何江在哈佛大学2016年毕业典礼上的演讲

He Jiang’s Harvard University 2016 Commencement Address

May 26, 2016

When I was in middle school, a poisonous spider bit my right hand. I ran to my mom for help, but instead of taking me to a doctor, my mom set my hand on fire. After wrapping my hand with several layers of cotton, then soaking in wine, she put a chopstick into my mouth and ignited the cotton. Heat quickly penetrated the cotton and began to roast my hand. The searing pain made me want to scream, but the chopstick prevented it. All I could do was watch my hand burn – one minute, then two minutes – until my mom put out the fire.  

You see, the part of China I grew up in was a rural village and at that time, pre-industrial. When I was born, my village had no cars, no telephones, no electricity, not even running water. And we certainly didn’t have access to modern medical resources. There was no doctor my mom could bring me to see about the spider bite.

For those who study biology, you may have grasped the science behind my mom’s cure – heat deactivates proteins and a spider’s venom is simply a form of protein. It’s cool how that folk remedy actually incorporates basics about chemistry, isn’t it? But I am a Ph.D. student in biochemistry at Harvard. I now know that better, less painful and less risky treatments existed. So I can’t help but ask myself why I didn’t receive one at the time.

Fifteen years have passed since that incident. I’m happy to report that my hand is fine. But this question lingers and I continue to be troubled by the unequal distribution of scientific knowledge throughout the world. We’ve learnt to edit the human genome and unlock many secrets of how cancer progresses. We can manipulate neural activity literally with a switch of light. Each year brings more advances in biomedical research – exciting transformative accomplishments. Yet, despite the knowledge we’ve amassed, we haven’t been so successful in deploying it to where it is needed most. According to the World Bank, 12 percent of the world population lives on less than $2 a day; malnutrition kills more than 3 million children annually. 300 million people are afflicted by malaria globally. All over the world, we constantly see these problems of poverty, illness and a lack of resources impeding the flow of scientific information. Life-saving knowledge we take for granted in our modern world is often unavailable in these underdeveloped regions. And so, in far too many places, people are still essentially trying to cure a spider bite with fire.

While studying at Harvard, I saw how scientific knowledge can help others in simple yet profound ways. The bird flu pandemic in the 2000s looked to my village like spell cast by demons. Our folk medicine didn’t even have half measures to offer. What’s more, famers didn’t know the difference between common cold and flu. They didn’t understand that the flu was much more lethal than common cold. Most of them were also unaware that the virus could transmit across different animal species. So when I realized that simple hygiene practices like separating different animal species could help contain the spread of this disease and that I could help make this knowledge available to my village, that was my first “ah-ha” moment as a budding scientist. But it was more than that. It was also a vital inflection point of my own ethical development, my own self-understanding as a member of the global community.

Harvard dares us to dream big, to aspire to change the world. Here on this Commencement Day, we’re probably thinking of the grand destinations and big adventures that await us. As for me, I’m also thinking of the farmers in my village. My experience here reminds me how important it is for researchers to communicate our knowledge to those who need it. Because by using the science we already have, we could probably bring my village and thousands like it into the world you and I take for granted every day. And that’s an impact every one of us can make!

But the question is: will we make the effort or not?

More than ever before, our society emphasizes science and innovation. But an equally important emphasis should be on distributing the knowledge we have to those who need it. Changing the world doesn’t mean everyone has to find the next big thing, it can be as simple as becoming better communicators and fining more creative ways to pass on the knowledge we have to people like my mom and farmers in the local community. Our society also needs to recognize that the equal distribution of knowledge is a pivotal step of human development. And we’ll work to bring this into reality. And if we do that, then perhaps a teenager in rural China who is bitten by a poisonous spider will no longer have to burn his hand, but will know to seek a doctor instead.

Thank you. Xie xie.