TED演讲｜变态又搞笑的演讲：为什么我会喜欢“恶心”的东西

Why you should love gross science

你知道世界上第一例催孕药是用天主教修女的尿合成的，甚至与大主教也有关系吗？这是真实的事件。20世纪50年代，科学家们发现当女人进入更年期时，她们的尿液中便开始出现含量极高的生殖激素。

But there was this doctor named Bruno Lunenfeld, who wondered if he could actually isolate those hormones from the urine and use it to help women who are having trouble getting pregnant.

但有位布鲁诺·卢内费尔德医生想知道，他是否能将那些激素从尿液中分离，并用其帮助不孕不育的妇女们。

Obviously, the problem with this was that in order to test this idea, he needed a lot of pee from older women. And that is not an easy thing to find. So he and his colleagues got special permission from the Pope to collect gallons and gallons of urine from hundreds of older Catholic nuns. 

问题很明显：为试验这一想法，他需要搜集许多年长妇女的尿液。然而那绝非易事。他和他的同行获得了大主教的许可，从几百名年长的天主教修女那里收集了若干加仑的尿液。

And in doing so, he actually isolated hormones that are still used to help women get pregnant today, though now, they can be synthesized in a lab, and gallons of pee aren't necessary.

这样一来，他就将那些至今仍有利于妇女怀孕的激素分离了出来。虽然现在，这种生殖激素可以在实验室合成，并且也不再需要大量的尿液。

So why am I standing up here, telling this wonderfully intellectual audience about nun pee? Well, I'm a science journalist and multimedia producer, who has always been fascinated by gross stuff. So fascinated, in fact, that I started a weekly YouTube series called "Gross Science," all about the slimy, smelly, creepy underbelly of nature, medicine and technology.

那么，为什么我要站在这里，向在座的各位精英讲述修女的尿液呢？事实上，我是一名总是痴迷于研究恶心事物的科学记者兼多媒体制作人。这种痴迷驱使我在一周前创立了一个名为“恶心科学”的周更Youtube视频系列，展示了自然，医药和科技中所有黏滑的，难闻的，令人毛骨悚然的部分。

Now, I think most of us would agree that there's something a little gross about pee. You know, it's something that we don't really like to talk about, and we keep the act of doing it very private. But when Lunenfeld peered into the world of pee, he discovered something deeply helpful to humanity.

我认为大多数人会承认尿液有点恶心。尿液属于一些我们不喜欢谈论的事物，而我们会将其控制得极其私密。但当卢内费尔德仔细观察了尿液的世界，他发现了使人类受益匪浅的东西。

And after a year and a half of making my show, I can tell you that very often when we explore the gross side of life, we find insights that we never would have thought we'd find, and we even often reveal beauty that we didn't think was there. I think it's important for us to talk about gross things for a few reasons.

从我制作节目以来的一年半中，我可以告诉各位，当我们探索生命中恶心的部分时，我们经常会获得意料之外的洞察，甚至经常揭示一些出乎意料的美。我认为谈论恶心的事物对我们来说很重要，有这么几个原因。

So, first of all, talking about gross stuff is a great tool for education, and it's an excellent way to preserve curiosity. To explain what I mean, why don't I tell you a little bit about what I was like as a child?

首先，谈论恶心的事物堪称教育的利器，也是保持好奇心的绝妙方法。为了解释我的意思，倒不如分享一点我小时候的经历。也许你们会称曾经的我为一名让人恶心的孩子。

So, I was what you might call a gross kid. In fact, my love of science itself began when my parents bought me a slime chemistry set and was then only enhanced by doing gross experiments in my sixth-grade biology class. We did things like, we swabbed surfaces around our classroom and cultured the bacteria we'd collected, and we dissected owl pellets, which are these balls of material that are undigested that owls barf up, and it's really kind of gross and awesome and cool.

事实上，我对科学本身的热爱开始于我的父母带给我的一套黏糊糊的化学实验工具，并通过我在六年级生物课上做的恶心的实验得到了进一步发展。例如：我们在教室的各个角落收集细菌，并进行培育。我们同样剖析了猫头鹰呕吐出的唾馀，包含着猫头鹰吞下去的一团团不消化的食物，那确实有些恶心，怪异，但也很酷。

Now, the fact that I was obsessed with gross stuff as a kid is not so revolutionary. You know, lots of kids are really into gross things, like playing in dirt or collecting beetles or eating their boogers. And why is that? I think really little kids are like little explorers. They just want to experience as much as they can and don't have any idea about the relative acceptability of touching a ladybug versus a stinkbug. They just want to understand how everything works and experience as much of life as they can.

