我与中国的“化学反应”

文/戴伟（David G. Evans） 译/孙梦格

我十一二岁时，有两大兴趣：化学和中国！我知道我对化学产生兴趣的原因，那是在花园里进行的激动人心的实验中，我看见了一抹新世界的神秘曙光。而我对中国的兴趣也缘于与此类似的好奇心。当时是1970年代初，中国尚未改革开放，我们在英国很少能看到关于中国和中国人民的新闻和信息。在迫切的求知渴望下，我通过中国驻伦敦大使馆，订阅了《北京周报》（当时的名字），开始每周阅读有关中国的新闻。

When I was around 11 or 12 years old, I had two main hobbies and interests. One was chemistry, and the other was China! I know where my interest in chemistry came from: it was doing lots of exciting experiments in our garden shed which began shining light on the mysteries of a new world. I think my interest in China was sparked by a similar sense of curiosity: I am talking about the early 1970s, before the start of Reform and Opening,so we in Britain received very little news and information about this huge country and all its people, which made me want to understand more. Through the Chinese Embassy in London I subscribed toPeking Reviewas it was then and began to receive a weekly update of news from China.

对化学、对中国始终保持兴趣

我先在牛津大学攻读了学士和博士学位，随后又进入了埃克塞特大学化学系工作，其间，我一直保持着对化学的兴趣。同时也没有失去对中国的好奇。1987年，我终于得到机会，参加了在南京举办的“国际配位化学会议”，这是我第一次来中国。这次经历更加激发了我对中国的兴趣，此后我每年或每两年都要来一次中国。看到这个我关心的国家和到访过的大学正在迎来前所未有的飞速发展机遇时，我毫不犹豫地在1996年加入了北京化工大学，自此就幸福地工作、生活在这里。

在大学的教学研究之外，我一直在寻找机会向中国的学生科普化学知识，激发他们对化学的兴趣，就像我小时候一样。春节期间，我会经常拜访中国乡村里的朋友并给孩子们做一些科普。我记得有一年，我从村子的商店里买到了一些醋和小苏打，给孩子们制作了“火山”，发射了口香糖“火箭”，度过了一段愉快的时光。

Maintaining my interest in chemistry and China

I maintained my interest in chemistry by studying as an undergraduate and PhD student at Oxford University and then joined staff of the chemistry department in Exeter University. I had not lost my curiosity in China, however, and was able to visit for the first time in 1987, when the International Coordination Chemistry Conference was held in Nanjing. This visit reinforced my interest and I subsequently visited once or twice each year.Having seen how the country and the universities I had visited were beginning to develop rapidly, I jumped at the chance to move to Beijing University of Chemical Technology BUCT in 1996 and have been there happily ever since.

Apart from my university work, I was always looking for a chance to introduce Chinese children to chemistry, and see if it could inspire the same sort of interest in them that it had in me all those years ago. I did a few ad hoc sessions with the children of friends whose countryside home I regularly visited over the Spring Festival. I remember one year I were able to buy some vinegar and baking soda from the village shop and had a great time making “volcanos” and launching chewing gum bottle“rockets”.

英国皇家化学会，正式科普的机会

2011年，我得到了很多更稳定、更正式做科普的机会。那一年是联合国教科文组织的国际化学年。几年前，我在北京设立了英国皇家化学会（RSC）的分支，RSC运营着大量的书籍和学术出版业务，但作为一个非营利组织，也会用出版部门产生的盈余开展慈善活动，增加公众对化学的兴趣。当时RSC的主席大卫·菲利普教授迫切地感到，除了帮助组织国际化学年的一些活动外，RSC也应该尝试开展一些属于自己的长期活动，扩大国际化学年的影响。他非常开明地决定，给每个地方的RSC分支机构（共有100多个）一笔1000英镑的资金，要求他们尝试一些此前从未做过的事情。在收到国际化学学会拨付给北京分会的款项后，一次偶然的机会，我在北京和英国朋友海伦·博伊尔一起吃晚餐。海伦成立了一家慈善组织“打工子弟基金会”（MCF），专门为在北京的打工子弟小学的学生上课。海伦的基金会里有一群志愿者，他们会在周末给孩子们上课，主要教英语，也会教音乐和艺术。晚餐时，海伦突然问道：“你能不能来教我的孩子们学化学呢？”我说：“好啊，我刚从RSC得到一笔经费，我们看看能做些什么吧！”于是，我购买了一整套烧杯、试管、量筒和其他设备（为避免发生事故，我用塑料代替了传统的玻璃），还买了一些无毒的化学试剂、儿童尺寸的实验室外套，以及最重要的防护设备护目镜。那是一个周六，天刚蒙蒙亮，我和北京化工大学的几个研究生志愿者就把我们的设备搬上了小货车，向着目的地出发了。学校在远离市中心的郊区，离得很远。孩子们看到我们真的很高兴，在穿上实验室外套、戴好护目镜开始实验之前，就兴冲冲地帮助我们布置教室。我将四个孩子和一个研究生分为一组，开始了此次化学实验。孩子们玩得很开心。此后，每次上课之前我们都会问他们上次做过的活动，从他们的回答中，我也能感受到，他们真的学到了很多化学知识，并且开始培养出一种科学的思维方式。

