娜塔莉•波特曼:奥斯卡影后也曾是少年科学家
The Intel Science Talent Search is considered the most prestigious and demanding high school research competition in America, attracting the elite of aspiring2) young scientists. Victors and near-victors in the 69-year-old contest have gone on to win seven Nobel Prizes in physics or chemistry, two Fields Medals3) in mathematics, a half-dozen National Medals in science and technology, a long string of MacArthur Foundation "genius" grants4)—and now, an Academy Award for best actress in a leading role.
“英特尔科学奖”是全美公认的最顶尖、最具挑战性的高中科学研究竞赛，吸引了众多出类拔萃、志存高远的年轻“科学家”之中的精英。这项比赛有69年的历史，那些获胜者或者离获胜只有一步之遥的参赛选手里后来有七人获得了诺贝尔物理学或化学奖，两人获得了数学界的菲尔兹奖，六人获得了国家科学奖和技术奖，还有很多人获得了麦克阿瑟天才基金奖——如今，又有一人获得了奥斯卡最佳女主角奖。
Portman"s Storied Career
On Oscar night, the gorgeous Natalie Portman, 29, won an Oscar for her performance as Nina, a mentally precarious5) ballerina, in the shock fantasy Black Swan. Among the lesser-known but nonetheless depressingly impressive details in Ms. Portman"s altogether too precociously storied career is that as a student at Syosset High School on Long Island back in the late 1990s, Ms. Portman made it all the way to the semifinal rounds of the Intel competition.
For those who know how grueling6) it can be to put together7) a prize-worthy project and devote hundreds of hours of "free" time at night, on weekends, during spring break and summer vacation, doing real, original scientific research while one"s friends are busy adolescing, the achievement is testimony8) enough to Ms. Portman"s self-discipline and drive.
Yet there"s more. While carrying out her investigation into a new, "environmentally friendly" method of converting waste into useful forms of energy, and maintaining the straight-A average she"d managed since grade school, Ms. Portman already was a rising movie star. She"d been in films directed by Woody Allen, Tim Burton and Luc Besson, appeared opposite Julia Roberts, Jack Nicholson, Matt Dillon, Uma Thurman, Drew Barrymore, and I"m getting tired of typing celebrity names here. She took on the major role of Queen Amidala in the Star Wars prequel trilogy that rocketed her to international fame. And then she went on to Harvard University to study neuroscience and the evolution of the mind.
"I"ve taught at Harvard, Dartmouth and Vassar, and I"ve had the privilege9) of teaching a lot of very bright kids," said Abigail A. Baird, who was one of Ms. Portman"s mentors at Harvard. "There are very few who are as inherently bright as Natalie is, who have as much intellectual horsepower10), who work as hard as she did. She didn"t take a single thing for granted."
As an Actress and Scientist
Ms. Portman is one of a handful of high-profile actors who happen to have serious scientific credentials11)—awards, degrees, patents and theorems12) in their name.
Hedy Lamarr, the actress habitually regarded as "that most beautiful woman in Hollywood," was a rocket scientist on the side, inventing and patenting a torpedo guidance technique she called "frequency hopping", which prevented efforts to jam the signals that kept the missiles on track13).
Danica McKellar, who has appeared on such shows as "The Wonder Years", "The West Wing", "NYPD Blue" and "Young Justice", graduated summa cum laude14) in mathematics from the University of California, Los Angeles, where she helped devise a mathematical proof for certain properties of magnetic fields15)—a theorem that bears her name along with those of her collaborators.
As a teenager in the 1990s, Mayim Bialikstarred in the title role16) of the hit kid sitcom17) "Blossom". Now she appears in another hit sitcom aimed at slightly older kids, "The Big Bang Theory", playing the adorably frumpy18)-nerdy19) Amy Farrah Fowler, a neurobiologist and sometime love interest for the adorably nerdy germophobic20) physicist Sheldon Cooper. The actress is pleased with her new role. After all, Dr. Bialik has a Ph.D. from U.C.L.A. in ... neurobiology. "I tell people, I am a neuroscientist, and I play one on TV," said Dr. Bialik.
Science vs. Acting
That relatively few screen stars have a scientific back story may seem surprising, given the immense popularity of the science fiction gee and evergreen narrative devices like the mad scientist21), not to mention all the doctor shows and "CSI" spinoffs. Yet most actors who take on techician parts, tackling scripts that may be written with the help of scientific consultants, freely admit they simply mouth the lines without necessarily understanding their sense.
