The wacky history of cell theory - Lauren Royal-Woods

Translator: Marc Isbert Reviewer: Xavier Menduiña

(Música)

Una de les grans coses de la ciència

One of the great things about science

is that when scientists make a discovery,

és que, quan es fa descoberta,

it's not always in a prescribed manner,

no es fa sempre de la manera prescrita,

és a dir, en un laboratori ben controlat,

as in, only in a laboratory under strict settings,

with white lab coats

ple de bates blanques i andròmines científiques

and all sorts of neat science gizmos that go, "Beep!"

que fan "Bip!"

In reality,

En realitat,

the events and people involved

els esdeveniments i la gent implicats en algunes de les grans descobertes

in some of the major scientific discoveries

are as weird and varied as they get.

són tan variades i estranyes com us pogueu imaginar.

My case in point:

El meu exemple:

The Weird History of the Cell Theory.

l'Estranya Història de la Teoria Cel·lular.

There are three parts to the cell theory.

La teoria cel·lular té tres parts.

One: all organisms are composed of one or more cells.

Una: tots els organismes son formats per una o més cèl·lules.

Two: the cell is the basic unit of structure

Dues: la cèl·lula és la unitat d'estructura i funció dels organismes.

and organization in organisms.

And three: all cells come from preexisting cells.

i tres: tota cèl·lula ve d'una altra cèl·lula preexistent.

To be honest, this all sounds incredibly boring

Honestament, això sona increïblement avorrit

until you dig a little deeper

fins que van aprofundir en com es van descobrir els microorganismes

into how the world of microscopic organisms,

and this theory came to be.

i aquesta teoria.

It all started in the early 1600s in the Netherlands,

Tot va començar a principis del XVI,

a Holanda, on un fabricant d'ulleres

where a spectacle maker named Zacharias Janssen

que es deia Zacharias Jansen, diuen que va fer el primer microscopi,

is said to have come up with the first compound microscope,

juntament amb el telescopi.

along with the first telescope.

Both claims are often disputed,

Hi ha qui ho qüestiona,

as apparently he wasn't the only bored guy

ja que sembla que no era l'únic amb una pila de lents i temps per perdre.

with a ton of glass lenses to play with at the time.

Despite this,

Malgrat això,

the microscope soon became a hot item

el microscopi aviat es va posar de moda

that every naturalist or scientist at the time wanted to play with,

i tots els naturalistes de l'època en volien un per a jugar-hi,

making it much like the iPad of its day.

com si fos l'iPad d'aquell temps.

One such person

Un d'aquests

was a fellow Dutchman by the name of Anton van Leeuwenhoek,

era un holandès anomenat Anton van Leeuwenhoek,

who heard about these microscope doohickeys,

que va sentir-ne a parlar

and instead of going out and buying one,

i, en lloc de sortir a comprar-ne un,

he decided to make his own.

va decidir fer-se'l ell mateix.

And it was a strange little contraption indeed,

I va fer una andròmina realment estranya

as it looked more like a tiny paddle the size of a sunglass lens.

que semblava més una mini raqueta de la mida d'una lent d'ullera.

If he had stuck two together,

Si n'ajuntéssim un parell, tindriem unes curioses ulleres de sol…

it probably would have made a wicked set of sunglasses

that you couldn't see much out of.

amb les que no veuriem gaire cosa.

Anyhoo, once Leeuwenhoek had his microscope ready,

Quan Leeuwenhoeck va tenir el seu microscopi a punt

he went to town,

va començar a mirar tot el que li queia a les mans,

looking at anything and everything he could with them,

including the gunk on his teeth.

inclosa la tosca de les seves dents.

Yes, you heard right.

Si, ho heu sentit bé.

He actually discovered bacteria

De fet va descobrir els bacteris mirant els residus dentals que,

by looking at dental scrapings,

which, when you keep in mind

si tenim present que a aquella època la gent no se les rentava gaire,

that people didn't brush their teeth much -- if at all -- back then,

si és que mai ho feia,

he must have had a lovely bunch of bacteria to look at.

devia tenir un preciós grapat de bacteris per a mirar.

When he wrote about his discovery,

En escriure sobre la seva descoberta

he didn't call them bacteria, as we know them today.

no els va anomenar bacteris, com els anomenem ara.

But he called them "animalcules,"

Els va anomenar "animàlculs",

because they looked like little animals to him.

perque li semblaven animals menuts.

While Leeuwenhoek was staring at his teeth gunk,

Mentre Leeuwenhoeck es mirava la seva tosca,

he was also sending letters to a scientific colleague in England,

també escrivia cartes a un col·lega seu a a Anglaterra,

by the name of Robert Hooke.

Hooke was a guy who really loved all aspects of science,

A Hooke li agradaven tots els aspectes de la ciència,

so he dabbled in a little bit of everything, including physics,

i tafanejava una mica per tot, química, física i biologia incloses.

chemistry and biology.

Thus it is Hooke who we can thank for the term "the cell,"

I és a Hooke a qui hem d'agrair el nom de "cèl·lula" ("cell" en anglès),

as he was looking at a piece of cork under his microscope,

perque tot mirant suro amb el microscopi

and the little chambers he saw reminded him of cells,

hi va va veure uns petits compartiments

que li van recordar les cel·les dels monjos als monestirs.

or the rooms monks slept in in their monasteries.

Com a les residències, però sense TV, ordinadors o companys emprenyadors.

