Gary Greenberg: The beautiful nano details of our world

Translator: Joseph Geni Reviewer: Morton Bast

翻译人员: Louise LIANG 校对人员: Jenny Zhou

So I want to talk a little bit about seeing the world

我要讲的是如何

from a totally unique point of view,

从一个全新的角度去看世界

and this world I'm going to talk about is the micro world.

我要说的是微观世界

I've found, after doing this for many, many years,

在从事这项工作多年以后，我发现

that there's a magical world behind reality.

现实的背后藏着一个魔幻的世界

And that can be seen directly through a microscope,

我们可以透过显微镜直接观察它

and I'm going to show you some of this today.

今天我要跟你们分享其中一部分

So let's start off looking at something rather not-so-small,

我们先从那些还不算太小的

something that we can see with our naked eye,

肉眼就能观察到的东西开始吧

and that's a bee. So when you look at this bee,

这是一只蜜蜂 你看它

it's about this size here, it's about a centimeter.

大概是这样的大小 大约一厘米

But to really see the details of the bee, and really

但是如果真的要看清楚细节 真正地

appreciate what it is, you have to look a little bit closer.

欣赏它 你就更近距离地观察

So that's just the eye of the bee with a microscope,

这是在显微镜下蜜蜂的眼部

and now all of a sudden you can see that the bee has

忽然间你能看到蜜蜂的眼睛

thousands of individual eyes called ommatidia,

其实是由上千只小眼所构成 叫做复眼

and they actually have sensory hairs in their eyes

眼睛当中其实还有具传感作用的短毛

so they know when they're right up close to something,

这样如果马上要碰到什么东西的时候能立刻察觉

because they can't see in stereo.

因为蜜蜂是看不到立体影像的

As we go smaller, here is a human hair.

当我们观察得更细微时，这是人类的头发

A human hair is about the smallest thing that the eye can see.

头发大概是肉眼能看到的最小的东西了

It's about a tenth of a millimeter.

大约是十分之一毫米

And as we go smaller again,

让我们再缩小一点

about ten times smaller than that, is a cell.

再小十倍的话，是细胞的大小

So you could fit 10 human cells

十个人体细胞

across the diameter of a human hair.

刚好能排满一根头发直径的长度

So when we would look at cells, this is how I really got

所以说我们观察细胞的时候 这是我参与

involved in biology and science is by looking

生物学和科学研究的方式

at living cells in the microscope.

我用显微镜来观察活细胞

When I first saw living cells in a microscope, I was

当我第一次从显微镜下看到活细胞时，

absolutely enthralled and amazed at what they looked like.

我完全被它们的样子迷住了

So if you look at the cell like that from the immune system,

如果你看到免疫系统的细胞

they're actually moving all over the place.

它们其实活跃于各处

This cell is looking for foreign objects,

这个细胞在寻找异物

bacteria, things that it can find.

细菌等能找到的东西

And it's looking around, and when it finds something,

在此过程中，一旦有了目标

and recognizes it being foreign,

并确认是异物

it will actually engulf it and eat it.

就会把它吞噬掉

So if you look right there, it finds that little bacterium,

你看，就在那里， 它找到了一个小细菌

and it engulfs it and eats it.

于是就把它包围起来吃掉了

If you take some heart cells from an animal,

如果从动物身上取部分心脏细胞

and put it in a dish, they'll just sit there and beat.

再放到培养皿里，它们就会在那里不住地跳动

That's their job. Every cell has a mission in life,

因为这是职责所在 每个生命体内的细胞都有其使命

and these cells, the mission is

这些细胞 它们的任务是

to move blood around our body.

把血液运送到身体各处

These next cells are nerve cells, and right now,

这些是神经细胞 此刻

as we see and understand what we're looking at,

当我们边看边学的时候

our brains and our nerve cells are actually doing this

我们的脑细胞和神经细胞其实也在做一样的事情

right now. They're not just static. They're moving around

它们不是静止的 它们在活动

making new connections, and that's what happens when we learn.

建立新的联系 这是学习的过程

As you go farther down this scale here,

当我们把测量范围进一步缩小

that's a micron, or a micrometer, and we go

就是一微米 接下来

all the way down to here to a nanometer

到纳米

and an angstrom. Now, an angstrom is the size

和埃（一亿分之一厘米）

of the diameter of a hydrogen atom.

埃的大小恰好是一个氢原子的直径的长度

That's how small that is.

这就是小的程度

And microscopes that we have today can actually see

如今的显微镜能让人们

individual atoms. So these are some pictures

看到独立的原子 这些是它们的

of individual atoms. Each bump here is an individual atom.

照片 每一个凸起都是一个单独的原子

This is a ring of cobalt atoms.