Leonard Nimoy, who played the most famous TV scientist of all time, Mr. Spock, came from an arts and theater background and in real life is nothing like his character. Yet he told me that because Mr. Spock and "Star Trek" have inspired so many young viewers to become scientists, researchers who meet him are always desperate to give him lab tours and explain the projects they"re pursuing in peer-to-peer terms. Mr. Nimoy nods sagely22) and intones23) to each one, "Well, it certainly looks like you"re headed in the right direction."
Acting and science may simply appeal to24) very different personalities. If you"re eager for attention, fans and face recognition, scientific research is not for you. With few exceptions, even the most illustrious25) researchers in the world are utterly unknown to the wider public.
"Just because I"m a scientist," one string theorist26) complained in an article, "doesn"t mean I have to completely surrender my privacy." Moreover, if extreme good looks score you big points in a screen career, they can detract from being taken seriously in science.
Hedy Lamarr complained bitterly that people would look at her face and assume there was nothing behind it. Perhaps it was a case of projection. "When you see a very beautiful face, it"s stunning, and you yourself become stupefied27)," said Lisa Heiserman Perkins, who has completed a documentary about Lamarr. "So you project your own stupidity onto the person you"re looking at."
For her part, Dr. Bialik doesn"t see science and show business as being entirely immiscible28) liquids. In both cases, she said, "a large ego is necessary." Still, she loved the research, on the brain chemistry29) of patients with a genetic condition called Prader-Willi syndrome, and she loved being "hooded30)" for her doctorate while she was "very, very pregnant" with her second child. "Better pregnant and getting a doctorate," she said, "than pregnant at your high school graduation."
If anything, stories like Ms. Portman"s show that great success, like DNA, is constructed of a few basic building blocks: tenacity, focus, and the old Woody Allen line about just showing up31).
