TED英语演讲:肠胃里的大脑

TED¹英语演讲:肠胃里的大脑

 This technology made a very important impact on us. It changed the way our history developed. But it's a technology so pervasive², so invisible, that we, for a long time, forgot to take it into account when we talked about human evolution. But we see the results of this technology, still. So let's make a little test. So everyone of you turns to their neighbor please. Turn and face your neighbors. Please, also on the balcony. Smile. Smile. Open the mouths. Smile, friendly. (Laughter) Do you -- Do you see any Canine³ teeth? (Laughter) Count Dracula teeth in the mouths of your neighbors? Of course not. Because our dental anatomy⁴ is actually made, not for tearing down raw meat from bones or chewing fibrous leaves for hours. It is made for a diet which is soft, mushy, which is reduced in fibers⁵, which is very easily chewable and digestible. Sounds like fast food, doesn't it.

(Laughter)

It's for cooked food. We carry in our face the proof that cooking, food transformation⁶, made us what we are. So I would suggest that we change how we classify ourselves. We talk about ourselves as omnivores. I would say, we should call ourselves coctivors -- (Laughter) from coquere, to cook. We are the animals who eat cooked food. No, no, no, no. Better -- to live of cooked food. So cooking is a very important technology. It's technology. I don't know how you feel, but I like to cook for entertainment. And you need some design to be successful. So, cooking is a very important technology, because it allowed us to acquire what brought you all here: the big brain, this wonderful cerebral⁷ cortex we have. Because brains are expensive. Those have to pay tuition fees know. (Laughter) But it's also, metabolically⁸ speaking, expensive. You now, our brain is two to three percent of the body mass, but actually it uses 25 percent of the total energy we use. It's very expensive. Where does the energy come from. Of course, from food. If we eat raw food, we cannot release really the energy. So this ingenuity⁹ of our ancestors, to invent this most marvelous technology. Invisible -- everyone of us does it every day, so to speak. Cooking made it possible that mutations, natural selections, our environment, could develop us.

So if we think about this unleashing¹⁰ human potential, which was possible by cooking and food, why do we talk so badly about food? Why is it always do and don'ts and it's good for you, it's not good for you? I think the good news for me would be if we could go back and talk about the unleashing, the continuation of the unleashing of human potential. Now, cooking allowed also that we became a migrant species. We walked out of Africa two times. We populated all the ecologies. If you can cook, nothing can happen to you, because whatever you find, you will try to transform it. It keeps also your brain working. Now the very easy and simple technology which was developed actually runs after this formula. Take something which looks like food, transform it, and it gives you a good, very easy, accessible energy.

This technology affected¹¹ two organs, the brain and the gut¹², which it actually affected. The brain could grow, but the gut actually shrunk. Okay, it's not obvious to be honest. (Laughter) But it shrunk to 60 percent of primate¹³ gut of my body mass. So because of having cooked food, it's easier to digest. Now having a large brain, as you know, is a big advantage, because you can actually influence your environment. You can influence your own technologies you have invented. You can continue to innovate¹⁴ and invent. Now the big brain did this also with cooking. But how did it actually run this show? How did it actually interfere¹⁵? What kind of criteria¹⁶ did it use? And this is actually taste reward and energy. You know we have up to five tastes, three of them sustain us. Sweet -- energy. Umami -- this is a meaty taste. You need proteins for muscles, recovery. Salty, because you need salt, otherwise your electric body will not work. And two tastes which protect you -- bitter and sour, which are against poisonous and rotten material. But of course, they are hard-wired but we use them still in a sophisticated way. Think about bittersweet chocolate; or think about the acidity¹⁷ of yogurt -- wonderful -- mixed with strawberry fruits.

So we can make mixtures of all this kind of thing because we know that, in cooking, we can transform it to the form. Reward: this is a more complex and especially integrative form of our brain with various different elements -- the external states, our internal states, how do we feel, and so on are put together. And something which maybe you don't like but you are so hungry that you really will be satisfied to eat. So satisfaction was a very important part. And as I say, energy was necessary.

Now how did the gut actually participate in this development? And the gut is a silent voice -- it's going more for feelings. I use the euphemism¹⁸ digestive comfort -- actually -- it's a digestive discomfort¹⁹, which the gut is concerned with. If you get a stomach ache, if you get a little bit bloated, was not the right food, was not the right cooking manipulation or maybe other things went wrong. So my story is a tale of two brains, because it might surprise you, our gut has a full-fledged brain. All the managers in the room say, "You don't tell me something new, because we know, gut feeling. This is what we are using." (Laughter) And actually you use it and it's actually useful. Because our gut is connected to our emotional limbic system, they do speak with each other and make decisions. But what it means to have a brain there is that, not only the big brain has to talk with the food, the food has to talk with the brain, because we have to learn actually how to talk to the brains.

