Source: Nobel Prize Inspiration Initiative
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATFskDmtft0
Date: 04/12/2014
Event: Sir Tim Hunt inspires students in China: "He told us to explore something new"
Credit: Nobel Prize Inspiration Initiative
People:
[NPII text: "Dr Tim Hunt, Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine 2001 visited Chengdu and Shanghai as part of the Nobel Prize Inspiration Initiative, a programme that aims to bring Nobel Laureates closer to an audience of young scientists."]
[Caption: "In June 2014, Nobel Laureate Dr. Tim Hunt travelled to China to give a series of talks at university and AstraZenica facilities."]
[Auditorium scene: Sir Tim Hunt approaches the podium, to applause from Chinese students.]
Tim Hunt [addressing audience]: So it's a great pleasure to be back in Shanghai...
Ajay Gautam: What we're hoping to do is really inspire the young scientist - to take some risks, to actually go out and have a creativity when it comes to the scientific endeavours.
Tim Hunt [addressing audience]: You are, you know, a uniquely talented gang of young people. And we're relying on you to take care of our future.
Yi Zhun Zhu: A Nobel Prize is always like a big dream for Chinese, so I believe this has really opened a window to let us know how can really become a good scientist, how can really achieve, step by step, and to win the highest prize.
Tim Hunt [addressing audience]: And you're looking at a Nobel Prize-winning - basically, you know, a Nobel Prize-winning experiment, here...
Female student: I really appreciate this kind of experience, because, um, most often you see Nobel Laureates, you know, standing far away, but like this NPII project really brought the Nobel Laureates to, you know, near our table. [With microphone, addressing Sir Tim Hunt.] So, do you ever felt, like, a pressure, knowing that there are so many other people, you know, progressing in this field? Does the pressure ever get to you?
Tim Hunt: That's a very good question. The pressure does get to you. Let me put it this way: there are - I think there are two places to be, which is good, as a scientific researcher. One is as a total pioneer - be the first. And if possible, be the first in a field where people don't even believe that you're right.
Male student: So I just wonder, if you will feel regret if you haven't got yet [?] a prize?
Tim Hunt: Oh no, no, not at all [laughs]. No, no, no, no. The whole idea is the actual finding things out. Finding out, you know, the thrill.
Female student: You have to do what you want, and you have to achieve what you think is good for people.
Female student: He told us to explore something new and not to believe all the teachers told us.
Tim Hunt [addressing audience]: We decided to look - to see for ourselves. Even though this was, you know, a very important scientist, we had the confidence to say "Well, actually we could do this better".
Li Weimin: I appreciate - especially appreciate his answer. Usually, many people will give answer: "Study hard", "Work hard", that's all.
Tim Hunt [addressing group of students]: My recommendation is to take a really good problem...
Li Weimin: Dr. Tim Hunt said "Okay, firstly, to find a good problem." To find a problem needs ability, needs your talent [?].
Tim Hunt The things that are really interesting questions, like, you know, "What is the nature of consciousness?" is a good example of a very bad problem, because it's not very well defined, and you wouldn't even know when you'd solved it.
Ajay Gautam: So what I felt, in that auditorium, was really that spark and energy amongst all the scientists, as well as some of the non-scientists, in really trying to figure out how we can answer some of nature's questions and nature's problems.
Tim Hunt [addressing audience]: The path often looks fairly straight, to begin with, but you never know where it's going to go, over the other side of the hill. And a lot of the fun doing science is taking the path wherever it may lead.
[Closing scenes: exterior of West China School of Medicine. Image of Chinese text on a wall, including a short line of English text: "You shall know the truth".]