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最具偶像价值的大学：北京大学

北京大学的校门——当然是西校门，高不过七八米，但微微向前倾斜的牌匾给每一个人的瞻望提供了一个极为恰当的角度，这是一个让人不得不仰视的地方，而它的高度永难企及。任何一种用世俗的方法来哄抬自己身价的做法，放在北京大学身上都会让人觉得老土而不得要领。几乎是无可挑剔的北京大学早已不再是一个单纯读书的好地方，事实上，它更像是一个巨大无比的精神偶像。 　　北京大学可能是中国唯一一所足以令每个学子尚未迈入校门就已经“毕业”的大学——四年校园生活所收获的那份愤世嫉俗的高贵气质和作为一个北大人精神从容的骄傲，在四年前，领到这所大学的录取通知书的时候，就已经在他们心中扎下了根，所不同的是，四年前，这一切体现在别在胸前的校徽上，而四年后，则流露在北大人的眼神里。 　　解读北大的途径显然不能从实验室、图书馆以及学术论著中去寻找——虽然在这些方面北大已无可争议地稳居中国高校的最前列，在中国，几乎没有任何一所大学能像北大那样与中国社会历史的发展和时代精神的变迁保持着如此密不可分的关联——虽然北大厚厚的南墙直到80年代中期才被推倒。当中国坐拥皇家园林的清华大学还是一所留美学生的预演讲坛的时候，北大已成为中国新思想文化的策源地，伟大的启蒙抱负、激烈的救世情怀作为北大的精神传统与其所标榜的思想自由学术独立一起，100年来延绵不绝，直到今天，“五四”仍然是这所大学最引以为自豪的精神资源。尽管5月4日是一个有争议的校庆日，但绝大多数北大人还是认同了这个既是北大历史，也是中国历史上的重要日子。如果1898年可以看成是北大作为一所学校的生日，那么5月4日这一天诞生的却是一种精神，而北大显然更看重后者。 　　北大人的“五四”情结是如此之深，以致于绝大多数在这个校园里接受熏陶的人从一开始就把自己的精神状态放到了一个很高的位置，或者说他们大都觉得做一个北大人远不是刻苦学习、勤奋钻研那么简单，只有具有(至少是努力拥有)了一种与众不同的气质来与北京大学这个被赋予了很多历史光荣感的称号相配。一位80年代中期的北大毕业生后来反思了一下他当年的心态：“ 　　那时，默默无闻地泡图书馆、规规矩矩地拿高分，最后顺顺当当毕业，简直就是一件十分可耻的事情，每个人都有一种舍我其谁的使命感，即使没有多大能耐、找不着方向感，也得端着、抗着。要不怎么对得起北大这个称号。”能进北大，当然非等闲之辈，出了北大，也未必人人都能修成正果。但“端着”、“抗着”的北大人却总爱对一些鸡零狗碎、小打小闹的调虫小技不屑一顾，不少北大学生最爱用这种口气来表达其对清华大学的不屑：“清华？不过是培育工程师的工具人才罢了。”不甘于做“工具”而满心憋着“干大事”的北大学子很爱陶醉于别人和自己营造的精神气质，热爱宏观、张扬个性、藐视权威或世俗的东西，迷恋于摧枯拉朽、大砍大杀的批判，淋漓酣畅，激情飞扬，“无狂不北大”。生活在北大就像生活在一个神话之中，即便是发一篇小随笔、听一次学术报告，甚至是到未名湖边散个步，都无不充满了一种神圣和崇高之感。 　　当然也有神圣、崇高不起来的时候，一位北大的在读生在一篇文章中写道：“今天的北大已经弱化了大多她曾经恪守的品德，比如特立独行，比如兼容并包，以启蒙为己任的北大在这个dotcom时代一下子晕头转向了，而对经济与技术的冲击，她先是放弃了自己的精神内核：“对于精神领域的坚守，然后又猛然发现自己的庞大身躯已经无法拥抱另一种形态了。”应该说，这种感叹在很大程度上夸大了北大的“危机”，不过即便这种“危机”确实存在，北大人也有他们的应对之策。在汗牛充栋的“北大往事”的回忆文章中，比如早些时候张中行的“红楼记忆”，近两年来孔庆东“47楼207室的浪漫宣言”我们仍然可以看到北大精神气质的另外一面，那就是蔡元培校长“兼容并包”的治校理念所孵化出来的魏晋风度在20世纪的延伸和发扬广大：超然、飘逸、散淡，甚至慵懒，而当这种气质与北大古韵十足的校园如此恰当、和谐地统一在一起的时候，你会发现北大原来是一个懒散做梦的地方。前些年北大爆炒金庸很是引人注目。而今天，金大侠去了浙大，但北大人觉得自己得到的却是侠的情神。与魏晋名士有关的还有酒。计算机系的许知远就从北大南门外混乱肮脏的小巷的廉价酒馆里悟到了人生的真谛。他写道：“未名酒家，也许是我在四年大学其间谈论人生意义的主要场所，在微醉之后，我们似乎才有足够的勇气撕去我们‘伪颓废’的面纱。我们互相发现，原来对于世界对于未来，我们都抱有如此的热忱。” 　　当然，北大的这种名士风气是学不来的，要是把它们放到其它高校学生身上，那可就惨了：自己散漫、缺乏上进心，至少也是没性格，简直不值一提，可在北大却是一种融诗意与哲学于一身的美感，很贵族，有品位，所以也很酷。正如网大网站上的一篇帖上写的那样：“传统中国人的精髓，除了已经溶入我们血液中的那些与生倶来的东西，很多已渐渐死在图书馆和博物馆里了。只用在像北大这样少数的一些地方还活着，这是弥足珍贵的财富。”虽然有些自恋但却很真实。(文——曲奇)

