outside Intro to Geology,

在地質學界外鮮為人知

but anyone hoping to understand life on Earth

但任何想了解地球上生命的人

should see how Steno expanded and connected

都應該看看斯蒂諾如何擴充及連結

those very concepts:

正是這些概念：

Earth, life, and understanding.

地球、生命及了解

Born Niels Stensen in 1638 Denmark,

他的丹麥語名為尼爾斯·斯滕森 於 1638 年在丹麥出生

son of a goldsmith,

是金匠的兒子

he was a sickly kid

他體弱多病

whose school chums died of plague.

同窗摯友死於黑死病

He survived to cut up corpses

他活了下來成為剖屍的

as an anatomist,

解剖學家

studying organs shared across species.

研究物種間共有的器官

He found a duct in animal skulls

他在動物頭骨中發現一條導管

that sends saliva to the mouth.

把唾液送到口腔

He refuted Descartes' idea

他駁斥笛卡兒的想法

that only humans had a pineal gland,

即只有人類有松果腺

proving it wasn't the seat of the soul,

並證明其並非靈魂所在

arguably, the debut of neuroscience.

可說是神經科學的開端

Most remarkable for the time was his method.

在當時最值得注意的是他的方法

Steno never let ancient texts,

斯蒂諾從不讓古代文獻

Aristotelian metaphysics,

如亞里斯多德的形上學

or Cartesian deductions

笛卡兒的演繹法

overrule empirical, experimental evidence.

影響從經驗、實驗所得的證據

His vision, uncluttered by speculation or rationalization,

他的洞察力不被臆測或理性限制

went deep.

因而深遠

Steno had seen how gallstones

斯蒂諾觀察到膽結石

form in wet organs by accretion.

如何在器官中形成

They obeyed molding principles

其形成的方式與他從金匠行業中

he knew from the goldsmith trade,

學到的造模原理相符

rules useful across disciplines

而此原理對各學科都有用

for understanding solids

因為這是以固體的結構關係

by their structural relationships.

了解固體的方法

Later, the Grand Duke of Tuscany

後來，托斯卡納大公

had him dissect a shark.

還讓他解剖一條鯊魚

Its teeth resembled tongue stones,

這條魚的牙齒與舌石相似

odd rocks seen inside other rocks

是存在於其他石頭內的奇怪石頭

in Malta and the mountains near Florence.

在馬爾他及佛羅倫斯附近的山上可見

Pliny the Elder, old Roman naturalist,

老普林尼，古羅馬自然科學家

said these fell from the sky.

說這些東西是從天上掉下來的

In the Dark Ages,

在黑暗時期

folks said they were snake tongues,

人們傳說它們是蛇的舌頭

petrified by Saint Paul.

被聖保羅變成石頭

Steno saw that tongue stones were shark teeth

斯蒂諾發現舌石其實是鯊魚的牙齒

and vice versa,

反之亦然

with the same signs of structural growth.

因為它們有相同的構造生長徵象

Figuring similar things are made in similar ways,

他認為類似事物應有類似的生成方法

he argued the ancient teeth

因而主張這些古代的牙齒

came from ancient sharks

應該是從在水中的古代鯊魚而來

in waters that formed rock around the teeth

石頭在牙齒附近形成

and became mountains.

並成為山脈

Rock layers were once layers of watery sediment,

岩層為水的沉積物演變而來

which would lay out horizontally,

應為水平展開

one atop another,

一層一層往上堆疊

oldest up to newest.

從古至今從下往上

If layers were deformed,

如果地層變形、傾斜

tilted,

被斷層或峽谷切斷

cut by a fault or a canyon,

這種變化是在岩層形成後才發生

that change came after the layer formed.

這理論今天聽起來很簡單

Sounds simple today;

但在其時是革命性的想法

back then, revolutionary.

他創立了地層學

He'd invented stratigraphy

並為地質學奠下根基

and laid geology's ground work.

藉由發現兩個不同年代的 鯊魚牙齒有同一起源

By finding one origin for shark teeth from two eras

及陳述現行的自然法則

by stating natural laws ruling the present

在過去也通用

also ruled the past,

斯蒂諾為均變說撒下種子

Steno planted seeds for uniformitarianism,

其中心思想是過去是由現在

the idea that the past was shaped by processes

正在進行的作用形成

observable today.

在 18 及 19 世紀

In the 18th and 19th centuries,

英國的均變說地質學家

English uniformitarian geologists,

詹姆斯·赫頓及查爾斯·萊爾

James Hutton and Charles Lyell,

研究當代、速率非常慢的

studied current, very slow rates

侵蝕及沉積作用

of erosion and sedimentation

瞭解到地球的年齡應該遠久於

and realized the Earth had to be way older

聖經推測的 6000 年

than the biblical guestimate, 6000 years.

他們的研究發現了岩石循環

Out of their work came the rock cycle,

與板塊構造學說結合

which combined with plate tectonics

在二十世紀中期

in the mid-twentieth century

給我們熔岩造地殼、震動

to give us the great molten-crusting, quaking,

循環不息的地球理論

all-encircling theory of the Earth,

從一顆膽結石到 45 億年的星球

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

再往大處看

Now think bigger,

來看看生物學

take it to biology.

假設你看到某地層有鯊魚牙齒

Say you see shark teeth in one layer

而另一種你從未見過的

and a fossil of an organism

生物化石卻埋在之下的地層

you've never seen under that.

埋愈深的化石年代愈老，對嗎？

The deeper fossil's older, yes?

你現在有物種起源

You now have evidence

及物種隨時間滅絕的證據

of the origin and extinction of species over time.

就拿均變說

Get uniformitarian.

說不定某種作用現在仍在進行

Maybe a process still active today

導致岩石產生變化，生命也有變化

caused changes not just in rocks but in life.

這也可能解釋物種間的

It might also explain similarities and differences

相似性及差異

between species

由解剖學家如斯蒂諾發現

found by anatomists like Steno.

有很多可以思索的地方

It's a lot to ponder,

但查爾斯·達爾文有的是時間

but Charles Darwin had the time

在往加拉巴哥群島的漫長旅途中

on a long trip to the Galapagos,

閱讀其好友查爾斯·萊爾的書

reading a copy of his friend Charles Lyell's

《地質學原理》

"Principles of Geology,"

此書可說是基於斯蒂諾的原理寫出的

which Steno sort of founded.

有時候是巨人站在

Sometimes giants stand on the shoulders

好奇的小人物的肩膀上

of curious little people.

尼古拉斯·斯蒂諾幫助進化論進化

Nicolas Steno helped evolve evolution,

為地質學破了土

broke ground for geology,

並證明無偏見、經驗的觀察

and showed how unbiased, empirical observation

可以穿越知識的疆界

can cut across intellectual borders

深化我們的觀點

to deepen our perspective.

然而他最出色的貢獻

His finest accomplishment, though,

大概可說是他的格言

may be his maxim,

尋求真理

casting the search for truth

超越感官及我們目前的瞭解

beyond our senses and our current understanding

如同追求未知之美

as the pursuit of the beauty

我們看見的很美

of the as yet unknown.

我們知道的更美

Beautiful is what we see,

最美的顯然是我們不知道的

more beautiful is what we know,

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