Never Give up.

When do you think that you are already successful? What is your milestone which you set to measure your achievement? For lazy childhood, they might felt successful when skipping class without getting caught. For a mother, success might be that her kid begins speaking only a few words. So, what is success that world-class scholars aim to gain? I think some scholars may regard the Nobel Prize as a good benchmark of achievement.

According to “Nobel win for crystal discovery” on BBC News, Daniel Shechtman, from Technion - Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, will gain the Noble Prize in chemistry for his discovery of the structure of quasicrystals. By quickly cooling molten metals, such as such as aluminum and manganese, Shectman could create quasicrystals. While observing through a microscopic, he found the structure of quasicrystals, sharps of which looked like irregular forms of the medieval Islamic mosaics of the Alhambra Palace in Spain. His first discovery had occurred in 1982; however, no scientist believed the results, and some said that Shectman was talking nonsense. So, Shectman had to spend a lot of time proving his theory. After working hard to verify the results, he could convince such scientists to accept his thought and was declared to win the 2011 Nobel Prize for chemistry.

I feel impressed with the Shectman’s achievement because not only did he find a structure which no one had ever seen, but also he did not give up to prove it. This is not a recent discovery because he has found the structure for about 29 years ago. That means it is a long time which he spend to fright for acceptance of those who rather looked down on him. "The head of my lab came to me smiling sheepishly, and put a book on my desk and said: 'Danny, why don't you read this and see that it is impossible what you are saying’”, said Shectman (¶13). Besides, his colleagues accused him of bringing a disgrace to the group and asked him to leave. Yet, he has never stopped proving his discovery until he reached the success at the end. For me, this is a good inspiring story. Intelligence helps you understand something, but perseverance helps other people understand you. I still cannot answer the question that what does success means? However, Shectman already tells us that if we want to be successful, we must not give in. The most successful people may not be the most intelligent, but he may be the one who tries to do something again and again.            

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References

Carpenter, J. (2011, October 5). Nobel win for crystal discovery. BBC News. Retrieved October 6, 2011 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15181187