So I've got something that I'm slightly embarrassed to admit to. At the age of 17, as a creationist, I decided to go to university to study evolution so that I could destroy it.
Postoji nešto što me malo sramota priznati. U dobi od 17 godina, kao kreacionist, odlučila sam otići na fakultet učiti o evoluciji kako bih je mogla uništiti.
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
I failed. I failed so spectacularly that I'm now an evolutionary biologist.
Nisam uspjela. Toliko jako nisam uspjela da sam sada evolucijska biologinja.
(Applause)
(Pljesak)
So I'm a paleoanthropologist, I'm a National Geographic Explorer specializing in fossil hunting in caves in unstable, hostile and disputed territories. And we all know that if I was a guy and not a girl, that wouldn't be a job description, that would be a pick-up line.
Ja sam paleoantropologinja, istraživačica National Geographica koja se specijalizirala za traženje fosila u špiljama u nestabilnim, negostoljubivim i osporavanim teritorijima. A svi znamo, da sam muško, a ne žensko, to ne bi bio opis posla nego dobar ulet.
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
Now, here's the thing. I do not have a death wish. I'm not an adrenaline junkie. I just looked at a map.
Evo kako stvari stoje. Nemam želju umrijeti. Nisam ovisnica o adrenalinu. Samo sam pogledala na kartu.
See, frontline exploratory science does not happen as much in politically unstable territories. This is a map of all the places which the British Foreign Office have declared contain red zones, orange zones or have raised some kind of a threat warning about. Now I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that it is a tragedy if we're not doing frontline exploratory science in a huge portion of the planet. And so science has a geography problem.
Vidite, pionirska istraživačka znanost ne događa se često na politički nestabilnim teritorijima. Ovo je karta svih mjesta koja je britansko Ministarstvo vanjskih poslova označilo kao pripadnike crvene zone, narančaste zone, ili ih je označilo kao potencijalnu prijetnju. Riskirat ću i reći kako je tragedija ako ne izvodimo pionirsku istraživačku znanost na većini ovog planeta. Tako da znanost ima geografski problem.
Also, as a paleoanthropologist, guys, this is basically a map of some of the most important places in the human journey. There are almost definitely fascinating fossils to be found here. But are we looking for them? And so as an undergraduate, I was repeatedly told that humans, be they ourselves, homo sapiens, or earlier species, that we left Africa via the Sinai of Egypt.
Također, kao paleoantropologinja, ljudi, ovo je praktički karta nekih od najvažnijih mjesta na ljudskom putovanju. Skoro pa sigurno postoje fascinantni fosili koje ovdje možemo pronaći. Ali tražimo li ih? I tako kao prvostupniku opetovano su mi govorili kako ljudi, bili to mi, homo sapiensi, ili ranije vrste, kako smo otišli iz Afrike preko Sinaja u Egiptu.
I'm English, as you can probably tell from my accent, but I am actually of Arab heritage, and I always say that I'm very, very Arab on the outside. You know, I can really be passionate. Like, "You're amazing! I love you!" But on the inside, I'm really English, so everybody irritates me.
Ja sam Engleskinja, što vjerojatno možete zaključiti prema mom naglasku, ali sam zapravo arapskog podrijetla i uvijek kažem kako sam Arapkinja izvana. Znate, mogu biti veoma strastvena. Kao: "Nevjerojatna si! Volim te!" Ali iznutra sam zapravo Engleskinja, tako da mi svi idu na živce.
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
It's true.
To je istina.
