Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Captive Breeding May Help Save the Wild Eel?

In Japan, Captive Breeding May Help Save the Wild Eel

As eel populations plummet worldwide, Japanese scientists are racing to solve a major challenge for aquaculture — how to replicate the life cycle of eels in captivity and commercially produce a fish that is a prized delicacy on Asian dinner tables.
BY WINIFRED BIRD
(http://e360.yale.edu/mobile/feature.msp?id=2700)

Hitoshi Imaizumi pushes back the silver quilting of a tent at the National Research Institute of Aquaculture in Shibushi, southern Japan, steps into the pitch-black interior, and switches on a flashlight. A tall, tube-shaped aquarium emerges from the darkness. Inside, slivers of reflected light flicker through the water: Japanese eel larvae, hatched just six days earlier. With huge black eyes set in skull-like heads and flat, transparent bodies, they look like tiny visitors from an alien world — which, in a sense, they are. 

“This is something you’d normally only see out in the middle of the ocean,” says Imaizumi, an aquaculture researcher at the center. 

Japanese eel larva
Wikimedia Commons
Fishermen capture two-inch-long glass eels in coastal areas.
Japan is the world’s top consumer of eels, but while most of what’s grilled, glazed with sweet-salty sauce, and served up on rice here comes from fish farms, none of those farms hatch their eels from eggs. Instead, they rely on wild young caught in rivers and coastal waters worldwide as two-inch-long “glass eels.” Until very recently scientists knew little about the life of the animal in the open ocean, where sexual maturation and spawning take place. 

Now, however, many wild eel populations in Asia, Europe, North America, and elsewhere are threatened or on the verge of extinction. To prevent a piece of Japan’s culinary heritage (and economy) from disappearing along with them, researchers are racing to close the aquaculture loop by breeding eels in captivity. Imaizumi and his colleagues at the Shibushi laboratory — part of the government-funded Fisheries Research Agency — are among the scientists at the forefront of the ambitious project. In 2010 they pulled together decades of research to successfully raise two generations of eels in captivity for the first time ever. 

Their achievement opened the possibility of an aquaculture industry that neither depends on nor decimates wild stocks, but it also left many questions unanswered. Can researchers design methods that work on a commercial scale? If so, would the resulting closed-loop eel aquaculture industry be environmentally sustainable? Could it help bring back wild populations? 

The answers matter not only for Japanese eels (Anguilla japonica), which inhabit rivers, lakes, and estuaries from the Philippines to Japan, but also for eel species worldwide. According to a recent analysis by Greenpeace, at least 70 percent of global eel catches end up in Japan. Last year about half were raised domestically from the glass eel stage and the remainder imported full-grown from fish farms in China and Taiwan. 

Many countries export glass eels to Asia, where prices are extremely high. In the U.S., fishermen in Maine were selling glass eels last spring for $2,000 a pound, with some earning more than $100,000 during the 2- month spring season. The glass eels are netted in rivers and estuaries and flown to Asia, where they are raised in concrete pens until they are about a foot long – just the right size to fit into a traditional serving dish. 

Eel populations have been precipitously declining globally for decades because of dams, pollution, and other environmental threats. Now, biologists and regulators in Europe, North America, and Japan are growing increasingly concerned about booming glass eel fisheries, as the removal of so many juveniles will further depress populations. The European Union is requiring member countries to draw up eel management plansthat limit glass eel fisheries. U.S. officials are weighing tighter controls on the glass eel fishery as populations of adult American eels (Anguilla rostrata) plunge to historic lows. In Maine, catches of glass eels quadrupled from 5,200 pounds in 2009 to 20,700 pounds in 2012. 

Fish farmers in Japan still rely most heavily on domestic and imported Japanese eels, but that may soon change. Glass eel catches in Japan have plummeted to less than five percent of their peak in the 1960s, and this February the Environment Ministry listed Japanese eels as endangered. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is currently assessing stocks region-wide. If it decides the species is endangered throughout its range, trade restrictions would become much more likely. Greenpeace Japan oceans campaigner Wakao Hanaoka says that could put eels in other parts of the world at risk. 

“Supermarkets are looking for alternatives in places like Tasmania, Indonesia, Australia, and the Philippines,” Hanaoka says. “But if these species are taken [in these places] without proper fishery management, the same thing will happen to them.” 

