Name: 自然選擇的歷史，7 分鐘 | Paul Nurse (The history of natural selection, in 7 minutes | Paul Nurse)
Uploaded: 2025-08-28T18:24:54.000Z
Duration: 7 min 34 s

情態副詞

The idea of evolution by natural selection is, for me, probably the most beautiful idea in biology.

對我來說，自然選擇的進化思想可能是生物學中最美麗的思想。

There's two things we have to think about here.

反身代名詞

And the second is, what is the mechanism by which it takes place?

第二個問題是，發生這種情況的機制是什麼？

The idea that animals and plants might evolve is actually quite old.

動物和植物可能進化的想法其實由來已久。

Even Aristotle had some thoughts about it.

甚至亞里士多德也對此有所思考。

But particularly in the 18th century, there were a number of people who speculated, looking at fossils and so on, that animals and plants had evolved over time.

但是，特別是在 18 世紀，有許多人通過研究化石等，推測動物和植物是隨著時間的推移而進化的。

But it took Charles Darwin, in the middle of the 19th century, to come up with a mechanism, evolution by natural selection.

但查爾斯-達爾文在 19 世紀中葉才提出了一種機制，即自然選擇進化論。

And he came to this position because of a five-year voyage he took in a small Royal Naval boat called the Beagle, that went round the world and he collected animals and plants and birds and studied the geology, made lots of natural history observations.

他之所以有此成就，是因為他乘坐一艘名為比格爾號的皇家海軍小船進行了為期五年的環球航行，收集了動物、植物和鳥類，研究了地質學，並進行了大量的自然歷史觀察。

And this eventually led, in the 1840s, to his idea.

這最終導致他在 19 世紀 40 年代提出了自己的想法。

直到 1865 年，他才出版了這本書。

And it provided a mechanism by which animals and plants could evolve.

它為動植物的進化提供了一種機制。

And really you could get design without having a designer.

而且，你真的可以在沒有設計師的情況下進行設計。

And it's based on the genes that I've already talked about, and cells really.

它的基礎是我已經說過的基因和細胞。

And what he speculated was that all living things have hereditary material.

他的推測是，所有生物都有遺傳物質。

He didn't know about genes, but he speculated that they had hereditary material.

他不知道基因，但他推測它們有遺傳物質。

That if this hereditary material had some differences that resulted in the living organism being different, then it is possible that what was produced was perhaps a plant or an animal that could grow faster, or produce more offspring.

如果這種遺傳物質存在某些差異，導致生物體與眾不同，那麼產生的可能是一種生長速度更快或繁殖更多後代的植物或動物。

And that would mean that in the next generation there would be more of that particular variant.

這就意味著，下一代會有更多的這種特殊變體。

And if it was advantageous in the environment in which it found itself, then it would eventually take over the whole population.

如果它在所處的環境中處於有利地位，那麼它最終會佔領整個種群。

So you get a change from one type of organism into one that was a bit different.

是以，你會從一種類型的生物變成一種有點不同的生物。

I sometimes think of a very simple model just to explain that.

我有時會想到一個非常簡單的模型來解釋這一點。

Imagine a single-celled organism which had a red coat outside the cell, or a yellow coat.

想象一下，一個單細胞生物的細胞外有一層紅色的外衣，或者有一層黃色的外衣。

Let's say that the red coat got eaten by some other living organism.

Then if there was a mutation which resulted in the red coat turning into a yellow coat, then the yellow-coated cells would survive better than the red-coated ones, and as a consequence they would take over the population.

那麼，如果發生突變，導致紅衣變成黃衣，那麼黃衣細胞就會比紅衣細胞存活得更好，結果它們就會接管種群。

And that's just a very simple example of evolution by natural selection.

這只是自然選擇進化的一個非常簡單的例子。

But it's also built on the ideas that I've been talking about.

但它也是建立在我一直在談論的理念之上的。

It's built on the idea of genes, and the fact that genes determine the properties of cells.

它建立在基因的基礎上，基因決定細胞的特性。

And if you have genes determining the properties of cells and the genes show some variability, then you will simply get evolution by natural selection.

