Did you know that one of the first fertility drugs was made from the pee of Catholic nuns, and that even the Pope got involved? So, this is totally true. Back in the 1950s, scientists knew that when women enter menopause, they start releasing high levels of fertility hormones in their urine. 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. 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. 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.
你知道嗎?最早的生育藥物之一 是由天主教修女的小便所製成的, 甚至教皇也參與其中? 這是事實。 回到 1950 年代, 科學家們知道當女性進入更年期時, 她們釋放出高水平的 生育激素到尿液中。 有位布魯諾‧盧恩費爾德醫生, 想知道可否從尿液中萃取激素, 去幫助那些無法懷孕的婦女。 顯然問題是,為了測試這個想法, 他需要很多老年婦女的尿尿。 那是不容易找到的。 所以他與同事們 得到了教皇的特別許可, 收集數百名天主教 老修女的大量尿液, 就這樣做, 他真的分隔出荷爾蒙, 仍在今天被用來幫助女性懷孕, 雖然它們現在可以在實驗室中合成, 和沒有必要再用大量的小便。
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. 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.
那我為什麼站在這裡呢? 告訴你們這群很棒的知識分子 關於修女尿尿的事情? 好吧,我是一名科學記者 和多媒體製作人, 總是著迷於粗鄙的東西。 因此我開始每週製作 一段 YouTube 系列的影片, 稱為「粗鄙的科學」。 有關於黏稠、有臭味, 令人毛骨悚然的下腹部的 自然、醫學和技術。 我們大多數人會同意 小便是有些粗鄙。 是我們不想談論的 私密行為。 但當盧恩費爾德醫生凝視小便時, 他發現了一些對人類 有深遠幫助的東西。
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. 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? 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.
在我製作 Youtube 影片 一年半之後, 我確定探索粗鄙的生活這方面時, 會找到我們從未想過的見解, 甚至揭示我們從未想到的美。 基於某些原因,談論粗鄙的事情 對我們來說很重要。 首先,談論粗鄙的東西 是極佳的教育工具, 和保有好奇心的良好方法。 講解我的意思之前, 何不先告訴你們我幼時的模樣? 我就是那種,可稱之為粗鄙的孩子。 我對科學本身的熱愛, 是由父母買了給我 一套粘液化學套裝時開始, 然後到六年級上生物課時做的 大量實驗,增強了我的興趣。 我們在教室周圍擦拭表面, 培養收集得來的細菌, 我們解剖貓頭鷹的顆粒, 那些都是貓頭鷹嘔吐出來 未消化的物質球, 是又棒又酷的。
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. 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.
小時候我一直沉迷於粗鄙的事實, 並不是那麼了不起。 你知道,很多孩子喜歡粗鄙的東西, 就像喜歡玩泥土、收集甲蟲 或吃他們的鼻屎。 為什麼這樣呢? 小孩子就好像小探險家。 只想盡可能多多地體驗, 他們對觸摸瓢蟲或臭蟲 可被接受的程度是一無所知。 他們只想了解一切如何運作, 儘可能多多體驗生活。 這是純粹的好奇心。 但大人隨後的介入, 告訴孩子們不要挖鼻孔, 及觸摸鼻涕蟲或蟾蜍 還有在後院找到的任何東西, 那些東西很噁心。 這樣做的部分原因 是為了孩子的安全,對嗎? 就像摳鼻子會傳入細菌, 觸摸那蟾蜍會令你生疣, 但我不以為然, 你可以隨意觸摸很多的蟾蜍。
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?
當孩子們變大一點, 他們會與粗鄙的東西為伍, 那不單是好奇心, 是試圖找到他們可以觸碰的臨界點, 所以,很多特定年齡的孩子 會參加打嗝比賽, 或者參加最噁心的臉競爭。 他們這樣做是有點過火了,對嗎?
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. 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.
但是,我們界定事物為粗鄙, 還有另一個層次。 人類有點將厭惡的概念擴展至道德。 因此,心理學家保羅‧羅津會說, 很多我們歸類為粗鄙的東西 其實提醒我們只是動物。 像是體液和性, 和身體異常及死亡。 而我們只是動物的想法 或許令我們很不安, 在在提醒我們必死的命運。 讓許多人帶著深深的存在焦慮。 羅津認為這種方式 就會令人厭惡和避免粗鄙的事情, 不僅是保護我們的身體, 也同時保護我們的靈魂。 在某個階段,孩子們開始內在化 噁心的事物與不道德之間的聯繫。
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. 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.
雖然沒有任何數據 支持我的下一個想法, 對於很多人來說, 事情發生在我們進入青春期的時候。 你是知道的,我也知道。 在青春期,我們的身體 正在發生變化, 而且我們出汗更多, 女孩子們開始她們的月經, 以之前未有的方式思考「性」。 通過人的抽象思考能力, 可以解決恥辱感。 我們未必只是想: 「哦,天哪,我身上 發生了噁心的事!」 我們想:「噢,天哪, 也許自己很粗鄙。 或許這意味著 我有些不好或不對勁。」 問題是,如果將事情與道德綑綁, 就棄失了大部分的好奇心, 因為世界上有很多有些粗鄙的事物。
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.