And the thing is, my family are Arab from Yemen, and I knew that that channel, Bab-el-Mandeb, is not that much of a feat to cross. And I kept asking myself this really simple question: if the ancestors to New World monkeys could somehow cross the Atlantic Ocean, why couldn't humans cross that tiny stretch of water? But the thing is, Yemen, compared to, let's say, Europe, was so understudied that it was something akin to near virgin territory. But that, along with its location, made the sheer potential for discovery so exciting, and I had so many questions. When did we first start using Bab-el-Mandeb? But also, which species of human besides ourselves made it to Yemen? Might we find a species as yet unknown to science? And it turned out, I wasn't the only one who had noticed Yemen's potential. There was actually a few other academics out there. But sadly, due to political instability, they moved out, and so I moved in. And I was looking for caves: caves because caves are the original prime real estate. But also because if you're looking for fossils in that kind of heat, your best bet for fossil preservation is always going to be caves.
A zapravo, moja obitelj su Arapi iz Jemena, a ja sam znala kako taj kanal, Bab-el-Mandeb, nije toliko širok za prijeći. I stalno se pitam ovo jednostavno pitanje: ako su preci majmuna Novog svijeta mogli nekako prijeći Atlantski ocean, zašto ljudi ne bi mogli prijeći tu malu vodenu površinu? Ali zapravo, Jemen, u usporedbi s, recimo, Europom, je toliko malo istražen tako da je skoro kao djevičanski teritorij. Ali to mu je, uz njegovu lokaciju, dalo potpuni potencijal za otkrića tako uzbudljiv, i ja sam imala toliko pitanja. Kada smo prvi puta počeli koristiti Bab-el-Mandeb? Ali isto tako, koje vrste ljudi su, osim nas, dospjele do Jemena? Možemo li pronaći vrste nepoznate znanosti? I ispada kako ja nisam bila jedina koja je primjetila potencijal Jemena. Tamo je također bilo i nekoliko drugih akademika. Nažalost, zbog političke nestabilnosti oni su se iselili, a ja sam se uselila. A ja sam tražila špilje. Špilje, zato što su špilje originalne prve nekretnine. Ali isto tako zato što ako tražite fosile po takvoj vrućini, najbolji izgledi za očuvanje fosila uvijek će biti špilje.
But then, Yemen took a really sad turn for the worse, and just a few days before I was due to fly out to Yemen, the civil war escalated into a regional conflict, the capital's airport was bombed and Yemen became a no-fly zone.
Ali opet, u Jemenu su se stvari okrenule na gore i samo par dana prije nego što sam trebala na let za Jemen, građanski rat je eskalirao u regionalni sukob, glavna zračna luka je bombardirana i Jemen je postao zona zabranjenog letenja.
Now, my parents made this decision before I was born: that I would be born British. I had nothing to do with the best decision of my life. And now ... Now the lucky ones in my family have escaped, and the others, the others are being been bombed and send you WhatsApp messages that make you detest your very existence. This war's been going on for four years. It's been going on for over four years, and it has led to a humanitarian crisis. There is a famine there, a man-made famine. That's a man-made famine, so not a natural famine, an entirely man-made famine that the UN has warned could be the worst famine the world has seen in a hundred years. This war has made it clear to me more than ever that no place, no people deserve to get left behind.
Moji roditelji donijeli su ovu odluku prije nego što sam se ja rodila: kako ću se roditi kao Britanka. Nisam imala ništa s najboljom odlukom u svom životu. A sada... Sada su sretnici u mojoj obitelji pobjegli, a ostali, ostali su bombardirani i šalju poruke na WhatsApp-u od kojih počinjete prezirati vlastito postojanje. Ovaj rat traje četiri godine. Traje više od četiri godine i doveo je do humanitarne krize. Tamo je glad, ljudski stvorena glad. To je ljudski stvorena glad, dakle nije prirodna glad, potpuno ljudski stvorena glad za koju je UN upozorio kako bi mogla biti najgora glad koju je svijet doživio u posljednjih sto godina. Ovaj rat mi je razjasnio, više nego ikad, kako nijedno mjesto, nijedna osoba ne zaslužuje da je se napusti.
And so I was joining these other teams, and I was forming new collaborations in other unstable places. But I was desperate to get back into Yemen, because for me, Yemen's really personal. And so I kept trying to think of a project I could do in Yemen that would help highlight what was going on there. And every idea I had just kept failing, or it was just too high-risk, because let's be honest, most of Yemen is just too dangerous for a Western team.
