变奏赫胥黎 没有嫉妒的 “ 竞争 ” 对手:华莱士与达尔文 Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913) 与 Charles Darwin(1809-1882) 多年通过信件交流学术。 1858 年,华莱士从 Ternate 岛将自己载有进化新理论的文稿,在投学术刊物以前,先寄给达尔文,核心正是达尔文自己酝酿多年的自然选择学说。六月十八日达尔文收到该文,惊异万分,他致信好友、地质学家 Charles Lyell ,觉得自己发现的优先权被粉碎( smashed ),但他绝不愿意做任何可鄙的 (paltry) 事情。 Lyell 和植物学家 Joseph Hooker 安排达尔文与华莱士的文章同时于 1858 年 7 月 1 日在林纳学会被宣读,在公告中 Lyell 和 Hooker 说明达尔文和华莱士完全独立得到同样思想、但尚未发表, Lyell 和 Hooker 曾多年催促达尔文发表。当天达尔文和华莱士皆未赴会:达尔文在家葬幼子,华莱士仍在海外。 华莱士和达尔文不仅没有争论优先权,而且一直关系很好。华莱士不善理财,有很好的收入时也留不住,常常出现窘境。达尔文 1881 年曾为之安排政府稳定支持(年薪 200 英镑)。达尔文只在书斋里工作、专注学术,华莱士关心穷人、成为社会主义者,并曾称伪科学颅相学( phrenology )为 “ 心灵的真科学 ” (the true science of mind) 。 他们因此有过不同的学术观点,而且曾出庭分别为控辩双方作证,但这些都未影响他们之间的个人关系。 华莱士曾劝其他科学家信心灵术, Thomas Huxley ( 赫胥黎 ,1825-1895) 婉拒时说自己有其他更重要的业余爱好,对此没有时间 “ 我放弃它的原因正如我不愿下棋 -- 太好玩而不象做正事,太难做而不好玩 ”(I gave it up for the same reason as I abstain from chess--it is too amusing to be fair work, and too hard work to be amusing) 。 1870 年,达尔文致信华莱士: “ 我们之间从无嫉妒,虽然在一定意义我们是竞争对手。我相信我自己肯定是这样,也绝对相信你肯定是这样 ”(we have never felt any jealousy towards each other, though in one sense, rivals. I say this of myself with truth and I am absolutely sure that it is true of you) 。 天下有此知己,夫复何求。 活学活用:变奏赫胥黎 通过钻研赫胥黎同志片言只语,我们决定以后学术报告加两句,如下。 同志们、朋友们:我实验室好几年研究社会行为和认知的分子机理,出现了奇葩的现象,如果允许我们篡改十九世纪英国自然学家赫胥黎的话来说就是 ---- 外界认为我们看雄老鼠雌老鼠与谁睡觉太好玩了不象做研究,而实验室内部有时有人觉得做这样的研究太难了不好玩。 (还有人--姑且隐其姓埋其名--叽叽咕咕说研究这种行为会影响日常生活) 因此,最近两年当观察到我们研究的有些基因突变影响睡眠后,我们加了一项研究,不看谁和谁睡,而看睡眠本身。当然“睡眠”完全不同于“睡谁”,后者 是觉醒中行为 的托辞( euphemism) 。 通过进一步的遗传筛选,我们找到更多影响睡眠的基因,包括有些突变导致睡眠完全颠倒白天黑夜,有提议把这些基因称为毛泽东一号、毛泽东二号。 但不知如果这样命名基因会被认为好玩、还是不正经? Berry A (2013) Alfred Russel Wallace—natural selection, socialism, and spiritualism. Current Biology 23:R1066-R1070. Browne J (2013) Wallace and Darwin. Current Biology 23:R1071-R1072. Wood J (2013) Wallace as a writer. Current Biology 23:R1072-R1073. (2014 年 5 月 18 日南京至北京高铁上读哈佛的 Andrew Berry 、 Janet Browne 、 James Wood 等文章后小结 )
英国著名生物学家与教育家赫胥黎曾在一篇名为“A game of chess”的文字指出: The chess-board is the world: the pieces are the phenomena of the universe; the rules of the game are what we call the laws of nature. The player on the other side is hidden from us. We know that his play is always fair, just and patient. But also we know, to our cost, that he never overlooks a mistake, or makes the smallest allowance for ignorance. 棋盘宛如世界: 一个个棋子仿佛世间的种种现象:游戏规则就是我们所称的自然法则。 竞争对手藏于暗处,不为我们所见。 我们知晓,这位对手向来处事公平,正义凛然,极富耐心。 然而,我们也明白,这位对手从不忽视任何错误,或者因为我们的无知而做出一丝让步,所以我们也必须为此付出代价。 (备注:也有学者将赫胥黎的话浓缩成如下: “世界如棋盘,万象乃棋子。游戏有法则,遵守事功倍。”)
美国科学院在今年一月份举行了In the Light of Evolution VI: Brain and Behavior会议 连接地址: http://www.nasonline.org/programs/sackler-colloquia/completed_colloquia/evolution_vi.html 在主页上讲了一个故事。关于大脑进化的争论和发展。 达尔文从来没有写关于大脑方面的文章,但是达尔文的反对者,Richard Owen认为人与猿类的大脑具有基本的不一样(PS:应该是从这个观点去反对人类的起源)。这个观点激怒了达尔文的继承者(bulldog) 赫胥黎。 达尔文没有直接回应这个论点,而是让极力支持达尔文理论的 赫胥黎在他《人类的起源》( Descent of Man)第二版中写一章:《on the resemblances and differences in the structure and the development of the brain in man and apes》。 赫胥黎在这篇文章中显示人和猿类具有相似的大脑结构,只不过人的大脑更大些,反击了Richard Owen的观点。从此,达尔文继承者开始关注大脑的进化。此次会议主要回顾 从Owen-Huxley debate开始150年来关于的大脑进化相关研究工作,组织杰出科学家在这方面的工作,揭示两个方面的问题,神经系统是怎么和为什么进化成如此复杂? Darwin never wrote much about the brain, but Darwin’s nemesis, Richard Owen, tried in 1861 to protect humans from Darwin’s threatening ideas by arguing that human brains differ fundamentally from those of other apes. This argument provoked a spirited attack by Darwin’s “bulldog,” T. H. Huxley. Darwin did not comment publicly on this controversy, but for the second edition of his Descent of Man, Darwin asked Huxley to write an essay “on the resemblances and differences in the structure and the development of the brain in man and apes.” This essay was a forceful attack on Owen’s argument and showed convincingly that human brains are like fairly typical ape brains, although larger. Thus the Darwinians began to contemplate evolving brains. This colloquium surveyed what has been learned about brain evolution in the 150 years since the Owen-Huxley debate, bringing together leading scientists whose work illuminates the twin questions of how and why complex nervous systems evolved. 