Full-cycle aquaculture offers an enticing alternative. Japanese fish farmers have been managing the middle part of the eel life cycle since the late 1800s. The industry is not necessarily sustainable — eels are fed fishmeal and kept in fossil-fuel-heated greenhouses — but it’s efficient. Satoshi Inoue raises a quarter million eels a year in an isolated valley near Imaizumi’s research lab and says that less than one percent die during their seven- to ten-month stint in his concrete pools, even though he uses few chemicals or antibiotics. Replicating the beginning and end of their life cycle remains difficult, however. 

The key problems are common to many kinds of fish, says James Diana, a scholar of sustainable aquaculture at the University of Michigan. 

“Most marine-spawning species produce very small eggs that drift around in the plankton and suffer 99.999 percent morality before they even reach the end of the first year,” says Diana. “You’re fighting that whole life history in aquaculture. Freshwater-spawning species tend to have bigger eggs, more robust young, and lower mortality, and they’re the ones we’ve been successful with.” 

The challenge, he explains, is getting fish through a number of “bottlenecks” in their life cycle. Sexual maturation, for instance, is triggered by a complex set of environmental cues including light levels, temperature, and salinity. Meeting the nutritional needs of larval fish is tricky too, because their diet — made up primarily of plankton — is completely different than adults'. 

Despite these difficulties, full-cycle aquaculture does exist for marine-spawning species like sea bass and flounder. Japanese researchers have also closed the life-cycle loop for Pacific bluefin tuna, but not yet in ways efficient enough for commercial production. 

In the case of eels, the first bottleneck scientists faced was spawning. 

“No matter how long you keep a juvenile eel in captivity, it will not mature spontaneously,” explains Imaizumi. To make matters worse, most farmed eels turn out to be male, even though the gender balance in the wild is equal. Mimicking the natural conditions that determine gender and trigger spawning has so far proven impossible. 

Instead, scientists have developed a set of hormone treatments as rigorous as anything a human couple might undergo at a fertility clinic — with a sex change thrown in. Imaizumi spends months preparing his eels to breed before placing them in breeding tanks at just the right moment. The result is a fairly reliable supply of fertilized eggs. However, stressing the animals with repeated shots and giving them hormones derived from other species lowers the number of healthy larvae obtained. Imaizumi is experimenting with genetically engineered hormones to see if the results are better. 

Keeping the larva (called leptocephali) alive until they metamorphose into glass eels is even more difficult. In nature the process takes 110 to 160 days, but in Imaizumi’s lab it takes between 250 and 300 days on average, with survival rates below ten percent. 

“It’s a big challenge because leptocephali are such strange larva,” says Michael Miller, a biologist at Tokyo University, where much of the groundbreaking research on Japanese eels has taken place over the past half-century. “Their bodies are filled with transparent gelatinous material that functions to store energy, overlain with only a thin layer of muscle tissue. And their organs are reduced in size, so they are almost completely transparent.” 

In 2009, Miller’s research team leader Katsumi Tsukamoto pinpointed the spawning site for Japanese eels, near the Mariana Trench 1,000 miles southeast of Tokyo — a discovery that has deepened understanding of their spawning ecology and life as larvae. 

“[Leptocephali] don’t feed on zooplankton like normal fish larvae,” Miller says. “Instead they feed on marine snow, which is composed of materials released by phytoplankton that mix with other free material in the ocean and are colonized by microorganisms. It’s very difficult to reproduce for aquaculture.” 

The only workable alternative researchers have discovered so far is a thick, pinkish paste made primarily of shark eggs, soy protein, and vitamins. Light-wary leptocephali are kept in darkened rooms; when the paste is squeezed onto the bottom of aquariums and the lights turned on, they instinctively swim downward and bump into their food. The method worked well enough for Imaizumi’s group to achieve its historic 2010 results, but the feed dirties the tanks and is too inefficient for commercial use. Shark eggs aren’t a long-term solution either: Spiny dogfish, the shark species leptocephali prefer, is endangered in the northwestern Pacific Ocean

Researchers throughout Japan are working to overcome these problems so that glass eels can be produced cheaply in huge batches. But even if they succeed, it’s hard to predict how an industry-wide shift from fished to farmed glass eels would affect wild stocks. Matthew Gollock, chair of the IUCN team currently assessing Japanese eels, says overfishing is just one of many problems that must be addressed. 