Think college dorm rooms,

but without the TVs, computers and really annoying roommates.

Hooke was something of an underappreciated scientist

Hooke era un científic no gaire apreciat a la seva època,

of his day --

cosa que ell mateix es va buscar

something he brought upon himself,

en cometre l'error d'encarar-se amb un dels científics més famosos,

as he made the mistake of locking horns

with one of the most famous scientists ever, Sir Isaac Newton.

Sir Isaac Newton.

Recordeu quan deiem que Hooke tafanejava en molts camps?

Remember when I said Hooke dabbled in many different fields?

Well, after Newton published a groundbreaking book

Doncs després que Newton publiqués un llibre revolucionari

on how planets move due to gravity,

sobre com la gravetat movia els planetes,

Hooke made the claim

Hooke va afirmar que Newton

that Newton had been inspired by Hooke's work in physics.

s´havia inspirat en el seu treball.

Newton, to say the least, did not like that,

A Newton això no li va agradar, per a dir-ho suaument,

cosa que va establir una relació tensa que va durar fins després que morís Hooke,

which sparked a tense relationship between the two

that lasted even after Hooke died,

as quite a bit of Hooke's research -- as well as his only portrait --

quan bona part del treball de Hooke,

així com el seu únic retrat, es van "extraviar", gràcies a Newton.

was ... misplaced, due to Newton.

Much of it was rediscovered, thankfully, after Newton's time,

Per sort, se'n va redescobrir molt després del temps de Newton,

però no el seu retrat i malauradament no sabem quin aspecte tenia Hooke.

but not his portrait,

as, sadly, no one knows what Robert Hooke looked like.

Fast-forward to the 1800s,

Avancem fins al segle XVIII,

where two German scientists discovered something

quan dos científics alemanys van descobrir una cosa que ara ens sembla òbvia,

that today we might find rather obvious,

but helped tie together what we now know as the cell theory.

però que va fer quallar la teoria cel·lular.

The first scientist was Matthias Schleiden,

El primer era Matthias Schleiden,

a botanist who liked to study plants under a microscope.

un botànic a qui agradava estudiar les plantes amb el microscopi.

Després d'anys d'estudiar diferents espècies de plantes,

From his years of studying different plant species,

it finally dawned on him

finalment es va adonar que totes les plantes que havia mirat

that every single plant he had looked at

were all made of cells.

eren fetes de cèl·lules.

At the same time,

Al mateix temps, a l'altra banda d'Alemanya, hi treballava

on the other end of Germany was Theodor Schwann,

Theodore Schwann,

a scientist who not only studied slides of animal cells

un científic que no tan sols estudiava les cèl·lules animals amb el microscopi,

under the microscope

i va donar nom a una cèl·lula nerviosa,

and got a special type of nerve cell named after him,

but also invented rebreathers for firefighters,

sinó que també va inventar escafandres per bombers

and had a kickin' pair of sideburns.

i duia unes bones patilles

After studying animal cells for a while,

Tot estudiant les cèl·lules animals

he, too, came to the conclusion

també va concloure que tots els animals eren fets de cèl·lules.

that all animals were made of cells.

Immediately, he reached out via snail mail,

Immediatament va escriure per correu,

ja que encara no s'havia inventat twitter,

as Twitter had yet to be invented,

to other scientists working in the same field with Schleiden,

a altres científics del mateix camp,

va contactar amb Schleiden,

who got back to him,

and the two started working on the beginnings of the cell theory.

i van començar a treballar plegats en la teoria cel·lular.

A bone of contention arose between them.

Hi havia, però, un punt de desacord,

As for the last part of the cell theory --

sobre la darrera part de la teoria,

en que les cèl·lules provenen d'altres cèl·lules preexistents.

that cells come from preexisting cells --

Schleiden didn't exactly subscribe to that thought,

Schleiden no hi estava d'acord,

as he swore cells came from free-cell formation,

i jurava que apareixien per formació lliure de cèl·lules,

where they just kind of spontaneously crystallized into existence.

com si cristal·litzessin espontàniament.

Aquí va intervenir un altre científic, anomenat Rudolph Virchow,

That's when another scientist named Rudolph Virchow,

stepped in with research showing that cells did come from other cells,

que havia investigat com les cèl·lules es formaven a partir d'altres cèl·lules,

research that was actually -- hmm ... How to put it? --

recerca que –mmm, com podriem dir-ho?– va agafar sense permís

"borrowed without permission"

d'un científic jueu anomenat Robert Remack

from a Jewish scientist by the name of Robert Remak,

cosa que va dur a uns altres científics enfrontats.

which led to two more feuding scientists.

Així, des de la tosca dental a un Newton cabrejat

Thus, from teeth gunk to torquing off Newton,

i de la cristal·lització a les cèl·lules de Schwann

crystallization to Schwann cells,

the cell theory came to be an important part of biology today.

la teoria cel·lular ha esdevingut una part important de la biologia actual.

Some things we know about science today may seem boring,

Algunes coses que sabem ara de la ciència poden semblar avorrides,

but how we came to know them is incredibly fascinating.

però com les hem arribat a saber és increïblement fascinant.

Així doncs, si alguna cosa et sembla avorrida,

So if something bores you,

dig deeper.

aprofundeix.

It's probably got a really weird story behind it somewhere.

Possiblement hi trobaràs una estranya història al darrera.