Whether as a student in her class or a research assistant in her lab, said Dr. Baird, who is now an associate professor of psychology at Vassar, "Natalie never once asked for an extension or to be excused from her responsibilities."
If she was scheduled to appear on the Letterman show32), for example, she would finish her paper early. "She"s sincerely confident and has a good grasp of her strengths and weaknesses," said Dr. Baird, "and she is wise beyond her years33). One of things she said was: "It"s weird that there are so many people at Harvard who do amazing things outside the classroom. It just so happens that people like to watch what I do.""
波特曼的传奇生涯
奥斯卡颁奖夜，光彩夺人的29岁女演员娜塔莉·波特曼因在惊悚奇幻电影《黑天鹅》中饰演精神失常的女芭蕾舞演员尼娜一角而荣获奥斯卡奖。在波特曼年少有成的传奇生涯中，不乏一些知名度不及此但绝对令人艳羡钦佩的成长琐事，其中之一便是：上世纪90年代末，还在纽约长岛赛奥斯特高中读书的波特曼就已经一路过关斩将闯入了“英特尔科学奖”的半决赛。
要筹划出一个能够夺奖的参赛项目是很累人的：你要投入无数个小时的“自由时间”——包括晚上、周末、春假和暑假——去做真正的原创性的科学研究，而你的朋友此时却在忙着挥霍青春。了解到这点，你就该知道这项成就足以证明波特曼有多强的自律性和多大的干劲。
这还没完。波特曼一面研究着将废物转化成可用能源的环保新方法，一面保持着自小学以来就一直门门全优的成绩，同时还是一位冉冉升起的影视明星。她参演过伍迪·艾伦、蒂姆·伯顿和吕克·贝松执导的电影，曾与茱莉娅·罗伯茨、杰克·尼科尔森、马特·狄龙、乌玛·瑟曼和德鲁·巴里莫尔演对手戏，还有许多明星的大名我都烦得不想写在这里了。她在《星球大战》前传三部曲中主演的阿米达拉女王更是让她一跃成为国际巨星。之后她又进入哈佛大学学习神经学和思想进化。
“我在哈佛大学、达特茅斯学院和瓦萨学院都代过课，有幸教过很多非常聪明的学生，”波特曼在哈佛的导师之一阿比盖尔·A·贝尔德说，“但像娜塔莉这样天资聪颖、智力超群、勤奋刻苦的学生则少之又少。她很认真，从不想当然地去做什么事。”
知名演员兼科学家
波特曼是为数不多的真正拥有科学成就——包括奖项、学位、专利和以他们的名字命名的原理等——的知名演员之一。
海蒂·拉玛素有“好莱坞最美丽的女人”之称，身为演员的她还是一位火箭专家，发明了一种她称之为“跳频”的鱼雷导航技术，还获得了专利。该技术能阻止外界信号干扰，使鱼雷保持正确的轨道。
参演过《纯真年代》《白宫风云》《纽约重案组》《少年正义联盟》等电视剧的达妮卡·麦凯勒是加州大学洛杉矶分校数学系最优等的毕业生。在校期间，她参与设计了关于磁场若干特性的数学验证——这一理论成果最终以她及合作者的名字命名。
上世纪90年代，还是少女的马伊姆·比亚利克就在红极一时的儿童情景喜剧《女孩布洛瑟姆》中出演了剧名角色布洛瑟姆。现在她又参演了另一部献给青少年的热门情景喜剧《生活大爆炸》。她在剧中扮演不修边幅而又可亲可爱的书呆子埃米·法拉赫·福勒，这位神经生物学家时不时地会和那位率真可爱呆气十足还有洁癖的物理学家谢尔登·库珀擦出些爱情火花。比亚利克很喜欢这一新角色。毕竟，她头上可是顶着加州大学洛杉矶分校的……神经生物学博士头衔。“我告诉人们，我是一名神经学家，我在电视上也扮演着同样的角色。”比亚利克说。
科学之路vs. 演艺事业
考虑到科幻小说的广受欢迎和像“疯狂的科学家”这样经久不衰的叙事手法，更不用说林林总总的医疗剧和《犯罪现场调查》之类的剧集，拥有科学背景的演艺明星相对来说还是少数这一事实也许会令人惊讶。然而，大多数扮演专家的演员在处理可能由科学顾问帮忙而写就的剧本时，坦承自己只是动动嘴念念台词，未必知道那些台词到底是什么意思。
电视荧屏史上最负名望的科学家斯波克的扮演者伦纳德·尼莫伊其实是艺术和戏剧背景出身，现实生活中的他跟他饰演的角色完全判若两人。然而他却告诉我，由于斯波克和《星际迷航》激发了如此多的年轻观众的科学家梦，那些遇到他的科研人员总是要迫不及待地带他去参观他们的实验室，并用同行术语向他介绍正在进行的项目。而尼莫伊则总是一本正经地点点头，拖长声调郑重其事地对他们说：“嗯，看来你确实搞对了方向。”
演戏和科研可能吸引不同性格的人。如果你热衷于众人瞩目、粉丝崇拜和抛头露面，那么科研可不适合你。除了少数例外，即便是世界上最杰出的科研者也全然不为外界大众所知。
“我是一名科学家，”一名弦理论家在一篇文章中抱怨道，“但这并不意味着我就得完全交出自己的隐私。”此外，如果非凡的美貌给你的演艺事业大大加分，那么人们也就不会认真地把你往科学家那方面想。
