Jeg vil gerne tage jer med tilbage et øjeblik til det 19. århundrede, specifikt til den 24. juni, 1833. The British Association for the Advancement of Science afholder sit tredje møde ved University of Cambridge. Det er den mødets første aften, og en konfrontation vil finde sted, der vil ændre videnskaben for evigt.
I'd like you to come back with me for a moment to the 19th century, specifically to June 24, 1833. The British Association for the Advancement of Science is holding its third meeting at the University of Cambridge. It's the first night of the meeting, and a confrontation is about to take place that will change science forever.
En ældre, hvidhåret man rejser sig. Medlemmerne af selskabet er chokerede over at indse, at det er digteren Samuel Taylor Coleridge, der ikke havde forladt sit hus i flere år før den dag. De er endda mere chokerede over det, han siger.
An elderly, white-haired man stands up. The members of the Association are shocked to realize that it's the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who hadn't even left his house in years until that day. They're even more shocked by what he says.
"I må holde op med at kalde jer selv naturfilosoffer."
"You must stop calling yourselves natural philosophers."
Coleridge mente at sande filosoffer som han selv spekulerede over kosmos fra deres lænestol. De svinede sig ikke til ved at rode rundt i fossile grave eller udføre grisede eksperimenter med elektriske dynger ligesom medlemmerne af British Association.
Coleridge felt that true philosophers like himself pondered the cosmos from their armchairs. They were not mucking around in the fossil pits or conducting messy experiments with electrical piles like the members of the British Association.
Folkemængden blev vrede og begyndte at beklage sig højlydt. En ung lærd fra Cambridge, William Whewell, rejste sig og dæmpede publikummet. Han indvilligede høfligt i, at der ikke eksisterede et passende navn til medlemmerne af selskabet.
The crowd grew angry and began to complain loudly. A young Cambridge scholar named William Whewell stood up and quieted the audience. He politely agreed that an appropriate name for the members of the association did not exist.
"Hvis 'filosoffer' anses for at være for bred og storsnudet en term," sagde han, "så, i analogi med 'kunstner,' kan vi forme 'forsker.'" Dette var den første gang ordet forsker blev ytret i offentligheden, for kun 179 år siden.
"If 'philosophers' is taken to be too wide and lofty a term," he said, "then, by analogy with 'artist,' we may form 'scientist.'" This was the first time the word scientist was uttered in public, only 179 years ago.
Jeg hørte først ud af noget om denne konfrontation da jeg studerede på overbygningen, og det blev jeg temmelig imponeret af. Jeg mener, hvordan kunne ordet forsker ikke have eksisteret før 1833? Hvad blev forskere kaldt inden det? Hvad havde ændret sig for at gøre nødvendigt med et nyt navn på præcis det tidspunkt? Forud for dette møde, var dem der havde studeret den naturlige verden talentfulde amatører. Tænk på sognepræsten eller herremanden der samlede sine biller eller fossiler, som Charles Darwin, for eksempel, eller, adelsmandens tjenestefolk, som Joseph Priestley, der var den litterære følgesvend til Marquisen af Lansdowne da han opdagede ilt. Derefter var de forskere, professionelle med en specifik videnskabelig metode, mål, selskaber og finansiering.
I first found out about this confrontation when I was in graduate school, and it kind of blew me away. I mean, how could the word scientist not have existed until 1833? What were scientists called before? What had changed to make a new name necessary precisely at that moment? Prior to this meeting, those who studied the natural world were talented amateurs. Think of the country clergyman or squire collecting his beetles or fossils, like Charles Darwin, for example, or, the hired help of a nobleman, like Joseph Priestley, who was the literary companion to the Marquis of Lansdowne when he discovered oxygen. After this, they were scientists, professionals with a particular scientific method, goals, societies and funding.
Meget af denne revolution kan spores tilbage til fire mænd der mødtes på Cambridge University i 1812: Charles Babbage, John Herschel, Richard Jones og William Whewell. Dette var geniale, drevne mænd der opnåede utrolige ting. Charles Babbage, som jeg tror de fleste TEDstere kender, opfandt den første mekaniske regnemaskine og den første prototype på en moderne computer. John Herschel kortlagde stjernerne på den sydlige halvkugle, og var medopfinder til fotografering i sin fritid, . Jeg er sikker på at vi alle kunne være så produktive uden Facebook eller Twitter der beslaglagde vores tid. Richard Jones blev en vigtig økonom der senere påvirkede Karl Marx. Og Whewell introducerede termen forsker, lige så vel som ordet anode, katode og ion, men stod i spidsen for stor international forskning med hans globale forskning om tidevandet. I Cambridge i vinteren 1812 og 1813, mødtes de fire til det de kaldede filosofisk morgenbord. De talte om videnskab og behovet for en ny videnskabelig revolution. De følte at videnskaben var stagneret siden de dage hvor den videnskabelige revolution havde fundet sted i det 17. århundrede. Det var på tide med en ny revolution, som de gav deres ord på at de skulle skabe, og det der er så fantastisk ved disse fyre er, ikke nok med at de havde disse storstilede bachelorstuderende drømme, men de havde faktisk udført det, selv ud over deres vildeste fantasi. Og jeg vil i dag fortælle jer om fire betydningsfulde ændringer i videnskaben som disse mænd skabte.