RSC provides a chance to popularize science

My chance to something more formal and substantial came in 2011, which was the UNESCO International Year of Chemistry IYC. I had set up a Beijing Local Section of the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) a couple of years earlier. RSC has a substantial book and academic publishing operation but, as a not-for-profit organization, uses the surplus generated by the publishing section to run charitable activities promoting interest in chemistry. The RSC President at the time, Professor David Phillips, felt strongly that as well as organizing activities during IYC itself, RSC should try to set up some longer-term activities to mark IYC in a more sustainable way. He had the inspired idea to give every Local Section and Interest Group (over 100 in all) one thousand pounds and challenged them to do something outside their normal remit. By chance, having just received the Beijing Local Section’s IYC Challenge grant, I was having dinner with a British friend in Beijing, Helen Boyle, who had set up a charity (MCF) to organize classes for children attending migrant schools in Beijing. Helen had a team of volunteers going into schools at weekends, mainly teaching English, but also some music and art. Over dinner, Helen suddenly said “Look,can’t you teach my kids chemistry?”. I said “Well, as it happens I have this grant from RSC, so let’s see what we can do”. I bought a whole load of beakers, test tubes, measuring cylinders and other apparatus all plastic, rather than the traditional glass, to avoid accidents, nontoxic chemicals, child-sized lab coats and—most importantly of all—safety glasses. Then at the crack of dawn on Saturday mornings—the migrant schools are a long way outside the city center—my team of postgraduate student volunteers from BUCT loaded all the kit into our hired minibus and we set off. The children were really excited to see us and willingly helped set up the classroom before putting on their lab coats and safety glasses and starting to do the experiments.We divided them into pairs with a postgraduate looking after a table of four pairs and the chemistry began. They had great fun,but by asking them at the start of each lesson about what they had done last time, we could see that many of them were also learning about chemistry and beginning to develop a scientific way of thinking.

戴伟教授连续多年参加全国科技活动周有关活动。图为2015年全国科技活动周期间，时任中央政治局委员、国务院副总理刘延东和时任北京市委书记郭金龙观看戴伟教授做实验并亲切交流

我们继续和打工子弟小学合作，并陆续收到了更多来自公立学校和其他组织的邀请，如北京科技教育促进会。有时，我和研究生助理会去学校的科学博览会，开展动手实践的课程；有时，则是我独自一人去做实验演示。因为化学实验经常有火花和爆炸，所以我们不能让孩子们自己操作。我通常会先问学生，是否相信我可以通过在蜡烛上喷水的方式把蜡烛点燃，他们当然会说不相信，然后我会让孩子们一起用英语倒数“三、二、一”，接着就把“水”喷洒在蜡烛上，此时蜡烛就会迸发出火焰。三百多名学生兴奋地跳上跳下，并惊呼着“哇”，让实验课堂开了个好头。当然，等孩子们冷静下来时，我会告诉他们，我到底是怎么做到的而不是像魔术师那样保持神秘。我喷洒的“水”实际上是酒精，并且，在演示之前，我在蜡烛上挖了一个小坑，在其中填充了一些红色的固体。接下来，我不用蜡烛，再次重复上述演示过程，孩子们就会看到，其实是红色固体和酒精引发了火苗，而红色固体燃烧后残留了绿色固体。在这个过程中，他们看到的就是化学的本质——将一种或多种材料（在这个实验中就是酒精和红色固体）转换为新的材料（绿色固体）。

