The wacky history of cell theory - Lauren Royal-Woods

翻译人员: Yishu Siow 校对人员: Xu Tian Qin

（音樂）

關於科學，其中一間最棒的事情，

One of the great things about science

is that when scientists make a discovery,

是科學家有新發現時，

it's not always in a prescribed manner,

都不是循規蹈矩產生的，

例如，只有在實驗室， 嚴格控制實驗條件下，

as in, only in a laboratory under strict settings,

with white lab coats

——身穿白袍的研究人員， 以及各種各样的科學装置，

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

才有機器蜂鸣声的响起。

In reality,

在現實中，

參與重大科學發現的人、事、物，

the events and people involved

in some of the major scientific discoveries

are as weird and varied as they get.

都是稀奇古怪的。

My case in point:

我今天要舉的例子是：

細胞理論的古怪歷史。

The Weird History of the Cell Theory.

There are three parts to the cell theory.

細胞理論分成三個部分。

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

第一： 所有生物都有一個、或多個細胞組成。

Two: the cell is the basic unit of structure

第二， 细胞是生物中，结构与组织中的最基本单位。

and organization in organisms.

And three: all cells come from preexisting cells.

第三， 所有的细胞，都从现有的细胞分裂而来。

To be honest, this all sounds incredibly boring

说实话，这些听起来真是无聊透顶，

until you dig a little deeper

直到你往下挖掘历史： 這個微观世界、与微生物，

into how the world of microscopic organisms,

and this theory came to be.

以及这个理论是怎么出现的。

这一切都是从1600年代早开始的，

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

在荷兰，有一位制作眼睛的师傅，

where a spectacle maker named Zacharias Janssen

叫做查哈廖思.杨森，据称是第一个 製作出复式显微镜的人，

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

以及世上第一个望远镜。

along with the first telescope.

这两项记述时常产生争议，

Both claims are often disputed,

as apparently he wasn't the only bored guy

因为他显然不是唯一一位 有闲情逸致把玩一堆玻璃的人。

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

Despite this,

尽管如此，

the microscope soon became a hot item

显微镜仍很快成为的热门物品，

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

当时的自然主义者、科学家都想拥有，

making it much like the iPad of its day.

就像今日的iPad一样。

One such person

其中一个人，

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

來自荷兰的安东尼.凡.列文胡，

who heard about these microscope doohickeys,

他听说了这些 叫做“显微镜之类的”东西，

and instead of going out and buying one,

他并没去买，

he decided to make his own.

而是自己动手制作。

And it was a strange little contraption indeed,

这确实是个长得很古怪的东西，

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

像有着太阳眼镜片般大小的船桨。

If he had stuck two together,

如果他把两个组合起来， 大概可以做出一个奇怪的太阳眼镜...

it probably would have made a wicked set of sunglasses

that you couldn't see much out of.

而且戴上去看不到东西。

Anyhoo, once Leeuwenhoek had his microscope ready,

无论如何，列文胡把显微镜制作完成后，

he went to town,

他把显微镜带到镇上去， 并用显微镜看所有能看到的东西，

looking at anything and everything he could with them,

including the gunk on his teeth.

包括牙齿上的粘膜。

Yes, you heard right.

是的，你沒听错。

他通过观察牙齿上刮除的细屑， 发现了细菌。

He actually discovered bacteria

by looking at dental scrapings,

which, when you keep in mind

尤其是，你要知道 当时的人不太会刷牙，

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

或说，完全不会，

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

因此，他当时一定有 一大群细菌可以观察。

When he wrote about his discovery,

當他把他的发现记下来时，

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

不像今天的我们， 使用“细菌”这个名字。

而是把它们叫做“微小动物”，

But he called them "animalcules,"

because they looked like little animals to him.

因为我觉得他们 长得很像小动物。

While Leeuwenhoek was staring at his teeth gunk,

當列文胡在正盯着他的 牙齿黏膜看时，

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

他也寄了一封信給英国的科学学院，

by the name of Robert Hooke.

署名 罗伯特.胡克。

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

胡克是一个热爱各种科学的人，

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

因此他各方面都略有涉猎， 包括 物理、化学和生物。

chemistry and biology.

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

我们必须感谢胡克发明了 “细胞”这个名字。

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

当他透过显微镜， 观察软木塞时，

and the little chambers he saw reminded him of cells,

一个个的小空间让他想起牢房，

or the rooms monks slept in in their monasteries.

或是在寺院中，修道士居住的小房间。

就像大学宿舍，但你得把电视、 电脑，还有烦人的室友去掉。

Think college dorm rooms,

but without the TVs, computers and really annoying roommates.

