【译者按：共花了三天、八个多小时翻译，主要在下午及晚上。现代汉语词典及牛津英语词典伴我左右，但不太敢用网上中文译法，遇到生词或词组，也乐于核查，不敢依赖模糊的记忆力来作模糊的翻译。译完后出声朗读一篇，看是否有不通顺的地方。我专业在法律与教育，生物化学只有中学程度，恳请专业人士指点专业知识及术语译法。随后会作出修改。译者用心加上读者专业细心，译文会趋于完善。】

July 08, 2011

作者：雷维纳（Vivienne Raper）  2011年七月八日 

\"There\'s a tradition of trying to hire smart people and then basically leaving them to it.\" -- MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology group leader Leo James.

 “这儿有种传统：竭力雇来聪明人，随后基本放手让他们自己做。”-- MRC分子生物实验室（LMB）小组领导人Leo James

Nobel laureate Venki Ramakrishnan sits at a dining table in the airy, top-floor canteen of the Medical Research Council (MRC) Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB) in Cambridge, U.K. A buzz of lively conversation rises from the table. It\'s morning tea break, and the room is full of researchers. To a British observer, there\'s nothing unusual about this scene. \"Every university department has tea breaks. All of England has tea breaks,\" Ramakrishnan says.

诺奖得主Venki Ramakrishnan 坐在餐桌旁边，就在一个位于顶层的开阔的餐厅里。这个餐厅位于英国剑桥大学，归属于医学研究理事会（MRC）底下的分子生物实验室（LMB）。

This typical, casual canteen chat only partly reveals the facility\'s successful lab culture, which encouraged Ramakrishnan to focus on understanding the ribosome, the cellular machinery that turns RNA into protein. The work won Ramakrishnan a share of the Nobel Prize in chemistry 2009.

这种常见的随意的餐厅聊天仅仅揭开了这个机构成功的实验室文化的一部分。这种文化鼓励了Ramakrishnan专注于钻研细胞中的核糖体（the ribosom）。核糖体能将RNA转换成蛋白质。这项工作使他获得了2009年诺贝尔化学奖。（the ribosome：核糖体，是最小的细胞器，在光镜下见不到其结构。在1953年由Ribinson和Broun用电镜观察植物细胞时在细胞质中发现--译者注）

He\'s hardly alone. MRC LMB is among the world\'s most successful research centers as judged by its number of Nobel laureates. LMB lists (see box) 13 in-house scientists sharing nine Nobel Prizes since the laboratory was founded by MRC in 1947, among them Francis Crick and James Watson, who received the prize in 1962 for unraveling the structure of DNA.

这并非孤例。若按照诺奖得主数量来衡量，MRC LMB实验室是世界上最成功的研究中心之一。自MRC1947年创建以来，LMB实验室有13位长驻（in-house）科学家共同分享了九个诺贝尔奖，其中Francis Crick和James Watson 获得了1962年诺奖，得奖理由是他们解析（unraveling）了DNA结构。

This isn\'t a world record for Nobel wins. But where other centers may hire established scientists who have already done Nobel-quality work, \"generally, the Nobel Prizes we\'ve won have been for work done here,\" LMB Director Hugh Pelham says.

Bright young things

聪明的年轻人

One way to run a successful research center is buying in what Pelham terms \"empire builders\" -- established scientists already running large research groups elsewhere. But most of LMB\'s recruits are promising young researchers. \"Ideally, we\'d like to hire people in their early 30s or occasionally even younger,\" Pelham says. Some new heads of research teams have come straight from earning a Ph.D.

要想办一个成功的研究中心，一个方法是购买Pelham所说的“帝国匠人”-- 在其他地方经营大型研究团队的知名科学家。但LMB实验室的大多数雇员都是很有前途的年轻研究员。“理想的情况下，三十出头、甚至偶尔年纪更小的年轻人，我们者乐意聘用。”Pelham这样说。一些研究团队的头头直接来自博土新人。

One young recruit was Jason Chin, who was invited to start a research group after giving a talk at LMB when he was just a few months into a postdoc at The Scripps Research Institute in San Diego, California. Chin finished his postdoc, joined LMB in 2003, then last year won the European Molecular Biology Organization gold medal for his work in synthetic biology. (Read more about him in this previous Science Careers article.)