Tako sam se pridruživala ostalim timovima i pokretala nove suradnje na ostalim nestabilnim prostorima. Ali sam se očajno htjela vratiti u Jemen, zato što je za mene Jemen veoma osobna stvar. Tako sam stalno pokušavala smisliti projekt kako bih otišla u Jemen koji bi pomogao istaknuti ono što se tamo događa. I svaka ideja koju sam imala je propadala, ili je bila prerizična, zato što, iskreno, većina je Jemena jednostavno previše opasna za zapadnjačku ekipu.
But then I was told that Socotra, a Yemeni island, was safe once you got there. In fact, it turned out there was a few local and international academics that were still working there. And that got me really excited, because look at Socotra's proximity to Africa. And yet we have no idea when humans arrived on that island. But Socotra, for those of you who know it, well, let's just say you probably know it for a completely different reason. You probably know it as the Galapagos of the Indian Ocean, because it is one of the most biodiverse places on this earth. But we were also getting information that this incredibly delicate environment and its people were under threat because they were at the frontline of both Middle Eastern politics and climate change. And it slowly dawned on me that Socotra was my Yemen project.
Ali su mi tada rekli kako je Socotra, otok u Jemenu, siguran jednom kada se stigne tamo. Ustvari, ispalo je kako je tamo nekoliko lokalnih i internacionalnih akademika koji još uvijek tamo rade. I to me zbilja uzbudilo, jer pogledajte Socotrinu blizinu Africi. A opet, nemamo pojma kada su ljudi došli na taj otok. Ali Socotra, za one koji ga znaju, pa, recimo samo kako ga vjerojatno znate iz potpuno drugih razloga. Vjerojatno ga znate kao Galapagos Indijskog oceana, zato što je jedno od biološki najraznovrsnijih mjesta na Zemlji. Ali smo također dobivali informacije kako su ovaj nevjerojatno osjetljiv okoliš, kao i njegovi ljudi, bili pod prijetnjom zato što su bili u prvim redovima bliskoistočne politike i klimatskih promjena. I polako mi je sinulo kako je Socotra moj projekt u Jemenu.
And so I wanted to put together a huge multidisciplinary team. We wanted to cross the archipelago on foot, camel and dhow boat to conduct a health check of this place. This has only been attempted once before, and it was in 1999. But the thing is, that is not an easy thing to pull off. And so we desperately needed a recce, and for those of you who aren't familiar with British English, a recce is like a scouting expedition. It's like a reconnaissance. And I often say that a really big expedition without a recce is a bit like a first date without a Facebook stalk.
I tako sam htjela sastaviti golemu multidisciplinarnu ekipu. Htjeli smo prijeći arhipelag pješke, devama i dhow brodovima kako bismo napravili zdravstveni pregled mjesta. Ovo je pokušano samo jednom prije, 1999. Ali stvar je u tome kako to nije jednostavno za napraviti. A mi smo očajnički trebali izvidnicu, a za vas koji niste upoznati s britanskim engleskim, izvidnica je nešto kao izviđačka ekspedicija. Kao izviđačka misija. I ja često kažem kako su velike ekspedicije bez izvidnice nešto kao prvi spoj bez prethodnog Facebook uhođenja.
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
Like, it's doable, but is it wise?
Izvedivo je, ali je li mudro?
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
There's a few too many knowing laughs in this room.
Ovdje je dosta smjehova onih koji znaju o čemu pričam.
Anyway, so then our recce team thankfully were no strangers to unstable places, which, let's be honest, is kind of important because we were trying to get to a place between Yemen and Somalia, And after calling in what felt like a million favors, including to the deputy governor, we finally found ourselves on the move, albeit on a wooden cement cargo ship sailing through pirate waters in the Indian Ocean with this as a toilet.
