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This is where I grew up. A small village near the city of Rotterdam in the Netherlands.
我从小在这里长大。这是荷兰一个临近鹿特丹市的小村庄。
In the 1970s and 1980s, when I was a teenager, this area was still a quiet place.
二十世纪七八十年代，我才十几岁，这里还很安静。
It was full of farms and fields and swampland, and I spent my free time there, enjoying myself,
这里有很多农场、牧场和洼地，我在这里度过了一段无忧无虑的日子，
painting oil paintings like this one, collecting wildflowers, bird-watching and also collecting insects.
我在这里画这些油画，采集野花，观察鸟类，还收集昆虫标本。
And this was one of my prized finds.
这是我最得意的发现之一。
This is a very special beetle, an amazing beetle called an ant beetle.
这是一种很特别的甲壳虫，叫作蚁态甲壳虫。
And this is a kind of beetle that lives its entire life inside an ant's nest. It has evolved to speak ant.
这种甲壳虫一生都居住在蚂蚁的巢穴里。然后进化成了可以与蚂蚁沟通。
It's using the same chemical signals, the same smells as the ants do, for communicating,
它使用着跟蚂蚁一样的化学信号，可以跟蚂蚁沟通，
and right now, this beetle is telling this worker ant, "Hey, I'm also a worker ant, I'm hungry, please feed me."
现在，这只甲壳虫正在告诉这只工蚁：“哎，我也是一只工蚁，我好饿，给我点儿吃的吧。”
And the ant complies, because the beetle is using the same chemicals.
因为它使用着跟蚁群相同的化学信号，所以蚂蚁同意了。
Over these millions of years, this beetle has evolved a way to live inside an ant society.
在这数百万年间，这种甲壳虫通过不断进化，已经可以在蚂蚁社群中正常生活。
Over the years, when I was living in that village, I collected 20,000 different beetles, and I built a collection of pinned beetles.
在小村生活的这些年里，我收集了20000种不同的甲壳虫，还制作了一个甲壳虫别针标本集。
And this got me interested, at a very early age, in evolution.
于是我早早地就对进化产生了兴趣。
How do all those different forms, how does all this diversity come about?
我总是想，这些不同的形态是怎样形成的呢？
So I became an evolutionary biologist, like Charles Darwin.
于是像查尔斯·达尔文一样，我成为了一个进化生物学家。
And like Charles Darwin, I also soon became frustrated by the fact that evolution is something that happened mostly in the past.
并且我和查尔斯·达尔文一样，很快对进化过程大部分都发生在过去这一点感到沮丧。
We study the patterns that we see today, trying to understand the evolution that took place in the past,
我们研究了当下的模式，试图弄清楚过去发生了什么样的进化，
but we can never actually see it taking place in real time. We cannot observe it.
但是由于无法进行观察，我们永远无法看见当下正在发生的进化。
As Darwin himself already said, "We see nothing of these slow changes in progress, until the hand of time has marked the lapse of ages." Or do we?
达尔文本人曾说：“我们对于这些缓慢变化的进行一点也不能觉察，除非有时代变迁的标记。”但真的是这样吗？
Over the past few decades, evolutionary biologists have come to realize that sometimes, evolution proceeds much faster and it can actually be observed,
在过去几十年间，进化生物学家发现，进化的速度要快得多，而且是可以观察到的，
especially when the environment changes drastically and the need to adapt is great.
特别是当环境剧烈变化，要适应的情形变多的情况下。
And of course, these days, great environmental changes are usually caused by us.
当然近几年的大的环境变化通常是由我们人类造成的。
We mow, we irrigate, we plow, we build, we pump greenhouse gases into the atmosphere that change the climate.
我们收割庄稼、灌溉农田、开垦土地、搭建房屋，在这个过程中我们向大气输送了大量的温室气体，从而导致了气候变化。
We release exotic plants and animals in places where they didn't live before, and we harvest fish and trees and game for our food and other needs.
我们把动植物放逐到它们原先没生活过的地方生存，我们捕鱼、伐木，为了满足饮食和其他需要而竞争。
And all these environmental changes reach their epicenter in cities.