一个年轻的雇员是Jason Chin。他在LMB做了一次发言后，就受邀前来开始带领一个研究小组。那时他在加州圣地亚哥的The Scripps Research Institute刚刚开始了几个月的博土后研究。Chin完成了（在加州的）博土后工作，于2003年加入LMB实验室。去年他获得了欧洲分子生物组织金奖，理由是他在合成生物学方面的成就。

Chin is just one example of the lab\'s successful, and early, talent spotting. The lab often identifies promising young scientists through personal recommendations or first-hand observation, at conferences, for example. \"We listen to them at talks, have them visit to talk about their goals and ideas, and get a feel for whether they\'re good,\" Ramakrishnan says. \"Talking to them is very important. Smart people stand out,\" Pelham says, then adds that they don\'t get it right every time.

To be of interest to LMB, young scientists should have done important or original work in more than one scientific setting. But important research doesn\'t necessarily mean a paper in Cell. \"We don\'t really care if they\'ve had a high-profile paper,\" Ramakrishnan says. \"We go less by publications and are more willing to use our own criteria, of which an important component is that they should be interested in a long-term, challenging goal.\"

要获得LMB的关注，年轻科学家应当在不只一个学术机构做出过重要或原创的成果。但重要研究并不必然是在Cell（学术期刊--译者注）上发篇论文。“我们根本不在意他们是否发了一篇惹人注目的论文，” Ramakrishnan说道。 “ 我们极少以作品发表量来衡量，而更愿意用我们自己的标准，其中一个重要考虑因素是他们要对一个有挑战性的目标有长期的兴趣。”

The laboratory uses a U.S.-style tenure system -- MRC\'s Programme Leader-Track (PLT) scheme -- to train new early-career group leaders and weed out unproductive people. About a fifth of the leaders of \'LMB\'s more than 50 research groups are currently PLTs, with 80% of the rest having already passed through the program.

All PLTs have a midterm review, where they give a presentation and are quizzed by Pelham and the heads of LMB\'s four divisions: cell biology, neurobiology, protein and nucleic acid chemistry, and structural studies. Like all LMB staff members, they have an annual appraisal. \"By these means, we let PLTs know what we expect and what we value,\" Pelham says. Unlike many tenure calendars, the PLT schedule is flexible; at any point during the first 6 years, the laboratory can award a permanent position. Most succeed, but some have to leave, Pelham adds.

所有PLT参与者都要经历一个中期评审（review），在会上他们要做报告，回答Pelham 和LMB实验室四个部门头头的提问。这四个部门分别是：分子生物（cell biology），神经生物（neurobiology），蛋白质与核酸化学（protein and nucleic acid chemistry），以及结构研究（structural studies）。就像所有LMB的员工一样，他们也要做年度评估（annual appraisal）。“通过这些措施，我们让PLT参与者了解我们所期待的内容与我们所看重的东西，” Pelham说道。 PLT授予终身职的时间灵活，不像许多（机构）定死了终身职授予日程；在头六年的任何时间点，该实验室都能授予终身职位。 多数人成功留下来了，但少数人得离开，Pelham补充道。

Tea-break triumphs

Also important is inspiring and guiding younger researchers to do great work. One way this is done is through LMB\'s collaborative, informal culture. The tea breaks are a good example. \"There are senior investigators sitting with first-year graduate students,\" Ramakrishnan says.

茶歇时间

另外一个重要事情就是鼓舞和引导年轻研究者去做出杰出成果。在这里靠的是LMB的协作和随意（informal）文化。茶歇就是一个好例子。“在这里，资深研究者与一年级研究生坐在一块，” Ramakrishnan说。

Asking anyone for help is encouraged. Pelham says that, as a recently tenured group leader, he learned yeast genetics through discussions with people in another research group. For students, it\'s \"totally acceptable\" to ask a senior researcher who isn\'t your own supervisor about your problem, says Rebecca Voorhees, who has just finished a Ph.D. and is now a postdoc in Ramakrishnan\'s research group. \"That\'s the collaborative attitude at the LMB.\"

这里鼓励向任何人寻求帮助。作为最近获得终身职的小组领导者，Pelham说到，他通过与别的研究小组一块讨论而学习了yeast genetics。对学生来说，向一个并非导师（supervisor）的资深研究员提问也是“完全可以接受”的， Rebecca Vooorhees 说道，她刚完成了博士学业，正在Ramakrishnan的研究小组做博士后工作，“这就是LMB实验室的协作态度。”