Hooke was something of an underappreciated scientist

胡克在他的时代， 是个有点不那么受欢迎的科学家，

of his day --

不过他有点咎由自取，

something he brought upon himself,

因为他选择杠上了其中 一名最著名的科学家，

as he made the mistake of locking horns

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

艾萨克.牛顿 爵士。

记得我说胡克涉猎多个领域吗？

Remember when I said Hooke dabbled in many different fields?

Well, after Newton published a groundbreaking book

当牛顿发表了一本 独创性的书之后，

on how planets move due to gravity,

那本书讲述关于行星如何因为 万有引力而移动，

Hooke made the claim

胡克宣称牛顿的发现，

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

是受他自己在物理方面的 著作的启发。

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

牛顿，一点都不夸张， 并不喜欢这个说法，

因此造成了双方关系紧张， 並且持续到胡克过世以后，

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 --

因此有好一些胡克的研究，

以及他唯一的画像，被误认为是牛顿的。

was ... misplaced, due to Newton.

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

在牛顿过世后，有很多胡克 的研究被重新发掘，

但不包括他的画像，因为遗憾的是， 沒人知道他长什么样子。

but not his portrait,

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

Fast-forward to the 1800s,

快转至1800年代，

where two German scientists discovered something

两位德国科学家发现了一件 今天听来 “理所当然” 的事情，

that today we might find rather obvious,

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

但却成功协助把细胞理论 的各个元素连在一起。

第一位叫做 马蒂亚斯.许来登。

The first scientist was Matthias Schleiden,

a botanist who liked to study plants under a microscope.

他是一位喜欢把植物放在 显微镜底下的植物學家。

在某个时期，他研究不同植物品种，

From his years of studying different plant species,

it finally dawned on him

他终于发现，他所观察的每一棵植物，

that every single plant he had looked at

were all made of cells.

都是细胞组成的。

At the same time,

同一时间，另一端的德国，

on the other end of Germany was Theodor Schwann,

有一位 泰奥多尔·施旺，

a scientist who not only studied slides of animal cells

他是一名喜欢用显微镜， 研究动物细胞的科学家，

under the microscope

有一种神经细胞， 是以他的名字命名的，

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

but also invented rebreathers for firefighters,

他也发明了消防员的呼吸装置，

and had a kickin' pair of sideburns.

甚至留著一对富有活力的鬓角。

研究动物细胞好一阵子过后，

After studying animal cells for a while,

he, too, came to the conclusion

他也同样得出结论， 认为动物是细胞组成的。

that all animals were made of cells.

Immediately, he reached out via snail mail,

他马上寄出了一封慢速传送的信，

因为当时还沒有 推特，

as Twitter had yet to be invented,

to other scientists working in the same field with Schleiden,

給其他同领域的科学家，

许来登看到后，回信給他， 两位开始合作产出了细胞理论。

who got back to him,

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

A bone of contention arose between them.

但后来兩人产生意见分歧，

As for the last part of the cell theory --

针对细胞理论 最后一部分的內容，

认为細胞，来自现有细胞。

that cells come from preexisting cells --

Schleiden didn't exactly subscribe to that thought,

但许来登並不这么认为，

as he swore cells came from free-cell formation,

他肯定，细胞是來自“自由细胞形成”，

where they just kind of spontaneously crystallized into existence.

意思是，细胞是透过某种 自发性结晶活动，自行组成的。

另一位科学家，鲁道夫·菲尔绍，

That's when another scientist named Rudolph Virchow,

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

透过研究結果介入， 显示细胞确实来自其他细胞，

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

这个研究是...怎么说呢？ 菲尔绍从別人那儿不问自取的，

"borrowed without permission"

原作者是犹太科学家 罗伯特.雷马克，

from a Jewish scientist by the name of Robert Remak,

因此又造成了 另外两位科学家的不合。

which led to two more feuding scientists.

因此，从牙齿黏膜，到惹恼牛顿，

Thus, from teeth gunk to torquing off Newton,

结晶现象，到施旺氏细胞，

crystallization to Schwann cells,

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

细胞理论成为今日 生物学很重要的一部分。

我们今日所知道的科学中， 有些东西听起来很乏味，

Some things we know about science today may seem boring,

但我们怎么发现它们， 却是非常迷人的。

but how we came to know them is incredibly fascinating.

因此，觉得某些东西很无趣的时候，

So if something bores you,

dig deeper.

试着往下挖掘。

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

它的背后可能也有 一段很有趣的故事呢！