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Do animals think? How could the earth show so many signs of design and purpose and yet be random1? Our best scientists are heatedly debating both sides of these and other scientific questions. In the following essay, the author takes a look at science education and argues that as well ass2 telling students the facts and theories that have already been proved and accepted, science teacher should spend more time introducing their students to the many mysteries that remain unsolved and the arguments taking place between scientists. What better way, he argues, to stimulate3 their interest in thing scientific?
DEBATING THE UNKNOWABLE
Lewis Thomas
The greatest of all the accomplishment4 of twentieth-century science has been the discovery of human ignorance. We live, as never before, in puzzlement about nature, the universe, and ourselves most of all. It is a new experience for the species. A century ago, after the turbulence5 caused by Darwin and Wallace had subsided7 and the central idea of natural selection had been grasped and accepted, we thought we knew everything essential about evolution. In the eighteenth century there were no huge puzzles; human reason was all you needed in order to figure out the universe. And for most of the earlier centuries, the Church provided both the questions and the answers, neatly8 packaged. Now, for the first time in human history, we are catching9 glimpses of our incomprehension. We can still make up stories to explain the world, as we always have, but now the stories have to be confirmed and reconfirmed by experiment. This is the scientific method, and once started on this line we cannot turn back. We are obliged to grow up in skepticism, requiring proofs for every assertion about nature, and there is no way out except to move ahead and plug away, hoping for comprehension in the future but living in a condition of intellectual instability for the long time.
It is the admission of ignorance that leads to progress, not so much because the solving of a particular puzzle leads directly to a new piece of understanding but because the puzzle -- if it interests enough scientists -- leads to work. There is a similar phenomenon in entomology know as stigmergy, a term invented by Grasse, which means "to incite10 to work." When three or four termites12 are collected together in a chamber13 they wander about aimlessly, but when more termites are added, they begin to build. It is the presence of other termites, in sufficient numbers at close quarters, that produces the work: they pick up each other's fecal pellets and stack them in neat columns, and when the columns are precisely14 the right height, the termites reach across and turn the perfect arches that form the foundation of the termitarium. No single termite11 knows how to do any of this, but as soon as there are enough termites gathered together they become flawless architects, sensing their distances from each other although blind, building an immensely complicated structure with its own air-conditioning and humidity control. They work their lives away in this ecosystem15 built by themselves. The nearest thing to a termitarium that I can think of in human behavior is the making of language, which we do by keeping at each other all our lives, generation after generation, changing the structure by some sort of instinct.
Very little is understood about this kind of collective behavior. It is out of fashion these days to talk of "superorganisms", but there simply aren't enough reductionist details in hand to explain away the phenomenon of termites and other social insects: some very good guesses can be made about their chemical signaling systems, but the plain fact that they exhibit something like a collective intelligence is a mystery, or anyway an unsolved problem, that might contain important implications for social life in general. This mystery is the best introduction I can think of to biological science in college. It should be taught for its strangeness, and for the ambiguity17 of its meaning. It should be taught to premedical students, who need lessons early n their careers about the uncertainties18 in science.
College students, and for that matter high school students, should be exposed very early, perhaps at the outset, to the big arguments currently going on among scientists. Big arguments stimulate their interest, and with luck engage their absorbed attention. Few things in life are as engrossing19 as a good fight between highly trained and skilled adversaries20. But the young students are told very little about the major disagreements of the day; they may be taught something about the arguments between Darwinians and their opponents a century ago, but they do not realize that similar disputes about other matters, many of them touching21 profound issues for our understanding of nature, are still going on and, indeed, are an essential feature of the scientific process. There is, I fear, a reluctance22 on the part of science teachers to talk about such things, based on the belief that before students can appreciate what the arguments are about they must learn and master the "fundamentals". I would be willing to see some experiments along this line, and I have in mind several examples of contemporary doctrinal dispute in which the drift of the argument can be readily perceived without deep or elaborate knowledge of the subject.