Outside those tea breaks, young scientists have easy access to all group leaders, especially their own. None of the leaders have a personal assistant who screens visitors, says Ramakrishnan, whose office leads directly onto his laboratory. \"I try to be aware day to day of what\'s going on in the lab.\" Voorhees says she sees Ramakrishnan several times a day. \"You\'re more comfortable dropping in and asking a quick question,\" she says. \"At every other lab I\'ve visited, to get to a senior researcher\'s office, you\'ve got to go through a door, a secretary, and another door.\"

茶歇时间外，年轻科学家很容易接近所有的小组领导者，尤其是本小组的领导者。领导者没有私人助理来筛选来访者，Ramakrishnan说，而他本人的办公室直通他的实验室。“我试着天天注意实验室有什么进展。” Voorhees则说，她一天之内会见到Ramakrishnan好几次。“你可以很自在地拜访他一下，问个简短的问题，” 她说道。 \"在我去过的别的任何一间实验室，若要进入资深研究者的办公室，你得通过一道门，一个秘书，还有另外一道门。”

Big ideas

大创意

Another reason for LMB\'s success may be the risky, hard-to-solve problems the researchers are encouraged to tackle. \"At the LMB, you can approach big questions, like how is gene expression controlled?\" says Lori Passmore, an LMB group leader studying the function and assembly of protein complexes. Passmore was a postdoc in Ramakrishnan\'s lab.

LMB researchers can afford to ask big questions: They don\'t have to teach, and they are free to do whatever research interests them. \"There\'s a tradition of trying to hire smart people and then basically leaving them to it,\" says Leo James, a group leader in the Protein and Nucleic Acid Chemistry Division. There\'s less pressure to constantly publish papers. \"It\'s an environment where you\'re encouraged to go after the big thing instead of having to have a publication every 3 months,\" James says.

Behind the success

成功背后

LMB\'s funding model also encourages risky, long-term research and the lab\'s collaborative culture. It receives stable core funding, which is shared by all research groups and reviewed every 5 years. The divisions each get a share of space and the budget, which they distribute at their discretion, Pelham says. Group leaders can expect a couple of MRC-funded positions for postdoctoral researchers or technicians and an average of two Ph.D. students. Additional postdoctoral researchers may be funded from personal fellowships. Many group leaders also have external grants that allow them to hire more people, but they must get permission before applying to ensure there\'s enough space for expansion. Research projects are funded from the core MRC budget, subject to decisions by Pelham and the heads of the laboratory\'s four divisions. The process is faster than making a grant application, James says.

Ramakrishnan says LMB\'s secure, long-term funding allowed him to focus on his Nobel Prize–winning research, which he began at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. \"I didn\'t put all my energy into that project until I had the security of the LMB,\" he says. Otherwise, he\'d have spread his efforts over several projects to reduce the risk, and \"probably missed the bus.\"

The success of every researcher contributes to the lab\'s funding prospects, which encourages cooperation, Ramakrishnan says. \"One thing I\'ve noticed here is, if someone does well, there\'s no jealousy. We\'re all in the same boat.\"

每个研究者的成功都会对实验室的资助前景有贡献，这鼓励了合作，Ramakrishnan说道。”在这里，我注意到，如果某个人做得出色，其他人不会眼红。我们大家都在同一条船上。“

Replicating success

复制？

LMB has a long history, and replicating its culture is a challenge. The Howard Hughes Medical Institute\'s Janelia Farm Research Campus in Ashburn, Virginia, was founded in 2006 with a similar approach. (See related Science Careers articles here and here.) Janelia Farm even experimented with MRC LMB\'s traditional English tea and coffee hours, but an all-day cappuccino bar and affordable lunchroom worked better in America, says Kevin Moses, former chief academic officer at Janelia Farm. But whether LMB\'s culture can be copied remains an open question. Janelia Farm hasn\'t won a Nobel Prize yet. \"The jury is still out,\" Moses says.