We have continued to work with the migrant schools, but also began to receive more and more invitations from state schools and other organizations. Sometimes the postgraduates and I run hands-on practical classes at school science fairs, and at other times I go alone and do a lecture demonstration of experiments that—since they often involve fire and explosions—we couldn’t let the children do themselves. I usually start by asking the students if they think I can light a candle by spraying water on it. Of course they don’t believe I can, but I ask them to help me by counting down “three, two, one” in English and then I spray“water” onto my candle which bursts into flame. The sight of 300 children jumping up and down shouting “Wow!” gets the lecture off to a good start. Of course, when they calm down I tell them that—unlike a magician, who won’t reveal their secrets—I will tell them how I did the trick. The “water” is actually alcohol and before the lecture I dug a little pit in the candle and place some red solid in it. By repeating the process without the candle they can see that it is the red solid and alcohol which causes the fire, and afterwards we are left with a green solid.From this they can see the essence of chemistry—changing one or more materials the alcohol and red solid, in this case into a new material the green solid.

北京化工大学，面向公众科普

除了皇家化学会，我还得到了北京化工大学的大力支持。根据习近平总书记在全国科技创新大会、两院院士大会、中国科协第九次全国代表大会上的指示，要把科学普及放在与科技创新同等重要的位置。希望广大科技工作者以提高全民科学素质为己任，把普及科学知识、弘扬科学精神、传播科学思想、倡导科学方法作为义不容辞的责任。北京化工大学将我的大部分工作职责转换为面向公众的科普。例如，我每年都会在北京化工大学副校长和招生办公室主任的陪同下，访问全国大约50或60所顶级中学。在同事们介绍完北京化工大学之后，我会给学生们（通常是数百人，有时超过千人，一次在长沙学生人数超过了2000人）演示与过氧化氢有关的化学实验，和他们在中学课堂里学到过的化学知识紧密相连。实验演示都大受欢迎，因为许多学生告诉我，他们以前从未做过任何实验。学生给我反馈的评价包括：“这些实验远远超过了课本的局限性，大大地提升了我学习的热情和好奇心，将成为我学习路上的不竭动力”“我们曾对自己在书本上看到的东西深信不疑，可戴伟告诉我，那些优秀的科学家只有不断地质疑，才会不断地进取，那将指引我们这代人成长为未来的科学开拓者”，或者是更为简短但直截了当的评价：“想不到枯燥的化学反应，竟然有如此巨大的魅力”。

BUCT strongly supports our outreach work

In addition to RSC, I have also received strong support from BUCT. Following the guidance of President Xi Jinping on the importance of popularizing science, the university converted most of my job description to involving outreach. For example,I each year I visit around 50 or 60 of the top high schools all over the country in the company of a BUCT Vice-President and the head of the Admissions Office. After my colleagues introduce BUCT, I give the students usually several hundred,but sometimes over 1000, or once in Changsha, as many as 2000 a lecture demonstration based around hydrogen peroxide which links exciting experiments with their high school curriculum.This usually receives a rapturous reception, mainly because many students tell me they have never done any experiments before.

BUCT has also supported our outreach activities in many other ways as well. For example, after the undergraduates moved to our new campus in Changping, BUCT converted one of the former undergraduate teaching labs into an outreach lab, so we are now able to bring students—including those from migrant schools—into the lab to do experiments.

We have also been delighted to be invited on several occasions to take part in the National Science Week. In addition to the large numbers of enthusiastic children who have carried out chemistry experiments with myself and the team of BUCT postgraduates, we have welcomed several honored guests to our laboratory, including Liu Yandong-the former Vice Premier,Wan Gang-the former minister of the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) , Wang Zhigang-the minister of MOST,Guo Jinlong-the former Party chief of Beijing, and Cai Qi-the party chief of Beijing. Madam Liu Yandong was particularly keen to do an experiment with the children: I gave her a flask containing a yellow liquid, which turned red when she shook it, and then green when she shook it again, and then she asked the students for their hypotheses about what was happening. Madam Liu Yandong was very excited, because she said it took her back 50 years to her time as a student in the Department of Chemical Engineering, Tsinghua University.Although this year’s National Science Week was constrained by the coronavirus outbreak, I was still able to give two lecture demonstrations to young children (sitting one meter apart).They were very excited to see the chemical reactions and generated a great atmosphere in the classroom.

