To solve old problems, study new species | Alejandro Sánchez Alvarado

Translator: Leslie Gauthier Reviewer: Camille Martínez

翻译人员: Weidi Liu 校对人员: Yinchun Rui

For the past few years,

过去的几年里，

我在马萨诸塞州Woods Hole的 海洋生物实验室

I've been spending my summers in the marine biological laboratory

in Woods Hole, Massachusetts.

度过了好几个夏天。

And there, what I've been doing is essentially renting a boat.

我在那里的主要工作是租一艘船。

今晚，我想邀请你们

What I would like to do is ask you

to come on a boat ride with me tonight.

与我乘船同行。

So, we ride off from Eel Pond into Vineyard Sound,

我们从Eel Pond出发， 前往Vineyard Sound，

right off the coast of Martha's Vineyard,

就在Martha's Vineyard的海岸边，

equipped with a drone to identify potential spots

用无人机去辨识出那些 能让我们窥视大西洋秘密的

from which to peer into the Atlantic.

可能地点。

我之前想说的是窥视大西洋的深处，

Earlier, I was going to say into the depths of the Atlantic,

but we don't have to go too deep to reach the unknown.

但是我们不用去那么远的 地方去发现未知生物。

Here, barely two miles away

就在大概距岸边两英里，

from what is arguably the greatest marine biology lab in the world,

可能是世界上最棒的 海洋生物实验室的地方，

we lower a simple plankton net into the water

我们放下了一张简易的 浮游生物采集网，

and bring up to the surface

那些人类很少注意到，

things that humanity rarely pays any attention to,

大部分人从未见过的生命，

and oftentimes has never seen before.

就此浮出水面。

Here's one of the organisms that we caught in our net.

这是我们用网捕获的生物中的一类。

这是一只水母。

This is a jellyfish.

But look closely,

但是仔细观察，

and living inside of this animal is another organism

在它体内生活的是另外一种，

很可能属于学术领域的未知生物。

that is very likely entirely new to science.

A complete new species.

一个全新的物种。

再看看这个透明可爱的小东西，

Or how about this other transparent beauty

with a beating heart,

它拥有一个跳动的心脏，

asexually growing on top of its head,

头部顶端可以进行无性繁殖，

progeny that will move on to reproduce sexually.

而它的后代却可以进行有性繁殖。

Let me say that again:

我想再强调一次：

这种生物可以在头部顶端 进行无性繁殖，

this animal is growing asexually on top of its head,

progeny that is going to reproduce sexually in the next generation.

而它的后代通过 有性繁殖产生下一代。

A weird jellyfish?

这是一种奇怪的水母吗？

Not quite.

并不是。

这是一种海鞘。

This is an ascidian.

This is a group of animals

我们现在知道

我们和这一大类动物共享 大量遗传基因，

that now we know we share extensive genomic ancestry with,

and it is perhaps the closest invertebrate species to our own.

而且它们或许是 最接近我们的无脊椎物种。

Meet your cousin,

见见你的表亲，

Thalia democratica.

双尾纽鳃樽吧。

（笑声）

(Laughter)

我很确定你们在最近的一次 家族聚会时候都没有给它

I'm pretty sure you didn't save a spot at your last family reunion

留一个座位，

for Thalia,

but let me tell you,

但是听我说，

these animals are profoundly related to us

这些生物和我们息息相关，

in ways that we're just beginning to understand.

以某些我们刚刚开始理解的方式。

下次你听见其他人嘲笑这类研究

So, next time you hear anybody derisively telling you

that this type of research is a simple fishing expedition,

只是一项简单的捕捞征途，

I hope that you'll remember the trip that we just took.

我希望你能记住我们刚刚经历的旅程。

Today, many of the biological sciences only see value

目前，许多生物方面的研究只看到

in studying deeper what we already know --

深究我们已知的方面的价值——

就像描绘已发现的大陆一样。

in mapping already-discovered continents.

但是我们之中的一些人 对于未知的部分更有兴趣。

But some of us are much more interested in the unknown.

We want to discover completely new continents,

我们想要探索全新的大陆，

and gaze at magnificent vistas of ignorance.

凝望无限的未知。

We crave the experience of being completely baffled

我们渴望获得被前所未知的事物

by something we've never seen before.

完全困惑的经历。

And yes, I agree

是的，我承认，

there's a lot of little ego satisfaction in being able to say,

说出这句话能给予极大的自我满足：

“嘿，我是第一个发现它的！”

"Hey, I was the first one to discover that."

