How hip-hop helps us understand science | Danielle N. Lee

譯者: Val Zhang 審譯者: Thomas Tam

How y'all doing?

你們好嗎？

Good.

太好了。

I came here to give you a science lesson

我今天要為大家上一堂科學課，

about animal mating systems

關於動物交配體系，

and why defining monogamy has been a challenge for scientists.

跟為什麼定義一夫一妻制 對科學家來說並不容易。

But you won't need a textbook or to download an online lecture.

但你不需要教科書， 或從網路下載講義。

All you'll simply need to do is revisit the song "OPP"

你只需要重溫「天生頑皮」 名曲「OPP」。

by Naughty by Nature.

(Laughter)

（笑聲）

It was released in 1991.

這首歌在 1991 年發行。

Now, "OPP" is a call-and-response song.

「OPP」是歌手和聽眾 互動的唱答歌曲。

So throughout the talk, I'm going to put lyrics up on the screen,

這演說的過程中，我會 把歌詞放在螢幕上。

and I'm going to recite some

我會讀出一些，

and I'm going to prompt you

輪到你們反應的時候， 我也會提示你們，好嗎？

when it's your turn to do the response, OK?

(Cheers)

（歡呼聲）

Now, I know some people in this audience know this song,

我想有些觀眾應該知道這首歌。

so I need you to lead the way with the tempo and the rhythm,

所以我希望可以請你們負責節奏。

if that's alright, OK?

好嗎？

Right, y'all ready?

你們準備好了嗎？

You down with OPP?

對 OPP 無法自拔？

Audience: Yeah, you know me!

觀眾：耶～你懂的！

DNL: You down with OPP?

丹妮爾：對 OPP 無法自拔？

Audience: Yeah, you know me!

觀眾：耶～你懂的！

DNL: You down with OPP?

丹：對 OPP 無法自拔？

Audience: Yeah, you know me!

觀眾：耶～你懂的！

DNL: That was perfect.

丹：太棒了！

Thank you.

謝謝你們。

"OPP, how can I explain it?

「我該怎麼解釋 OPP 呢？

I'll take it frame by frame it.

讓我逐字拆解，

直到你們全跟著又唱又跳。

To have y'all jumping shout and singing it

O 是「其他」，P 是「人們」。 要反覆思索。

O is for other, P is for people. scratch your temple.

The last P, well, that's not that simple."

最後一個 P，可沒那麼單純。」

Now, in the song, the MC hints that it's a five-letter word,

在這首歌裡饒舌者暗示 這是有五個字母的單詞。

but to keep it rated PG,

因為涉及成人議題，

he simply refers to it as "property."

因此他稱之為「資產」。

(Laughter)

（笑聲）

The song is about cheating on your significant other.

這首歌是關於背著另一半出軌。

Now, around the time that this song was in heavy rotation,

這首歌流行的時候，

biologists were in deep discussion about whether bird species,

生物學家正深入地探討：

鳥類尤其像是鳴禽和水禽，

notably songbirds and waterfowl were actually monogamous or not.

到底是否確實是一夫一妻制？

See, for decades, generations of science students

幾十年來，好幾代的科學生

were taught that well over 90 percent of the bird species were monogamous.

學到的觀念是：超過 90% 種鳥類是一夫一妻制。

A male and female mating faithfully for life.

一公一母終身彼此忠誠。

That was until the late 1980s,

直到 1980 年代末，

when a new laboratory technique came on the scene,

一種新的實驗室技術問世了。

which could copy DNA from a small tissue or fluid sample

可以從少量的組織 或液體樣本複製 DNA

and decode the genetics of individuals.

並解碼個體的遺傳基因。

Now, before that technique,

在這項技術之前，

we were never ever certain about,

我們從來沒有辦法百分之百確定，

100 percent, who the parents of baby birds were.

幼鳥的父母是誰。

All we had were our field notes.

我們有的僅是田野紀錄的筆記。

And we would know which adults lived in a nest

知道哪些成鳥住在巢裡，

and which ones fed the baby birds.

哪些會餵養牠們的幼鳥。

Well, come to find out, study after study kept coming in

慢慢地，一個接著一個研究發現，

and we found so much evidence of infidelity --

我們找到許多不忠誠的證據。

(Laughter)

（笑聲）

among bird species,

在鳥類之中，

particularly these songbirds

特別是鳴禽，

that we thought were the pinnacle of monogamy.