“We believe factors such as changing ocean currents, disease, pollutants, fisheries, barriers to migration [such as dams] and freshwater habitat loss are all having an effect on Anguillid eels globally,” says Gollock. “Halting one of those in isolation would not totally solve the problem.” 

In Shibushi, eel farmer Inoue says he would jump at the chance to buy glass eels from a hatchery rather than a fishery. Since he started his business three years ago their price has skyrocketed to about five dollars each, cutting his profit margin to the bone. 

“If they’re able to raise glass eels, the supply will stabilize and so will the price,” he says. But he believes a darker scenario is much more likely: Glass eel imports from East Asia will be banned before aquaculture technology advances, grilled eel will become a rare luxury item, and fish farmers fight one another to survive. If that happens, he intends to be among the winners. 

“China has a huge glass eel fishing industry,” he says. “It’s not going to disappear overnight if Japanese eels are red-listed. They’ll sell on the black market.”
 

Monday, November 25, 2013

白鰻苗收購價格 70~85



https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=772604199423545&set=gm.625349237521187&type=1&relevant_count=1&ref=nf

要積個鱸鰻苗真的是超難 一下說沒錢賺 一下說無彩工 一下又說沒人要特別留 最後給的價格又不低 看來今年白鰻今年又要出頭天了 今天白鰻苗收購價格 70~85 鰻魚高峰期還有兩個月 這下好玩了 ...........

今年白鰻苗撈取量似乎跌破很多漁業資源專家和業界的眼鏡,這產業會有人因此賺翻了,也會有人會虧翻了,大自然現象深不可測....別一窩蜂

散戶這價格還是幾乎不敢進場.這邊的客戶大多鎖定20以下才會進場(看劉董們敢不敢...)~當年58元跌到8元~一堆人破產還歷歷在目~.....甚至有人買3次沒交到半尾鰻就破產了(58買不交賠錢了事~35買不交賠錢了事~22買不交賠錢了事....等跌到8元...沒錢買了倒了..)

Sunday, November 24, 2013

台東鰻魚苗大出

台東鰻魚苗大出 一尾百元高價

(中央社記者盧太城台東縣22日電)「白鰻苗大出了」,台東海邊今年鰻魚苗比往年多,民眾爭相走告,1尾飆漲到新台幣120元,1個晚上可賺1、2萬元。
這幾天台東海濱公園海邊宛如夜市,聚集捕捉魚苗的民眾,過去撈的是日本禿頭鯊魚苗,現在撈的是鰻魚苗。
業餘撈魚苗的李姓公務員說,早期台東是鰻魚苗最主要輸出地,但是這幾年海邊只剩零星的鰻魚苗,民眾改撈禿頭鯊魚苗,不知何故,今年鰻魚苗又回來了,這幾天卑南溪口大發生,盤商到台東收購。
林姓漁民說,目前全國只有台東的鰻魚苗大發生,價格不斷上揚,今天已經有人喊價到1尾120元,有人1個晚上可撈到100到200尾,可賣到1、2萬元,是一筆可觀的收入。
鄭姓盤商說,白鰻養殖不易,加上數量越來越少,市場需求量多,有些地方喊出破盤價1尾130元,目前只有卑南溪出海口大發生;不過,根據他觀察,其他海邊還會陸續大發生。1021122

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

鰻苗會周期性豐收!?

或許生命自己會找出路?!

