最近,中国科学院化学所停止了一项应该说开展得不错的基础性研究课题.原因是据可靠信息,该课题最近已被国外一科研机构完成,这项研究没有必要再继续下去了.即使继续做下去并圆满结束,充其量不过是步入后尘.化学所的领导意识到,基础研究只有争得第一才具有为人类探索未知的甚义;而步入后尘有悖于基础研究的宗旨,所以他们及时关掉了这个课题.化学所这种“不做则已,要做就做得最好”的原则,很值得一些“自我保护”意识过强的科研单位借鉴. Recently, the CAS Institute of Chemistry stopped a basic research project that should be said to be doing well because the subject has been recently completed by a foreign scientific institute based on credible information and there is no need to continue the study. To do so and to conclude satisfactorily, at best, is nothing more than backwardness, and the leaders of the Chemistry Institute realized that basic research must have the very first meaning of exploring the unknown for humankind, and that going backward is contrary to the purpose of basic research. They promptly closed this issue, and the principle of “doing nothing but doing best” by Chem is worth learning from some over-conscious research institutes that “self-protect” themselves.