这是一圈钴原子

So this whole world, the nano world, this area in here

这一切，这个纳米世界, 以上

is called the nano world, and the nano world,

被称为纳米世界

the whole micro world that we see,

在整个看得见的微观世界里面

there's a nano world that is wrapped up within that, and

还藏着这样一个纳米世界

the whole -- and that is the world of molecules and atoms.

这是分子和原子的世界

But I want to talk about this larger world,

但是我要讲的是相对较大的那个

the world of the micro world.

即微观世界

So if you were a little tiny bug living in a flower,

假设你是住在花朵里的一只小昆虫

what would that flower look like, if the flower was this big?

那朵花看起来是什么样子的呢，如果它有这么大的话

It wouldn't look or feel like anything that we see

看上去和感觉上跟人类

when we look at a flower. So if you look at this flower here,

观察到的角度肯定是不一样的 所以如果你从这里看这朵花

and you're a little bug, if you're on that surface

而你又是一只虫子 就在花里头

of that flower, that's what the terrain would look like.

这个就是它看上去的样子

The petal of that flower looks like that, so the ant

花瓣是这样的 而小蚂蚁

is kind of crawling over these objects, and if you look

就在这些东西上面爬行 如果再靠近一点的话

a little bit closer at this stigma and the stamen here,

在柱头和雄蕊这里

this is the style of that flower, and you notice

这是花柱 注意看

that it's got these little -- these are like little jelly-like things

上面有这些细小 像喈哩状的东西

that are what are called spurs. These are nectar spurs.

我们称为花距 这是蜜距

So this little ant that's crawling here, it's like

换而言之 对小蚂蚁而言 就像

it's in a little Willy Wonka land.

置身于威力旺卡(Willy Wonka)的奇妙世界当中一样

It's like a little Disneyland for them. It's not like what we see.

有如身处迪士尼乐园 跟我们看到的不一样

These are little bits of individual grain of pollen

这是颗粒花粉的样子

there and there, and here is a --

在那里 还有那里 这个呢

what you see as one little yellow dot of pollen,

是你看到的那些呈黄点状的花粉

when you look in a microscope, it's actually made

透过显微镜 它其实是由

of thousands of little grains of pollen.

上千个细小的花粉粒所组成

So this, for example, when you see bees flying around

举例来说 当你看到蜜蜂环绕着

these little plants, and they're collecting pollen,

这些小株植物飞行 并采集花粉时

those pollen grains that they're collecting, they pack

它们搜集花粉粒

into their legs and they take it back to the hive,

把它们藏在腿上 再带回巢中

and that's what makes the beehive,

是建筑蜂巢的原料

the wax in the beehive. And they're also collecting nectar,

就是蜂蜡 同时它们也搜集花蜜

and that's what makes the honey that we eat.

也就是酿造我们吃的蜂蜜的材料

Here's a close-up picture, or this is actually a regular picture

这是一幅特写，就是平常的

of a water hyacinth, and if you had really, really good vision,

凤眼蓝的图片，假如你有很好的视力

with your naked eye, you'd see it about that well.

肉眼就能看得同样清楚了

There's the stamen and the pistil. But look what the stamen

这是雄蕊和雌蕊 再来看

and the pistil look like in a microscope. That's the stamen.

显微镜下它们的样子 这是雄蕊

So that's thousands of little grains of pollen there,

这是上千个花粉微粒

and there's the pistil there, and these are the little things

这是雌蕊 这些小东西

called trichomes. And that's what makes the flower give

称为毛状物 是花朵用来散发香味用的

a fragrance, and plants actually communicate

植物之间的沟通

with one another through their fragrances.

用的就是它们的香气

I want to talk about something really ordinary,

我想讲一些真的很常见的事物

just ordinary sand.

平常的沙粒

I became interested in sand about 10 years ago,

大约十年前起我开始对沙产生了兴趣

when I first saw sand from Maui,

当我初次见到来自毛伊岛(Maui)的沙的时候

and in fact, this is a little bit of sand from Maui.

这就是毛伊岛的沙

So sand is about a tenth of a millimeter in size.

一粒沙差不多是十分一毫米

Each sand grain is about a tenth of a millimeter in size.

每一粒都大概是这个大小

But when you look closer at this, look at what's there.

但当你靠近细看时，看看观察的结果

It's really quite amazing. You have microshells there.

是很迷人的 你看到的是微小的贝壳

You have things like coral.

有像珊瑚一样的东西

You have fragments of other shells. You have olivine.

还有其他贝类的碎片 有橄榄石

You have bits of a volcano. There's a little bit

火山碎片 那里有一点点

of a volcano there. You have tube worms.

是火山碎片 还有管栖蠕虫

An amazing array of incredible things exist in sand.