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the Nobel Prize in Physics for 2006 jointly to

John C. Mather
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA,

and

George F. Smoot
University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA

"for their discovery of the blackbody form and anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background radiation".

Pictures of a newborn Universe

This year the Physics Prize is awarded for work that looks back into the infancy of the Universe and attempts to gain some understanding of the origin of galaxies and stars. It is based on measurements made with the help of the COBE satellite launched by NASA in 1989.

The COBE results provided increased support for the Big Bang scenario for the origin of the Universe, as this is the only scenario that predicts the kind of cosmic microwave background radiation measured by COBE. These measurements also marked the inception of cosmology as a precise science. It was not long before it was followed up, for instance by the WMAP satellite, which yielded even clearer images of the background radiation. Very soon the European Planck satellite will be launched in order to study the radiation in even greater detail.

According to the Big Bang scenario, the cosmic microwave background radiation is a relic of the earliest phase of the Universe. Immediately after the big bang itself, the Universe can be compared to a glowing "body emitting radiation in which the distribution across different wavelengths depends solely on its temperature. The shape of the spectrum of this kind of radiation has a special form known as blackbody radiation. When it was emitted the temperature of the Universe was almost 3,000 degrees Centigrade. Since then, according to the Big Bang scenario, the radiation has gradually cooled as the Universe has expanded. The background radiation we can measure today corresponds to a temperature that is barely 2.7 degrees above absolute zero. The Laureates were able to calculate this temperature thanks to the blackbody spectrum revealed by the COBE measurements.

COBE also had the task of seeking small variations of temperature in different directions (which is what the term 'anisotropy' refers to). Extremely small differences of this kind in the temperature of the cosmic background radiation – in the range of a hundred-thousandth of a degree – offer an important clue to how the galaxies came into being. The variations in temperature show us how the matter in the Universe began to "aggregate". This was necessary if the galaxies, stars and ultimately life like us were to be able to develop. Without this mechanism matter would have taken a completely different form, spread evenly throughout the Universe.

COBE was launched using its own rocket on 18 November 1989. The first results were received after nine minutes of observations: COBE had registered a perfect blackbody spectrum. When the curve was later shown at an astronomy conference the results received a standing ovation.

The success of COBE was the outcome of prodigious team work involving more than 1,000 researchers, engineers and other participants. John Mather coordinated the entire process and also had primary responsibility for the experiment that revealed the blackbody form of the microwave background radiation measured by COBE. George Smoot had main responsibility for measuring the small variations in the temperature of the radiation.