsibility, sense of crisis, thirst for knowledge, and desire for games is also a very important scientific pursuit. Source of interest and motivation.
Fourth, what is different from the Middle Ages and the beginning of the last century is that today’s scientific profession is full of huge temptations of profit. This is a defining characteristic of today's society, including around the world. The temptation of interests for scientific professions exists not only in China, but also in other countries around the world. The Hwang Woo-suk incident in South Korea is a manifestation of professional pressure and the temptation of interests. Scientists today face many more temptations than before, such as becoming an official, making money, and even having power and money at the same time.
I saw a piece of information that said a university professor was about to retire in three months. He applied for academicianship for the last time, but he immediately retired if he was not selected as an academician. After he was selected as an academician, everything continued. His students calculated an account for him. If he was not elected as an academician, his monthly pension would be about 3,000 yuan. If he lived to be 80 years old, he could get 720,000 yuan. If he was elected as an academician, his school's academician allowance would be 100,000 yuan. That’s 120,000 yuan per year, plus salary, and if you live to the age of 80, not counting other income, you will get at least more than 3 million yuan more. This is not only money, but also fame and "deputy ministerial level" treatment... In real society, scientists face many such temptations, including those from power and money, some from abroad, domestically, and some from the government. , corporate. Under this temptation, the identity and role of scientists often change. Sometimes they are officials, sometimes experts, sometimes bosses and businessmen. There are experts becoming officials, officials studying to obtain degrees and professional titles, and scientists becoming project bosses and businessmen. The phenomenon of "subcontractor" is no longer an exception. Therefore, when considering today’s scientists, we cannot study their scientific activities and individual scientists’ behaviors according to the previously closed way of thinking and thinking.
Second, science is a social tool. In today's society, politicians, entrepreneurs, and the public have relatively high expectations for scientists, because science and technology have become an important tool for obtaining national interests and international status. The strength and prosperity of a country are almost equated with science and technology. Many key national technological breakthroughs have been marked with political symbols. Many technical standards are produced in the United States, including the core technology of CPU computers. 80% to 90% are controlled in the United States. Therefore, this kind of scientific and technological things have become an important tool for the United States to obtain its own interests and global hegemony. Similarly, for individuals, science and technology have become a very important tool for obtaining political status and personal interests. Scientific and technological knowledge and abilities, especially after the technology is mastered and controlled in one's own hands, can gain initiative in many aspects and claim to be Capital for personal success; as a modern citizen, it is difficult for him to survive without mastering the knowledge of modern science and technology. Science and technology are also very important tools for today's enterprises to obtain profits. If an enterprise owns and controls the talents who master and develop key technologies, and controls the patent rights, it can stand out in the fierce market competition and obtain huge profits. Science is also a tool of governance. Whether it is a country, a region, or an individual, the group of people who have more scientific knowledge often have more rights to speak, or even the right to own and control wealth, and the right to allocate resources than others. The United States has the scientific and technological capital to pursue hegemony, and of course it has the right to speak in many fields and globally. In reality, especially in China, science is still a personnel tool. The integration of academic research evaluation and personnel evaluation makes academic research evaluation a converter for some scientists to gain power, status, and money.
It can be seen that science and technology in today's world have become something with very extensive tool value and multi-function. Today's science can no longer be limited to the cognitive stage as it was before the Middle Ages. Instead, it has become highly technical and vulgar. It is no longer something that can be shelved on a shelf, like a castle in the air. A more interesting phenomenon is that science has become synonymous with "politics", "reasonable" and "legal". Many words use science as an attributive, such as scientific decision-making, scientific production, scientific life... It seems that without science, contemporary society Society loses its color.
Third, science is a social institution. Many sociologists of science have analyzed the community of scientists. Within this group of scientists, there are at least several roles: first, the role of research, which is knowledge production; second, the role of teaching, which is mainly a kind of inheritance and cultivating scientific successors; The third is management, which is coordination and maintenance; and the other is the role of goalkeeper. The scientific community has a gate and needs a gatekeeper, which is the role of screening and evaluation. In addition, sociologists of science also classify the organizations of scientists, and they divide them into two categories: one is the scientist group, which is a highly interest-oriented group, such as universities and research institutes, and is a real entity. interest subjects; the other category is a scientifically distinct organization that has been ignored by my country's scientific establishment in a certain sense, covered up by government functions, and not taken seriously - the scientist group, that is, science and technology societies, invisible colleges, etc. This category. The institutionalization of science began to gradually take shape in some European countries, such as Italy, the United Kingdom, and France in the 17th and 18th centuries.
As we know, the first university in the world was established in Italy in 1088, and science was not taught at that time. The scientific and technological societies in the true modern sense were also established in the 17th century. We are now more generally recognized as represented by the British Royal Degree. Of course, the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh was established with a royal charter in 1505, but it is not a scientific and technological society in the modern scientific sense. , the world's first scientific and technological journal "Philosophical Transactions" was born in 1665 in the scientific and technological society-the Royal Society