万物简史 第523期:丰富多彩的生命(19)

Disputes and reorderings of much the same type can be found in all the other realms of the living, 同样的争吵，同样的重新分类，也发生在所有别的生物领域， so keeping an overall tally is not nearly as straightforward a matter

万物简史 第524期:丰富多彩的生命(20)

In principle you ought to be able to go to experts in each area of specialization, ask how many species there are in their fields, then add the totals. 原则上，我们可以去找一找每个专门领域的专家，问一问他们的领域里有多少

万物简史 第525期:丰富多彩的生命(21)

Goodness knows what the results would be if anyone attempted a similar exercise with the planet's estimated 20,000 types of lichens, 50,000 species of mollusk, or 400,000-plus beetles. 要是有人试图对这颗行星上的大约2万种地衣、5万多

万物简史 第526期:丰富多彩的生命(22)

According to the Wall Street Journal, the world has about 10,000 active taxonomists, 据《华尔街日报》说，世界上大约有l万名活跃的分类学家， not a great number when you consider how much there is to be recorded. 考虑到有那么

万物简史 第185期:爱因斯坦的宇宙(28)

This was truly startling. The universe was expanding, swiftly and evenly in all directions. It didn't take a huge amount of imagination to read backwards from this and realize that it must therefore have started from some central point. Far from bein

万物简史 第197期:威力巨大的原子(11)

In 1910, Rutherford (assisted by his student Hans Geiger, who would later invent the radiation detector that bears his name) fired ionized helium atoms, or alpha particles, at a sheet of gold foil. To Rutherford's astonishment, some of the particles

万物简史 第515期:丰富多彩的生命(11)

The flowers' leaves serve as a bridal bed, which the Creator has so gloriously arranged, 花儿的叶子当做新婚之床，这一切造物主已经作好了极好的安排， adorned with such noble bed curtains, and perfumed with so many soft scen

万物简史 第516期:丰富多彩的生命(12)

The Linnaean system is so well established that we can hardly imagine an alternative, 林奈分类系统的地位已经牢固确立，我们很难想像还能有别的体系来取而代之。 but before Linnaeus, systems of classification were often

万物简史 第517期:丰富多彩的生命(13)

This was an amazing disclosure. 这句话里包含着丰富的历史内容。 Joseph Banks was England's greatest botanist, and the Endeavour voyage that is the one on which Captain Cook charted the 1769 transit of Venus 约瑟夫班克斯是英国最伟

万物简史 第518期:丰富多彩的生命(14)

The intention originally was to use the binomial system for everything rocks, minerals, diseases, winds, whatever existed in nature. 他本打算把双名体系用于自然界中的一切，如岩石、矿物质、疾病、风等等。 Not everyone e

万物简史 第519期:丰富多彩的生命(15)

Genus (pluralgenera) and species had been employed by naturalists for over a hundred years before Linnaeus, 属和种，博物学家们在林奈之前已经使用了100多年； and order, class, and family in their biological senses all came into us

万物简史 第522期:丰富多彩的生命(18)

At intervals it hands down decrees, declaring that Zauschneria californica (a common plant in rock gardens) 它不时下达命令，宣布从今以后加州倒挂金钟（一种普通的假山庭园植物） is to be known henceforth as Epilobium can

万物简史 第521期:丰富多彩的生命(17)

Yet there is surprisingly little agreement on how many phyla there are or ought to be. 然而，令人吃惊的是，在关于有多少门或诙有多少门的问题上，人们的看法大相径庭。 Most biologists fix the total at about thirty, b

万物简史 第520期:丰富多彩的生命(16)

In an attempt to reestablish order, the British in 1842 proclaimed a new set of rules called the Stricklandian Code, 为了重新统一步调，英国人于l842年宣布了一套新的规则，叫做斯特里克兰法则， but the French saw this as

万物简史 第184期:爱因斯坦的宇宙(27)

Combining Leavitt's cosmic yardstick with Vesto Slipher's handy red shifts, Edwin Hubble now began to measure selected points in space with a fresh eye. In 1923 he showed that a puff of distant gossamer in the Andromeda constellation known as M31 was

万物简史 第198期:威力巨大的原子(12)

Let us pause for a moment and consider the structure of the atom as we know it now. Every atom is made from three kinds of elementary particles: protons, which have a positive electrical charge; electrons, which have a negative electrical charge; and

万物简史 第251期:大地在移动(5)

When it was realized that ancient tapirs had existed simultaneously in South America and Southeast Asia a land bridge was drawn there, too. Soon maps of prehistoric seas were almost solid with hypothesized land bridgesfrom North America to Europe, fr

万物简史 第244期:马斯特-马克的夸克(16)

This uncertainty applies, incidentally, to relatively nearby things as much as to the distant edges of the universe. As Donald Goldsmith notes, when astronomers say that the galaxy M87 is 60 million light-years away, what they really mean (but do not

万物简史 第245期:马斯特-马克的夸克(17)

At least the names for the two main possible culprits are entertaining: they are said to be either WIMPs (for Weakly Interacting Massive Particles, which is to say specks of invisible matter left over from the Big Bang) or MACHOs (for MAssive Compact

万物简史 第246期:马斯特-马克的夸克(18)

This is counter to all expectations. It appears that the universe may not only be filled with dark matter, but with dark energy. Scientists sometimes also call it vacuum energy or, more exotically, quintessence. Whatever it is, it seems to be driving