The most groundbreaking scientist you've never heard of - Addison Anderson

你从未听说过的最具突破性的科学家 - 阿狄森·安德森

翻译人员: Qingqing Mao 校对人员: Qiwen Lu

Nicolas Steno is rarely heard of

在地质学概论以外的地方，

outside Intro to Geology,

很少有人听说过尼古拉斯·斯坦诺。

but anyone hoping to understand life on Earth

但是任何一个想要理解地球上的生命的人，

should see how Steno expanded and connected

都应该看看斯坦诺如何扩展并连接了

those very concepts:

这些个概念：

Earth, life, and understanding.

地球、生命、理解。

Born Niels Stensen in 1638 Denmark,

本名Niels Stensen，出生于1638年的丹麦，

son of a goldsmith,

父亲是一名金匠。

he was a sickly kid

他年幼时多病，

whose school chums died of plague.

而他的很多校友都死于瘟疫。

He survived to cut up corpses

他活了下来

as an anatomist,

并成为一个尸体解剖学家，

studying organs shared across species.

研究不同物种间共有的器官。

He found a duct in animal skulls

他在动物头骨内

that sends saliva to the mouth.

发现了输送唾液的管道。

He refuted Descartes' idea

他驳斥了笛卡尔的

that only humans had a pineal gland,

只有人类有松果体腺的观点，

proving it wasn't the seat of the soul,

证明了它不是灵魂之所在，

arguably, the debut of neuroscience.

这可以说是神经科学的开端。

Most remarkable for the time was his method.

就当时来说，最非凡的是他所采用的方法。

Steno never let ancient texts,

斯坦诺从来不让古文献，

Aristotelian metaphysics,

如亚里士多德的形而上学

or Cartesian deductions

或者笛卡尔的演绎法，

overrule empirical, experimental evidence.

影响到经验性的、实验性的证据。

His vision, uncluttered by speculation or rationalization,

通过推测和理性分析，

他的视野走向深远。

went deep.

Steno had seen how gallstones

斯坦诺曾观察胆结石

form in wet organs by accretion.

如何在湿润的器官上累积生长。

They obeyed molding principles

其过程与他在金匠行业中

he knew from the goldsmith trade,

所习得的锻造原理相符合。

rules useful across disciplines

这些通过固体的结构间的关系

for understanding solids

来了解固体的规则

by their structural relationships.

对各个学科都有用。

Later, the Grand Duke of Tuscany

后来，托斯卡纳大公

had him dissect a shark.

让他解剖了一条鲨鱼。

Its teeth resembled tongue stones,

鲨鱼的牙齿和舌石相似，

odd rocks seen inside other rocks

是一种在其他石头中发现的奇怪石头，

in Malta and the mountains near Florence.

在马耳他以及佛罗伦萨附近的山上可见。

Pliny the Elder, old Roman naturalist,

古罗马时期的自然学家老普林尼

said these fell from the sky.

认为这些石头是从天上掉下来的。

In the Dark Ages,

在黑暗时代，

folks said they were snake tongues,

民谣中传说它们是蛇的舌头，

petrified by Saint Paul.

被圣保罗变成石头。

Steno saw that tongue stones were shark teeth

斯坦诺发现舌石就是鲨鱼的牙齿，

and vice versa,

反之亦然，

with the same signs of structural growth.

因为它们有相同的结构生长迹象。

Figuring similar things are made in similar ways,

他认为类似的东西有着类似的形成过程，

he argued the ancient teeth

他主张这些古代的牙齿

came from ancient sharks

来自古代水中的鲨鱼，

in waters that formed rock around the teeth

岩石在牙齿周围生长

and became mountains.

而后形成山脉。

Rock layers were once layers of watery sediment,

岩层在早年曾是水系沉积物，

which would lay out horizontally,

它们水平生长，

one atop another,

一层又一层，

oldest up to newest.