而所有这些环境变化的中心都集中在城市。
Cities form a completely new habitat that we have created.
它是我们创造的一个全新的栖息地。
And we clothe it in brick and concrete and glass and steel, which are impervious surfaces that plants can only root in with the greatest difficulty.
我们用砖头、水泥、玻璃和钢铁将城市包裹起来，这样植物就无法在这里生存。
Also in cities, we find the greatest concentrations of chemical pollution, of artificial light and noise.
城市里还集中了大量的化学污染、人为光污染和噪音污染。
And we find wild mixtures of plants and animals from all over the world that live in the city,
我们发现生活在这个城市的野生动植物来自世界各地，鱼龙混杂，
because they have escaped from the gardening and aquarium and pet trade.
因为它们多是从花圃、水族馆和宠物交易市场逃出来的。
And what does a species do when it lives in a completely changed environment?
那么一个物种应该怎样在全然陌生的环境中生存呢？
Well, many, of course, go, sadly, extinct. But the ones that don't go extinct, they adapt in spectacular ways.
当然，有很多物种不幸灭绝。而那些没有灭绝的物种以各种不同的方式适应着环境。
Biologists these days are beginning to realize that cities are today's pressure cookers of evolution.
近年来，生物学家逐渐意识到城市才是导致进化的压力源。
These are places where wild animals and plants are evolving under our eyes very rapidly to suit these new, urban conditions.
为了适应新的城市环境，动植物就在这些地方，在我们眼前飞快进化着。
Exactly like the ant beetle did millions of years ago, when it moved inside an ant colony.
就像数百万年前闯进蚂蚁窝的蚁态甲壳虫一样。
We now find animals and plants that have moved inside the human colony and are adapting to our cities.
我们发现生活在人类社区的动植物也在适应着我们的城市。
And in doing so, we're also beginning to realize that evolution can actually proceed very fast.
由此我们发现，进化也可以是一个很快的过程。
It does not always take the long lapse of ages; it can happen under our very eyes.
它不需要数个世纪，而是就发生在我们面前。
This, for example, is the white-footed mouse.
以这种白足鼠为例。
This is a native mammal from the area around New York, and more than 400 years ago, before the city was built, this mouse lived everywhere.
它是一种哺乳动物，生活在纽约附近，而400多年前，纽约市还没建成的时候，这种老鼠到处都是。
But these days, they are stuck in little islands of green, the city's parks, surrounded by a sea of tarmac and traffic.
但现在，它们生活在城市公园的小片绿地上，被柏油马路和车流包围着。
A bit like a modern-day version of Darwin's finches on the Galapagos.
让人想起达尔文在加拉帕戈斯群岛发现的雀类。
And like Darwin's finches, the mice in each separate park have started evolving, have started to become different from each other.
跟达尔文发现的雀类相同的是，生活在不同公园的老鼠开始进化，逐渐变得跟自己的族群越来越不同。
And this is my colleague, Jason Munshi-South, from Fordham University, who is studying this process.
这是我的同事杰森·苏曼什，他来自福德汉姆大学，目前正在研究的就是白足鼠的进化过程。
He is studying the DNA of the white-footed mice in New York City's parks,
他研究了纽约城市公园里白足鼠的DNA，
and trying to understand how they are beginning to evolve in that archipelago of islands.
试图弄清楚它们在那些分散的小岛上是如何进化的。
And he's using a kind of DNA fingerprinting,
他采用了一种DNA指纹法，
and he says, "If somebody gives me a mouse, doesn't tell me where it's from, just by looking at its DNA, I can tell exactly from which park it comes."
他说：“如果给我一只老鼠，不必告诉我它来自哪里，通过它的DNA我就可以判断它是从哪个公园捉来的。”
That's how different they have become.
由此可见这些白足鼠之间的差异有多大。
And Jason has also discovered that those changes, these evolutionary changes, are not random, they mean something.
杰森还发现白足鼠身上发生的变化不是随机的，而是代表着某种意义。
For example, in Central Park, we find that the mice have evolved genes that allow them to deal with very fatty food. Human food.