但这并不是能让你 自我感觉颇有成就的研究。

But this is not a self-aggrandizing enterprise,

因为在这类探索性研究中，

because in this type of discovery research,

if you don't feel like a complete idiot most of the time,

如果你没有在大多数时间 觉得自己是个笨蛋的话，

you're just not sciencing hard enough.

说明你还不够投入。

(Laughter)

（笑声）

每个夏天，当我来到 这艘小船的甲板上，

So every summer I bring onto the deck of this little boat of ours

都会发现有许多的事情 我们只是略知皮毛。

more and more things that we know very little about.

I would like tonight to tell you a story about life

我想通过今晚的演讲 告诉大家一个关于生命的故事，

that rarely gets told in an environment like this.

一个极少在这种情形下提起的故事。

From the vantage point of our 21st-century biological laboratories,

在21世纪生物实验室的巅峰时期，

we have begun to illuminate many mysteries of life with knowledge.

我们开始运用知识 点亮许多生命中的未知。

We sense that after centuries of scientific research,

我们感觉到在几百年的科学研究中，

we're beginning to make significant inroads

我们正在大步踏入

into understanding some of the most fundamental principles of life.

理解某些关于生命 最基本原理的过程。

Our collective optimism is reflected by the growth of biotechnology

我们的集体乐观反应在全球范围内

across the globe,

生物科技的发展中，

striving to utilize scientific knowledge to cure human diseases.

努力去运用科学知识治疗人类疾病。

Things like cancer, aging, degenerative diseases;

比如癌症，衰老，退化疾病；

these are but some of the undesirables we wish to tame.

它们是我们不想要的， 我们需要驯服它们。

I often wonder:

我经常感到迷惑，

Why is it that we are having so much trouble

为什么我们在尝试 治疗癌症的过程中

trying to solve the problem of cancer?

面临如此多的问题？

是因为我们仅仅着眼于 解决癌症这个问题，

Is it that we're trying to solve the problem of cancer,

and not trying to understand life?

却没有尝试去理解生命吗？

Life on this planet shares a common origin,

这个星球上的生命拥有同一个起源，

and I can summarize 3.5 billion years of the history of life on this planet

而且我能用一页ppt描述 35亿年之间在这个星球上

in a single slide.

关于生命的历史。

What you see here are representatives of all known species in our planet.

你们所看到的图代表了我们星球上 所有已知的物种。

In this immensity of life and biodiversity,

在这广大的生命和生物多样性之中，

we occupy a rather unremarkable position.

我们只占据了一个非常不起眼的位置。

(Laughter)

（笑声）

Homo sapiens.

智人。

人类的最终演化版本。

The last of our kind.

And though I don't really want to disparage at all

即使我完全没有蔑视

the accomplishments of our species,

我们物种成就的意思，

as much as we wish it to be so and often pretend that it is,

就算我们十分希望并且认为占据优势，

we are not the measure of all things.

我们也不是所有事情的衡量标准。

We are, however, the measurers of many things.

我们的确是许多事情的衡量者。

We relentlessly quantify, analyze and compare,

我们无休止地量化，分析和比较，

其中的一部分工作 的确是无价和必要的。

and some of this is absolutely invaluable and indeed necessary.

But this emphasis today on forcing biological research to specialize

但是对此过分强调导致了 现在的生物研究专精化，

而且产生的实际可用成果

and to produce practical outcomes

is actually restricting our ability to interrogate life

正在把我们对生命的探寻限制于

to unacceptably narrow confines and unsatisfying depths.

过于狭小的范围和差强人意的深度中。

我们测量的只是生命中 极小的一块样品薄片，

We are measuring an astonishingly narrow sliver of life,

奢望那些数字可以 拯救我们所有人的性命。

and hoping that those numbers will save all of our lives.

How narrow do you ask?

小到什么程度？

Well, let me give you a number.

我可以给你一个数字。

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration recently estimated

国家海洋和大气管理局最近估计

有95%的海洋尚未被探索。

that about 95 percent of our oceans remain unexplored.

Now let that sink in for a second.

花一秒钟仔细想想。

95%的海洋尚未探索。

95 percent of our oceans remain unexplored.

I think it's very safe to say

如果说我们连对生命的未知有多少

that we don't even know how much about life we do not know.

都一无所知，也并不为过。

So, it's not surprising that every week in my field

在我的研究方向， 每周都会有新物种被添加到

we begin to see the addition of more and more new species

这颗令人惊叹的生命之树，

to this amazing tree of life.

一点也不足为奇。

This one for example --

举例而言，

discovered earlier this summer,

这个物种就是在这个初夏发现的，

new to science,

科学界对它一无所知，

and now occupying its lonely branch in our family tree.

