It's a diagram of the visual system.

這個大腦的繪圖有一千年的歷史。

And some things look very familiar today.

它畫的是視覺系統，

Two eyes at the bottom, optic nerve flowing out from the back.

即使在幾天也看起來有些眼熟。

There's a very large nose

兩個眼睛在下面，視神經將它們連接著後面。

that doesn't seem to be connected to anything in particular.

它有一個似乎沒有和任何

And if we compare this

東西連接起來的很大的鼻子。

to more recent representations of the visual system,

而如果我們將它與

you'll see that things have gotten substantially more complicated

一些最近的視覺系統的描繪做比較的話，

over the intervening thousand years.

你會看到在過去的幾千年中

And that's because today we can see what's inside of the brain,

很多東西都變的更為複雜了。

rather than just looking at its overall shape.

由過去只能在外面看著大概的輪廓，

Imagine you wanted to understand how a computer works

今天我們能直接觀察大腦內部。

and all you could see was a keyboard, a mouse, a screen.

想像一下如果你想明白一個電腦是如何工作的，

You really would be kind of out of luck.

但你這能看到一個鍵盤，一個滑鼠，一個顯示屏。

You want to be able to open it up, crack it open,

那你真的滿不幸的。

look at the wiring inside.

你會想把它打開，

And up until a little more than a century ago,

然後觀察內部。

nobody was able to do that with the brain.

而直到一個多世紀之前，

Nobody had had a glimpse of the brain's wiring.

沒有人可以如此對待大腦。

And that's because if you take a brain out of the skull

哪怕是一絲大腦線路的知識也沒有人有。

and you cut a thin slice of it,

而那是因為如果你把大腦從頭骨中取出後

put it under even a very powerful microscope,

並且將它切成薄片，

there's nothing there.

然後放在最大功率的顯微鏡下，

It's gray, formless.

你也不會看到任何東西。

There's no structure. It won't tell you anything.

它是形體不明的一片灰色。

And this all changed in the late 19th century.

你看不到結構。它不能告訴你任何東西。

Suddenly, new chemical stains for brain tissue were developed

而這在十九世紀後期全部都改變了。

and they gave us our first glimpses at brain wiring.

突然，新的大腦組織的化學染料被開發了出來，

The computer was cracked open.

讓我們第一次能夠看到大腦的線路。

So what really launched modern neuroscience

電腦被解讀了。

was a stain called the Golgi stain.

而真正開始了現代神經學的是一個

And it works in a very particular way.

叫做高爾基染色法的染料。

Instead of staining all of the cells inside of a tissue,

而它以一種特殊的方式起它的作用。

it somehow only stains about one percent of them.

它只會染一片組織中大概百分之一的細胞，

It clears the forest, reveals the trees inside.

而不是染全部細胞。

If everything had been labeled, nothing would have been visible.

它在大森林中顯現出幾棵樹。

So somehow it shows what's there.

如果所有東西都被染上，那其實什麽東西也看不到。

Spanish neuroanatomist Santiago Ramon y Cajal,

而它用某種方式展現了它的功能。

who's widely considered the father of modern neuroscience,

西班牙的神經解剖學專家 聖地亞哥·拉蒙-卡哈爾

applied this Golgi stain, which yields data which looks like this,

被普遍稱為現代神經學之父，

and really gave us the modern notion of the nerve cell, the neuron.

他使用了高爾基染法並展現了如此一般的信息，

And if you're thinking of the brain as a computer,

而這給了我們神經細胞，神經元，的現代概念。

this is the transistor.

而如果你把大腦想成一個電腦，

And very quickly Cajal realized

它便是電晶體。

that neurons don't operate alone,

很快的，卡哈爾意識到

but rather make connections with others

神經元並不單獨的運作，

that form circuits just like in a computer.

而是與其他神經元連成

Today, a century later, when researchers want to visualize neurons,

像電腦一樣的電路。

they light them up from the inside rather than darkening them.

在一個世紀後的今天，當研究員們想要看神經元的時候，

And there's several ways of doing this.

他們將它們從內部亮起，而不是使它們變的更暗。

But one of the most popular ones

它有幾種方法。

involves green fluorescent protein.