鰻苗大豐收 1晚撈20萬尾 近年新高
(http://www.libertytimes.com.tw/2013/new/nov/19/today-south5.htm)
〔記者葉永騫/林邊報導〕老天爺送財來了!今年高屏地區的鰻苗大豐收,昨天捕獲量創下近年新高,預估達到二十萬尾,有些漁民一個晚上捕獲一千多尾,一個晚上賺了十幾萬元,比去年一整年還多。
1尾110元 漁民1夜賺上10幾萬
鰻苗群隨著洋流來到高屏地區了,漁民一整個晚上不睡覺出海捕鰻苗,天亮時返航,平均每艘小船都捕獲五、六百尾以上,有些漁民更厲害,一個晚上捕獲一千多尾,昨天的交易價格為每尾一百一十元,一個晚上至少賺五、六萬元,運氣好的拿到十幾萬元,讓漁民都樂翻了。
林邊鰻苗盤商陳順豐表示,昨天光是高屏地區的鰻苗捕獲量預估在二十萬尾以上,創下了近年新高紀錄,去年高屏地區全年的捕獲量估算只有一百多萬尾,今年的鰻苗不但數量多、品質佳,價格也維持在高檔,去年鰻苗數量太少,許多人放棄養鰻,今年可望重回養殖,所以鰻苗的價格才會維持在高檔。
陳順豐指出,去年鰻苗因為產量少,最高價位每尾約一百七十元到一百八十元間,平均也有一百三十元到一百四十元間,現在的價格每尾一百一十元雖然不錯,但仍得視未來的產量和供需情況變動。
大爆發? 疑與海水溫上升有關
水試所東港生技研究中心副研究員李彥宏說,今年台灣鰻苗豐收的原因還必須研究,有可能與太平洋水溫上升、洋流改變,以及長期放流復育有關,另外,漁民相傳鰻苗會有五到六年周期性大爆發,今年是不是爆發期?水試所已派出水試一號調查。
水試所竹北試驗場研究員黃家富初步估算,台灣每年捕獲的鰻苗約在八百萬尾到一億尾間,差距都很大,去年數量少,約在八百萬尾到一千一百萬尾間。

Monday, November 18, 2013

歐洲的鰻魚人工繁殖的新方法

專利 ZF植入® 包含斑馬胚胎激素生產細胞植入鰻魚可以繞過腦下垂體生產所需LH和FSH

ZF IMPLANT

(http://www.newcatch.nl/)

Development of ZF-implant® is based on our patented novel cell-therapy platform, enabling slow release of glycosylated proteins by using embryonic zebrafish cells.

In large scale fish production, it is essential that reproduction and season independence are synchronized. In most animals the reproduction is regulated by LH and FSH, two pituitary hormones. The pituitary in the brain is controlled by two mechanisms, GnRH and dopaminergic innervations (signals that come from the environment, like temperature, day length, and food). These mechanisms are hard to manage, especially in species in which the inhibition is very strong.

This difficulty can be overcome with the direct and repeated injections of LH and FSH, but these are very expensive substances and above that the injections cause a lot of stress and rapidly changing hormone levels in the fish. Eventually this causes failure for most fish species to reproduce in captivity.

NewCatch BV has a promising solution to these problems. The patented ZF-implant® comprises hormone-producing embryonic zebrafish cells, which, when implanted in other fish like eel or sole, can bypass the pituitary and lead to the desired production of LH and FSH.

The key benefits for this product are: - season independance - low interference - less stressful for fish - continuous hormone release

Farming of wildcatch

At this moment only few fish species can be bred on a fully controlled production scale manner (salmon, trout and tilapia). The farming of other species is dependent on stocking of the farms with wild caught juveniles, which is unsustainable due to declining wild juvenile stocks. It is also inefficient, since most of the time the juveniles have large differences in growth rate.

Reproduction problems in captivity

Species bred in a controlled manner are usually dependent on the use of small peptides (sex-hormones), which are used to induce synchronized spawning of the broodstock. These small peptides, together with other external signals have an effect on glands that produce gonadotropins, which have in turn a direct effect on the development of the gonads. For some species these gonadotropins are also used as a spawning aid, like in Alantic salmon.
Moreover, the disadvantage of the use of small peptides like GnRH is that their effect is season-dependent and that the small peptides could diffuse out of the fish's body into the environment. The disadvantages of injection of gonadotropins are that they are very expensive, they require multiple injections, and they are sometimes extracted from the brains of other fish which poses the risk of spreading diseases.
Our method offers the possibility to culture species year-round, whereas currently most cultures are limited to the spawning season. In the future, ZF-implant® can be implanted in the most profitable species, where they induce maturation and start producing natural offspring. This offspring, called fingerlings, can be a solution in farms that are now dependent on the wild catch of fingerlings.

Thursday, November 14, 2013

揭發科研內幕的白目之作



走過書局大大的字寫著 "一本30、二本50、四本100",看到 "女科學家" 、仔細再看至於《走出宮殿的女科學家》! 心想又是一本心靈書刊,可能是吳OO或吳XX流派的,撇到了英文書名:(MOLECULES OF EMOTION),再翻翻內容,我承認我錯認只是一本人物傳記! 此書內容寫的也主要是人類身心與生化之間的連結,關於「腦內啡、神經系統、鴉片受體……」,也是一本揭發科研內幕的白目之作,滿適合我這白目之人...

