【英语语言学习】爱因斯坦的大脑没有特别之处

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

Albert Einstein had an enviable mind. So much, in fact, that when he died in Princeton's hospital, the pathologist on-call stole his brain. Dr. Einstein had asked for his brain to be cremated¹ along with the rest of him, but eventually, it wound up in slices in various research labs. And over the years, scientists have claimed to have found brain ridges² or cells that might shed some light on his singular human mind. But a new scientific paper says that, in fact, there was nothing special about Einstein's brain. Dr. Terrence Hines wrote that paper. He's a professor of psychology³ at Pace University and joins us from his home in New York. Thanks so much for being with us.

TERRENCE HINES: Oh, I'm glad to be here.

SIMON: So what's wrong with the research that said he had a special brain?

HINES: A couple of things. One is what we call confirmation⁴ bias⁵, and that's basically saying what we all know - that if you really want to find something, if you look for it long enough, you will. So, for example, in the papers that claim the external shape of Einstein's brain was different. They start out with a fairly vague notion of what his cognitive⁶ specialties⁷ were and then go poking⁸ around in his brain until they find something - anything that sort of conforms to their previous expectations.

SIMON: Was part of the problem that they knew it was Einstein's brain, and therefore they were predisposed to see things?

HINES: Exactly right, exactly right. It's rather like seeing faces or shapes in clouds. Those shapes really aren't in the clouds. They're in your mind.

SIMON: Forgive me - what amounts to a philosophical⁹ question - why have we been fascinated by Einstein's brain matter over the years?

HINES: Well, I think it's kind of a cult¹⁰ of personality. He was obviously a very, very bright individual but one of the, kind of, myths of his intellect is that he was this great over-towering mathematician¹¹. In fact, he wasn't - amongst his colleagues in physics - a particularly good mathematician. And that's kind of overlooked in the kind of cult of personality about him.

SIMON: Do we find it interesting - or maybe reassuring¹² - to try and look for special clues in Einstein's brain because, I mean, if it can all be traced to the guy's brain, we can hardly be held responsible for being born with, you know, what amounts to inferior material?

HINES: Well, I'm not sure about that. I mean, clearly his intellect was different and intellect is in the brain, not in your kidneys or your liver or whatever. But you're not going to find the correlation¹³ of his intellect in anything that you can see - probably is in their somewhere in terms of functional¹⁴ imaging. As one could imagine doing functional imaging on a whole bunch of, kind of, Einstein-like physicists¹⁵ today. You know, that's the way to do it, not study one particular brain just because it's the brain of somebody who was really smart.

SIMON: Terrence Hines is a professor of psychology at Pace University. Thanks so much for being with us.

HINES: Oh, my pleasure.

1 cremated   

v.火葬，火化（尸体）( cremate的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He wants to is cremated, not buried. 他要火葬，不要土葬。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The bodies were cremated on the shore. 他们的尸体在海边火化了。 来自辞典例句

2 ridges   

n.脊( ridge的名词复数 )；山脊；脊状突起；大气层的)高压脊

参考例句：

• The path winds along mountain ridges. 峰回路转。
• Perhaps that was the deepest truth in Ridges's nature. 在里奇斯的思想上，这大概可以算是天经地义第一条了。

3 psychology   

n.心理，心理学，心理状态

参考例句：

• She has a background in child psychology.她受过儿童心理学的教育。
• He studied philosophy and psychology at Cambridge.他在剑桥大学学习哲学和心理学。

4 confirmation   

n.证实，确认，批准

参考例句：

• We are waiting for confirmation of the news.我们正在等待证实那个消息。
• We need confirmation in writing before we can send your order out.给你们发送订购的货物之前，我们需要书面确认。

5 bias   

n.偏见，偏心，偏袒；vt.使有偏见

参考例句：

• They are accusing the teacher of political bias in his marking.他们在指控那名教师打分数有政治偏见。
• He had a bias toward the plan.他对这项计划有偏见。

6 cognitive   

adj.认知的，认识的，有感知的

参考例句：

• As children grow older,their cognitive processes become sharper.孩子们越长越大，他们的认知过程变得更为敏锐。
• The cognitive psychologist is like the tinker who wants to know how a clock works.认知心理学者倒很像一个需要通晓钟表如何运转的钟表修理匠。

7 specialties   

n.专门，特性，特别；专业( specialty的名词复数 )；特性；特制品；盖印的契约

参考例句：

• Great Books are popular, not pedantic. They are not written by specialists about specialties for specialists. 名著绝不引经据典，艰深难懂，而是通俗易读。它们不是专家为专业人员撰写的专业书籍。 来自英汉 - 翻译样例 - 文学
• Brain drains may represent a substantial reduction in some labor force skills and specialties. 智力外流可能表示某种劳动力技能和特长大量减少。 来自辞典例句

8 poking   

n. 刺，戳，袋 vt. 拨开，刺，戳 vi. 戳，刺，捅，搜索，伸出，行动散慢

参考例句：

• He was poking at the rubbish with his stick. 他正用手杖拨动垃圾。
• He spent his weekends poking around dusty old bookshops. 他周末都泡在布满尘埃的旧书店里。

9 philosophical   

adj.哲学家的，哲学上的，达观的

参考例句：

• The teacher couldn't answer the philosophical problem.老师不能解答这个哲学问题。
• She is very philosophical about her bad luck.她对自己的不幸看得很开。

10 cult   

n.异教，邪教；时尚，狂热的崇拜

参考例句：

• Her books aren't bestsellers,but they have a certain cult following.她的书算不上畅销书，但有一定的崇拜者。
• The cult of sun worship is probably the most primitive one.太阳崇拜仪式或许是最为原始的一种。

11 mathematician   

n.数学家

参考例句：

• The man with his back to the camera is a mathematician.背对着照相机的人是位数学家。
• The mathematician analyzed his figures again.这位数学家再次分析研究了他的这些数字。

12 reassuring   

a.使人消除恐惧和疑虑的，使人放心的

参考例句：

• He gave her a reassuring pat on the shoulder. 他轻拍了一下她的肩膀让她放心。
• With a reassuring pat on her arm, he left. 他鼓励地拍了拍她的手臂就离开了。

13 correlation   

n.相互关系，相关，关连

参考例句：

• The second group of measurements had a high correlation with the first.第二组测量数据与第一组高度相关。
• A high correlation exists in America between education and economic position.教育和经济地位在美国有极密切的关系。

14 functional   

adj.为实用而设计的，具备功能的，起作用的

参考例句：

• The telephone was out of order,but is functional now.电话刚才坏了，但现在可以用了。
• The furniture is not fancy,just functional.这些家具不是摆着好看的，只是为了实用。

15 physicists   

物理学家( physicist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• For many particle physicists, however, it was a year of frustration. 对于许多粒子物理学家来说，这是受挫折的一年。 来自英汉非文学 - 科技
• Physicists seek rules or patterns to provide a framework. 物理学家寻求用法则或图式来构成一个框架。