但最受歡迎的一個

Now green fluorescent protein,

要用到螢光蛋白。

which oddly enough comes from a bioluminescent jellyfish,

這種從一種生物發光的海蜇中

is very useful.

得來的綠色螢光蛋白

Because if you can get the gene for green fluorescent protein

非常的有用。

and deliver it to a cell,

因為如果你能夠得到這種綠色螢光蛋白的基因

that cell will glow green --

並將它植入一個細胞，

or any of the many variants now of green fluorescent protein,

這個細胞會發出綠色的螢光 --

you get a cell to glow many different colors.

如果你使用綠色螢光蛋白的其他變體，

And so coming back to the brain,

你可以讓細胞發出不同顏色的螢光。

this is from a genetically engineered mouse called "Brainbow."

回到大腦，

And it's so called, of course,

這是從一個叫做“腦虹”的改基因老鼠。

because all of these neurons are glowing different colors.

這是因為，當然，

Now sometimes neuroscientists need to identify

所有的這些神經元都在發出不同顏色的螢光。

individual molecular components of neurons, molecules,

有些時候神經學家需要識別出

rather than the entire cell.

特定的神經元的分子部構，

And there's several ways of doing this,

而不是整個細胞。

but one of the most popular ones

這也有幾種方式可以達成，

involves using antibodies.

但最受歡迎的一種

And you're familiar, of course,

使用到了抗體。

with antibodies as the henchmen of the immune system.

你肯定對於

But it turns out that they're so useful to the immune system

免疫系統的抗體非常熟悉。

because they can recognize specific molecules,

而它們在免疫系統中如此的重要是

like, for example, the coat protein

因為它們可以識別特定的分子，

of a virus that's invading the body.

比如一個侵入身體的病毒

And researchers have used this fact

的外層蛋白。

in order to recognize specific molecules inside of the brain,

研究員們用這種功能

recognize specific substructures of the cell

來識別大腦中特定的分子，

and identify them individually.

或者認出細胞的特定結構

And a lot of the images I've been showing you here are very beautiful,

并單獨的識別它們。

but they're also very powerful.

我展示的很多的圖像都非常美麗，

They have great explanatory power.

但它們同時也很厲害。

This, for example, is an antibody staining

它們可以解釋很多東西。

against serotonin transporters in a slice of mouse brain.

比如說這個，它是經過對血清素運輸分子的

And you've heard of serotonin, of course,

抗體染色的的一片老鼠大腦。

in the context of diseases like depression and anxiety.

你應該在談論像憂鬱和焦慮癥一樣的病時

You've heard of SSRIs,

聽說過血清素。

which are drugs that are used to treat these diseases.

你也聽說過 SSRIs(選擇性血清素回收抑制劑)，

And in order to understand how serotonin works,

這種藥物被用來治療這些病。

it's critical to understand where the serontonin machinery is.

而如果想明白血清素是怎麼起作用的，

And antibody stainings like this one

我們必須先明白血清素的部位在哪裡。

can be used to understand that sort of question.

而像這個的抗體染色

I'd like to leave you with the following thought:

可以被用來解答類似的問題。

Green fluorescent protein and antibodies

我想為你們留下這樣一個信息：

are both totally natural products at the get-go.

綠色螢光蛋白和抗體

They were evolved by nature

都是完全的自然產品。

in order to get a jellyfish to glow green for whatever reason,

它們從自然演化而來，

or in order to detect the coat protein of an invading virus, for example.

以便讓一個海蜇因為一些原因可以發出綠色的螢光，

And only much later did scientists come onto the scene

或者來發現一個入侵的病毒的外層蛋白。

and say, "Hey, these are tools,

而在很久很久以後，科學家才發現

these are functions that we could use

並說，“這些都是工具，

in our own research tool palette."

我們可以把它們的功用

And instead of applying feeble human minds

加入到我們研究的手段中。”

to designing these tools from scratch,

而與其用有限的大腦來

there were these ready-made solutions right out there in nature

從頭設計這些工具，

developed and refined steadily for millions of years

這些被做好的答案已經出現在自然

by the greatest engineer of all.

並用了幾百萬年的時間來發展和穩定下來。

Thank you.

自然是最偉大的工程師。

(Applause)

謝謝。