比如，我们发现中央公园的老鼠进化出了一种可以让它们消化高脂肪食物的基因。我是指人吃的食物。
Twenty-five million people visit Central Park each year. It's the most heavily visited park in North America.
中央公园每年的人流量有两千五百万，是北美客流量最大的公园。
And those people leave behind snack food and peanuts and junk food, and the mice have started feeding on that,
人们在这里扔掉的零食、花生还有垃圾食品都被这些老鼠吃掉了，
and it's a completely different diet than what they're used to, and over the years, they have evolved to suit this very fatty, very human diet.
而这些老鼠过去的食物跟现在完全不同，就在这数年间，它们通过进化已经可以食用人类那些脂肪含量很高的食物。
And this is another city slicker animal. This is the European garden snail.
这种动物也是老城里人了。它叫欧洲花园蜗牛。
A very common snail, it comes in all kinds of color variations, ranging from pale yellow to dark brown.
这是一种很常见的蜗牛，从浅黄到深棕各种颜色都有。
And those colors are completely determined by the snail's DNA.
它们的颜色完全是由基因决定的。
And those colors also determine the heat management of the snail that lives inside that shell.
这些颜色也决定了壳中蜗牛感受到的温度。
For example, a snail that sits in the sunlight, in the bright sun, if it has a pale yellow shell,
举个例子，在明亮的日光下呆着的浅黄色壳的蜗牛，
it doesn't heat up as much as a snail that sits inside a dark brown shell.
其感受到的温度比深棕色壳蜗牛感受到的温度要低。
Just like when you're sitting in a white car, you stay cooler than when you're sitting inside a black car.
同样的道理，人坐在白色车子里会觉得比坐在黑色车里更凉爽。
Now there is a phenomenon called the urban heat islands,
有一个专业名词叫做城市热岛效应，
which means that in the center of a big city, the temperature can be several degrees higher than outside of the big city.
是指大城市中心的温度会比城市外围高好几度。
That has to do with the fact that you have these concentrations of millions of people, and all their activities and their machineries, they generate heat.
这是因为城市中聚集了数百万居民，他们的生产生活导致了热量的产生。
Also, the wind is blocked by the tall buildings, and all the steel and brick and concrete absorb the solar heat and they radiate it out at night.
此外，高楼大厦阻拦了风的通行，钢筋水泥吸收了太阳能并在夜里把热量辐射出去。
So you get this bubble of hot air in the center of a big city,
于是大城市的中心就产生了一个热空气构成的气泡，
and my students and I figured that maybe those garden snails, with their variable shells, are adapting to the urban heat islands.
我和学生发现，也许这些花园蜗牛的壳正在适应着热岛效应。
Maybe in the center of a city, we find that the shell color is evolving in a direction to reduce overheating of the snails.
我们发现市中心的蜗牛壳的颜色正在进化，好降低蜗牛感受到的温度。
And to study this, we started a citizen-science project.
为了对这一现象进行研究，我们开启了一个全民科研项目。
We built a free smartphone app, which allowed people all over the Netherlands
我们开发了一个免费的手机应用，让所有居住在荷兰的人
to take pictures of snails in their garden, in their street, also in the countryside, and upload them to a citizen science web platform.
拍摄花园、街道和在乡下看到的蜗牛，并把照片上传到全民科研网络平台上。
And over a year, we got 10,000 pictures of snails that had been photographed in the Netherlands,
在一年时间里，我们收到了10000张拍摄于荷兰的蜗牛图片，
and when we started analyzing the results, we found that indeed, our suspicions were confirmed.
当我们开始研究这些照片时，发现我们此前的猜测得到了证实。
In the center of the urban heat islands, we find that the snails have evolved more yellow, more lighter-colored shells.
在城市热岛效应的中心，蜗牛壳普遍偏黄且颜色更浅。
Now the city snail and the Manhattan mouse
居住在城市的蜗牛和曼哈顿鼠，
are just two examples of a growing list of animals and plants that have evolved to suit this new habitat, this city habitat that we have created.