Now if there's a gut brain, we should also learn to talk with this brain. Now 150 years ago, anatomists described very, very carefully -- here is a model of a wall of a gut. I took the three elements -- stomach, small intestine²⁰ and colon²¹. And within this structure, you see these two pinkish layers, which are actually the muscle. And between this muscle, they found nervous tissues, a lot of nervous tissues, which penetrate²² actually the muscle -- penetrate the submucosa, where you have all the elements for the immune system. The gut is actually the largest immune system, defending your body. It penetrates²³ the mucosa. This is the layer which actually touches the food you are swallowing and you digest, which is actually the lumen. Now if you think about the gut, the gut is -- if you could stretch it -- 40 meters long, the length of a tennis court. If we could unroll it, get out all the folds and so on, it would have 400 sq. meters of surface.

And now this brain takes care over this, to move it with the muscles and to do defend the surface and, of course, digest our food we cook. So if we give you a specification²⁴, this brain, which is autonomous²⁵, have 500 million nerve cells, 100 million neurons -- so around the size of a cat brain, so there sleeps a little cat -- thinks for itself, optimizes²⁶ whatever it digests. It has 20 different neuron types. It's got the same diversity you find actually in a pig brain, where you have 100 billion neurons. It has autonomous organized microcircuits, has these programs which run. It senses the food; it knows exactly what to do. It senses it by chemical means and very importantly by mechanical means, because it has to move the food -- it has to mix all the various elements which we need for digestion²⁷. This control of muscle is very, very important, because, you know, there can be reflexes. If you don't like a food, especially if you're a child, you gag. It's this brain which makes this reflex. And then finally, it controls also the secretion²⁸ of this molecular²⁹ machinery³⁰, which actually digests the food we cook.

Now how do the two brains work with each other? I took here a model from robotics -- it's called the Subsumption Architecture. What it means is that we have a layered control system. The lower layer, our gut brain, has its own goals -- digestion defense³¹ -- and we have the higher brain with the goal of integration³² and generating behaviors. Now both look -- and this is the blue arrows -- both look to the same food, which is in the lumen and in the area of your intestine. The big brain integrates signals, which come from the running programs of the lower brain, But subsumption means that the higher brain can interfere with the lower. It can replace, or it can inhibit³³ actually, signals. So if we take two types of signals -- a hunger signal for example. If you have an empty stomach, your stomach produces a hormone³⁴ called ghrelin. It's a very big signal; it's sent to the brain says, "Go and eat." You have stop signals -- we have up to eight stop signals. At least in my case, they are not listened to. (Laughter)

So what happens if the big brain in the integration overrides³⁶ the signal? So if you override³⁵ the hunger signal, you can have a disorder³⁷, which is called anorexia³⁸. Despite generating a healthy hunger signal, the big brain ignores it and activates³⁹ different programs in the gut. The more usual case is overeating. It actually takes the signal and changes it, and we continue, even [though] our eight signals would say, "Stop, enough. We have transferred enough energy." Now the interesting thing is that, along this lower layer -- this gut -- the signal becomes stronger and stronger if undigested, but digestible, material could penetrate. This we found from bariatric surgery. That then the signal would be very, very high.

So now back to the cooking question and back to the design. We have learned to talk to the big brain -- taste and reward, as you know. Now what would be the language we have to talk to the gut brain that its signals are so strong that the big brain cannot ignore it? Then we would generate something all of us would like to have -- a balance between the hunger and the satiation. Now I give you, from our research, a very short claim. This is fat digestion. You have on your left an olive oil droplet⁴⁰, and this olive oil droplet gets attacked by enzymes⁴¹. This is an in vitro experiment. It's very difficult to work in the intestine. Now everyone would expect that when the degradation⁴² of the oil happens, when the constituents⁴³ are liberated⁴⁴, they disappear, they go away because they [were] absorbed. Actually, what happens is that a very intricate structure appears. And I hope you can see that there are some ring-like structures in the middle image, which is water. This whole system generates a huge surface to allow more enzymes to attack the remaining oil. And finally, on your right side, you see a bubbly, cell-like structure appearing, from which the body will absorb the fat. Now if we could take this language -- and this is a language of structures -- and make it longer-lasting, that it can go through the passage of the intestine, it would generate stronger signals.