海蒂·拉玛曾痛苦地抱怨说，人们一看到她的那张脸就断定她“徒有其表”。也许这就是一种心理投射。“你看到一张无比美丽的脸庞，惊艳迷人得让你呆若木鸡，”刚刚拍完了一部关于拉玛的纪录片的莉萨·海瑟曼·珀金斯说，“因此你就将自己的呆傻投射到了眼前的这个人身上。”
在比亚利克博士看来，科学和演艺并非完全不能兼顾。她说干这两行都“要有十足的自信”。她仍然喜欢研究，比如进行关于普拉德-威利症候群遗传病患者的脑化学研究。她喜欢自己在怀着第二个孩子的时候挺着大肚子被授予博士头衔。她说：“怀着孩子取得博士学位总比怀着孩子参加高中毕业典礼好吧。”
如果非要说这两行有什么共同点的话，那么波特曼式的故事则表明，非凡的成功就像DNA一样，是建立在一些基本构筑物之上的：坚忍、专注以及像伍迪·艾伦的老话说的那样“露个脸”。
现为瓦萨学院心理学副教授的贝尔德博士说，不管是作为她课堂上的学生，还是作为她实验室的研究助理，“娜塔莉从没有一次要求宽限时间或是逃避责任”。
比方说，如果她计划要上莱特曼的脱口秀节目，她就会提前完成自己的论文。“她真的很有自信，很清楚自己的优缺点，”贝尔德博士说，“而且她还显得很早慧，她曾说过：‘哈佛学子在课堂之外有惊人表现的人是如此之多，令人称奇。人们喜欢看我做的事情，这也只是碰巧而已。’”
1.precocious [prɪˈkəʊʃəs] adj. 早慧的
2.aspiring [əˈspaɪərɪŋ] adj. 有志气的，有抱负的
3.Fields Medal: 菲尔兹奖，全名The International Medals for Outstanding Discoveries in Mathematics。该奖应加拿大数学家约翰·查尔斯·菲尔兹的要求而设立，被视为数学界的诺贝尔奖，其奖励对象为有卓越贡献的年轻数学家。
4.MacArthur Foundation "genius" grant: 麦克阿瑟天才基金奖，被视为美国跨领域最高奖项之一，奖金颁发给在各个领域内具有非凡创造性的杰出人士，获奖者一般被看做本专业内领军人物。
5.precarious [prɪˈkeəriəs] adj. 不牢靠的，不稳的；危险的
6.grueling [ˈɡruːəlɪŋ] adj. 累垮人的；让人受不了的
7.put together: 整理(思路、意见等)
8.testimony [ˈtestɪməni] n. 证据；证明
9.privilege [ˈprɪvəlɪdʒ] n. 特殊荣幸
10.horsepower [ˈhɔː(r)sˌpaʊə(r)] n.
【物】马力(功率单位)
11.credentials [krɪˈdenʃ(ə)lz] n. (适合做某事的)资质，资历或成就
12.theorem [ˈθɪərəm] n. (一般的)原理，理论
13.on track: 走向正轨
14.summa cum laude: <拉>以最优等的学位毕业
15.magnetic field: 磁场
16.title role: 剧名角色，即其名与剧名相同的角色
17.sitcom [ˈsɪtkɒm] n. 情景喜剧
18.frumpy [ˈfrʌmpɪ] adj. 穿着邋遢(或过时)的
19.nerdy [nɜː(r)di] adj. 对科技类学科极有兴趣的，书呆子式的(多用于形容某人无聊乏味)
20.germophobic: 有洁癖的。这是一个合成词，germ意为“微生物，细菌，病菌”，而-phobic可作后缀，用以构成形容词，意为“惧怕……的，憎恶……的”。
21.the mad scientist: 疯狂的科学家，通俗小说尤其是科幻小说中常见的人物形象，或邪恶、或善良、或中立，他们无论是精神错乱、行为古怪还是笨手笨脚，常常都作为促进阴谋发展的小说人物而存在。
22.sagely: 参见P63注释4。
23.intone [ɪnˈtəʊn] vi. 缓慢而郑重地说
24.appeal to: 吸引
25.illustrious [ɪˈlʌstriəs] adj. 著名的，杰出的，卓越的
26.string theorist: 弦理论家。string theory: 弦理论，即弦论，是理论物理学上的一门学说。
27.stupefied [ˈstjuːpɪfaɪd] adj. 呆若木鸡的
28.immiscible [ɪˈmɪsɪbəl] adj. (液体等)不能混合的，不能溶合的
29.brain chemistry: 脑化学，即神经化学，是致力于神经化合物研究的神经科学分支。
30.hood [hʊd] vt. 给……披上披肩布(指围在大学制服肩部以其颜色表示学位的披肩布)
31.这里指的是伍迪·艾伦的一句名言：“Eighty percent of success is just showing up. (80%的成功在于‘露个脸’。)”伍迪·艾伦认为，任何事情，你只要肯露脸，就已成功了80%。例如，你报名参加托福考试，只要你出现在考试现场，而不是逃避，就获得了80%的成功。
32.Letterman show: 指大卫·莱特曼主持的《大卫脱口秀》节目，包括晨间秀(The David Letterman Show)和深夜秀(Late Night with David Letterman)。娜塔莉·波特曼曾多次做客《大卫脱口秀》。
33.wise beyond one"s years: 早慧
下一篇：你经历过的,爱因斯坦也经历过