【新语丝电子文库(www.xys.org)(www.xys2.org)】 ———————————————— 就“陈晓宁事件”答金力博士 ·方舟子· 德克萨斯大学休斯顿健康科学中心(The University of Texas-Houston Health Science Center)的金力博士写来一封信,要求澄清关于陈晓宁女士的几点事实, 因为信的内容不光是针对我,而且也针对读者评论的,所以在此公开(信的原文附后)。 首先我需要告诉读者的是,金博士和陈女士都是“北美中国医学遗传学家协会” 的创建者。金博士是“博宁”公司顾问团成员,曾经在中国媒体上赞扬过陈女士携 带基因库回中国(见《中国青年报》2000年8月20日)。 针对金博士的几点澄清,我一一答复如下: 1. 金博士称获得UCLA附属副教授的职务并不象我设想的那么容易。我从未说过那 是容易或困难的。我只想让公众知道的是,陈女士是“附属副教授”,而不是“副 教授”,这两者有着根本的区别。如果说,要获得“附属副教授”不容易,那么, 要获得“副教授”就远为困难,以陈女士的教育背景和科研成就,我敢说,她是不 可能成为UCLA的副教授的。如果她仅仅是“附属副教授”(看来金博士也同意), 为什么要对外声称是“副教授”? 2. 我从未说过“北美中国医学遗传学家协会”是一个开玩笑的组织。我只想让公 众知道,这是陈女士在几年前创建的一个新组织,因此,陈女士担任这个协会的主 席,并不足以说明她在遗传学界的学术地位。金博士声称这个组织包括了医学遗传 学领域来自中国的大部分教研人员和实验室主任,但是,从这个协会的网页介绍 (http://genecanal.uams.edu/),我却无法有这样的印象。金力教授本身做为“北 美中国医学遗传学家协会”的共同创建者,他对该学会的介绍和评价,我只能当成 是广告,除非他能向我显示证据证明究竟有多少会员和究竟有多少成名教授加入了 他们这个组织。 3. 我很高兴金博士也承认中国媒体对陈晓宁事件的报道是浮夸的。但是金博士认 为陈女士对这些浮夸的报道不该负责任,这一点我是不能同意的。我认为陈女士对 这些报道负有不可推卸的责任,因为:第一,她除了讲几句客套话,到现在为止都 没有向公众澄清过这些不确切的报道,反而鼓励记者“怎么宣传也不过分”(如果 采访记录准确的话)。第二,她本人在接受采访时,对自己的成就和工作也做了一 些虚假的陈述(如果采访记录准确的话)。第三,根据报道,这些浮夸的报道根据 的是陈晓宁夫妇创建的公司提供的资料。 4. 就象那些浮夸的报道,金博士也认定陈女士带回去的BAC文库价值无可估量( invaluable),非市场上的产品可比,理由是该文库的克隆已用FISH(荧光素原位 杂交)技术定位了在染色体上的区域,可以直接用于临床诊断。但是,目前市场上 的BAC library也是定位好的。人类基因组计划用的也是BAC文库,不仅是定位好的, 而且已测序完毕的。所有这些信息,包括陈女士带回去的那个BAC文库的定位图, 都可从网上免费获得。那么,金博士又是根据什么认为那个BAC文库就比市场上的 昂贵到无价的程度?金博士又是根据什么理论认定那个BAC的克隆就比其他的BAC 克隆在临床诊断上有大得多的价值?(关于BAC文库的应用和限制,参看UC《关于 BAC文库和陈晓宁女士》一文)退一万步说,就算陈女士带回国的那个BAC文库有 着独特的未知性质,价值真的无可估量,她将无价之宝带回国,还可以说是出于 爱国心,但是Cedar-Sinai医学中心有什么理由也学陈女士热爱中国,批准将无价 之宝无偿赠送中国? 2000.8.31. 附金力博士的来信: There are several things that should be clarified. 1. She is currently holding a position as Associate Professor at UCLA/Cedar-Sinai. Getting an Adjunct position in UCLA is not as easy as you thought. 2. She is currently the President of the North America Association of Chinese Medical Geneticists. This is a registered not-for-profit organization and the only organization in the field of human genetics for Chinese Scientists from Mainland China. It is not a joking organization as you portrayed in your messages. The members include most of the faculties and directors of diagnostic laboratories of Chinese origin in the field of medical genetics. 3. Many hyperbolic statements showed up in the news were made by news media. In China, they don't come to you for confirmation after they wrote the articles. You have to be in China to understand this. Therefore, Dr. Chen should be not responsible for those claims. And it is not fair to accuse or launch personal attack on Dr. Chen. 4. The BAC libraries that were brought back to China by Dr. Chen are invaluable. You did some very superficial investigation on the price of the BAC clones but those are not the clones that Dr. Chen brought. Each of her clones have been physically mapped onto certain region of human genome using FISH and therefore, one can use that for clinical diagnosis. The BAC clones you mentioned in your petty study are not mapped therefore of little value. For your information, the transfer of this BAC library was approved by Cedar-Sinai. 5. The hyperbolic statements made by the Chinese news media are definitely misleading but your accusation is certainly worse than that since most of them were based on your incomplete investigation, partial information, and naivety of genomics. While the motivation of your recent accusation may not be bad but the consequence of that is certainly negative. While you are setting up a high ethical and moral standards for the other intellectuals, you seem to be immune from those standards. In other words, you don't have to worry about the consequence of your accusation being truthful and accurate! Lastly, I enjoyed your work on some other issues. I am pretty sure you will make impact to the modernization of China in the future if you can learn something from this lesson. Li Jin, PhD University of Texas - Houston ———————————————— 【新语丝电子文库(www.xys.org)(www.xys2.org)】