现在已经在我们的族谱上 占据了自己的位置。

What is even more tragic

更可悲的是，

我们已知有那么多的物种，

is that we know about a bunch of other species of animals out there,

but their biology remains sorely under-studied.

但是对它们的生物结构 却没有深入的研究。

I'm sure some of you have heard about the fact

我很确信有些人听过一个事实，

that a starfish can actually regenerate its arm after it's lost.

海星可以在失去一根触手之后再生。

But some of you might not know

但是你们或许不知道的是，

that the arm itself can actually regenerate a complete starfish.

一根触手可以再生成一个完整的海星。

And there are animals out there that do truly astounding things.

还有许多动物可以完成 更多令人难以置信的事。

I'm almost willing to bet

我甚至愿意打赌，

你们大概从未听说过 一种扁虫，淡水涡虫。

that many of you have never heard of the flatworm, Schmidtea mediterranea.

This little guy right here

这个小家伙

does things that essentially just blow my mind.

能够办到一些我不敢相信的事情。

你可以抓一个并把它切成十八段，

You can grab one of these animals and cut it into 18 different fragments,

每一段都会开始再生，

and each and every one of those fragments will go on to regenerate

a complete animal

直到变成一个完整的生命体，

in under two weeks.

而这一切都发生在两周之内。

18 heads, 18 bodies, 18 mysteries.

18个头部，18个身躯，18个秘密。

For the past decade and a half or so,

在过去的十五年左右，

I've been trying to figure out how these little dudes do what they do,

我一直想弄明白这些 小家伙是怎么做到的，

and how they pull this magic trick off.

它们是如何施展它的魔法的。

But like all good magicians,

但是就和所有优秀的魔术师一样，

they're not really releasing their secrets readily to me.

他们不会真的对我们揭晓这些秘密。

(Laughter)

（笑声）

So here we are,

就这样，

after 20 years of essentially studying these animals,

在对于这些动物20年的基础研究中，

genome mapping, chin scratching,

绘制基因图谱，划痕实验，

and thousands of amputations and thousands of regenerations,

数千次的切割和再生，

we still don't fully understand how these animals do what they do.

我们依旧不完全理解 它们是怎么做到的。

每一个真涡虫对它们自己而言，

Each planarian an ocean unto itself,

full of unknowns.

都是充满了未知的海洋。

One of the common characteristics

我对你们提到的

这些动物有一种共有的特性，

of all of these animals I've been talking to you about

我们从目前世界各地的 生物实验室中

is that they did not appear to have received the memo

that they need to behave according to the rules

占据主流的动物中抽取了

that we have derived from a handful of randomly selected animals

一些随机样本，并总结出了规律，

that currently populate the vast majority

但是它们的行为

并不符合实验记录中描述的规律。

of biomedical laboratories across the world.

这是我们的诺贝尔奖获得者们。

Meet our Nobel Prize winners.

Seven species, essentially,

仅仅七个物种，

that have produced for us the brunt of our understanding

就足以提供我们目前对于生物行为的

所有基础理解。

of biological behavior today.

这个小东西——

This little guy right here --

three Nobel Prizes in 12 years.

12年里拿到了三次诺贝尔奖。

And yet, after all the attention they have garnered,

它们在吸引了许多关注，

and all the knowledge they have generated,

产生出许多知识，

并分享了大量的研究基金后，

as well as the lion's share of the funding,

我们仍然站在一连串复杂难解的问题

here we are standing [before] the same litany of intractable problems

和全新的挑战面前。

and many new challenges.

And that's because, unfortunately,

这是因为，很遗憾，

这七种动物只代表了

these seven animals essentially correspond

to 0.0009 percent of all of the species that inhabit the planet.

目前地球上0.0009%的物种。

So I'm beginning to suspect

所以我开始怀疑，

that our specialization is beginning to impede our progress at best,

这样的专精即使在最好的情况下 也是在阻碍我们的进步，

最坏的情况则会让我们误入歧途。

and at worst, is leading us astray.

That's because life on this planet and its history

毕竟这颗星球上的生命以及它们的历史，

is the history of rule breakers.

正是一段规则破坏者的历史。

Life started on the face of this planet as single-cell organisms,

在这颗星球的表面上， 生命起源于单细胞生物，

swimming for millions of years in the ocean,

在海洋里畅游了几百万年，

直到其中一个决定：

until one of those creatures decided,

"I'm going to do things differently today;

“从今天起我要尝试一些新鲜的事儿；

today I would like to invent something called multicellularity,

我要发明一种叫做多细胞的东西，

and I'm going to do this."

