天生好奇｜杨振宁先生对生物学的智力兴趣

不同于很多只为个人功名利禄而从事科学研究的人，杨振宁先生从小到老对科学非常感兴趣。

他小时候的兴趣和能力可以从很多人的回忆看到，而我直接见证他对生物学的兴趣。

他经常会因为兴趣而提问。

有一次是几个人参与的，我找到电子邮件。

估计是施一公请鲁白去清华大学任教后，鲁白在某个场合讲了他自己长期研究的领域“学习与记忆”。杨先生因此要他寄点材料。后面提了一窜问题。

杨振宁先生的妹妹杨振玉曾经是中国科学院上海生理研究所的科学家，她的先生范世藩也曾是生理所的研究员。杨振宁先生在这次讨论也抄送了她们。杨振宁先生提到的冯德培是上海生理所长期的所长，著名神经生理学家。

杨先生提到的好朋友凌宁，也是李政道先生的好朋友。凌宁在电生理技术有很好的发明（微电极），但他在理论上长期持错误观点。

From:frankcn yang <>
Date: Tuesday, June 19, 2018 at 3:53PM
To: LU BAI <>, Yi Rao <>, chenyu-yang5 <>, frankcn yang <>
Subject: Re:Fw: Articals about hippcampus-memory, sleep, and AD

Dear Lubai,

Many many thanks for sending me these articles. I am particularly interested in <Where am I?>.

1) In your lecture you used a term about sense of location, in Chinese. Please type that term down for me. [Were you referring to what was discussed in that article?]

2) I know you and Rao Yi will be particularly interested in the following piece of history:

In 1948 Gilbert Ling [凌宁] received his PhD at the University of Chicago, under Professor Gerard. In Ling''s thesis he succeeded in developing the FIRST MICROELECTRODE!!!

I once read in a book by a Nobel Foundation insider, that the Foundtion had considered giving a Noble Prize for the Gerard-Ling method. Unfortunately I have forgotten both the name of that book and its author.

3) Ling was a few years older than I. His mother is a sister of黄昆's mother. He and I were both 清华留美生, and we had sailed to the USA on the same ship in late 1945. He passed away a couple of years ago in Philadelphia. He was one of my life-long close friends. 

Ling had a BSc from中央大学。冯德培had appreciated his talents very much. 

cny

From:Yi Rao <>
Date: Tuesday, June 19, 2018 at 4:09PM
To: frankcn yang <>, LU BAI <>, chenyu-yang5 <>
Subject: Re: Articals about hippcampus-memory, sleep, and AD

Dear Professor Yang

Ling’s method is very important and long lasting. It could be said to be a major technique for neural recording. The parallel was voltage clamp and patch clamp, but those were recording of individual neurons (both won Nobel prizes). The recording of Ling could be used on neural tissues. This is followed by tungsten electrodes used by David Hubel and Torsten Wiesel in the late 50s and early 60s in their Nobel prize winning work on the visual cortex. Ling’s method was used all the way to the 1970s and 1980s. So, is can be favorably compared to other techniques in neurobiology.

Unfortunately, he stuck to an odd theory in neurobiology, which was wrong.

It is unclear whether the latter affected the former.

Yi

Hello, Professor Chenyu Yang,

Both Bai and I were students when we knew that you and Professor Shifan Fan were physiologists. I have read Chinese papers published by Fan, perhaps in Progresses in Physiological Sciences生理科学进展（I am not sure that I could understand 生理学报at the time).

Yi

From:frankcn yang <>
Date: Thursday, November 7, 2019 at 7:54PM
To: Yi Rao <>
Subject: Re:pp 10 and 11