实际上，我孩提时对恶心事物的痴迷，也算不上具有革命性的意义。许多孩子们的生活都离不开恶心的事物，像玩泥巴，收集甲虫或吃鼻屎。为什么呢？我认为，小孩子就像小探险家一样。他们只想尽他们所能地探索，但对相对接受性毫无概念，例如接触瓢虫或臭虫。他们只想知道万物如何存在，并尽他们所能地一探究竟。

And that is pure curiosity. But then adults step in, and we tell kids not to pick their noses and not to touch the slugs or toads or whatever else they find in the backyard, because those things are gross. And we do that in part to keep kids safe, right? Like, maybe picking your nose spreads germs and maybe touching that toad will give you warts, even though I don't actually think that's true. You should feel free to touch as many toads as you want.

那是纯粹的好奇心。接着，成人逐渐涉足，我们告诉孩子们不要挖鼻孔，不要摸鼻涕虫或蟾蜍，或者其它一切他们在后院找到的，因为那些东西很恶心。我们那样做部分是为了保证孩子们的安全，对吗？例如，挖鼻孔也许会传播细菌，摸蟾蜍也可能会带来疣疾。虽然如此，我却不敢苟同。你们应该感到无拘无束，想摸多少蟾蜍就摸多少。

So at a certain point, when kids get a little bit older, there's this way that engaging with gross stuff isn't just about curiosity, it's also about, sort of, finding out where the limits are, pushing the boundaries of what's OK. So, lots of kids of a certain age will have burping competitions or competitions to see who can make the grossest face. And they do that in part because it's a little bit transgressive, right?

到了某个阶段，当孩子们逐渐长大，这样对待恶心事物的方法，已不只与好奇心有关，某种程度上，也有可能与发现极限有关，在允许的情况下会试图超越那个极限。因此，在特定年龄的许多孩子会参加间歇性的比赛，看谁的鬼脸最丑。某种意义上，正因为这样做会有点出格，对吗？

But there's another layer to why we define stuff as gross. As humans, we've sort of extended the concept of disgust to morality. So, the psychologist Paul Rozin would say that many of the things we categorize as gross are things that reminds us that we're just animals. These are things like bodily fluids and sex and physical abnormalities and death. And the idea that we're just animals can be really unsettling, because it can be this reminder of our own mortality.

不过，我们对恶心事物的定义，还出于另一方面的考虑。作为人类，我们多多少少将恶心的概念拓展到了道德的范畴。心理学家保罗·罗兹说过：“许多我们归为恶心的东西，其实提醒了我们，我们只是动物。例如体液，性，以及身体畸形和死亡。确实，我们是动物的概念使人不安。因为它会提醒我们自己终有一死。

And that can leave many of us with this deep existential angst. Rozin would say that there's this way in which disgust and the avoidance of gross things becomes not just a way to protect our bodies, it becomes a way to protect our souls. I think at a certain point, kids really begin to internalize this link between disgusting things and immorality.

它还让我们中的许多人怀有存在性焦虑。罗兹这样说过：“厌恶和逃避恶心的事物不仅成为保护我们身体的方式，而且还保护了我们的精神。我认为在某个阶段，讨厌的事物和不道德之间的关系会开始在孩子们的心底扎根。

And while I don't have any concrete data to back up this next idea, I think that for a lot of us, it happens around the time we hit puberty. And you know -- yeah, I know. So during puberty, our bodies are changing, and we're sweating more, and girls get their periods, and we're thinking about sex in this way that we never did before. And through the human capacity for abstraction, this shame can settle in.

虽然目前我没有具体的数据来支持我的下一个想法，但我认为对大多数人来说，当我们迈入青春期时，这种情况便已司空见惯。就像这样——没错，这就是那个时期的我。我们的身体在青春期时开始改变，出更多的汗，女孩开始有月经。我们从未这样思考过性。受人类抽象思维能力的限制，这种羞愧便很容易立足。

So we don't necessarily just think, "Oh, my goodness, something really gross is happening to my body!" We think, "Oh my God, maybe I'm gross. And maybe that means that there's something bad or wrong about me." The thing is, that if you de facto associate gross stuff with immorality, you lose a huge part of your curiosity, because there is so much out there in the world that is a little bit gross.