更重要的是: 叫學生去讀,課堂上討論!!!

這書是從甘德斯要申請就讀約翰霍普金斯大學藥理學博士開始講起,在那個暑假她騎馬跌傷,在醫院打嗎啡飄飄然的快感,這個難忘的印象讓她下定決心念博士想找鴉片受體。 即使她已經想到方法了老闆仍然不支持她,她只好偷偷做實驗,成功了才拿著數據告訴老闆, 而她跟老闆的實驗室聲名大噪,多年以後美國拉斯克獎 (拉斯克獎是諾貝爾獎的風向球),的提名名單裡有三位鴉片受體相關的大咖 ,其中一位是她當初放棄找鴉片受體的老闆,而名單卻唯獨沒有她時 ,她非常憤怒提出抗議 ,這很像華生跟克里克由於DNA結構獲得諾貝爾獎,但 羅瑟琳法蘭克林卻是把DNA做成X光繞射圖的科學家, 華生和克里克兩人趁她不在時跑去她實驗室騙到這張圖 ,才能把DNA的結構釐清,反而羅瑟琳在他們得獎之後還獲得了另一番閒言閒語,最後得癌症死掉。所以作者甘德斯在拉斯克獎提名風波時, 她就認為如果她也悶不吭聲都不發表意見 ,最後她可能也會抑鬱到得癌症死掉, 因此她決定提出抗議...

重點是它介紹內分泌、神經內分泌,特別是神經胜肽(neuropeptides)發展與研究的歷史,也介紹 ligands (analogues, agonist, antagonist) 和 受體 (receptors) 的作用概念。我們那一群寶貝學生腦袋空空,希望用這糖衣騙它們吸收一點東西。


可惜甘德斯於2013年9月12日死於心臟病!

Candace B. Pert, neuroscientist who discovered opiate receptor, dies at 67
(http://failover.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/candace-b-pert-neuroscientist-who-discovered-opiate-receptor-dies-at-67/2013/09/18/c84ef128-1eda-11e3-8459-657e0c72fec8_story.html)

Candace B. Pert, a neuroscientist and pharmacologist who was credited with unlocking a chemical mystery of the brain while in graduate school and later became a noted researcher in the field of mind-body medicine, died Sept. 12 at her home in Potomac. She was 67.

The cause was apparent cardiovascular arrest, said her sister, Deane Beebe.
Dr. Pert rose to prominence in the early 1970s as a graduate pharmacology student at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. Working with neuroscientist Solomon H. Snyder, she discovered what became known as the opiate receptor — the first verified receptor in the brain and the one responsive to painkillers such as morphine and drugs such as opium.

Receptors, which are found in the brain and throughout the body, are often compared to locks. Each receptor has corresponding chemicals that fit the receptor in the way that a key fits a lock.

“Any way you can make love, somebody’s already thought of,” Dr. Pert told The Washington Post years later. “Any crazy caper you can get up to, any great meal you can think of, any combination of children or idea of how to raise them — somebody’s already thought of. But nobody’s ever discovered an opiate receptor before.”

To make their discovery, Dr. Pert and her colleagues introduced radioactively tagged drugs to brain material and observed where the drugs bonded with the tissue. Their findings, published in the journal Science in 1973, raised beguiling questions about the neurological system.

“God presumably did not put an opiate receptor in our brains so that we could eventually discover how to get high with opium,” Smithsonian magazine later quoted Dr. Pert as saying.

Scientists reasoned that the opiate receptor existed because the body produced a natural painkiller similar to analgesic drugs. In 1975, two researchers in Scotland, Hans W. Kosterlitz and John Hughes, identified enkephalins — naturally occurring substances in the body that can relieve pain or create feelings of euphoria.

Kosterlitz, Hughes and Snyder shared the 1978 Lasker Award for basic medical research, which is often regarded as a precursor to the Nobel Prize. Dr. Pert attracted media attention by protesting her omission from the award.

By her account, Dr. Pert had continued the research after Snyder ordered her to move on to other projects. Some observers suggested that she had been excluded because she was a woman, The Post reported.

