I'm a scientist, and I'm a big fan of Star Trek, especially of Mr. Spock. Mr. Spock is a scientist as well, and at the same time, he's the first [officer] of the starship Enterprise, and during the adventures of the Enterprise crew, he and his colleagues are dealing a lot with the presence or absence of Mr. Spock's emotions. Mr. Spock is half-human and half-Vulcan, and Vulcans are an alien race who learn to control and suppress their feelings and to act purely out of logic. As Mr. Spock is only half-Vulcan, he sees himself constantly in conflict in between logic and emotions, and as he's part of a team, the whole crew is struggling with, is analyzing, and is making fun of this conflict. And also the fans of Star Trek watch with amusement this seemingly contradictory behavior. They find it quite fascinating. And the matter is a golden thread through the whole Star Trek series and movies from the '60s until today.
And that's actually what I want to talk about today: the role of emotions in science. We tend to think that science is all about facts and logic and human feelings are often neglected or considered an obstacle to get rid of. I would like to suggest that emotions are as important in science as they are in any other part of our lives. Science is made by humans, and as human beings, even if we try hard, we cannot get rid of our emotions. So instead of fighting them, I believe that even in science, we should make use of our feelings, because for breakthroughs and innovation, they are equally important as facts and logic.
I will come back to Mr. Spock, but first let me share my experience on the role of emotions in science, and one story in particular kept me thinking about it for the last couple of years. I'm working in research on organic light-emitting diodes, so-called OLEDs. This is how you might know them, as new generation of displays. OLEDs are more and more used in smartphone displays and TV screens. They make them appear bright, truly colorful and bendable. This is how they look like in the research lab of my physicist colleagues. And this is what I, as a chemist, have in mind when I think about them. I've loved it ever since I started to work on it.
So I didn't really like the news when the company I had been working for -- that was my previous employer -- announced that they wanted to stop OLED research. At the time, the management had reasons for this decision, and the company handled it very well, actually. Nobody lost their jobs, and everybody was rewarded for their performed work. What I want to show you today is what happened with my scientist colleagues and me during the time in between the announcement and the last working day on our project. Consider it a small case study on emotions in science.
In 2015, our research team had grown to more than 80 people, and even after the announcement that our project was discontinued, we could not stop working from one day to another. It took several months to bring all activities to a sound end and to find new jobs within the company for everyone. Here's what happened. Even though we knew that we were working on a project that was to be stopped, during those months our output hit the roof. We were actually working on two different OLED projects: first, the development of materials for blue-shining OLEDs, which had started in 2001; and second, materials for green OLEDs, which had started in 2014. And the results I show you here concern the green OLED project.
In the graph, you can see how the lifetime, which is a crucial measure for the durability of our devices, developed over time. In 2015, just half a year into the project, we were told to scale down, to stop working on the project as soon as possible and to start over in other jobs. Nevertheless, from this time on, our results continued to improve rapidly.
How did that happen? After the announcement, pretty quickly, colleagues started leaving the team, and soon, we were left in a small group, all pretty much sharing the same attitude of, "I'm going to be the last person leaving the ship." What I mean is, while the number of scientists working on the project was decreasing, the dedication of people remaining grew dramatically. And also, a new and more intense team spirit formed. We all shared the same passion for our work, we all were sad that it was about to end, and we all wanted to show that we could turn our ideas into reality. We felt that we belonged to something bigger. And furthermore, our project was less and less in the focus of the management, because they started to think about new projects, restructuring and so on. This resulted in additional freedom and the possibility to take a few things into our own hands. Of course, more freedom also means more responsibility, which we were happy to take, because we believed in our work. We felt empowered. And these three pillars -- dedication, belonging and empowerment -- worked together in a kind of self-reinforcing cycle, and the closer we got to shutdown, the better our output became. So we were working with such personal engagement on a project already sentenced to death because we felt connected to something meaningful. Of course, it was also a hard and sometimes frustrating time, but we were sitting together in the lab, or occasionally in the café, sharing our sadness about the end of our project as well as the joy in our work. So overall, we had a very intense and mesmerizingly exciting time. And the lifetime we finally obtained for our materials was on one level with already commercialized materials for green OLEDs at the time, and we achieved this within just one year. And those results helped our employer to sell the patents for real value.
Now, let me tell you the same story with different characters and a slightly different operation. The story is part of Star Trek. And sorry for those of you who haven't seen the movies, but I need to introduce a spoiler here. After Mr. Spock sacrificed himself to save the starship Enterprise at the end of Star Trek II, Captain Kirk and his core team were determined to hunt through the universe to search for Spock, even though they could see only very little chance in finding him alive. And Starfleet Command did not give them permission nor a starship to do so, so they took it very passionately into their own hands to travel out to find Spock. And after dealing with great challenges, they eventually found Spock, and he happily and gratefully joined the team again. He could feel the dedication and the connection of his team towards their project, which was to save him and to hold the crew together. And over the years, over the episodes of the saga, Mr. Spock came to realize that the combination of both logic and emotions is crucial for facing challenges and exploring new worlds, and there was no contradiction anymore.