北京化工大学还以其他许多方式支持着我们。比如，当本科生搬到昌平的新校区后，大学将以前的一间本科教学实验室转变为了公众展示实验室，所以我们现在可以让学生，包括打工子弟学校的学生进入到大学校园中做实验。

我们也很高兴多次应邀参加全国科技活动周活动。除了一大批和我的团队一起做实验的孩子们之外，我们的实验室还迎来了几位特殊的嘉宾，其中包括原副总理刘延东、原科技部部长万钢、现任科技部部长王志刚、原北京市原市委书记郭金龙与现任北京市委书记蔡奇。刘延东女士非常喜欢和孩子们一起做实验：我给了她一个装有黄色液体的烧瓶，她摇晃烧瓶后，液体变成了红色，再摇晃一次，液体又变成了绿色，然后她会请学生们猜想为什么会发生这种变化。刘延东女士说，做实验的经历激动人心，让她想到了五十年前自己在清华大学化学工程系学习的时光。尽管今年的全国科技活动周受到了疫情的影响，但我仍旧给孩子们展示了化学实验，孩子们只能间隔坐开，但他们的欢笑声依然令人激动。

“戴博士实验室”

虽然我很幸运能够与成千上万聪明的中国学生直接互动，但这仍然只能覆盖很少一部分人。2018年，我的助手索乐乐在回到山东农村过春节时，发现他的朋友和家人都在谈论短视频平台快手。他回到北京后，就建议我们把一些化学实验的视频放到快手上。他半开玩笑地说：“我觉得肯定没有人会看的！”我说，科学家们都是通过做实验来观测结果的，我们要想知道结果怎么样，就必须亲自尝试一下。而尝试之后，我们发现，真的有不少人会观看我们的实验演示！我们的平台账号“戴博士实验室”在快手上有370多万粉丝，其中一些视频的播放量达到了1500万次。“戴博士实验室”在诸如抖音和哔哩哔哩等其他平台上也有不少粉丝。这些平台在吸引了大量的观众之外，还有其他优势。它们为那些地处偏远小镇或山村，很少有机会参与科学探索的年轻人，提供了亲近化学的机会。同时，与“戴博士实验室”的不期而遇，也让那些不刻意寻找科普网站或频道，只是随意在网站或平台上浏览其他休闲娱乐的普通人，有了和科学互动的机会。

我之前提到过，我在全国各地讲课时发现，许多高中生进行化学试验的机会非常有限，只能从书本上学化学，他们难免感到化学很无聊。造成这种现象的一部分原因是高考化学的局限性，还因为，许多学校的班级中可能有70或80名学生，一旦做实验，就需要大量的玻璃器皿和试剂溶液，所以很难组织。为了解决这个问题，我们目前正在开发“微型化学实验”项目，这个项目只需要简单的设备和几毫升的溶液，甚至可以在普通教室而不是实验室中进行。我们于2019年夏季在北京开展了试点，由皇家化学会和快手共同赞助，三十名来自云南和湖北深度贫困地区的学生和老师，在免费提供设施的北京王府学校的大力支持下，参与了项目。这次活动取得成功之后，我们计划今年在不同的深度贫困地区展开更多的试点，然而因为疫情的暴发，我们不得不暂缓计划。

Going online: “Dr. Dai’s lab”

Although I have been fortunate to be able to interact directly with many thousands of bright Chinese students, of course this is only a tiny fraction of the population. In 2018 when my assistant Suo Lele went back to the Shandong countryside for the Spring Festival, his friends and family were all talking about the short video platform Kuaishou. When he came back to Beijing, he suggested we should put videos of some chemistry experiments on Kuaishou. Half joking, he said “I’m sure noone will watch them!”. I said that since scientists must do the experiment to be sure of the result, we should have a go. And lo and behold, we found that people did watch them! Our site has over 37 million followers on Kuaishou and some of the videos have been watched over 15 million times. The site also has quite a few followers on other platforms such as Tik Tok and Bilibili.As well as reaching large numbers of people, these platforms have other benefits. They provide a way of bringing chemistry to young people in small towns or remote villages who have no,or very few, opportunities to take part in science activities, but also are a means of interacting with people who might not have thought about opening a science app or website, but find our site by chance when they are scrolling through the app looking for other types of entertainment.

As I mentioned earlier, I have found on my travels that many high school students have very limited opportunities to do practical chemistry, and when it becomes all bookwork they find chemistry very boring. This is partly because of the constraints imposed by the college entrance exam, but also because in many schools there can be 70 or 80 students in a class so that is difficult to organize practical activities, since large amounts of glassware and reagent solutions are required. To combat this problem, we have worked on developing a program, which only require simple apparatus and a few milliliters of solution,and can even be carried out in a normal classroom rather than a laboratory. We ran a pilot program in Beijing in summer 2019 for 30 students and teachers from regions in deep poverty from Yunnan and Hubei which was sponsored by RSC and Kuaishou,with strong support from Beijing Royal School who provided their facilities free of charge. Following the success of this event,we had planned to start rolling out the program in regions in deep poverty in different parts of the country this year, but of course the coronavirus epidemic has meant we have had to put our plans on hold for the moment.