On the other hand, young researchers are generally expected to stand aside when more-senior colleagues take credit for group achievements, with the understanding that they will receive the same privileges later in their own careers.

Because of her protestations, Dr. Pert became, according to Smithsonian, “something of a pariah to the establishment.” Years after the incident, she told the Denver Post that she had been “naive” and “stepped too far over the line.”

After receiving her PhD from Johns Hopkins in 1974, Dr. Pert joined the National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda and deepened her research to include neuropeptides — chemicals used by the brain for communication. In 1982, she became the NIMH’s section chief for brain biochemistry. She was credited with leading the team that discovered Peptide T, a chemical thought to be potentially capable of impeding the HIV virus.

In 1987, Dr. Pert left NIMH and co-founded Peptide Design, a company based in Germantown that continued research into the use of Peptide T for HIV/AIDS and other conditions, said her husband, immunologist-virologist Michael Ruff. He was co-founder of Peptide Design.

After working at Georgetown University as a research professor for more than a decade, Dr. Pert co-founded Rapid Pharmaceuticals with Ruff and another colleague in 2007. The Rockville-based company develops experimental treatments for HIV/AIDS, autism, Alzheimer’s disease and pain management, Ruff said.

Candace Dorinda Beebe was born June 26, 1946, in New York City. She entered Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania as an English major and began studying science on the suggestion of her first husband, Agu Pert, a future scientific collaborator.

She received a bachelor’s degree in biology in 1970 and became fascinated by analgesics in part because of her injury in a horseback-riding accident shortly before she entered Johns Hopkins.
In the later years of her career, Dr. Pert became an outspoken advocate for the scientific research behind the mind-body connection, a line of medical inquiry founded on the notion that the two realms are inextricably linked. She was credited with adhering strictly to scientific standards even as she pursued un­or­tho­dox ideas.

Miles Herkenham, chief of the NIMH’s section on functional neuroanatomy and a former colleague of Dr. Pert’s, said in an interview that she “represented legitimate science in a crowd of people who are not legitimate scientists.”

In addition to her more specialized publications, she wrote two books for general readers, “Molecules of Emotion” (1997) and “Everything You Need to Know to Feel Go(o)d” (2006). She also appeared on television programs such as PBS’s “NewsHour” and in Bill Moyers’s “Healing and the Mind” (1993).

Dr. Pert’s first marriage ended in divorce. Besides her sister, survivors include her husband of 27 years, Michael Ruff of Potomac; three children from her first marriage, Evan Pert of Fredericksburg, Vanessa Pert Haneberg of Arnold and Brandon Pert of Los Angeles; and a grandson.
Dr. Pert was an advocate for women in science, once remarking that “it’s very difficult to climb up the bureaucratic ladder if you’re a female.” Her awards included a 1978 Arthur S. Flemming Award for exceptional service by a government employee.

Dr. Pert seemed to embrace her reputation as an independent-minded scientist. She kept in her office a sign that read: “If you are getting run out of town, get in front of the crowd and make it look like a parade.”

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

或許是內行的看門道?!

瞎子摸象! 是生命科學的困境?!
我滿喜歡看論戰的,或許是每個人從自身的利益觀點出發,所造成的利益衝突! 或許不同的觀念所激起的火花? 不同的觀念又源於不同文化形塑。
無論如何個人認為物理學與化學能解釋生物學,但生命現象不是目前的工具 (科學邏輯、實驗技術或分析工具) 所能解釋或瞭解的的,如一張繡布,目前的方法與邏輯是 "抽絲剝繭",遠遠看栩栩如生,一研究只看到許多條線的一條在經緯之間上上下下毫無規則,但是就是這不規則造成的繽紛! 或是小孩子拆手機,不用說結果如何?