Much of this revolution can be traced to four men who met at Cambridge University in 1812: Charles Babbage, John Herschel, Richard Jones and William Whewell. These were brilliant, driven men who accomplished amazing things. Charles Babbage, I think known to most TEDsters, invented the first mechanical calculator and the first prototype of a modern computer. John Herschel mapped the stars of the southern hemisphere, and, in his spare time, co-invented photography. I'm sure we could all be that productive without Facebook or Twitter to take up our time. Richard Jones became an important economist who later influenced Karl Marx. And Whewell not only coined the term scientist, as well as the words anode, cathode and ion, but spearheaded international big science with his global research on the tides. In the Cambridge winter of 1812 and 1813, the four met for what they called philosophical breakfasts. They talked about science and the need for a new scientific revolution. They felt science had stagnated since the days of the scientific revolution that had happened in the 17th century. It was time for a new revolution, which they pledged to bring about, and what's so amazing about these guys is, not only did they have these grandiose undergraduate dreams, but they actually carried them out, even beyond their wildest dreams. And I'm going to tell you today about four major changes to science these men made.
Omkring 200 år forinden, havde Francis Bacon og så, senere, Isaac Newton, foreslået en induktiv videnskabelig metode. Nu er det en metode der udspringer fra observationer og eksperimenter og flyttes over på generaliseringer om naturen der hedder naturlige love, der altid er underlagt revision eller afslag i det tilfælde at nyt bevis dukker op. Men i 1809, forplumrede David Ricardo vandende ved at argumentere for at vi den videnskabelige økonomi burde bruge en anderledes, deduktiv metode. Problemet var at en indflydelsesrig gruppe ved Oxford begyndte at argumentere for at fordi det virkede så godt i økonomi, burde denne deduktive metode også blive anvendt til de naturlige videnskaber. Medlemmerne af den filosofiske morgenmads klub var uenige. De skrev bøger og artikler der fremmer den induktive metode i alle videnskaber der blev læst i stor udstrækning af de naturlige filosofer, universitets studerende, medlemmer og offentligheden. At læse en af Herschels bøger var sådan et vendepunkt for Charles Darwin som han senere kaldte, "Knap noget i mit liv har gjort så stort et indtryk på mig. Det fik mig til at ønske at jeg tilføje min kunnen til det akkumulerede lager af naturlig viden." Det formede også Darwins videnskabelige metode, lige så vel som dem der blev brugt af hans ligemænd. [Videnskab til gavn for offentligheden]
About 200 years before, Francis Bacon and then, later, Isaac Newton, had proposed an inductive scientific method. Now that's a method that starts from observations and experiments and moves to generalizations about nature called natural laws, which are always subject to revision or rejection should new evidence arise. However, in 1809, David Ricardo muddied the waters by arguing that the science of economics should use a different, deductive method. The problem was that an influential group at Oxford began arguing that because it worked so well in economics, this deductive method ought to be applied to the natural sciences too. The members of the philosophical breakfast club disagreed. They wrote books and articles promoting inductive method in all the sciences that were widely read by natural philosophers, university students and members of the public. Reading one of Herschel's books was such a watershed moment for Charles Darwin that he would later say, "Scarcely anything in my life made so deep an impression on me. It made me wish to add my might to the accumulated store of natural knowledge." It also shaped Darwin's scientific method, as well as that used by his peers. [Science for the public good]
Førhen, mente man at videnskabelig viden bør bruges til kongens eller dronningens bedste, eller til ens personlige fortjeneste. For eksempel, kaptajner har brug for at kende information om tidevandet for at kunne lægge sikkert til i havn. Havnefogeden indsamlede denne viden og solgte den til skibenes kaptajner. Den filosofiske morgenmads klub ændrede det, arbejde sammen. Whewells verdensomspændende studie af tidevand resulterede i en offentlige kort og skema over tidevandet der frit leverede havnefogedens viden til at skibes kaptajner. Herschel hjalp med at lave observationer over tidevandet ud for Sydafrikas kyst, og, som han beklagede til Whewell, blev han væltet ned fra dokken under et voldsomt højvande. De fire mænd hjalp virkelig hinanden på alle måder. De lobbyede også ubarmhjertigt i den britiske regering for at skaffe penge til at bygge Babbages maskiner fordi de troede på at disse maskiner ville have en kæmpestor praktisk indflydelse på samfundet. I dagene inden lommeregnerne, kunne de tal som de fleste professionelle havde brug for -- bankierer, forsikringsagenter, skibskaptajner, ingeniører -- findes i opslags bøger som denne, der var fyldte med tabeller med tal. Disse tabeller blev beregnet ved at bruge en fast procedure igen og igen af deltidsansatte kendt som -- og dette er forbløffende -- computere, men disse beregninger var virkelig svære. Jeg mener, denne nautiske almanak udgav forskellene i månen for hver måned det pågældende år. Hver måned krævede 1.365 beregninger, så disse tabeller var fyldt med fejl. Babbages difference maskine var den første mekaniske lommeregner der var opfundet til nøjagtigt at beregne enhver af disse tabeller. To modeller af hans maskiner blev bygget i de sidste 20 år af et team fra Science Museum of London ved hjælp af hans egne tegninger. Den her står nu ved Computer History Museum i Californien, og den beregner nøjagtigt. Den fungerer faktisk. Senere, var Babbages analytiske maskine den første mekaniske computer i den moderne forstand. Den havde en separat hukommelse og en central processor. Den var i stand til gentagelse, betinget forgrening og parallel behandling, og den var programmerbar ved at bruge stempelkort, en ide som Babbage tog fra Jacquards væv. Tragisk nok, blev Babbages maskiner aldrig bygget i hans tid fordi de fleste mennesker mente at ikke-menneskelige computere ikke ville have nogen nytte for offentligheden. [Nye videnskabelige institutioner]
Previously, it was believed that scientific knowledge ought to be used for the good of the king or queen, or for one's own personal gain. For example, ship captains needed to know information about the tides in order to safely dock at ports. Harbormasters would gather this knowledge and sell it to the ship captains. The philosophical breakfast club changed that, working together. Whewell's worldwide study of the tides resulted in public tide tables and tidal maps that freely provided the harbormasters' knowledge to all ship captains. Herschel helped by making tidal observations off the coast of South Africa, and, as he complained to Whewell, he was knocked off the docks during a violent high tide for his trouble. The four men really helped each other in every way. They also relentlessly lobbied the British government for the money to build Babbage's engines because they believed these engines would have a huge practical impact on society. In the days before pocket calculators, the numbers that most professionals needed -- bankers, insurance agents, ship captains, engineers — were to be found in lookup books like this, filled with tables of figures. These tables were calculated using a fixed procedure over and over by part-time workers known as -- and this is amazing -- computers, but these calculations were really difficult. I mean, this nautical almanac published the lunar differences for every month of the year. Each month required 1,365 calculations, so these tables were filled with mistakes. Babbage's difference engine was the first mechanical calculator devised to accurately compute any of these tables. Two models of his engine were built in the last 20 years by a team from the Science Museum of London using his own plans. This is the one now at the Computer History Museum in California, and it calculates accurately. It actually works. Later, Babbage's analytical engine was the first mechanical computer in the modern sense. It had a separate memory and central processor. It was capable of iteration, conditional branching and parallel processing, and it was programmable using punched cards, an idea Babbage took from Jacquard's loom. Tragically, Babbage's engines never were built in his day because most people thought that non-human computers would have no usefulness for the public. [New scientific institutions]
Grundlagt i Bacon tid, var Royal Society of London det førende videnskabelige selskab i England og selv i resten af verden. I det 19. århundrede var det blevet en slags herreklub der var befolket af antikvarer, litterære mænd og de adelige. Medlemmer af den filosofiske morgenmads klub hjalp med at danne nye videnskabelige foreninger, inklusiv British Association. Disse nye foreninger krævede at medlemmerne var aktive forskere der udgav deres resultater. De genindførste traditionen med spørgerunder efter de videnskabelige afhandlinger var gennemlæst, som var blevet afskaffet af Royal Society for at ikke at være dannet. Og for første gang, gav de en kvinde en fod i videnskabens dør. Medlemmer blev opfordret til at medbringe deres koner, døtre og søstre til møderne i British Association, og medens det blev forventet af kvinderne at de mødte op til de offentlige forelæsninger og de sociale begivenheder som denne, begyndte de også at infiltrere de videnskabelige møder. British Association blev senere den den første af de større nationale videnskabelige foreninger i verden, der optager kvinder som fuldgyldige medlemmer. [Ekstern finansiering til forskning]