So our research -- and I think the research also at the universities -- are now fixing on these points to say: how can we actually -- and this might sound trivial now to you -- how can we change cooking? How can we cook that we have this language developed? So what we have actually, it's not an omnivore's dilemma⁴⁵. We have a coctivor's opportunity, because we have learned over the last two million years which taste and reward -- quite sophisticated to cook -- to please ourselves, to satisfy ourselves. If we add the matrix, if we add the structure language, which we have to learn, when we learn it, then we can put it back; and around energy, we could generate a balance, which comes out from our really primordial⁴⁶ operation: cooking. So, to make cooking really a very important element, I would say even philosophers have to change and have to finally recognize that cooking is what made us.

So I would say, coquo ergo sum: I cook, therefore I am. Thank you very much.

(Applause)

1 ted   

vt.翻晒，撒，撒开

参考例句：

• The invaders gut ted the village.侵略者把村中财物洗劫一空。
• She often teds the corn when it's sunny.天好的时候她就翻晒玉米。

2 pervasive   

adj.普遍的；遍布的，(到处)弥漫的；渗透性的

参考例句：

• It is the most pervasive compound on earth.它是地球上最普遍的化合物。
• The adverse health effects of car exhaust are pervasive and difficult to measure.汽车尾气对人类健康所构成的有害影响是普遍的，并且难以估算。

3 canine   

adj.犬的，犬科的

参考例句：

• The fox is a canine animal.狐狸是犬科动物。
• Herbivorous animals have very small canine teeth,or none.食草动物的犬牙很小或者没有。

4 anatomy   

n.解剖学，解剖；功能，结构，组织

参考例句：

• He found out a great deal about the anatomy of animals.在动物解剖学方面，他有过许多发现。
• The hurricane's anatomy was powerful and complex.对飓风的剖析是一项庞大而复杂的工作。

5 fibers   

光纤( fiber的名词复数 )； （织物的）质地； 纤维，纤维物质

参考例句：

• Thesolution of collagen-PVA was wet spined with the sodium sulfate as coagulant and collagen-PVA composite fibers were prepared. 在此基础上，以硫酸钠为凝固剂，对胶原-PVA共混溶液进行湿法纺丝，制备了胶原-PVA复合纤维。
• Sympathetic fibers are distributed to all regions of the heart. 交感神经纤维分布于心脏的所有部分。

6 transformation   

n.变化；改造；转变

参考例句：

• Going to college brought about a dramatic transformation in her outlook.上大学使她的观念发生了巨大的变化。
• He was struggling to make the transformation from single man to responsible husband.他正在努力使自己由单身汉变为可靠的丈夫。

7 cerebral   

adj.脑的，大脑的；有智力的，理智型的

参考例句：

• Your left cerebral hemisphere controls the right-hand side of your body.你的左半脑控制身体的右半身。
• He is a precise,methodical,cerebral man who carefully chooses his words.他是一个一丝不苟、有条理和理智的人，措辞谨慎。

8 metabolically   

代谢的（metabolic的副词形式）

参考例句：

• Intact skin is a highly complex, metabolically active organ. 完整的皮肤是一个高度复杂、代谢灵敏的器官。 来自辞典例句

9 ingenuity   

n.别出心裁；善于发明创造

参考例句：

• The boy showed ingenuity in making toys.那个小男孩做玩具很有创造力。
• I admire your ingenuity and perseverance.我钦佩你的别出心裁和毅力。

10 unleashing   

v.把（感情、力量等）释放出来，发泄( unleash的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Company logos: making people's life better by unleashing Cummins power. 公司理念：以康明斯动力建设更美好的生活！ 来自互联网
• Sooner or later the dam will burst, unleashing catastrophic destruction. 否则堤坝将崩溃，酿成灾难。 来自互联网

11 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

12 gut   

n.[pl.]胆量；内脏；adj.本能的；vt.取出内脏

参考例句：

• It is not always necessary to gut the fish prior to freezing.冷冻鱼之前并不总是需要先把内脏掏空。
• My immediate gut feeling was to refuse.我本能的直接反应是拒绝。

13 primate   

n.灵长类（目）动物，首席主教；adj.首要的

参考例句：

• 14 percent of primate species are highly endangered.14%的灵长类物种处于高度濒危状态。
• The woolly spider monkey is the largest primate in the Americas.绒毛蛛猴是美洲最大的灵长类动物。