我有話說-錢買不到好的科學研究


李太楓院士針對10月29日我在《中國時報》的〈遭質疑的科學研究體制〉一文,發表了文章〈不能用醫學否定物理學〉。我前時在北京清華大學等一些地方作報告,回來聽說此文,因為李院士指我文中有一些誤謬,不得不做出回應,以正視聽。

李院士開頭就給我戴上一個帽子,說我會有那些誤謬,可能是因為沒有真正做過科學研究,這話聽起來就像,一個廚師說飲食評論者沒有燒過菜,所以不能評斷飲食好壞是相類似的。我確實沒有做過科學研究,但是過去30多年,我到過世界上相當多不同領域的科學實驗室,對於科學研究的到底究竟,並不是無知的。

李院士說醫學的困境不能派到物理科學頭上,因為物理的預測最為確切。醫學研究變因控制的困境,主要出在其所面對人體生理的複雜體系,物理科學同樣也有許多複雜體系,統計物理之外,高能粒子物理甚至李院士熟悉的星球同位素化學,也運用許多的統計模型這與醫學研究的變因困境,只不過是五十步和百步的差距,我文章中引用《經濟學人》〈科學是如何走錯了路〉封面專題文章的主旨,不但點出科學實驗這方面的問題,更批評當前整個科學研究體制追求正向驗證的思維盲點。

對於我說到蘇聯時代的物理科學輝煌成就,李院士認為我對俄國科學的認識,以及科學發展與自由開放環境關係的結論,十分奇怪。蘇聯的物理科學發展,自有從19世紀開始的帝俄時代傳承,但是在蘇聯時代,確實是成就輝煌的,就拿著名的物理學家朗道來說,他1930年代初期,便在量子場論方面做出非常重要的工作,著名的金斯柏格─朗道理論,也是固態物理超導方面的重要工作,朗道自己因為超流體工作得到了諾貝爾物理獎,金斯柏格10年前也得到諾貝爾獎。

我們不用再羅列更多其他的科學家名字,我曾經有機會在蘇聯時代到過莫斯科的科學研究實驗室,也清楚知道許多著名中外大科學家,對於俄國科學家的工作都是評價甚高的。

我文章所倡議的,是文化自主的創造力,並不是關門或故步自封。我只是要說明,不斷的增加資源,並不就能帶來真正有價值的研究工作,所以原來用的題目是《為什麼做科學研究》,而且文章一開始所用的愛因斯坦的那封信也說明了,只有真正一流的人才,才做得出真正有價值的工作,那絕不是錢買得來的。



觀念平台-不能拿醫學否定物理學
  • 2013-11-05 01:50
  李太楓

29日江才健兄在貴報提出對科學研究體制之質疑,拜讀之下發現謬誤甚多,可能是因為江兄未曾真正參與過科學研究,因而對科學的本質及其影響的認識不清。為此我不得不提出對其質疑之反駁,以免影響到我國社會對科學的支持。
 
     科學方法在各學門的應用上,以物理學的預測最為確切,而且變因較少、能夠控制,多可逐一變化另一極端的是醫學臨床研究,變因極多、所需樣本的數目很大,且不易一一控制,因此其實驗重現性多半難以建立,也難以得到黑白分明的結論。江兄以新藥測試與臨床實驗所遭遇的困境來把所有的科學發展都加以否定,對物理科學是很不公平的。

     至於公開競爭以及同儕互相審查這些制度雖然不完美,但比他們所取代的舊制度要好得多,例如在20世紀的前半,天文研究只有有錢的富翁能夠從事,如Lovell在Arizona建有天文台,其結果是提出了火星上有運河的謬論。又如現在的太空探測研究計畫的開放競爭程度是依次為:美國>歐洲>日本,而計畫的原創性與成功率的次序也和此相同,可見適度的競爭加上適量的資源是提高研究品質的不二法門。

     江兄對於世界各國科學發展的進程歷史似乎有著非常扭曲的印象,這讓我有些奇怪。他以蘇俄的科學發展來推出自由開放環境與科學成就無關的結論,亦讓我十分困惑。不知道江兄所謂的俄國輝煌科學時代是指什麼?蘇俄的學界完全錯過了由量子力學與固態物理所創造出來的積體電路新天地,遺傳學也因不合史達林的口味而停頓了有30年之久。在天文學方面,曾經擁有世界最大的6米望遠鏡卻不會用於天文研究。在地球科學方面,同位素的應用和板塊理論都少有貢獻。總之除了流體力學和核物理之外,要是俄國科學家能與外界自由互動,其成就應該遠遠不止於此。其實中共在1966年到1977年文化大革命期間自絕於全球其他的國家,因此對學術界造成了莫大的傷害,也與俄國相似。

     近來我國的科學發展迅速,但規模仍與其他現代國家有相當距離,應該要迎頭趕上。目前北中南三大科學園區對經濟的貢獻有目共睹,就是因為過去我國在工程教育上投入甚多所創出的成果。本世紀是生物的世紀,生物的新知識正在快速地被轉為有利民生的技術與產品,台灣的科技人才與資源仍大幅不足,現在絕對不是關起門來故步自封的時刻。
(作者為中央研究院院士)

Thursday, November 07, 2013

博士班是龐式騙局(Ponzi scheme)?