Still, you don\'t have to be at LMB to profit from its example. \"Doing work of high quality and lasting importance is usually a good strategy\" for those with high scientific aspirations, Pelham says. \"Think of the big questions and try to answer them.\" Another part of the recipe: \"Start small and preferably stay small if you can,\" Ramakrishnan adds. \"If you look at the seminal papers in a big breakthrough and think, \'What was the situation of the scientist when they published this paper?\' More often than not, it was when they were small.\"

不过，你不在LMB实验室工作也能从这个例子受益。对那些有着很大科学抱负的人来说，”做高质量和长期重要的研究通常是个好策略，“Pelham 说。”思考重大问题并且想办法回答。“ 这个秘诀的另一半就是：”从小处着手，并且如果你能一直保持就更好，“Ramakrishnan补充说，”如果你看那些有重大突破的影响深远的论文，会想到，‘这个科学家在发表这篇论文的时候是个什么状态？ ’ 没有例外（more often than not），这些论文都围绕小的问题展开（it was when they were small）。“

[原文是“Start small and...” 我把start译为着手。\"着手：动词，开始做；动手：~编制计划|| 提高生产要从改进技术~\"（现代汉语词典第5版“着”zhuo字条）]

 The MRC LMB\'s 13 Nobel laureates (Adapted from the LMB Web site.)

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附录：LMB实验室的13位诺贝尔奖得主

Venki Ramakrishnan

Venki Ramakrishnan

Joint winner of the 2009 chemistry prize with Thomas Steitz and Ada Yonath \"for studies of the structure and function of the ribosome.\"

2009年化学奖 Joint winner of the 2009 chemistry prize with Thomas Steitz and Ada Yonath \"for studies of the structure and function of the ribosome.\"

Sydney Brenner, Robert Horvitz, and John Sulston

Sydney Brenner, Robert Horvitz, and John Sulston

Joint winners of the 2002 physiology or medicine prize \"for their discoveries concerning genetic regulation of organ development and programmed cell death.\"

2002年生理医学奖 Joint winners of the 2002 physiology or medicine prize \"for their discoveries concerning genetic regulation of organ development and programmed cell death.\"

John Walker

John Walker

Joint winner of the 1997 chemistry prize with Paul Boyer and Jens Skou for his \"elucidation of the enzymatic mechanism underlying the synthesis of adenosine triphosphate (ATP).\"

1997年化学奖 Joint winner of the 1997 chemistry prize with Paul Boyer and Jens Skou for his \"elucidation of the enzymatic mechanism underlying the synthesis of adenosine triphosphate (ATP).\"

César Milstein and Georges Köhler

César Milstein and Georges Köhler

 Joint winners of the 1984 physiology or medicine prize with Niels Jerne \"for theories concerning the specificity in development and control of the immune system and the discovery of the principle for production of monoclonal antibodies.\"

1984年生理医学奖 Joint winners of the 1984 physiology or medicine prize with Niels Jerne \"for theories concerning the specificity in development and control of the immune system and the discovery of the principle for production of monoclonal antibodies.\"

Aaron Klug

Aaron Klug

Winner of the 1982 chemistry prize \"for his development of crystallographic electron microscopy and his structural elucidation of biologically important nucleic acid-protein complexes.\"

1982年化学奖 Winner of the 1982 chemistry prize \"for his development of crystallographic electron microscopy and his structural elucidation of biologically important nucleic acid-protein complexes.\"

Fred Sanger – twice

Fred Sanger – 两次

Joint winner of the 1980 chemistry prize with Walter Gilbert for his \"contributions concerning the determination of base sequences in nucleic acids\" and winner of the 1958 chemistry prize \"for his work on the structure of proteins, especially that of insulin.\"

1980年化学奖 +1958年化学奖 Joint winner of the 1980 chemistry prize with Walter Gilbert for his \"contributions concerning the determination of base sequences in nucleic acids\" and winner of the 1958 chemistry prize \"for his work on the structure of proteins, especially that of insulin.\"

Francis Crick and James Watson

Francis Crick and James Watson

Joint winners of the 1962 physiology or medicine prize with Maurice Wilkins \"for their discoveries concerning the molecular structure of nucleic acids and its significance for information transfer in living material.\"

1962年生理医学奖 Joint winners of the 1962 physiology or medicine prize with Maurice Wilkins \"for their discoveries concerning the molecular structure of nucleic acids and its significance for information transfer in living material.\"

Max Perutz and John Kendrew

Max Perutz and John Kendrew

Joint winners of the 1962 chemistry prize \"for their studies of the structures of globular proteins.\"

1962年化学奖 Joint winners of the 1962 chemistry prize \"for their studies of the structures of globular proteins.\"

Vivienne Raper is a freelance journalist in London.

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（本文作者）Vivienne Raper是来自伦敦的自由新闻记者