为什么科普如此重要？

很多人，有时甚至是其他科学家，经常问我为什么认为科普如此重要。当然，原因之一是我们希望激励学生成为中国未来所需的科学家和工程师。例如，刚从东直门中学毕业的学生宋大有，在他还是小学五年级的时候，第一次参加了我们在北京科学嘉年华的活动。做完实验后，他和我聊了很久，并且一直保持联系，还参加了我们后续的许多活动。他此后就在家中自己进行化学实验，并会在新年晚会和其他活动中给同学们做实验演示。现在，他已成为我们教学团队的一员，能够像研究生一样有效地监督做实验的低年级同学。由于担任辅导工作，又长得很高，小学生们经常叫他“叔叔”，而不是“哥哥”，第一次听见这种称呼，他吓了一跳！在这里要特别宣布一则喜讯，恭喜宋大有同学在今年高考中，化学取得了满分的好成绩。当然，并不是每个参加我们活动的学生都会成为科学家，但是我希望每个人都能从中受益。除了教化学，我们还试图帮助培养学生科学的思维方式。这是一项很重要的技能，因为当今世界，我们面对着许许多多的谣言和“假新闻”（例如，一个网站会告诉你每天喝六杯咖啡能活到99岁，而另一个网站却会说每天喝六杯咖啡会致癌），每个人都需要具备科学的态度，才能从每天接收的大量信息中挑选出真实且准确的信息。

展望未来，我很幸运有各种机会能够访问中国大陆所有的省、自治区和直辖市。在不久前的统计中，我发现还没有去江西、广西和西藏讲过课或做过实验。我希望能够尽快完成这个目标，因此欢迎向我发出邀请！几年前，我很荣幸受邀加入中国科学院老科学家科普演讲团。尽管其中的大多数成员都已经退休，但还是有一些像我这样的“年轻”的成员。看到团队的成员（其中一些人已经七十多岁，甚至是八十多岁了）还能够对为青少年普及科学保持着热忱，我感到备受鼓舞，希望退休后，我也能够像他们一样。

Why is doing outreach so important?

People, sometimes even other scientists, often ask me why I think doing outreach is so important. One reason of course is that we hope to inspire students to become the scientists and engineers that China will need in the future. As an example, a student Song Dayou, who has just graduated from Beijing Dongzhimen High School, first took part in one of our activities at the Beijing Science Carnival when he was a primary school Grade 5 student. After doing the experiment with the other children, he spent a long time talking to me and then kept in touch and attended many of our future events. He also started doing chemistry experiments at home and doing demonstrations for his classmates during their New Year parties and other events. Now he has become a member of our teaching team, able to supervise the young students doing experiments as effectively as our postgraduates do. Being in a teacher role as well as quite tall, he often finds that the primary students call him uncle rather than brother, which came as a bit of a shock the first time! I just found out that Song Dayou got full marks in the College Entrance Chemistry Exam this summer. Of course not every student who takes part in our activities is going to become a scientist, but I hope that each one can still derive some benefit, because as well as teaching chemistry,we try to help students develop a scientific way of thinking. This is an important skill, because when faced with all the rumors and“fake news” available these days such as, one website tells you six cups of coffee a day will mean you to live to 99, while another will tell you six cups of coffee a day will cause cancer everyone needs a scientific attitude to pick out what is true and accurate amongst the vast amount of information that is fed to us every day.

Looking to the future, I have been fortunate to be able to visit all of the Cities and provinces in mainland China for one reason or another. Counting up the other day, I found that there are only three—Jiangxi, Guangxi and Tibet—where I have not done a chemistry outreach lecture or class in a school or science museum. I hope to be able to complete the set sometime soon—so any invitations are welcome! Several years ago I was honored to be invited to join the Chinese Academy of Sciences group of senior scientists set up to popularize science. Although most of the members are retired, there are some “younger” members like me. It is really inspiring to see how the team members—some of whom are in their late seventies or even eighties—have maintained their enthusiasm for bringing science to young people, and I hope that when I retire I will be able to follow their example.