我们不会只想到：“哦，天呐，我的身体正经历着恶心的东西！”我们会想：“哦，上帝，也许我很恶心。也许那意味着我出了什么问题。”问题是，如果你们将恶心的事物与不道德联系在一起，就会失去绝大部分的好奇心。因为世界包罗万象，总有一部分多少有点恶心。

Like, think about going for a walk in the woods. You could just pay attention to the birds and the trees and the flowers and that would be fine, but in my view, you'd be missing a bigger and more awesome picture of life on this planet. There are cycles of decay that are driving forest growth, and there are networks of fungus beneath your feet that are connecting literally all of the plants around you. That's really amazing. So I feel like we should be talking about gross stuff early and often with young people, so they feel like they're actually allowed to claim this bigger picture of life on our planet. The good news is that for many of us, the fascination with gross stuff doesn't exactly go away, we just kind of pretend like it's not there.

举个例子，想象在丛林中漫步。你或许只会注意到鸟，树和花。它们很漂亮。但我看来，你会错失这个星球中生命更加广阔和奇妙的一面。衰变的循环正驾驭着森林的生长，在你们脚下存在着网络般的菌类植物，与你们身边的植物紧密相连。那确实令人吃惊。所以我认为我们应该尽早并且频繁的与年轻人谈论恶心的东西，让他们真切地感受到需要体会我们星球上的生命中广阔的一面。对大多数人来说好消息是：恶心事物的乐趣并未消失殆尽，我们只是有意无意地忽视了它们的存在。

But truthfully, we all spend sort of a big part of our lives just trying not to be gross. When you really think about it, we're sort of just like bags of fluids and some weird tissues surrounded by a thin layer of skin. And to a certain extent, multiple times a day, whether consciously or subconsciously, I need to remind myself not to fart publicly.

但事实上，我们一生中都花费了很长时间试着摆脱恶心的感觉。当你们认真思考它时，我们也不过是皮包着骨头的生物罢了——薄薄的皮肤包裹着液体和奇怪的组织。在有些情况下，有意或无意间，我需要在一天中多次提醒自己不要在公众场所放屁。

You know, we're desperately trying to avoid being gross all the time, so I think many of us take this kind of voyeuristic delight in learning about gross things. This is certainly true of kids; the number of middle school teachers who show my videos in their science classes is a testament to that. But I think it's totally true of adults, too. You know, I think we all love hearing about gross stories, because it's a socially acceptable way to explore the gross side of ourselves. But there's this other reason that I think talking about gross stuff is so important.

很显然，我们总是不顾一切地尝试躲避恶心的东西。所以我认为大多数人会将这种偷窥的愉悦 运用到恶心的事物上。尤其是儿童。在科学课堂上展示我的视频的中学老师的数量就是很好的证明。但我认为这个观点也适用于成人。我认为我们都喜欢听闻恶心的故事，毕竟，探索我们自己恶心的一面，在社会层面上是可以接受的。但让我觉得谈论恶心的东西很重要，还有着另一层原因。

A while back, I made a video on tonsil stones -- sorry, everyone -- which are these balls of mucus and bacteria and food that get lodged in your tonsils and they smell really terrible, sometimes you cough them up and it's like -- it's awful. And many, many people have experienced this. But many of the people who have experienced this haven't really had a forum to talk about it. And today, this video that I made is my most popular video. It has millions of views.

前不久，我制作了一个关于扁桃体结石的视频——抱歉让大家觉得不舒服——这些镶嵌在你们扁桃体的粘液球，细菌和食物味道非常难闻，有时候会随着咳嗽喷出来，让人感到很恶心。不少人都有过这样的经历。但经历过这一过程的很多人，并未真正公开讨论过这个问题。时至今日，我制作的这个视频仍然是所有视频中最火的一个。有几百万的点击率。

And the comment section for that video became sort of like a self-help section, where people could talk about their tonsil stone experiences and, like, tips and tricks for getting rid of them. And I think it became this great way for people to talk about something that they'd never felt comfortable taking about publicly. And that is wonderful when it's about something as goofy as tonsil stones, but it's a little sad when a video can have an effect like that when it's about something as common as periods.

并且那个视频的评论区变得有点像一个励志互助区，人们可以谈论他们扁桃体结石的经历，比如摆脱它们的方法和策略。这已经成了人们敞开心扉直面问题的绝佳途径。能讨论诸如扁桃体结石一类恶心的东西，确实大快人心，然而对于一个有相同影响力的视频，例如月经一类的平常事物，情况就不那么乐观了。

Last February, I released a video on menstruation, and to this day, I am still getting messages from people around the globe who are asking me about their periods. There are a lot of young people -- and some not-so-young people -- out there, who are worried that what's happening to their bodies is somehow not normal.