我一定会做到。“

And I'm sure it wasn't a popular decision at the time --

我很确定这不是一个在当时看来 常见的决定——但是不知为何，

(Laughter)

（笑声）

but somehow, it managed to do it.

它决定了这么去做。

然后，多细胞生物在远古海洋中

And then, multicellular organisms began to populate

all these ancestral oceans,

开始繁衍生息，

并且蓬勃发展。

and they thrived.

And we have them here today.

它们如今也依然存在。

Land masses began to emerge from the surface of the oceans,

陆地浮出于海平面上方，

and another creature thought,

另一个生物想到，

"Hey, that looks like a really nice piece of real estate.

“那里看上去像是一块不错的不动产。

我想要搬去那里。“

I'd like to move there."

"Are you crazy?

“你疯了吗？

You're going to desiccate out there. Nothing can live out of water."

从这里离开你会缺水而死。 没有什么可以离开水而存活。“

But life found a way,

但是生命克服了这个困难，

然后就有了现在在陆地上生活的生物。

and there are organisms now that live on land.

Once on land, they may have looked up into the sky

又一次，在陆地上， 它们或许看向天空说到：

and said, "It would be nice to go to the clouds,

“能去云里面就好了，

我想飞。“

I'm going to fly."

“你不可能打破重力的束缚， 别做梦了。”

"You can't break the law of gravity, there's no way you can fly."

And yet, nature has invented --

然后，自然就创造了——

multiple and independent times --

许许多多各式各样的——

ways to fly.

方式去飞行。

I love to study these animals that break the rules,

我热爱研究那些打破规则的动物，

because every time they break a rule, they invent something new

因为每次它们打破束缚， 就创造了一些新的方法，

that made it possible for us to be able to be here today.

一些帮助我们最终存活下来的方法。

These animals did not get the memo.

这些动物并没有见过实验记录。

They break the rules.

它们打破了规则。

So if we're going to study animals that break the rules,

所以如果我们要研究 这些打破规则的动物，

我们是否应该在研究的 方法上同样打破规则？

shouldn't how we study them also break the rules?

I think we need to renew our spirit of exploration.

我认为我们应该重拾探险精神。

Rather than bring nature into our laboratories

比起把自然界搬回我们的实验室

and interrogate it there,

并且在那里开展研究，

we need to bring our science

我们应该把科学研究

放回自然，这个最广阔的研究场所。

into the majestic laboratory that is nature,

and there, with our modern technological armamentarium,

在那里，运用我们的现代科学技术，

interrogate every new form of life we find,

仔细研究每一种拥有新形式的生命，

and any new biological attribute that we may find.

和我们找到的每一种新的生物属性。

We actually need to bring all of our intelligence

我们需要竭尽全力，

to becoming stupid again --

从智慧重回愚笨——

clueless [before] the immensity of the unknown.

变得在无尽的未知前毫无头绪。

因为毕竟，

Because after all,

science is not really about knowledge.

科学不只关乎知识。

Science is about ignorance.

科学更是和未知息息相关。

That's what we do.

这正是我们所做的。

Once, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry wrote,

曾经，安托万·德·圣-埃克苏佩里 （小王子作者）写到：

"If you want to build a ship,

“如果你想造一艘船，

don't drum up people to collect wood

不要让人们一直收集木材，

and don't assign them tasks and work,

不要指派他们任务和工作，

而是要激发他们 对于无穷无尽的海洋的渴望......“

but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea ..."

As a scientist and a teacher,

作为一位科学家和老师，

I like to paraphrase this to read

我想要这样解读这句话：

that we scientists need to teach our students

“科学家需要教会我们的学生，

to long for the endless immensity of the sea

去追寻那无穷无尽的海洋，

也就是我们的无知。“

that is our ignorance.

We Homo sapiens are the only species we know of

我们智人是唯一一种已知的

that is driven to scientific inquiry.

趋向于科学探知的物种。

We, like all other species on this planet,

我们，就像这颗星球上其他物种一样，

are inextricably woven into the history of life on this planet.

在一点一点编织着 这颗星球上关于生命的历史。

And I think I'm a little wrong when I say that life is a mystery,

我想我把生命形容成 一个谜团可能并不准确，

因为我认为生命实质上 是一个开放的秘密，

because I think that life is actually an open secret

that has been beckoning our species for millennia to understand it.

花了上千年的时间等待我们去理解。

So I ask you:

所以我想问问大家：

Aren't we the best chance that life has to know itself?

难道我们（的存在）不正是了解 生命本身的最好机会吗？

如果真是这样，

And if so,

我们又在等待什么呢？

what the heck are we waiting for?

Thank you.

谢谢大家。

(Applause)

（掌声）