比如,試想在樹林裡散步。 你可以只關注鳥類、樹木和花朵, 那會很好, 但我認為,你會錯過 在這星球上更大、 更精彩的生命畫面, 這裡有衰變週期 推動了森林的生長, 在腳下有真菌網, 連接你周圍所有的植物。 太神奇了。 所以我們應該於早期, 經常與年輕人討論粗鄙的東西, 讓他們覺得他們實際上被允許 在地球上主張更大的生活畫面。 好消息是,我們中的許多人 對粗鄙的東西仍很著迷, 並沒有消失, 只是假裝這些東西並不存在。
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.
但說實話,我們都在生活中 度過了大部分時間, 試圖盡量表現得不粗鄙。 仔細想, 我們就像 一袋流體和奇怪的組織, 周圍包著一層薄薄的皮膚。 在某程度上, 每天多次, 無論有意識還是潛意識, 我得提醒自己不要在公共場合放屁。
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
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. 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.
我們總是拼命避免粗鄙的狀況, 但很多人傾向以偷窺般的喜悅 去了解粗鄙的事情。 對孩子們來說,確實如此; 在科學課上展示我的影片的 中學教師的數量 就證明了這一點。 對成年人來說,也是如此。 我們都喜歡聽到粗鄙的事情, 因為這是一種社會可接受的方式 來探索自己粗鄙的那一面。 但還有另外一個原因, 談論粗鄙的東西是如此重要。 前一陣子,我為扁桃腺結石 做了一段影片—— 對不起,大家 —— 這些粘液、細菌和食物的球 滯留在扁桃腺中,聞起來很糟糕, 有時你會咳嗽,就像——糟糕極了。 許多人都經歷過這種情況。 雖然他們經歷過, 卻沒公開討論的論壇。 到目前為止,我所製作的那支影片 是最受歡迎的一支。
(Laughter)
有數百萬的觀眾。 (笑聲)
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.
並且該影片的意見部分, 觀眾在自問自答, 他們談論自己關於 扁桃腺結石的體驗, 並給出擺脫它們的提示和技巧。 而且意見平台成為人們談論 不能自在地公開談論議題的地方。 多美妙啊! 討論像扁桃腺結石那樣可笑的東西; 當普通如女性月經的影片播放後, 所產生的效果,令我有點兒傷心。
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. 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.
去年二月,我發布了一個 關於女性月經的影片, 直到今天,我仍然收到簡訊, 來自世界各地的女性 問我關於她們的月經。 在意見平台有很多年輕的 和一些並不年輕的人, 他們擔心自己身體有毛病, 某程度上不正常。 當然,我總是告訴他們 我不是專業醫學人士, 如果可能的話,他們應該去看醫生。 任何人在與醫生談論自己的身體時 都不應該感到不自在。 因此我認為這個問題非常嚴重。 從小時候開始與粗鄙的東西對話, 可以讓我們的孩子知道, 盡可安心地將自己的身體與健康 交給醫生處理。
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. 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.
再者與醫生交談 關於健康和那些粗鄙的東西, 是很重要的。 醫生和科學界所能解決的問題, 就是當他們知道 要解決什麼問題的時候。 在製作那月經影片時, 我學到的一件非常有趣的事情, 一位科學家告訴我, 對於月經,我們仍有許多未知, 還有很多基礎的研究尚未完成。 部分原因是在該領域的 女性科學家很少, 就此提出的問題也相對少。 而這些也不是她們公開討論的話題。 所以引致我們有認知的差距, 只因為女性沒在那裡問問題。
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.
還有最後和最重要的原因, 應該要談論粗鄙的東西, 因為你永遠不知道將會找到什麼, 在你剝去所有 那些令人厭惡的外層後。 舉加州的棕色海兔為例。 牠們是一種海蛞蝓, 會噴出可愛的,紫色明亮的鼻涕水, 噴向任何試圖吃牠們的生物。 牠們也恰好是在動物界中 最古怪的生物之一。 牠們是雌雄同體, 有著男性和女性的生殖器官。 交配的時候, 最多 20 隻海兔類似 康加線地聚集在一起, 牠們會一起交配。
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
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.
一隻海兔會給前面的伴侶精子 並從後面的接受精子, 可以想成是很棒的省時方式吧。
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
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.
如果科學家只注意到這一點,像是: 「好吧,我們可不想用棍子觸摸,」 就會錯過令海兔非常了不起的事情, 事實上 牠們有少量非常大的神經元, 使牠們非常適合用於神經科學研究。 事實上科學家埃里克‧坎德爾 在研究中利用了這些海兔 來了解如何存儲記憶。 你知道嗎? 他的研究成果獲得了諾貝爾獎。
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."
所以去花園那裡拿起甲蟲 和玩弄泥土,並且提問; 擁抱對粗鄙的迷戀, 也不要為此感到羞恥, 因為你永遠不知道你會發現什麼。 正如我在所有影片結尾時所說的, 「噁心!」
Thank you.
謝謝。
(Applause)
(掌聲)