Tako da našoj izvidničkoj ekipi, na sreću, nestabilna mjesta nisu bila strana, što je, budimo iskreni, važno zato što smo nastojali doći u mjesto između Jemena i Somalije i nakon traženja, što se učinilo kao milijun usluga, uključujući i onu zamjenika guvernera, napokon smo se pokrenuli, iako na cementnom teretnom brodu ploveći kroz piratske vode Indijskog oceana s ovim kao toaletom.
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
Can you guys see this? You know how everybody has their worst toilet story? Well, I've never swam with dolphins before. I just went straight to pooping on them.
Možete li vidjeti ovo? Znate kako svatko ima svoju najgoru priču s toaletom? Pa, ja nisam nikad plivala s dupinima. Jednostavno sam odmah prešla na obavljanje nužde po njima.
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
And also, I genuinely discovered that I am genuinely less stressed by pirate waters than I am with a cockroach infestation that was so intense that at one point I went belowdeck, and the floor was black and it was moving.
I također sam stvarno otkrila kako sam zapravo manje pod stresom u piratskim vodama nego tijekom najezde žohara koja je bila tolika da sam u jednom trenutku otišla pod palubu, a pod je bio crn i kretao se.
(Audience moans)
(Publika gunđa)
Yeah, and at night there was three raised platforms to sleep on, but there was only -- let's say there was four team members, and the thing is, if you got a raised platform to sleep on, you only had to contend with a few cockroaches during the night, whereas if you got the floor, good luck to you. And so I was the only girl in the team and the whole ship, so I got away without sleeping on the floor. And then, on, like, the fourth or fifth night, Martin Edström looks at me and goes, "Ella, Ella I really believe in equality."
Da, a po noći su bile tri podignute platforme na kojima se spavalo, ali bila je samo jedna --- recimo da je bilo četiri članova tima, a stvar je u tome da, ako dobijete podignutu platformu za spavanje, trebali ste se zadovoljiti sa samo nekoliko žohara tijekom noći, ali ako ste dobili pod, sretno vam. A ja sam bila jedina cura u timu, i na cijelom brodu, tako da sam se izvukla od spavanja na podu. A onda, negdje u četvrtoj ili petoj večeri Martin Edström me pogledao i rekao: "Ella, Ella ja stvarno vjerujem u jednakost".
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
So we were sailing on that cement cargo ship for three days, and then we slowly started seeing land. And after three years of failing, I was finally seeing Yemen.
Plovili smo tim cementnim teretnim brodom tri dana, kada smo polako vidjeli kopno. I nakon tri godine razočaranja, napokon sam vidjela Jemen.
And there is no feeling on earth like that start of an expedition. It's this moment where you jump out of a jeep or you look up from a boat and you know that there's this possibility, it's small but it's still there, that you're about to find something that could add to or change our knowledge of who we are and where we come from. There is no feeling like it on earth, and it's a feeling that so many scientists have but rarely in politically unstable places. Because Western scientists are discouraged or all-out barred from working in unstable places.
I ne postoji osjećaj na svijetu kao što je početak ekspedicije. To je trenutak kada iskočite iz džipa, ili pogledate s broda, i znate kako postoji ta mogućnost, malena je, ali je tu, kako ste nadomak tome da pronađete nešto što će nadopuniti ili promijeniti naše znanje onoga tko smo i odakle dolazimo. Ne postoji nijedan takav osjećaj na svijetu, i to je osjećaj kojeg mnogi znanstvenici imaju, ali rijetko na politički nestabilnim prostorima. Zato što su zapadni znanstvenici obeshrabrivani ili im je zabranjeno raditi na nestabilnim prostorima.
But here's the thing: scientists specialize in the jungle. Scientists work in deep cave systems. Scientists attach themselves to rockets and blow themselves into outer space. But apparently, working in an unstable place is deemed too high-risk. It is completely arbitrary. Who here in this room wasn't brought up on adventure stories? And most of our heroes were actually scientists and academics. Science was about going out into the unknown. It was about truly global exploration, even if there were risks. And so when did it become acceptable to make it difficult for science to happen in unstable places?