最新PNAS(美国科学院院刊)的为这个会议出了一期专刊,如下。是开源的,大家都可以下载。 INTRODUCTION In the light of evolution VI: Brain and behavior Georg F. Striedter, John C. Avise, and Francisco J. Ayala COLLOQUIUM Functionalization of a protosynaptic gene expression network Cecilia Conaco, Danielle S. Bassett, Hongjun Zhou, Mary Luz Arcila, Sandie M. Degnan, Bernard M. Degnan, and Kenneth S. Kosik Adaptive evolution of voltage-gated sodium channels: The first 800 million years Harold H. Zakon Evolution of centralized nervous systems: Two schools of evolutionary thought R. Glenn Northcutt Evolving specialization of the arthropod nervous system Erin Jarvis, Heather S. Bruce, and Nipam H. Patel Expansion, folding, and abnormal lamination of the chick optic tectum after intraventricular injections of FGF2 Luke D. McGowan, Roula A. Alaama, Amanda C. Freise, Johnny C. Huang, Christine J. Charvet, and Georg F. Striedter Cortical evolution in mammals: The bane and beauty of phenotypic variability Leah A. Krubitzer and Adele M. H. Seelke Evolution of columns, modules, and domains in the neocortex of primates Jon H. Kaas The remarkable, yet not extraordinary, human brain as a scaled-up primate brain and its associated cost Suzana Herculano-Houzel Homology and homoplasy of swimming behaviors and neural circuits in the Nudipleura (Mollusca, Gastropoda, Opisthobranchia) James M. Newcomb, Akira Sakurai, Joshua L. Lillvis, Charuni A. Gunaratne, and Paul S. Katz Shared developmental and evolutionary origins for neural basis of vocal–acoustic and pectoral–gestural signaling Andrew H. Bass and Boris P. Chagnaud To flock or fight: Neurochemical signatures of divergent life histories in sparrows James L. Goodson, Leah C. Wilson, and Sara E. Schrock From chemotaxis to the cognitive map: The function of olfaction Lucia F. Jacobs Evolution of brains and behavior for optimal foraging: A tale of two predators Kenneth C. Catania Human brain evolution: From gene discovery to phenotype discovery Todd M. Preuss Integration of faces and vocalizations in ventral prefrontal cortex: Implications for the evolution of audiovisual speech Lizabeth M. Romanski Math, monkeys, and the developing brain Jessica F. Cantlon A hierarchical model of the evolution of human brain specializations H. Clark Barrett
英国 电生理学 家赫胥黎(1963诺贝尔生理学/医学奖得主)前天去世 Sir Andrew Fielding Huxley (22 November 1917– 30 May 2012) died two days ago. Huxley was an English physiologist and biophysicist , who won the 1963 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his experimental and mathematical work with Alan Hodgkin on the basis of nerve action potentials , the electrical impulses that enable the activity of an organism to be coordinated by a central nervous system . ( read more about him on Wikipedia ). Huxley is a grandson of Thomas Henry Huxley (4 May 1825 – 29 June 1895) -- "Darwin's Bulldog" (“达尔文的斗犬”赫胥黎) . Hodgkin and Huxley's electrophysiological work was done on the giant axon of the Atlantic squid ( Loligo pealei ), which enabled them to record ionic currents as they would not have been able to do in almost any other neuron. See: 肖静宁:从神经科学的发展看实验材料选择的方法论意义( http://www.cssn.cn/news/160940.htm ). Sir Andrew Fielding Huxley (22 November 1917 – 30 May 2012)