只是为了适应我们创造的这个新的城市栖息地而进化的大量动植物中的其中两例。
And in a book that I've written about this subject, the subject of urban evolution, I give many more examples.
围绕城市进化这个主题我写了一本书，在书中我举了更多例子。
For example, weeds that have evolved seeds that are better at germinating on the pavement.
比如，杂草的种子通过进化变得更容易在人行道上生根发芽。
Grasshoppers that have evolved a song that has a higher pitch when they live close to noisy traffic.
居住在繁忙车流附近的草蜢通过进化，让自己叫声的音调变得更高。
Mosquitoes that have evolved to feed on the blood of human commuters inside metro stations.
蚊子通过进化，以此来以吸食地铁站通勤者的血液为生。
And even the common city pigeon that has evolved ways to detox themselves from heavy-metal pollution by putting it in their feathers.
即使是城市里最常见的鸽子，也会通过进化，把身体里的重金属污染物转移到羽毛上，从而避免中毒。
Biologists like myself, all over the world, are becoming interested in this fascinating process of urban evolution.
世界上像我这样的生物学家都越来越对城市进化的过程感兴趣。
We are realizing that we're really at a unique event in the history of life on earth.
我们意识到自己正见证着地球上一桩独特的历史事件。
A completely new ecosystem that is evolving and adapting to a habitat that we have created.
一个全新的生态系统正在通过进化，并适应人类创造的栖息地。
And not just academics -- we're also beginning to enlist the millions of pairs of hands and ears and eyes that are present in the city.
这项研究不仅有学者参与，我们也开始动员城市中数以百万计的双手、耳朵和眼睛。
Citizen scientists, schoolchildren -- together with them,
包括民间科学家、小学生等，我们与他们一起，
we are building a global observation network which allows us to watch this process of urban evolution taking place in real time.
搭建了一个全球观测网，利用这个网络我们就可以观察到城市进化的实时进程。
And at the same time, this also makes it clear to people that evolution is not just some abstract thing
与此同时，这也让人们明白，进化不只是一种抽象的东西，
that you need to travel to the Galapagos to study, or that you need to be a paleontologist to understand what it is.
不只是一种需要跑到加拉帕戈斯群岛，或者必须成为古生物学家才能理解的抽象的东西。
It's a very ordinary biological process that's taking place all the time, everywhere.
它是一种非常普通的、在全世界实时发生的生物过程。
In your backyard, in the street where you live, right outside of this theater.
它会发生在你家后院，在你居住的街道上，或者在这家剧院外面。
But there is, of course, a flip side to my enthusiasm.
但这种进化也有其负面影响。
When I go back to the village where I grew up, I no longer find those fields and swamps that I knew from my youth.
当我回到从小长大的村庄时，发现我小时候看见的那些牧场和洼地都消失了。
The village has now been absorbed by the growing conglomeration of Rotterdam, and instead, I find shopping malls and I find suburbs and bus lanes.
现在的小村庄已经成为了蓬勃发展的鹿特丹市的一部分，牧场和洼地变成了购物中心、郊区和公交车道。
And many of the animals and plants that I was so accustomed to have disappeared, including perhaps that ant beetle.
我曾习以为常的很多动植物都消失了，其中也许还包括蚁态甲壳虫。
But I take comfort in the fact that the children growing up in that village today may no longer be experiencing that traditional nature that I grew up with,
但我安慰自己，如今生活在这里的孩子们，不会再感受我曾感受到的那种生活环境，
but they're surrounded by a new type of nature, a new type of ecosystem, that, to them, might be just as exciting as the old type was to me.
他们会感受到被一种新型的自然，一种新型的生态系统所包围，这对他们来说也许就像旧的环境对我而言一样令人感到兴奋。
They are living in a new, modern-day Galapagos.
他们生活在一个新的、现代化的加拉帕戈斯。
And by teaming up with citizen scientists and with evolutionary biologists like myself,
他们与民间科学家和我这样的进化生物学家一起，
they might become the Darwins of the 21st century, studying urban evolution. Thank you.
研究着城市进化，也许有一天他们就会成为21世纪的达尔文。谢谢大家。