沙里面藏着许多引人入胜的东西

And the reason that is, is because in a place like this island,

之所以有这样的结果，是因为这个岛上

a lot of the sand is made of biological material

大部分的沙都是由生物材料构成的

because the reefs provide a place where all these

因为礁石是许多

microscopic animals or macroscopic animals grow,

极小生物生长的地方

and when they die, their shells and their teeth

当它们死去后他们的壳和牙齿

and their bones break up and they make grains of sand,

还有骨头会分解形成沙粒

things like coral and so forth.

像是珊瑚等

So here's, for example, a picture of sand from Maui.

比方说 这就是一幅毛伊岛上沙的图片

This is from Lahaina,

这是来自于拉海纳(Lhaina)

and when we're walking along a beach, we're actually

我们沿着沙滩走的时候其实

walking along millions of years of biological and geological history.

也正在浏览历经百万年的生物学和地理学历史

We don't realize it, but it's actually a record

我们或者没有意识到这点，但它确实

of that entire ecology.

是生态系统的完整纪录

So here we see, for example, a sponge spicule,

请看 这是一个海绵骨针

two bits of coral here,

两个珊瑚碎片

that's a sea urchin spine. Really some amazing stuff.

一根海胆刺 真的是很吸引人的

So when I first looked at this, I was -- I thought,

所以我第一次看的时候我想的是

gee, this is like a little treasure trove here.

这简直是一个宝库啊

I couldn't believe it, and I'd go around dissecting

实在让人难以置信 我到处寻找

the little bits out and making photographs of them.

分析这些细小的片断 再为它们拍照

Here's what most of the sand in our world looks like.

世界上大部分的沙看起来是这个样子的

These are quartz crystals and feldspar,

这些是石英晶体和长石

so most sand in the world on the mainland

也就是说地球大陆上大多数的沙

is made of quartz crystal and feldspar. It's the erosion of granite rock.

都是石英晶体和长石构成的 是花岗岩被侵蚀后的产物

So mountains are built up, and they erode away by water

山脉形成后经历流水

and rain and ice and so forth,

和冰霜雨雪等的洗礼

and they become grains of sand.

最后就成了沙子

There's some sand that's really much more colorful.

有一些沙的色彩特别丰富

These are sand from near the Great Lakes,

这些是五大湖区附近的沙

and you can see that it's filled with minerals

可以看到里面有

like pink garnet and green epidote, all kinds of amazing stuff,

粉色石榴石和绿帘石以及各种神奇的矿物质

and if you look at different sands from different places,

当观察来自不同地方的沙

every single beach, every single place you look at sand,

每一片海滩每一个地方的沙

it's different. Here's from Big Sur, like they're little jewels.

都是不一样的。这是大苏尔(Big Sur)海岸的沙 它们像小粒的珠宝

There are places in Africa where they do the mining

在非洲某处 人们开采宝石的地方

of jewels, and you go to the sand where the rivers have

你去看江河汇入

the sand go down to the ocean, and it's like literally looking

大海处的沙 在显微镜下就跟

at tiny jewels through the microscope.

看着微小的宝石一般

So every grain of sand is unique. Every beach is different.

所以说每一粒沙都是独一无二的. 每处沙滩也各不相同

Every single grain is different. There are no two grains

这世上没有

of sand alike in the world.

一模一样的两粒砂

Every grain of sand is coming somewhere and going somewhere.

每一粒沙子都有自己的过去和未来

They're like a snapshot in time.

通过沙粒我们看到一幅浓缩了时空的快照

Now sand is not only on Earth, but sand is

不仅在地球上有沙

ubiquitous throughout the universe. In fact, outer space

宇宙当中它们也是无处不在的 事实上 外太空

is filled with sand, and that sand comes together

充斥着沙 它们汇聚一体

to make our planets and the Moon.

形成我们的行星和月球

And you can see those in micrometeorites.

你看这些微小的陨石

This is some micrometeorites that the Army gave me,

是军方提供的

and they get these out of the drinking wells in the South Pole.

来自南极饮用水的取水井

And they're quite amazing-looking, and these are the

实在是非常迷人 正是这些

tiny constituents that make up the world that we live in --

微小的元素造就了我们所生活的

the planets and the Moon.

行星系和月球

So NASA wanted me to take some pictures of Moon sand,

美国宇航局局(NASA)希望我能给月球上的沙拍点照片

so they sent me sand from all the different landings

他们把四十年前阿波罗计划登月时在不同着陆点

of the Apollo missions that happened 40 years ago.

所搜集到的沙发给了我

And I started taking pictures with my three-dimensional microscopes.

然后我就开始用三维显微镜给它们拍照

This was the first picture I took. It was kind of amazing.

这是第一张 惊人的美

I thought it looked kind of a little bit like the Moon, which is sort of interesting.