去年二月，我发布了一个有关月经的视频，一直到今天，我仍会收到来自全世界人们关于自己月经问题的留言。许多年轻人——还包括年纪稍大一些的人——担心她们身体出现了一些异常。

And, of course, I always tell them that I am not a medical professional, and that, if possible, they should talk to a doctor. But the truth of the matter is that everyone should feel comfortable talking to a doctor about their own bodies. And that's why I think it's really important for us to start this dialogue about gross stuff from a pretty early age, so we can let our kids know that it's alright to have agency over your own body and over your own health.

当然，我总告诉她们我不是医学专家，如果可能的话，她们应该去咨询医生。但事实上：所有人应该很自然地与医生谈论她们自己的身体。这也是为什么我觉得从年轻时开始直面恶心事物对我们来说很重要，这样就可以让我们的孩子们懂得：应该有人关心你们的身体，对你们的健康负责。

There's another reason that talking to your doctor about your health and gross stuff is really, really important. Doctors and the scientific community can only address issues when they know there's something to address. So one of the really interesting things I learned while making the video on periods, is that I was talking to this one scientist who told me there's actually still a lot we don't know about periods.

与医生谈论健康和恶心的东西很重要，另一个原因是，医生和科研人员只有了解哪里出了问题，才能有针对性地解决这些问题。当制作关于月经的视频时，我所了解的一件非常有趣的事是：曾经有一名科学家告诉我，我们关于月经的认知实际上还很有限。

There's a lot of basic research that still hasn't been done. In part, that's just because there weren't a lot of scientists in the field who were women, to ask questions about it. And it's also not a topic that women talk about publicly. So there's this gap in what we know, just because no one was there to ask a question.

现在还有许多基础研究尚未完成。部分原因是，很多该领域的科学家，尤其是女性，并未对月经表达出任何疑问。这也不是女性们会公开讨论的话题。我们在认知上的缺陷，正是因为没人提出问题。

There's one final reason that I think talking about gross stuff is so important, and that's because you just never know what you're going to find when you peel back all those layers of disgustingness. So, take the California brown sea hare. This is a sea slug that squirts this lovely, bright purple ink at any creature that tries to eat it. But it also happens to be one of the kinkiest creatures in the animal kingdom. So these guys are hermaphrodites, which means they have both male and female genitalia. And when it's time to mate, up to 20 individuals will all get together in this kind of, like, conga line and they'll all mate together.

我认为谈论恶心的东西很重要，还有最后一层原因：当剥开恶心的外皮时，你们并不知道会有什么样的发现。例如加州的棕色海兔。这是一种向捕食者喷射这种可爱，明亮的紫色墨水的海蛞蝓。它同时也适用于动物界中最扭曲的生物。它们就是两性生物，意味着它们兼具雌雄深殖器官。当到了交配的时期，像（古巴的）康加舞一样，20多个个体会聚集一堂，互相交配。

A single sea hare will inseminate the partner in front of it and receive sperm from the one behind, which is sort of like an awesome time-saver, when you think about it.

单只海兔会向正前方的配偶射经，并接受后方的经子。这倒是个省时省力的好方法，不妨想象一下。

But if scientists had only seen this and they were like, "OK, we're just not going to touch that with a stick," they would have missed the bigger thing about sea hares that makes them really remarkable. It turns out that these sea hares have a small number of very large neurons, which makes them excellent to use in neuroscience research. And, in fact, the scientist Eric Kandel used them in his research to understand how memories are stored. And you know what? He won a Nobel Prize for his work.

但当科学家看到这个景象时，会说：“好吧，还是不要去碰它们，”但这样一来，他们就会错过关于海兔更重要的着实夺人眼球的事情。事实是：这些海兔仅有少量的巨大神经元，这使得它们非常适合被用于神经科学研究。事实上，科学家艾瑞克·坎德尔将它们运用在了他的实验中，以理解记忆是如何存储的。大家知道吗？他还因此获得了诺贝尔奖。

So go out there and pick up beetles and play in dirt and ask questions. And own your fascination with gross stuff and don't be ashamed of it, because you never know what you're going to find. And as I say at the end of all my videos, "Ew." Thank you.

所以走出家门，捡拾甲壳虫，玩玩泥巴，并心怀好奇。驾驭你们对恶心事物的兴趣，不要胆怯。因为你们永远不知道你会发现什么。就像我在所有视频的结尾说的：“好恶心哦！”谢谢。

给你带来最新双语国际趣闻时讯

出国必备英语知识和学习技巧

&育儿心得和留学移民资讯

请长按二维码关注我们！