Original title: Hong Chaosheng: Borrowing a wrong paper to give students a special "science lesson"

[Carry forward the spirit of scientists, everyone's small things]

◎ Reporter Lu Chengkuan

"My husband is rigorous in his studies, and I ask him for guidance every three months, when I was still a newborn calf, dare to think, dare to speak, even if there is a mistake, my husband always reminds the students to think and solve it by themselves."

7 years ago, when Hong Chaosheng, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, passed away, his student Zhang Yuheng, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, wrote the above words to express his gratitude to his teacher for encouraging exploration.

In 1961, Zhang Yuheng, who had just graduated from the Department of Physics of Nanjing University, was admitted to the Institute of Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences as a graduate student with the ideal of serving the country with science, and studied superconducting physics under Hong Chaosheng.

Recalling the experience of Hong Chaosheng cultivating him, Zhang Yuheng told an unforgettable story.

Once, Hong Chaosheng gave him an English article published in a top international academic journal and asked him to read it carefully. At that time, Zhang Yuheng never thought that this paper would have a profound impact on his scientific research career.

At that time, international journals were like holy texts in the eyes of young scholars, and Zhang Yuheng reverently held the papers and studied them repeatedly for several days. After a while, Hong Chaosheng asked him how he felt after reading the paper, and Zhang Yuheng truthfully reported his understanding and gains.

However, what is shocking is that Hong Chaosheng told Zhang Yuheng that there was a mistake in the literature. Hearing this, Zhang Yuheng blurted out: "Papers in top international journals can also make mistakes? Hong Chaosheng said: "The theory of this article does not conform to the experimental results, you can find out why yourself." Later, Zhang Yuheng found through experiments that this was due to the author's inappropriate method of analyzing the results.

This incident touched Zhang Yuheng a lot and changed his way of thinking about scientific research. This special "science lesson" made him realize that scientific truth does not change because it is published in authoritative journals, and that authoritative journals cannot be blindly trusted.

In 1996, when giving a report to young students at Zhejiang University, Hong Chaosheng bluntly said that the thesis should be "serious and serious, with substance, evidence, and creation, not to talk about some well-known words, and not to force judgments." Don't be superstitious about papers that have appeared in prestigious journals."

In Hong Chaosheng's view, "scientific research not only needs to be 'confirmed', but also needs to be 'falsified', and 'falsification' requires a skeptical attitude and a spirit of challenge."

Profile Hong Chaosheng (19/0/0 - 0/0/0), a famous physicist, the pioneer of low-temperature physics and cryogenic technology research in China, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and a researcher of the Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He led the establishment of the first low-temperature physics laboratory in China, and was the first to realize the liquefaction of hydrogen in China; The first superconductivity research group in China was established, which opened a precedent for superconductivity physics research in China. He participated in the establishment of the first low-temperature physics major in China's colleges and universities, the low-temperature physics major of the University of Science and Technology of China, served as the director of the low-temperature physics research laboratory, and undertook the teaching tasks of low-temperature technology, low-temperature physics experimental technology and other professional courses, and cultivated a large number of outstanding scientific and technological talents for the research of low-temperature physics, low-temperature technology and superconductivity in China. (The picture is made by reporter Wang Xiaolong) (Lu Chengkuan)