14 innovate   

v.革新，变革，创始

参考例句：

• We must innovate in order to make progress.我们必须改革以便取得进步。
• It is necessary to innovate and develop military theories.创新和发展军事理论是必要的。

15 interfere   

v.(in)干涉，干预；(with)妨碍，打扰

参考例句：

• If we interfere, it may do more harm than good.如果我们干预的话，可能弊多利少。
• When others interfere in the affair,it always makes troubles. 别人一卷入这一事件，棘手的事情就来了。

16 criteria   

n.标准

参考例句：

• The main criterion is value for money.主要的标准是钱要用得划算。
• There are strict criteria for inclusion in the competition.参赛的标准很严格。

17 acidity   

n.酸度，酸性

参考例句：

• This plant prefers alkaline soil,though it will readily tolerate some acidity.这种植物在酸性土壤中也能生存，但硷性土壤更加适宜。
• Gastric acidity would not prevent the organism from passing into the gut.胃的酸度不能防止细菌进入肠道。

18 euphemism   

n.婉言，委婉的说法

参考例句：

• Language reflects culture and euphemism is a mirror of culture.语言反映文化,而婉语则是各种文化的一面镜子。
• Euphemism is a very common and complicated linguistic phenomenon.委婉语是一种十分常见而又非常复杂的语言现象。

19 discomfort   

n.不舒服，不安，难过，困难，不方便

参考例句：

• One has to bear a little discomfort while travelling.旅行中总要忍受一点不便。
• She turned red with discomfort when the teacher spoke.老师讲话时她不好意思地红着脸。

20 intestine   

adj.内部的；国内的；n.肠

参考例句：

• This vitamin is absorbed through the walls of the small intestine.这种维生素通过小肠壁被吸收。
• The service productivity is the function,including external efficiency,intestine efficiency and capacity efficiency.服务业的生产率是一个包含有外部效率、内部效率和能力效率的函数。

21 colon   

n.冒号，结肠，直肠

参考例句：

• Here,too,the colon must be followed by a dash.这里也是一样，应当在冒号后加破折号。
• The colon is the locus of a large concentration of bacteria.结肠是大浓度的细菌所在地。

22 penetrate   

v.透(渗)入；刺入，刺穿；洞察，了解

参考例句：

• Western ideas penetrate slowly through the East.西方观念逐渐传入东方。
• The sunshine could not penetrate where the trees were thickest.阳光不能透入树木最浓密的地方。

23 penetrates   

v.穿过( penetrate的第三人称单数 )；刺入；了解；渗透

参考例句：

• This is a telescope that penetrates to the remote parts of the universe. 这是一架能看到宇宙中遥远地方的望远镜。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The dust is so fine that it easily penetrates all the buildings. 尘土极细，能极轻易地钻入一切建筑物。 来自辞典例句

24 specification   

n.详述；[常pl.]规格，说明书，规范

参考例句：

• I want to know his specification of details.我想知道他对细节的详述。
• Examination confirmed that the quality of the products was up to specification.经检查，产品质量合格。

25 autonomous   

adj.自治的；独立的

参考例句：

• They proudly declared themselves part of a new autonomous province.他们自豪地宣布成为新自治省的一部分。
• This is a matter that comes within the jurisdiction of the autonomous region.这件事是属于自治区权限以内的事务。

26 optimizes   

v.使最优化，使尽可能有效( optimize的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Emerson optimizes PlantWeb engineering work processes by joining Intergraph's SmartPlant alliance program. 加入Intergraph的SmartPlant联盟计划，艾默生优化了PlantWeb工程工作步骤。 来自互联网
• The algorithm optimizes the flow of inter mode of macro-block decision algorithm. 算法优化了宏块帧间模式选择算法的流程。 来自互联网

27 digestion   

n.消化，吸收

参考例句：

• This kind of tea acts as an aid to digestion.这种茶可助消化。
• This food is easy of digestion.这食物容易消化。

28 secretion   

n.分泌

参考例句：

• Is there much secretion from your eyes?你眼里的分泌物多吗？
• In addition,excessive secretion of oil,water scarcity are also major factors.除此之外，油脂分泌过盛、缺水也都是主要因素。

29 molecular   

adj.分子的；克分子的

参考例句：

• The research will provide direct insight into molecular mechanisms.这项研究将使人能够直接地了解分子的机理。
• For the pressure to become zero, molecular bombardment must cease.当压强趋近于零时，分子的碰撞就停止了。