Ali ovako stoje stvari. Znanstvenici se specijaliziraju u džungli. Znanstvenici rade u sustavima dubokih špilja. Znanstvenici se privežu za raketu i ispale se u svemir. Ali očito je rad na nestabilnim prostorima previše rizičan. Potpuno je proizvoljno. Tko u ovoj prostoriji nije odrastao uz avanturističke priče? I većina naših heroja bili su znanstvenici i akademici. Znanost je značila otisnuti se u nepoznato. Zaista je bila o globalnom istraživanju, čak i ako su postojali rizici. Kada je postalo prihvatljivo otežati znanosti da istražuje na nestabilnim prostorima?
And look, I'm not saying that all scientists should go off and start working in unstable places. This isn't some gung-ho call. But here's the thing: for those who have done the research, understand security protocol and are trained, stop stopping those who want to. Plus, just because one part of a country is an active war zone doesn't mean the whole country is. I'm not saying we should go into active war zones. But Iraqi Kurdistan looks very different from Fallujah.
Gledajte, ne kažem kako bi svi znanstvenici trebali otići i početi raditi na nestabilnim prostorima. Ovo nije poziv na pokretanje. Ali ovako stvari stoje: za one koji su obavili istraživanje, razumiju sigurnosni protokol i koji su trenirani... prestanite braniti onima koji žele ići. Uz to, samo zato što je jedan dio zemlje aktivno ratno područje, ne znači kako je cijela zemlja takva. Ne kažem kako trebamo otići u aktivna ratna područja. Ali Irački Kurdistan izgleda veoma drugačije od Fallujaha.
And actually, a few months after I couldn't get into Yemen, another team adopted me. So Professor Graeme Barker's team were actually working in Iraqi Kurdistan, and they were digging up Shanidar Cave. Now, Shanidar Cave a few decades earlier had unveiled a Neanderthal known as Shanidar 1. Now, for a BBC/PBS TV series we actually brought Shanidar 1 to life, and I want you guys to meet Ned, Ned the Neanderthal. Now here's the coolest thing about Ned. Ned, this guy, you're meeting him before his injuries. See, it turned out that Ned was severely disabled. He was in fact so disabled that there is no way he could have survived without the help of other Neanderthals. And so this was proof that, at least for this population of Neanderthals at this time, Neanderthals were like us, and they sometimes looked after those who couldn't look after themselves.
I zapravo, nekoliko mjeseci nakon što nisam mogla ući u Jemen, posvojila me druga ekipa. Ekipa profesora Graemea Barkera radila je u Iračkom Kurdistanu i vršili su iskapanja špilje Shanidar. U špilji Shanidar je nekoliko desetljeća ranije otkriven neandertalac poznat kao Shanidar 1. Za BBC/PBS-ovu TV seriju oživjeli smo Shanidara 1 i želim da upoznate Neda, Neandertalca Neda. Evo najzanimljivije stvari o Nedu. Ned, ova osoba, upoznajete ga prije njegovih ozljeda. Vidite, ispalo je kako je Ned bio ozbiljno ozlijeđen. Ustvari, bio je toliko ozlijeđen da nema šanse kako bi preživio bez pomoći ostalih neandertalaca. Tako da je ovo bio dokaz da su, barem ova populacija neandertalaca u to vrijeme, neandertalci bili poput nas, i ponekad su se brinuli za one koji se nisu mogli brinuti sami za sebe.
Ned's an Iraqi Neanderthal. So what else are we missing? What incredible scientific discoveries are we not making because we're not looking? And by the way, these places, they deserve narratives of hope, and science and exploration can be a part of that. In fact, I would argue that it can tangibly aid development, and these discoveries become a huge source of local pride.