There is, for one, the problem of animal awareness23. One school of ethologists devoted24 to the study of animal behavior has it that human beings are unique in the possession of consciousness, differing from al other creatures in being able to think things over, capitalize on past experience, and hazard informed guesses at the future. Other, "lower", animals (with possible exceptions made for chimpanzees, whales, and dolphins) cannot do such things with their minds; they live from moment to moment with brains that are programmed to respond, automatically or by conditioning, to contingencies25 in the environment, Behavioral psychologists believe that this automatic or conditioned response accounts for human mental activity as well, although they dislike that word "mental". On the other side are some ethologists who seems to be more generous-minded, who see no compelling reasons to doubt that animals in general are quite capable of real thinking and do quite a lot of it —— thinking that isn't as dense26 as human thinking, that is sparser27 because of the lack of language and the resultant lack of metaphors28 to help the thought along, but thinking nonetheless.
The point about this argument is not that one side or the other is in possession of a more powerful array of convincing facts; quite the opposite. There are not enough facts to sustain a genuine debate of any length; the question of animal awareness is an unsettled one.
Another debatable question arises when one contemplates29 the whole biosphere30, the conjoined life of the earth. How could it have turned out to possess such stability and coherence31, resembling as it does a sort of enormous developing embryo32, with nothing but chance events to determine its emergence33? Lovelock and Margulis, facing this problem, have proposed the Gaia Hypothesis, which is, in brief, that the earth is itself a form of life, "a complex entity34 involving the Earth's biosphere, atmosphere, oceans and soil; the totality constituting a feedback or cybernetic system which seeks an optimal35 physical and chemical environment for life on this planet." Lovelock postulates36, in addition, that "the physical and chemical condition of the surface of the Earth, of the atmosphere, and of the oceans has been an is actively37 made fit and comfortable by the presence of life itself."
This notion is beginning to stir up a few signs of storm, and if it catches on, as I think it will, we will soon find the biological community split into fuming38 factions39, one side saying that the evolved biosphere displays evidences of design and purpose, the other decrying40 such heresy41. I believe that students should learn as much as they can about the argument.
One more current battle involving the unknown is between sociobiologists and antisociobiologists, and it is a marvel42 for students to behold43. To observe, in open-mouthed astonishment44, one group of highly intelligent, beautifully trained, knowledgeable45, and imaginative scientists maintaining that all behavior, animal and human, is governed exclusively by genes16, and another group of equally talented scientists asserting that all behaviors is set and determined46 by the environment or by culture, is an educational experience that no college student should be allowed to miss. The essential lesson to be learned has nothing to do with the relative validity of the facts underlying47 the argument. It is the argument itself that is the education: we do not yet know enough to settle such questions.
New Words
debate
vt. argue about (sth.) with sb., discuss
n. a discussion about a subject on which people have different views
unknowable
a. beyond comprehension, esp. beyond human comprehension
puzzlement
n. bewilderment, perplexity
turbulence
n. agitation48; great disturbance49 骚动，纷乱
turbulent a.
vi. sink to a lower or more normal level; become less
package
vt. wrap or seal in a container, wrappings, etc. to attract purchasers
glimpse
n. a quick view or look
incomprehension
n. lack of comprehension; inability to understand
reconfirm
vt. confirm anew
skepticism
n. a doubting state or habit of mind; doubt
assertion
n. a positive statement; firm declaration
assert
vt. state positively50; declare firmly
instability
n. lack of firmness; being unstable51
admission
n. (an) act of accepting the truth (of sth.)