摘自 "沒事不要來念哲學博士班 (http://www.drupaltky.org/article/14)"

就台灣的現況來說,有能力念而且有意願念哲學博士的人有減少的趨勢,在各個系所尚未關門、甚至數量還增加的條件下,考上博士班的機率反而會提高。由於會想要念博士的人都已經有點年紀了,對於自己的能力與志趣也有一定的了解,所以未來的就業環境會變成一個關鍵的誘因,讓人考量是否要全心投入這門行業。

從哲學教授們都在做什麼?可以大致了解對哲學研究者而言的「好工作」和「一般工作」為何:即,研究或教學。這兩者的區分在於,前者一學期只教兩門課,而且主要的工作在發表學術論文。超過兩門課,發表論文這檔事就不用想了,你主要的工作就是在教學。

在美國,前者是少數幸運精英能獲得的職位,而後者是大多數博士畢業生會得到的職位。.我可以在那裡找到工作?我以後會教些什麼科目?這兩個問答中,如果你從事的是教學導向的工作,那工作內容也很可能跟你的博士專業訓練沒有什麼關係。

比方說你的博士論文可能是《道德與法律:論Dworkin與Hart之爭》之類的,但是很可能會日後在大學通識教育中心教批判思考或人生哲學之類的課程。 主要的問題在於,大多數的博士生都以為自己的那少數的幸運精英。等到日後開始面對就業競爭壓力的時候,理想和現實之間的落差,容易讓博士們感到不解、茫然、憤怒與失落。這就是為什麼Huemer會寫這篇良心文章:希望學生們能夠及早認清現實,能夠擺脫對哲學這一行的浪漫幻想,以免日後被自己打垮。另一方面,這邊會強調說這是一篇「良心」文章是有些理由的。

為何念博士往往是浪費時間 (原文:The disposable academic: Why doing a PhD is often a waste of time)此文提到的, 就經濟上而言,博士無法創造超越碩士的產值;學術職位也早已供需失衡,博士訓練因此成為人力浪費的來源。 試問,如果你是一個大學哲學教授,你會對學生講出這些實話,還是繼續避重就輕、為了系所的存續而擴大招生呢?某些評論家甚至將博士班比喻為傳銷詐騙或龐式騙局(Ponzi scheme),顯見講實話的人少、畫大餅的人多。對照之下,就可以知道為啥像別成為科學家(Don't Become a Scientist! )這些文章不該叫揭露文、而叫良心文,因為揭露這些現實面,對於身處學術結構之中的作者本身一點好處都沒有。

 除了求職競爭激烈、職位不如預期等議題,台灣的哲學學術環境會來的更糟一點: 台灣比較慘的地方是,我們有個口號叫作「教學與研究並重」,造就了一個更為嚴峻的就業環境。在有大學部的系所,大概除了前輩級的正教授、客座教授之外,幾乎沒有任何教授可以一學期只教兩門課。而在此同時,新進的哲學教授們又被要求在有限的時間內要能夠發表足夠數量的論文,以取得升遷的資格。蠟燭兩頭燒成這樣,教授過勞死的消息時有所聞好像也挺正常的。 就算博士生們不畏這樣的工作環境而仍願意投入學術行業,在就業市場已經趨近飽和甚至開始萎縮的情況下,競爭將更加激烈甚至惡性化。

國內大學偏好聘用海外歸國留學生以提升評鑑排名,擺明告訴大家在國內念博士班的就業前景等於是在碰運氣。而諷刺的地方在於,即便一個哲學博士班的師資全部都是由國外留學生組成的,這個研究所還是需要本國學生來念博士才開的成。然而,了解情況的人會願意選擇在國內念博士班吗?這可以說是一個標準的惡性循環,不管出國留學或國內就讀都不會有太好的結果,也難怪人家要說博士班是一種傳銷詐騙。

 除了前述的惡性循環外,廣設大學加上少子化的人口結構,幾乎讓人可以預見很多科系未來會因學生不足而關門。