Ned je irački neandertalac. Dakle, što nam još izmiče? Koja nevjerojatna znanstvena otkrića ne saznajemo zato što ne gledamo? I usput, ova mjesta zaslužuju priče nade, a znanost i istraživanja mogu biti dio toga. U stvari, rekla bih kako mogu osjetno pomoći razvoju, a ova otkrića mogu postati veliki izvor lokalnog ponosa.
And that brings me to the second reason why science has a geography problem. See, we don't empower local academics, do we? Like, it's not lost on me that in my particular field of paleoanthropology we study human origins, but we have so few diverse scientists. And the thing is, these places are full of students and academics who are desperate to collaborate, and the truth is that for them, they have fewer security issues than us. I think we constantly forget that for them it's not a hostile environment; for them it's home. I'm telling you, research done in unstable places with local collaborators can lead to incredible discoveries, and that is what we are hoping upon hope to do in Socotra.
A to me dovodi do drugog razloga zašto znanost ima veliki geografski problem. Vidite, ne osnažujemo lokalne akademike, zar ne? Ne promiče mi kako u mom polju paleoantropologije proučavamo postanak ljudi, ali imamo tako malo različitih znanstvenika. I stvar je u tome kako su ta mjesta puna studenata i akademika koji očajno žele surađivati. A istina je kako za njih... oni imaju manje sigurnosnih problema nego mi. Mislim da stalno zaboravljamo kako za njih to nije neprijateljsko okružje; za njih je to dom. I govorim vam, istraživanja napravljena na nestabilnim prostorima s lokalnom suradnjom mogu dovesti do nevjerojatnih otkrića, a to je ono čemu se nadamo u Socotri.
They call Socotra the most alien-looking place on earth, and myself, Leon McCarron, Martin Edström and Rhys Thwaites-Jones could see why. I mean, look at this place. These places, they're not hellholes, they're not write-offs, they're the future frontline of science and exploration. 90 percent of the reptiles on this island, 37 percent of the plant species exist here and nowhere else on earth, and that includes this species of dragon's blood tree, which actually bleeds this red resin.
Socotru zovu mjestom koje najviše izgleda kao vanzemaljsko, a ja, Leon McCarron, Martin Edström i Rhys Thwaites-Jones vidimo i zašto. Mislim, pogledajte ovo mjesto. Ova mjesta, ona nisu rupe, nisu otpisana mjesta, ona su buduće prve crte znanosti i istraživanja. 90 posto gmazova na ovom otoku, 37 posto biljnih vrsta postoji ovdje i nigdje drugdje na zemlji, a ovo uključuje i ovu vrstu Zmajskog drveta koja zapravo krvari ovu crvenu smolu.
And there's something else. People on Socotra, some of them still live in caves, and that is really exciting, because it means if a cave is prime real estate this century, maybe it was a few thousand years ago. But we need the data to prove it, the fossils, the stone tools, and so our scouting team have teamed up with other scientists, anthropologists and storytellers, international as well as local, like Ahmed Alarqbi, and we are desperate to shed a light on this place before it's too late.
A postoji i još nešto. Ljudi na Socotri, neki od njih još uvijek žive u špiljama, i to je veoma uzbudljivo, jer ako su špilje glavne nekretnine ovog stoljeća, možda je tako bilo i prije nekoliko tisuća godina. Ali trebamo podatke koji bi to dokazali, fosile, kamene alatke. Tako da se naša izviđačka ekipa udružila s drugim znanstvenicima, antropolozima i pripovjedačima, internacionalnima kao i lokanima, kao Ahmed Alarqbi, i očajni smo u pokušaju da osvjetlimo obraz ovom mjestu prije nego bude prekasno.
And now, now we just somehow need to get back for that really big expedition, because science, science has a geography problem.
A sada, sada se nekako moramo vratiti toj zaista velikoj ekspediciji, zato što znanost, znanost ima geografski problem.
You guys have been a really lovely audience. Thank you.
Bili ste zaista divna publika. Hvala vam.
(Applause)
(Pljesak)