人類以為牠們是自然界 一夫一妻制的典範。

這發現吸睛的程度，會讓主持 親子鑑定節目的莫瑞·波維奇忌妒。

It would have made Maury Povich jealous for the ratings.

(Laughter)

（笑聲）

It rocked biology and ornithology so hard,

震撼了生物與鳥類學界，

we had to modify and expand the entire definition of monogamy.

我們不得不修改和擴展 一夫一妻制的定義。

Now, it was so bad that this was the headline

討論越演愈烈，

甚至成為《紐約時報》 科學版的頭條。

of the "New York Times" science section,

1990 年的 8 月刊出：

August, 1990.

"Mating for Life? It's not for the Birds or the Bees."

「從一而終？ 對鳥類和蜜蜂可不適用。」

(Laughter)

（笑聲）

We had to come up with new definitions.

我們得提出新的定義。

The situation where an individual would change partners,

個體會更換伴侶，

either between breeding seasons

不論是在交配的季節，

or just simply because they didn't like their partner anymore?

或僅僅是因為牠們 不再喜歡其伴侶的這種情況，

We now call this "serial monogamy."

我們現在稱之為 「連續的一夫一妻制」。

(Laughter)

（笑聲）

I didn't know it was going to be this funny.

我不知道你們會覺得這麼有趣。

(Laughter)

（笑聲）

The situation where we know the male and female pair together

有些狀況是一公一母會結合，

and all the babies belong to both partners?

而所有的幼鳥都屬於這對伴侶。

We call that "genetic monogamy."

我們稱之為 「基因上的一夫一妻制」。

And we now recognize that it only holds true

現在我們知道，這只佔了 鳴禽的 14% 而已，

for about 14 percent of the songbird species,

我們曾經非常篤定這是 嚴格的一夫一妻制的物種。

which we were very certain were truly monogamous.

And with this reclassification,

透過這次重新分類，

we realized that in a lot of those field observations

我們發現在很多田野調查中

where we saw a male and female sharing a nest,

看到一公一母共同築巢、

comaintaining a territory, even provisioning offspring together,

共同保衛領土，甚至一起養育幼鳥，

often included a few baby birds that did not belong to the male partner.

這些幼鳥其實 常常不屬於同一隻公鳥。

We call this "social monogamy."

我們稱之為 「社會性的一夫一妻制」。

(Laughter)

（笑聲）

And the mechanism responsible?

其演化機制呢？

Extra-pair copulation.

我們稱之為「（配）偶外交配」。

"It's OPP, time for other people's what you get it

（歌詞）「OPP 就是 讓人知道你在幹什麼，

there's no room for relationship, there's just room to ..."

沒有空間發展穩定戀愛關係， 只有機會發展……

Audience: "Hit it!"

觀眾：性關係」

"How many brothers out there know just what I'm getting at?

「有多少兄弟了解我在說什麼？

誰覺得我劈腿又偷吃就是不對。

Who thinks it's wrong because I was splitting and cohitting that.

Well if you do, that's OPP"

如果你這樣做，就是 OPP！」

Actually, that's EPC

其實，這是 EPC，

Which is the abbreviation for extra-pair copulation.

正是「偶外交配」的縮寫。

(Laughter)

（笑聲）

Now, we define extra-pair copulation as the mating outside of a pair bond.

現在我們將偶外交配定義為： 在原有結合外的交配行為。

And just like we were discovering via science,

正如我們透過科學發現，

it can lead to babies that don't belong to the male partner.

這會導致幼鳥不是公鳥伴侶生的。

Alright?

對吧？

Now, I first learned about EPCs years later,

我在多年後第一次知道 「偶外交配」這個概念。

after all the science news broke while I was in graduate school.

當時許多科學新知出現， 我還在念研究所。

And as we were taking a class,

當我們在一堂課上

talking about current discoveries and mating systems,

探討到當時對於交配系統的發現．

this topic comes up.

這個主題出現了。

And as my professor's going through the definition

當我的教授正講述這些定義

and recounting all the dramatic turns of events

跟細數那些戲劇性的轉折，

that lead to these new revelations,

導致這一些新發現時，

I'm sitting in class and a familiar song starts bopping in my head.