从下层最古老的一直到上层最新的。

If layers were deformed,

如果岩层变形、

tilted,

倾斜、

cut by a fault or a canyon,

被断层或峡谷切开，

that change came after the layer formed.

这些变化都是在岩层形成后才发生的。

Sounds simple today;

这在今天听起来很简单，

back then, revolutionary.

而当时这是革命性的。

He'd invented stratigraphy

他创立了地层学，

and laid geology's ground work.

并为地质学奠定了基础。

By finding one origin for shark teeth from two eras

通过发现来自不同时期的鲨鱼牙齿有着同一起源，

by stating natural laws ruling the present

并陈述当前的自然规律

also ruled the past,

在过去也通用，

Steno planted seeds for uniformitarianism,

斯坦诺为均变论埋下了种子，

the idea that the past was shaped by processes

其中心思想是过去所发生的改变

和现在正在进行的作用方式相同。

observable today.

In the 18th and 19th centuries,

到了18世纪和19世纪，

English uniformitarian geologists,

英国均变论地质学家

James Hutton and Charles Lyell,

詹姆斯·赫顿和查尔斯·莱尔

studied current, very slow rates

研究了当前十分缓慢的

of erosion and sedimentation

侵蚀和沉积过程，

and realized the Earth had to be way older

意识到地球的年龄要远远老于

than the biblical guestimate, 6000 years.

圣经中所猜测的6000年。

Out of their work came the rock cycle,

他们在研究中发现了岩石循环，

which combined with plate tectonics

在20世纪中期

它和板块构造学说一起

in the mid-twentieth century

to give us the great molten-crusting, quaking,

给予了我们有着熔化的地壳、震动的、

all-encircling theory of the Earth,

包容万象的地球理论，

from a gallstone to a 4.5 billion-year-old planet.

从一颗胆结石到一个45亿年历史的星球。

Now think bigger,

现在，往大处想，

take it to biology.

来看看生物学。

Say you see shark teeth in one layer

假设你在某一岩层找到了鲨鱼牙齿，

and a fossil of an organism

在其下方找到了某种

you've never seen under that.

你从未见过的生物的化石。

The deeper fossil's older, yes?

更深的化石年代更老，对吗？

You now have evidence

你现在有证据表明

of the origin and extinction of species over time.

物种随着时间起源并灭绝。

Get uniformitarian.

拿均变论来说。

Maybe a process still active today

某一种过程可能现在仍在进行，

caused changes not just in rocks but in life.

导致岩石、甚至生命发生变化。

It might also explain similarities and differences

这也可能解释了

between species

由斯丹诺这样的解剖学家所发现的

found by anatomists like Steno.

物种间的相似和不同之处。

It's a lot to ponder,

有很多可以思考的地方，

but Charles Darwin had the time

但是查尔斯·达尔文有时间

on a long trip to the Galapagos,

在前往加拉帕戈斯群岛的漫长旅途中

reading a copy of his friend Charles Lyell's

阅读其好友查尔斯·莱尔的书

"Principles of Geology,"

《地质学原理》，

which Steno sort of founded.

这可以说是斯坦诺所创立的学科。

Sometimes giants stand on the shoulders

有时伟人站在

of curious little people.

好奇的小人物的肩膀上。

Nicolas Steno helped evolve evolution,

尼古拉斯·斯坦诺帮助发展了进化论

broke ground for geology,

为地质学奠基，

and showed how unbiased, empirical observation

并展示了无偏见的经验观察

can cut across intellectual borders

如何能跨越知识的疆界

to deepen our perspective.

来深化我们的洞察力。

His finest accomplishment, though,

然而他最出色的成就

may be his maxim,

可能是他的格言，

casting the search for truth

超越我们的感官和现有的理解

beyond our senses and our current understanding

来寻求真理，

as the pursuit of the beauty

如同追寻未知之美。

of the as yet unknown.

Beautiful is what we see,

我们所见的很美，

more beautiful is what we know,

我们所知的更美，

most beautiful, by far, is what we don't.

而最美的是我们所未知的。