EVOLUTION AND TINKERING
EVOLUTION AND TINKERING
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DOI：
10.1126/science.860134
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发表时间：
1977-01-01
期刊：
影响因子：
56.9
通讯作者：
JACOB, F
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
JACOB, F
一些16世纪的动物学和植物学书籍都配有精美的插图，描绘了地球上各种各样的动物。有些书中详细描述了一些生物，比如长着鱼头的狗、长着鸡腿的男人，甚至是没有头的女人。混合了不同物种特征的怪物的概念本身并不令人惊讶：每个人都想象过或描绘过这样的混血儿。今天令人不安的是，在16世纪，这些生物不属于幻想世界，而是属于真实的世界。很多人都见过，并详细描述过。怪物们走在旁边。日常生活中常见的动物。他们在可能的范围内。当你阅读当代的科幻小说时，你会被同样的现象所震撼：那些猎杀迷失在遥远星球上的可怜宇航员的可恶动物，其实是地球上生物体重组的产物。从外太空来探索地球的生物被描绘成人类的样子。你可以看到他们从不明飞行物（UFO）中出现;他们是脊椎动物，毫无疑问是哺乳动物，直立行走。唯一的变化是身体大小和眼睛的数量。一般来说，这些生物的头骨比人类大，暗示着更大的大脑，有时头上有一两个无线电天线，暗示着非常复杂的感觉器官。这里令人惊讶的一点再次被认为是可能的。在达尔文之后的一百多年里，有一种观点认为，如果生命出现在任何地方，它必然会产生与陆地动物没有太大区别的动物;最重要的是进化出类似人类的东西。
Some of the 16th-century books devoted to zoology and botany are illustrated by superb drawings of the various animals that populate the earth. Certain contain detailed descriptions of such creatures as dogs with fish heads, men with chicken legs, or even women without heads. The notion of monsters that blend the characteristics of different species is not itselfsurprising: everyone has imagined or sketched such hybrids. What is disconcerting today is that in the 16th century these creatures belonged, not to the world of fantasies, but to the real world. Many people had seen them and described them in detail. The monsters walked alongside the. familiar animals of everyday life. They were within the limits of the possible. When looking at present-day science fiction books, one is struck by the same phenomenon: the abominable animals that hunt the poor astronaut lost on a distant planet are products of recombinations between the organisms living on the earth. The creatures coming from outer space to explore the earth are depicted in the likeness of man. You can watch them emerging from their unidentified flying objects (UFO's); they are vertebrates, mammals without any doubt, walking erect. The only variations concern body size and the number of eyes. Generally these creatures have larger skulls than humans, to suggest bigger brains, and sometimes one or two radioantennae on the head, to suggest very sophisticated sense organs. The surprising point here again is what is considered possible. It is the idea, more than a hundred years after Darwin, that, if life occurs anywhere, it is bound to produce animals not too different from the terrestrial ones; and above all to evolve something like man.