So the storyline here for both our OLED story and Star Trek is actually the basic setting for a lot of breakthrough stories, in and out of science. The main characters are all part of a great team. All team members show a huge dedication towards reaching their goal. They strive to seize all the freedom they can get, and they take the responsibility they need to take.
During the time our OLED project was nearing the end, I received one piece of advice several times. "Don't take it to your heart. You can work on something else." If I had followed it, it would have saved me several depressed evenings and many tears, but at the same time, I would have failed to gain a great deal in personal development and happiness. And as the same is true for my colleagues and our whole project, we would have achieved far less.
So of course, science should be based on facts and logic. When I say we should use our emotions in science, I do not suggest we should use feelings instead of facts. But I say we should not be afraid of using our feelings to implement and to catalyze fact-based science and innovation. Emotions and logic do not oppose each other. They complement each other, and they reinforce each other.
我是一名科学家， 也是《星际迷航》的死忠粉， 尤其喜欢史波克先生。 史波克先生也是一名科学家， 同时，他也是星际战舰 企业号的大副， 在企业号的冒险过程中， 由于史波克先生时有时无的情感， 他和他的同伴们发生了许多故事。 史波克先生是人类和瓦肯人的混血， 瓦肯人是外星种族， 他们学习控制和压抑自己的情感， 完全按照纯粹的逻辑行事。 因为史波克先生 只有一半瓦肯人血统， 因此他不断在逻辑和情感之间纠结， 又因为他是团队中的一员， 因此整个舰队成员都很抓狂， 喜欢分析他， 也喜欢拿他的纠结开玩笑。 《星际迷航》的粉丝们也很喜欢 他这种充满矛盾的行为。 粉丝们觉得这很迷人。 而这是一条很棒的主线， 贯穿于整个星舰迷航的电视剧和电影， 从60年代直到今天。
这是怎么回事呢？ 在消息宣布后， 同事们开始陆续离开团队， 很快就只剩下几个人， 大家都抱着同样的想法， “我将是最后一个弃船的人。” 我想说的是， 尽管参与项目的科学家人数在减少， 但是留下来的人的奉献精神 却在大幅增长。 同时还形成了新的、 更加积极的团队精神。 我们对工作都抱有同样的热情， 我们对项目行将结束感到难过， 我们都想证明， 我们的想法是可以实现的。 我们觉得自己能成就更大的事业。 除此之外， 管理层对我们项目的 关注越来越少， 因为他们开始转向了新的项目， 思考重组等事项。 这让我们有更大的自由 有更大的自主权。 当然，更多自由 也意味着更大的责任， 我们也很愿意承担， 因为我们相信自己从事的工作。 我们感到更加自主。 这三个因素： 奉献精神、归属感和自主权， 相辅相成，相互促进， 越是临近项目停止， 我们的成果越显著。 我们不断自我激励，把心血 倾注在这个即将终结的项目上， 因为我们觉得这件事意义重大。 当然，也会有许多艰难 甚至熬不下去的时刻， 但我们围坐在实验室， 或者有时候在餐厅， 分享项目即将被终结的悲伤， 或者工作中的乐趣。 总而言之，我们度过了一段 紧张而又兴奋的时间。 最后，我们材料的寿命 与已经商业化生产的 绿光OLED的寿命 达到了同一水平， 而做到这一点， 我们仅用了一年时间。 这一成果让我们的老板 卖了个好价钱。
下面我来讲一个类似的故事， 只是角色和采取的方式 有些许不同。 这个故事出自《星际迷航》。 对于那些还没看过的人， 抱歉我要剧透了。 史波克先生牺牲自己， 拯救了星际战舰企业号， 这是《星际迷航2》结尾的情节， 柯克船长和他的 核心团队成员决定 穿梭宇宙来寻找史波克， 尽管史波克还活着的希望 非常渺茫。 星际舰队的指挥官 并不允许他们这么做， 于是他们慷慨激昂的 将这件事扛上肩， 出发寻找史波克。 历尽千辛万苦之后， 他们找到了史波克， 他开心而又感恩地归队了。 他能感受到团队 对于目标的热情与执着， 而正是这个目标：救他回来， 让团队凝聚不散。 随着时间推移，剧情发展， 史波克先生认识到， 逻辑和情感的结合， 对于战胜挑战， 探索新世界尤为重要， 他不再纠结与彷徨。
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