Founded in Bacon's time, the Royal Society of London was the foremost scientific society in England and even in the rest of the world. By the 19th century, it had become a kind of gentleman's club populated mainly by antiquarians, literary men and the nobility. The members of the philosophical breakfast club helped form a number of new scientific societies, including the British Association. These new societies required that members be active researchers publishing their results. They reinstated the tradition of the Q&A after scientific papers were read, which had been discontinued by the Royal Society as being ungentlemanly. And for the first time, they gave women a foot in the door of science. Members were encouraged to bring their wives, daughters and sisters to the meetings of the British Association, and while the women were expected to attend only the public lectures and the social events like this one, they began to infiltrate the scientific sessions as well. The British Association would later be the first of the major national science organizations in the world to admit women as full members. [External funding for science]
Indtil det 19. århundrede, blev det forventet at naturlige filosofer betalte for deres eget udstyr og forsyninger. Af og til var der legater, som det der blev givet til John Harrison i det 18. århundrede, til at løse det såkaldte længdegrads problem, men legater blev kun givet efter resultatet, hvis de overhovedet blev givet. På den filosofiske morgenmads klubs råd, begyndte British Association at bruge ekstra penge der blev genereret af deres møder, til at give legater for at forske i astronomi, tidevandet, fiske fossiler, skbsbygning, og mange andre områder. Disse legater blev ikke kun givet til mindre velhavende mænd til at udføre forskning, men de opfordrede også til at tænke udenfor kassen, i stedet for at prøve at løse et forudbestemt spørgsmål. Endelig, fulgte Royal Society og de andre videnskabelige foreninger fra andre lande efter, og dette er blevet -- det er heldigvis blevet -- en stor del af det videnskabelige landskab i dag.
Up to the 19th century, natural philosophers were expected to pay for their own equipment and supplies. Occasionally, there were prizes, such as that given to John Harrison in the 18th century, for solving the so-called longitude problem, but prizes were only given after the fact, when they were given at all. On the advice of the philosophical breakfast club, the British Association began to use the extra money generated by its meetings to give grants for research in astronomy, the tides, fossil fish, shipbuilding, and many other areas. These grants not only allowed less wealthy men to conduct research, but they also encouraged thinking outside the box, rather than just trying to solve one pre-set question. Eventually, the Royal Society and the scientific societies of other countries followed suit, and this has become -- fortunately it's become -- a major part of the scientific landscape today.
Så den filosofiske morgenmads klub hjalp med at opfinde den moderne videnskabsmand. Det er den heroiske del af historien. Der er også en bagside. De forudså ikke mindst en af konsekvenserne af deres revolution. De ville have været dybt rystet over nutidens adskillelse mellem videnskab og resten af kulturen. Det er chokerende at indse at kun 28 procent af voksne amerikanere kun har en basis viden indenfor videnskab, og dette blev testet ved at stille simple spørgsmål som, "Boede der mennesker og dinosaurer på jorden samtidig?" og "Hvor stor en del af jorden er dækket af vand?" Engang blev videnskabsfolk medlemmer af en professionel gruppe, de blev langsomt skærmet af fra resten af os. Dette er den utilsigtede konsekvens af revolutionen der startede med vores fire venner.
So the philosophical breakfast club helped invent the modern scientist. That's the heroic part of their story. There's a flip side as well. They did not foresee at least one consequence of their revolution. They would have been deeply dismayed by today's disjunction between science and the rest of culture. It's shocking to realize that only 28 percent of American adults have even a very basic level of science literacy, and this was tested by asking simple questions like, "Did humans and dinosaurs inhabit the Earth at the same time?" and "What proportion of the Earth is covered in water?" Once scientists became members of a professional group, they were slowly walled off from the rest of us. This is the unintended consequence of the revolution that started with our four friends.
Charles Darwin sagde, "Jeg tror nogle gange, at generelle og populære afhandlinger næsten er lige så vigtige for videnskabens fremskridt som originalt arbejde." Faktisk, blev "Origin of Species" skrevet til et generelt og populært publikum, og blev læst vidt og bredt fa den udkom første gang. Darwin vidste det som vi tilsyneladende har glemt, at videnskab ikke kun er for videnskabsfolk.
Charles Darwin said, "I sometimes think that general and popular treatises are almost as important for the progress of science as original work." In fact, "Origin of Species" was written for a general and popular audience, and was widely read when it first appeared. Darwin knew what we seem to have forgotten, that science is not only for scientists.
Tak.
Thank you.
(Bifald)
(Applause)