我觉得它看上去就像月球 所以很妙

Now, the way my microscopes work is, normally

显微镜的工作原理是 通常情况下

in a microscope you can see very little at one time,

用显微镜 我们每次能观察到的并不多

so what you have to do is you have to refocus the microscope,

所以就必须不断的重新对焦

keep taking pictures, and then I have a computer program

连续拍摄 然后运用电脑程序

that puts all those pictures together

汇总所有的照片

into one picture so you can see actually what it looks like,

整合为一张后才能看到真实的样子

and I do that in 3D. So there, you can see,

而我则要在三维空间里做上述的事 请看

is a left-eye view. There's a right-eye view.

这是左眼的视角 这是右眼的视角

So sort of left-eye view, right-eye view.

就像先左边看 再右边看

Now something's interesting here. This looks very different

这里很有趣的是 它看起来

than any sand on Earth that I've ever seen, and I've

跟我所看过的所有地球上的沙都不一样

seen a lot of sand on Earth, believe me. (Laughter)

相信我 地球上的沙我看得可不少

Look at this hole in the middle. That hole was caused

你看中间的空洞 它是由于

by a micrometeorite hitting the Moon.

小陨石撞击月球而形成的

Now, the Moon has no atmosphere, so micrometeorites

因为月球没有大气层 所以

come in continuously, and the whole surface of the Moon

会不断受到陨尘的袭击 月球表面

is covered with powder now, because for four billion years

如今呈粉末状 就是由于40亿年来

it's been bombarded by micrometeorites,

不断被陨尘撞击的结果

and when micrometeorites come in at about

当陨尘以

20 to 60,000 miles an hour, they vaporize on contact.

每小时20到六万英里的速度袭来时 一旦击中目标便会气化

And you can see here that that is --

你可以从这里看到 那就是

that's sort of vaporized, and that material is holding this

类似气化后的状况 它能

little clump of little sand grains together.

把细小的沙粒凝聚在一起

This is a very small grain of sand, this whole thing.

这是一粒小沙子

And that's called a ring agglutinate.

也被称作环状凝聚物

And many of the grains of sand on the Moon look like that,

许多月球表面的沙粒都是这个样子的

and you'd never find that on Earth.

而地球上找不到

Most of the sand on the Moon,

月球上大部分的沙

especially -- and you know when you look at the Moon,

尤其是，你可以看到月球

there's the dark areas and the light areas. The dark areas

有背光面也有向光面

are lava flows. They're basaltic lava flows,

背光面是熔岩流 是玄武岩的熔岩流

and that's what this sand looks like, very similar

这是它们的沙的样子

to the sand that you would see in Haleakala.

和哈里阿卡拉火山（Haleakala）的沙很像

Other sands, when these micrometeorites come in,

其他的沙子 当陨石接近时

they vaporize and they make these fountains,

它们会气化而形成这些喷泉

these microscopic fountains that go up into the --

这些微小的喷泉喷涌而上

I was going to say "up into the air," but there is no air --

我本来想说冲到空中，但是这里并没有空气

goes sort of up, and these microscopic glass beads

那就只能说涌向上方吧 这些微粒

are formed instantly, and they harden, and by the time

瞬间成型并固化为玻璃状的颗粒

they fall down back to the surface of the Moon,

当它们坠回月球表面的时候

they have these beautiful colored glass spherules.

就成了色彩斑斓的玻璃小球

And these are actually microscopic;

它们都是能用显微镜捕捉得到的

you need a microscope to see these.

只要有合适的工具

Now here's a grain of sand that is from the Moon,

这是一颗来自月球的沙粒

and you can see that the entire

你能看到完整的

crystal structure is still there.

剔透的结构仍得以完整的呈现

This grain of sand is probably about

这粒沙大概有

three and a half or four billion years old,

三十五亿到四十亿年的历史了

and it's never eroded away like the way we have sand

它没有像地球上的沙那样

on Earth erodes away because of water and tumbling,

受到水分，碰撞

air, and so forth. All you can see is a little bit of erosion

空气等的侵蚀 只有看到的极小的侵蚀

down here by the Sun, has these solar storms,

来自太阳 像是太阳雨

and that's erosion by solar radiation.

和太阳辐射

So what I've been trying to tell you today is

所以说 今天我想告诉大家的是

things even as ordinary as a grain of sand

平凡如一粒沙

can be truly extraordinary if you look closely

只要观察入微，也有它独特的魅力

and if you look from a different and a new point of view.

只要你能找到不同的视角和新的观察角度

I think that this was best put by William Blake when he said,

我想英国诗人威廉·布莱克(William Blake)说的最好了

"To see a world in a grain of sand

一沙一世界

and a heaven in a wild flower,

一花一片天

hold infinity in the palm of your hand,

掌中握无限

and eternity in an hour."

永恒刹那间

Thank you. (Applause)

谢谢（掌声）