公众人物毕业演讲(MP3+字幕)第94期:耶伦纽约大学(4)

Life will continue to be a journey of discovery if you tend the fires of curiosity that burn brightly in all of us

生命是一场持续发现的旅程只有好奇心的火焰 能够照亮我们未来的前路

Such curiosity led Eric Kandel here at NYU, to hislifetime goal to discover the chemical and cellularbasis of human memory

正是这份好奇心让埃里克·坎德尔能够在纽约大学实现他的人生目标他在这里发现了人类记忆的化学和细胞基础

A few years after his graduation, he was doing research on cats

毕业之后的几年里 他本应当对猫进行研究

But he had the idea of focusing on an animal with a simpler, more fundamental brain: the California sea slug

但他突然想到一个点子 要研究一种脑部结构更简单更基本的动物加利福尼亚海参

His colleagues all but ridiculed him for the idea

这个想法遭到了同事们的嘲笑

They "knew"that the study of the lowly sea slug was irrelevant for understanding human memory Kandel's surgically-skilled collaborator deserted him

他们认为对低等海参的研究 同人类记忆的理解毫无关联具有手术技术的合作者也抛弃了坎德尔

To get up to speed on sea slugs, he had to go abroad to study

为了加快对海参的研究 他不得不出国研究

But Kandel persisted and in 2000 his curiosity won him the Nobel Prize

坎德尔坚持了下来2000年 他的好奇心为他赢得了诺贝尔奖

It was, as you must have guessed, for deciphering the chemistry of memory in humans as revealed by his research on sea slugs

他贡献卓著 破译了人类记忆的化学本质这些都是通过对海参的研究取得的