雙語暢銷書《艾倫圖靈傳》第9章:退隱山林(82)

Like Schr?dinger's contribution, what he did was based on mathematical and physical principle, not on experiment; it was a work of scientific imagination.

與薛定諤一樣，他並不是基於實驗，而是基於數學和物理定理，基於科學的幻想。

There were other suggestions in the literature for the nature of the 'morphogenetic field', but at some point Alan decided to accept the idea that it was defined by some variation of chemical concentrations, and to see how far he could get on the basis of that one idea.

關於形態形成過程的本質，還有許多其它解釋，圖靈的想法是，這個過程取決於化學濃度的變化。他要基於這個前提，試試看能走多遠，

It took him back to the days of the iodates and sulphites, to the mathematics of chemical reactions.

這使他回到了碘酸鹽和亞硫酸鹽的那段時光，他要研究化學反應的數學模型。

But the new problem was of another order.

但是這個新問題，還有更高層次的要求，

It was not merely to examine substance A changing into substance B, but to discover circumstances in which a mixture of chemical solutions, diffusing and reacting with each other, could settle into a pattern, a pulsating pattern of chemical waves; waves of concentration into which the developing tissue would harden; waves which would encompass millions of cells, organising them into a symmetrical order far greater in scale.

他不但要研究A物質反應成B物質，還要研究在什麼情況下，這種化學反應才能形成一種模式，一種化學波的脈衝模式，這種化學濃度波，可以使生物組織形成形態，使幾百萬個細胞，組合出大規模的秩序。

This was the fundamental idea, parallel to Schr?dinger's—that a chemical soup could contain the information required to define a large-scale chemical pattern in space.

這是圖靈的基本想法，他認爲化學物質本身，就蘊含着組成大規模的化學模式所需要的信息。

There was one central, fundamental problem.

還有一個核心而基礎的問題，

This was the process described and illustrated in Natural Wonders, in which a perfect sphere of cells would suddenly develop a groove, determining the head and tail ends of the emergent animal.

《自然奇蹟》描述了胚胎的發育過程，一個完美的細胞球，會突然長出一條溝，並形成動物的頭部和尾部。

The problem was this: if the sphere were symmetrical, and the chemical equations were symmetrical, without knowledge of left or right, up or down, where did this decision come from?

這裏的問題是，如果那個球是勻稱的，各處的化學反應也是一樣的，那麼它是如何分出上下左右的？

It was just such a phenomenon that inspired Polanyi to claim that some immaterial force must be at work.

這個現象，使波蘭尼不遺餘力地強調非自然的力量。

In some way information was being created at this point, and this went against what was normally expected.

這個過程以某種方式產生了信息，但卻違背了人們通常的認識。

When the lump of sugar has been dissolved in the tea, no information remains, at the chemical level, as to where it was.

方糖融化在茶裏，在化學層面上，它的信息丟失了。