Now,

at that time, nobody believed that right-left symmetry can be violated.

Why? I would say, A, there's an aesthetic feeling.

Everybody likes something to be beautifully symmetrical.

B, there were experiments, especially, there were many non-accurate experiments, which showed right, left are quite symmetrical.

And in experiments related to chemistry, related to biology, the physical laws are always exactly symmetrical.

And in addition, about the new kind of phenomena that came into physicists' attention in the 20th century, namely radioactivity, there were hundreds, if not thousands, of experiments which showed that right-left are symmetrical.

that night?

So can you mention something about your first interactions with Jim Simons, which I understand were not in mathematics?

When I came to Stony Brook, Stony Brook's math department, I was told, was nondescript.

It has a few professors, but none of them were really doing any research.

And John Tor's great priority was to find the right chairman.

And after a couple of years, he finally found Jim.

Jim, as you know, is a very brilliant mathematician, but also he's a great entrepreneur.

He apparently, after his PhD, has gone to do some business in South America somewhere, and then he came back and...

in the wall.

What comments?

Oppenheimer was a brilliant person in many respects.

He was a brilliant physicist.

Unfortunately for him, his greatest contribution to physics was not yet recognized as important at the time that he passed away.

It's about the black hole.

He was the pioneer in that field.

He did many things in physics, all of which were good papers, but except for that one, he did not make the, I would say, the really first-rank physics research contribution.

dramatization or a documentary?

Can you comment about why what to most people must have been almost as surprising as parody, non-conservation?

In the 60s, Oppenheimer was approximately 60 years old.

And he had great difficulties within the institute for advanced studies.

The institute has only about 20 professors, and among which the mathematicians form the largest and the most prominent group internationally.

That's how the institute got constituted from the beginning.

And the mathematicians did not like Oppenheimer.

That is itself a very complicated story.

More in the Princeton style.

Can you comment on that situation, on how you think about this all these years later?

In the 1950s, Lee and I were very famous as a team.

I had later written that our collaboration was admired and envied.

And indeed, that was

true.

Up to that time, there were no friction between us at all.

But I think our great fame.

First, with the 1957 announcement by Ms. Wu that parity is not conserved.

Can you comment on that particular period when these, what this meant to you and what it might mean to China?

Yes.

After my first trip in 1971, I realized that there is something that I should do because I think I know both countries.

I have attachment to both countries of long periods and I love both countries.

And at a time when the two countries are first, not on speaking terms, and second, not understanding each other.

I have the responsibility to help to bridge this gap.

So indeed, that became, after 1971, one of my life's goals.

by the statement.

Which do you think are the fields or the areas that are likely to lead the way into the next century? Do you think physics will remain as important as it has? Will biology just continue to grow in importance?

I have two things to say about this question.

First, 20 years ago My feeling about the answer to your question has changed from 20 years ago.

20 years ago, I knew the world has lots of problems.

My idea was that all of these problems will gradually be solved by new technology.

Yes, new technology would create new problems, but by and large, the productivity of the world would, on average, increase.

In other words, technology would overcome not only its own shortcomings, but all the accumulated problems.

I know that there are the questions about health care,

What are your hopes and concerns for the future, given this great moment and great changes of the historical nature that have taken place? Well, you

know, I am 88 years old.

First, I have to tell you, one day after my marriage with Fan Fan, a correspondent in Taiwan asked me, how do you feel being married to a person so much younger? I said, one of the things I realize now after the marriage is that because Fan Fan is so much younger than I, She's going to live way beyond the date when I'm gone.

In some sense, it represents a prolongation of my life.

It's what is going to happen 50 years from now.

I'm still concerned with, deeply concerned with.

I think the 21st century will be a very difficult century, especially because it's clear that China is emerging as a world power.

There's a

Would you describe your education as being Chinese education or a Western education from the scientific point of view?

Before 1900, there were traditional education in China.

Basically, you read the classics.

And even Tang poetry was not that emphasized.

It was Confucius and the historical writings that were emphasized.

And there was a great debate in China, starting at the beginning of the 20th century, of how much Western culture should be imported.

In particular, how much modern science should be taught.

Would you like to make some comments about the Shaw Prizes and what you see as their role?

Renren Shaw came from a family that was sort of a small movie theater operator in Shanghai.

Then in the 1930s and 40s, the family moved to Singapore.

And apparently, Reverend Shaw and his brother had some old-style movie projectors.

So they went to the villages and showed movies to the peasants.

And in the 30s, it was extremely popular.

So they accumulated some wealth.

What was Chairman Mao—well, I hate to say what was he like, but what was it like meeting him? What was it like to go into the office? What was the scene like?

I had read a lot about Chairman Mao, of course, before I went, and he's a very good poet.

He's a very good poet from the literary viewpoint.

But of course, he injected into his poems his political vision.

So that made it a kind of powerful poetry.

He was a remarkable person because one of the most famous poems of his It's called the Ode to Snow.

But it started with a description of the scenery, a snowy scenery.

one of

So perhaps you could recall a story you told me recently about your first trip to China, how you got the idea that here it was, 1972 perhaps, and how you came to realize that you might be able to take that trip, and then what happened, how you met Zhou Enlai, eventually Chairman Mao.

You know that China and America fought this devastating Korean War, and then there were conflicts also in Vietnam.

But by 1969, China had great...

China almost had a war with the Soviet Union.

There were two skirmishes, in both of which both sides lost some soldiers.

One in northeastern China, one in northwestern China.

So by late 1969, Chairman Mao and the Premier Zhou Enlai were very worried about the relationship between China and the Soviet Union.