30 machinery   

n.(总称)机械，机器；机构

参考例句：

• Has the machinery been put up ready for the broadcast?广播器材安装完毕了吗？
• Machinery ought to be well maintained all the time.机器应该随时注意维护。

31 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

32 integration   

n.一体化，联合，结合

参考例句：

• We are working to bring about closer political integration in the EU.我们正在努力实现欧盟內部更加紧密的政治一体化。
• This was the greatest event in the annals of European integration.这是欧洲统一史上最重大的事件。

33 inhibit   

vt.阻止，妨碍，抑制

参考例句：

• Don't let ego and greed inhibit clear thinking and hard work.不要让自我和贪婪妨碍清晰的思维和刻苦的工作。
• They passed a law to inhibit people from parking in the street.他们通过一项法令以阻止人们在街上停车。

34 hormone   

n.荷尔蒙，激素，内分泌

参考例句：

• Hormone implants are used as growth boosters.激素植入物被用作生长辅助剂。
• This hormone interacts closely with other hormones in the body.这种荷尔蒙与体內其他荷尔蒙紧密地相互作用。

35 override   

vt.不顾，不理睬，否决；压倒，优先于

参考例句：

• The welfare of a child should always override the wishes of its parents.孩子的幸福安康应该永远比父母的愿望来得更重要。
• I'm applying in advance for the authority to override him.我提前申请当局对他进行否决。

36 overrides   

越控( override的第三人称单数 )； （以权力）否决； 优先于； 比…更重要

参考例句：

• The new rule overrides all the previous ones. 新规则使以前的所有规则失效。
• The application configuration file setting overrides the machine configuration file setting. 应用程序配置文件设置重写计算机配置文件设置。

37 disorder   

n.紊乱，混乱；骚动，骚乱；疾病，失调

参考例句：

• When returning back,he discovered the room to be in disorder.回家后，他发现屋子里乱七八糟。
• It contained a vast number of letters in great disorder.里面七零八落地装着许多信件。

38 anorexia   

n.厌食症

参考例句：

• Anorexia can creep up on young girls when they least expect it.年轻女子可能在最没有防备的情況下患上厌食症。
• Anorexia is a common eating disorder.厌食是一种常见的饮食紊乱症。

39 activates   

使活动，起动，触发( activate的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Activates the window and displays it in its current size and position. 激活窗口，保持当前的大小及位置不变。
• Pulling out the alarm switch activates alarm and pushing it deactivates it. 闹钟的开和关是通过拔出和按入闹铃开关实现的。

40 droplet   

n.小滴，飞沫

参考例句：

• The rate of droplet growth under different conditions can be evaluated.可以计算在不同条件下的云滴增长率。
• The test results showed that increasing droplet size was associated with better stability.试验结果表明，增加液滴尺寸将使稳定性提高。

41 enzymes   

n. 酶，酵素

参考例句：

• It was said that washing powders containing enzymes remove stains more efficiently. 据说加酶洗衣粉除污更有效。
• Among the enzymes which are particularly effective are pepsin, papain. 在酶当中特别有效的是胃朊酶、木瓜酶。

42 degradation   

n.降级；低落；退化；陵削；降解；衰变

参考例句：

• There are serious problems of land degradation in some arid zones.在一些干旱地带存在严重的土地退化问题。
• Gambling is always coupled with degradation.赌博总是与堕落相联系。

43 constituents   

n.选民( constituent的名词复数 )；成分；构成部分；要素

参考例句：

• She has the full support of her constituents. 她得到本区选民的全力支持。
• Hydrogen and oxygen are the constituents of water. 氢和氧是水的主要成分。 来自《简明英汉词典》

44 liberated   

a.无拘束的，放纵的

参考例句：

• The city was liberated by the advancing army. 军队向前挺进，解放了那座城市。
• The heat brings about a chemical reaction, and oxygen is liberated. 热量引起化学反应，释放出氧气。

45 dilemma   

n.困境，进退两难的局面

参考例句：

• I am on the horns of a dilemma about the matter.这件事使我进退两难。
• He was thrown into a dilemma.他陷入困境。

46 primordial   

adj.原始的；最初的

参考例句：

• It is the primordial force that propels us forward.它是推动我们前进的原始动力。
• The Neanderthal Man is one of our primordial ancestors.的尼安德特人是我们的原始祖先之一.