我坐在課堂上，一首熟悉的歌 開始在我腦海中浮現。

心中唱著： 「對 OPP 無法自拔？

I'm like, "You down with OPP?

Yeah, you know me!"

耶～你懂的！」

(Laughter)

（笑聲）

I mean, that's exactly what that song was about:

我想這正是此首歌要表達的：

EPCs.

偶外交配。

And what I recognized

而我發現，

is that this gives us an opportunity to revisit this song.

這給我們機會以不同的 眼光去看待這首歌。

Let's switch the lyrics up.

讓我們更換一下歌詞。

So say EPC.

丹：說「EPC。」

Audience: EPC.

觀眾：EPC。

DNL: Say it, EPC!

丹：說 EPC！

Audience: EPC!

觀眾：EPC！

"I like to say it with pride

（歌詞）「我自豪地說。

now, when you do it, do it well, and make sure that it counts.

要做就好好做，確保一切值得。

You're not down with a discount."

盡情享受吧！」

丹：對 EPC 無法自拔？

You down with EPC?

觀眾：耶～你懂的！

Audience: Yeah, you know me!

丹：對 EPC 無法自拔？

觀眾：耶～你懂的！

Now, I had always been playing songs in my head

在我上科學課的時候，

腦海裡一直播放著這歌曲，

while I was in science class,

kind of tapping into this index of pop culture and hip-hop songs.

像是透過流行文化與嘻哈歌曲的 索引，讓我更快地學習。

But when I would share my analogies with my science professors,

但當我跟科學教授分享我的體會時，

all of whom were older white men,

他們都是較年長的白人，

I often got blank and confused stares as responses.

我彷彿在對牛彈琴或是說外星話。

(Laughter)

（笑聲）

But when I would share this with people from communities like mine,

當我把這樣的連結 分享給跟我一樣背景的人，

or other colleagues -- so, diverse communities --

或是其他同事──多元的社群，

this hip-hop science remix was a hit.

像這樣的嘻哈文化 與科學的混搭，便廣受歡迎。

That's because I was either talking to people who looked and sounded like me,

或許因為我正和我的同溫層，

or at the very least, you know, listened to some of the same songs.

或是與至少和我聽 同樣某些歌的人交流。

We were sharing a common cultural lexicon.

我們擁有共同的文化詞彙。

And with that lexicon, I was able to bring new science terms to them,

透過這些詞彙，我能夠將新的 科學術語，介紹給他們。

and together, we were sharing a new comprehension of science for the culture.

在這樣的文化脈絡下， 我們分享了科學新知。

Now, hip-hop song references

嘻哈歌曲是絕佳的參照工具，

are a really good tool for teaching content to students from hip-hop culture

尤其是用來教導熟稔嘻哈文化

or urban communities.

或來自都市的學生。

And I use it intentionally to connect to those students,

我刻意用這種方法來連結那些學生，

tapping into vocabulary that they already know

利用他們已熟知的字彙

and systems that they already comprehend.

和已理解的系統。

And what it does in that process is it ratifies them, us, our culture

這種過程讓我們的文化

as knowledge purveyors.

成為知識來源。

I use hip-hop to frame and communicate science

我利用嘻哈來建構與傳遞科學，

because I'm intentionally communicating science to broader audiences

因為我有意將科學帶給

更廣的、在科普推廣中 常被忽略的群眾。

that public science outreach has traditionally overlooked.

And in the process,

透過這樣的過程，

I am affirming the genius

我可以為到處

天賦正在萌芽茁壯的貧民窟青年人， 打一劑強心針。

that thrives in the young minds of people from every hood everywhere.

So let me ask you one last time,

讓我問你們最後一次：

you down with EPC?

丹：對 EPC 無法自拔？

Audience: Yeah, you know me!

觀眾：耶～你懂的！

DNL: You down with EPC?

丹：對 EPC 無法自拔？

Audience: Yeah, you know me!

觀眾：耶～你懂的！

DNL: You down with EPC?

丹：對 EPC 無法自拔？

Audience: Yeah, you know me!

觀眾：耶～你懂的！

丹：誰對 EPC 無法自拔？

DNL: Who's down with EPC?

Audience: All the homies!

觀眾：所有哥兒們！

Thank you.

謝謝。

(Applause and cheers)

（掌聲與歡呼聲）