entomology
n. the branch of zoology52 that deals with insects 昆虫学
incite
vt. cause or encourage sb. to a strong feeling or action; provoke
termite
n. an insect that looks somewhat like white ants and eats the wood of buildings and furniture 白蚁
fecal
a. having to do with feces (waste matter discharged from the intestines)粪便的，排泄物的
column
n. a long, thin, upright structure; pillar; post
arch
n. a curved structure capable of bearing the weight of the material above it 拱
termitarium
n. nest of termites
flawless
a. without a flaw; perfect
flaw
n. a fault or weakness that makes sth. imperfect 瑕疵
air-conditioning
n. the system that uses machines to control the temperature of the air in a room or building
humidity
n. moisture, esp. of the air 湿气；湿度
ecosystem
n. an ecological system which relates all the plants, animals and people in an area to their surroundings, considered as a whole 生态系（统）
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random
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| adj.随机的；任意的；n.偶然的(或随便的)行动 | |
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ass
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| n.驴；傻瓜，蠢笨的人 | |
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stimulate
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| vt.刺激，使兴奋；激励，使…振奋 | |
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accomplishment
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| n.完成，成就，（pl.）造诣，技能 | |
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turbulence
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| n.喧嚣，狂暴，骚乱，湍流 | |
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subside
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| vi.平静，平息；下沉，塌陷，沉降 | |
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subsided
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| v.（土地）下陷（因在地下采矿）( subside的过去式和过去分词 )；减弱；下降至较低或正常水平；一下子坐在椅子等上 | |
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neatly
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| adv.整洁地，干净地，灵巧地，熟练地 | |
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catching
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| adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住 | |
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incite
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| v.引起，激动，煽动 | |
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termite
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| n.白蚁 | |
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termites
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| n.白蚁( termite的名词复数 ) | |
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chamber
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| n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所 | |
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precisely
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| adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地 | |
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ecosystem
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| n.生态系统 | |
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genes
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| n.基因( gene的名词复数 ) | |
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ambiguity
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| n.模棱两可；意义不明确 | |
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uncertainties
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| 无把握( uncertainty的名词复数 )； 不确定； 变化不定； 无把握、不确定的事物 | |
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engrossing
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| adj.使人全神贯注的，引人入胜的v.使全神贯注( engross的现在分词 ) | |
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adversaries
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| n.对手，敌手( adversary的名词复数 ) | |
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touching
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| adj.动人的，使人感伤的 | |
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reluctance
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| n.厌恶，讨厌，勉强，不情愿 | |
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awareness
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| n.意识，觉悟，懂事，明智 | |
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devoted
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| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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contingencies
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| n.偶然发生的事故，意外事故( contingency的名词复数 )；以备万一 | |
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dense
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| a.密集的，稠密的，浓密的；密度大的 | |
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sparser
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| adj.稀疏的，稀少的( sparse的比较级 ) | |
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metaphors
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| 隐喻( metaphor的名词复数 ) | |
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contemplates
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| 深思，细想，仔细考虑( contemplate的第三人称单数 )； 注视，凝视； 考虑接受（发生某事的可能性）； 深思熟虑，沉思，苦思冥想 | |
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biosphere
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| n.生命层，生物圈 | |
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coherence
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| n.紧凑；连贯；一致性 | |
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embryo
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| n.胚胎，萌芽的事物 | |
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emergence
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| n.浮现，显现，出现，（植物）突出体 | |
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entity
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| n.实体，独立存在体，实际存在物 | |
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optimal
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| adj.最适宜的；最理想的；最令人满意的 | |
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postulates
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| v.假定，假设( postulate的第三人称单数 ) | |
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actively
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| adv.积极地，勤奋地 | |
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fuming
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| 愤怒( fume的现在分词 )； 大怒； 发怒； 冒烟 | |
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factions
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| 组织中的小派别，派系( faction的名词复数 ) | |
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decrying
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| v.公开反对，谴责( decry的现在分词 ) | |
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heresy
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| n.异端邪说；异教 | |
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42
marvel
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| vi.(at)惊叹vt.感到惊异；n.令人惊异的事 | |
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behold
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| v.看，注视，看到 | |
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astonishment
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| n.惊奇，惊异 | |
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45
knowledgeable
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| adj.知识渊博的；有见识的 | |
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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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underlying
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| adj.在下面的，含蓄的，潜在的 | |
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agitation
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| n.搅动；搅拌；鼓动，煽动 | |
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disturbance
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| n.动乱，骚动；打扰，干扰；(身心)失调 | |
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positively
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| adv.明确地，断然，坚决地；实在，确实 | |
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unstable
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| adj.不稳定的，易变的 | |
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zoology
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| n.动物学，生态 | |
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