万物简史 第100期:势不两立的科学(1)

 6 SCIENCE RED IN TOOTH AND CLAW

第六章　势不两立的科学

IN 1787, SOMEONE in New Jersey¹—exactly who now seems to be forgotten—found an enormous thighbone sticking out of a stream bank at a place called Woodbury Creek². The bone clearly didn't belong to any species of creature still alive, certainly not in New Jersey. From what little is known now, it is thought to have belonged to a hadrosaur, a large duck-billed dinosaur³. At the time, dinosaurs⁴ were unknown.

1787年，新泽西州有个人——到底是谁，如今似乎已被忘却——在伍德伯里溪发现一根巨大的大腿骨戳出一处岸边。那根骨头显然不属于尚存的任何物种，也肯定不是新泽西州的。根据现在掌握的一点情况，人们认为它属于一只鸭嘴龙，那是一种长着鸭嘴的大恐龙。当时，人们还没有听说过恐龙。

The bone was sent to Dr. Caspar Wistar, the nation's leading anatomist, who described it at a meeting of the American Philosophical⁵ Society in Philadelphia that autumn. Unfortunately, Wistar failed completely to recognize the bone's significance and merely made a few cautious and uninspired remarks to the effect that it was indeed a whopper. He thus missed the chance, half a century ahead of anyone else, to be the discoverer of dinosaurs. Indeed, the bone excited so little interest that it was put in a storeroom and eventually disappeared altogether. So the first dinosaur bone ever found was also the first to be lost.

骨头被送交给当时美国最杰出的解剖学家卡斯帕·威斯塔博士。同年秋天，他在费城召开的美国哲学学会的一次会议上作了描述。威斯塔没有完全认识到这根骨头的重要意义，只是小心翼翼地讲了几句不痛不痒的话，大意是，它真是个庞然大物。他就这样错过了先于别人半个世纪发现恐龙的机会。实际上，这根骨头没有引起多大兴趣，后来被放在贮藏室里，最后彻底不见了。因此，历史上第一根被发现的恐龙骨头，也是第一根被丢失的恐龙骨头。

1 jersey   

n.运动衫

参考例句：

• He wears a cotton jersey when he plays football.他穿运动衫踢足球。
• They were dressed alike in blue jersey and knickers.他们穿着一致，都是蓝色的运动衫和灯笼短裤。

2 creek   

n.小溪，小河，小湾

参考例句：

• He sprang through the creek.他跳过小河。
• People sunbathe in the nude on the rocks above the creek.人们在露出小溪的岩石上裸体晒日光浴。

3 dinosaur   

n.恐龙

参考例句：

• Are you trying to tell me that David was attacked by a dinosaur?你是想要告诉我大卫被一支恐龙所攻击？
• He stared at the faithful miniature of the dinosaur.他凝视著精确的恐龙缩小模型。

4 dinosaurs   

n.恐龙( dinosaur的名词复数 )；守旧落伍的人，过时落后的东西

参考例句：

• The brontosaurus was one of the largest of all dinosaurs. 雷龙是所有恐龙中最大的一种。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Dinosaurs have been extinct for millions of years. 恐龙绝种已有几百万年了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 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。