如果基因決定了細胞的特性，而基因又表現出一定的變異性，那麼就會出現自然選擇的進化。

He didn't know about genes, but he did know about hereditary material.

他不知道基因，但他知道遺傳物質。

And this has been a revolutionary change in our understanding in biology, because what it leads to is a better-designed living thing without having a designer.

這對我們對生物學的理解是一個革命性的變化，因為它所帶來的是一個沒有設計者的、設計得更好的生物。

It can occur just randomly by selecting naturally for those changes that are more advantageous for that living thing.

它可以隨機發生，自然選擇對生物更有利的變化。

One of the consequences of evolution is that we're related by descent.

進化的結果之一就是我們之間的血緣關係。

Because if we all can trace back our ancestors to a common place, then every living thing on this planet is related.

因為如果我們的祖先都能追溯到一個共同的地方，那麼這個星球上的所有生物都是相關的。

The relatedness of all living things, and particularly of humans to other life forms, was brought home to me in a very special way, almost spiritual.

所有生物，特別是人類與其他生命形式之間的關係，以一種非常特殊的方式，幾乎是精神性的方式，讓我明白了這一點。

When I was trekking through a Uganda rainforest looking for gorillas, and we came across a whole family of them, 20, 25 of them.

當我徒步穿越烏干達熱帶雨林尋找大猩猩時，我們遇到了一整個家族的大猩猩，有 20 到 25 只。

I was a little bit separate from the rest of my group.

And then this very large male gorilla sat down in front of me and looked at me, deep brown eyes.

然後，這隻非常大的雄性大猩猩坐在我面前，深褐色的眼睛看著我。

He put out his arm, he bent down a sapling tree, 2, 3, 4 inches in diameter.

他伸出手臂，彎下一棵直徑 2、3、4 英寸的小樹苗。

I'm sure he was telling me, you know, I can do this, I'm not sure you can do this.

我敢肯定，他在告訴我，你知道，我能做到這一點，我不確定你能做到這一點。

But sitting there, just looking at him, seeing the similarities, his deep brown eyes, and they were really staring at me.

但坐在那裡，只是看著他，看到他的相似之處，他深褐色的眼睛，真的在盯著我看。

It just looked like we were having a conversation, somehow.

不知怎麼的，我們看起來就像是在交談。

He sat and looked at me for a while, then he climbed up the tree, and then he peed all over me.

它坐著看了我一會兒，然後爬到樹上，然後在我身上撒了一泡尿。

So I don't really know whether he was trying to put me in my place.

所以，我真的不知道他是否想讓我就範。

But for sure, it was a magnificent interaction.

但可以肯定的是，這是一次華麗的互動。

Here I was, almost talking to a sort of relative, diverged 5 million years ago, 10 million years ago.

我就在這裡，幾乎是在和一種親戚交談，他們是在 500 萬年前、1000 萬年前分化的。

And it made me think of the deep connection between all life on this planet.

這讓我想到地球上所有生命之間的深刻聯繫。

It's just that we diverged further and further back.

And that experiment that I described, of taking the human gene and putting it into a yeast cell, and showing that that human gene could control the reproduction of the yeast cell just as well as it could control a human cell, even though they diverged 1,500 million years ago, is another example of the extraordinary similarity between living things.

我描述的那個實驗，把人類基因放到酵母細胞中，結果表明人類基因可以控制酵母細胞的繁殖，就像它可以控制人類細胞一樣，儘管它們是在 15 億年前分化的。

And I think about this quite a lot, because doesn't it mean, if we're related to every living thing on the planet, do we not have a special responsibility for every living thing on this planet?

我經常思考這個問題，因為這難道不意味著，如果我們與地球上的每一種生物都有關係，難道我們對地球上的每一種生物就沒有特殊的責任嗎？

Do we not really have a responsibility to be a steward for all animals, plants, fungi?

難道我們真的沒有責任成為所有動物、植物和真菌的管理者嗎？

And it's the best argument I've seen in an abstract sort of way, that we should take care of every living thing that we can on this planet, because we're related to every living thing on the planet.

從抽象的角度來說，這是我見過的最好的論據，即我們應該儘可能地照顧地球上的每一個生物，因為我們與地球上的每一個生物都是相關的。

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