I was in the middle of the Amazon with my wife, who was there as a medical researcher. We flew on a small plane to a faraway village. We did not speak the local language, did not know the customs, and more often than not, did not entirely recognize the food. We could not have felt more foreign.
我和我的妻子在亚马逊河流域中部，她是一名医学研究员。我们乘一架小飞机飞往一个遥远的村庄。我们不会说当地的语言，不了解当地的习俗，不完全认识当地的食物。我们是如此陌生。
We were raised on books and computers, highways and cell phones, but now we were living in a village without running water or electricity. It was easy for us to go to sleep at the end of the day feeling a little misunderstood.
我们在书籍、电脑、高速公路和手机的环境中长大，但现在我们生活在一个没有自来水和电的村庄，一天结束时，我们很容易入睡，感到有点被误解。
Then one perfect Amazonian evening, with monkeys calling from beyond the village green, we played soccer. I am not good at soccer, but that evening it was wonderful. Everyone knew the rules. We all spoke the same language of passes and shots. We understood one another perfectly. As darkness came over the field and the match ended, the goal keeper, Juan, walked over to me and said in a matter-of-fact way, "In your home, do you have a moon too?" I was surprised.
然后，在一个美好的亚马逊夜晚，我们在村庄绿地上踢着足球，猴子们的叫声从外面传来。我不擅长踢球，但那晚很美好。每个人都知道规则，我们都说着同样的传球和射门术语。我们彼此非常了解。当夜幕降临，比赛结束时，守门员胡安走到我面前，用一种平淡的方式问我：“你们家乡也有月亮吗？”我很惊讶。
After I explained to Juan that yes, we did have a moon and yes, it was very similar to his, I felt a sort of awe at the possibilities that existed in his world. In Juan's world, each village could have its own moon. In Juan's world, the unknown and undiscovered was vast and marvelous. Anything was possible.
在我向胡安解释说，是的，我们确实有一个月亮，和他的非常类似之后，我感到他的世界可能性存在着一种敬畏。在胡安的世界里，每个村庄都有自己的月亮。在胡安的世界，未知和未被发现的事物是巨大而神奇的，任何事情都是可能的。
In our society, we know that Earth has only one moon. We have looked at our planet from every angle and found all of the wildest things left to find. I can, from my computer at home, pull up satellite images of Juan's village. There are no more continents and no more moons to search for, little left to discover. At least it seems that way.
在我们的社会，我们知道地球只有一个月球。我们从各个角度观察了我们的星球，发现了所有留待我们发现的最奇异的东西。我可以从家里的电脑上调出胡安所在村庄的卫星图像。没有更多的大陆，没有更多的月亮需要寻找，没有什么需要发现。至少看起来是这样。
Yet, as I thought about Juan's question, I was not sure how much more we could really rule out. I am, in part, an ant biologist, so my thoughts turned to what we know about insect life and I knew that much in the world of insects remains unknown. How much, though? How ignorant are we? The question of what we know and do not know constantly bothered me.
然而，当我思考胡安的问题时，我不确定我们还能排除多少。在某种程度上，我是一名蚂蚁生物学家，所以我的想法转向了我们对昆虫的了解，我知道昆虫世界里还有很多未知的东西。很多？我们是多么无知？我们知道什么，不知道什么，这个问题一直困扰着我。
I began collecting newspaper articles about new species, new monkey, new spider…, and on and on they appear. My drawer quickly filled. I began a second drawer for more general discoveries: new cave system discovered with dozens of nameless species, four hundred species of bacteria found in the human stomach. The second drawer began to fill and as it did I wondered whether there were bigger discoveries out there, not just species, but life that depends on things thought to be useless, life even without DNA. I started a third drawer for these big discoveries. It fills more slowly, but all the same, it fills.
我开始收集报纸上关于新物种、新猴子、新蜘蛛的文章，它们不断出现。我的抽屉很快就满了。我开始用第二个抽屉收集更普遍的发现：新的洞穴系统中发现了几十个无名物种，在人类胃里发现了400种细菌。第二个抽屉开始填满，我在想是否还有更大的发现，不只是物种，还有依赖于被认为无用物质的生命，甚至是没有DNA的生命。我为这些重大发现设立了第三个抽屉。它填充得要慢些，但结果一样，它满了。
In looking into the stories of biological discovery, I also began to find something else, a collection of scientists, usually brilliant occasionally half-mad, who made the discoveries. Those scientists very often see the same things that other scientists see, but they pay more attention to them, and they focus on them to the point of exhaustion, and at the risk of the ridicule of their peers. In looking for the stories of discovery, I found the stories of these people and how their lives changed our view of the world.
在研究有关生物发现的故事时，我也开始发现一些别的东西，一群科学家，他们通常才华横溢，偶尔有点疯癫，他们做出了这些发现。这些科学家经常看到与其他科学家相同的东西，但他们把注意力更集中在它们身上，关注它们直至精疲力尽，并冒着被同行嘲笑的风险。在寻找发现的故事时，我发现了这些人的故事，以及他们的生活如何改变了我们对世界的看法。
We are repeatedly willing to imagine we have found most of what is left to discover. We used to think that insects were the smallest organisms, and that nothing lived deeper than six hundred meters. Yet, when something new turns up, more often than not, we do not even know its name.
我们愿意不断地想象，我们已经发现了大部分未发现的生命。我们过去认为,昆虫是最小的生物，不能生活在地面六百米以下。然而，当新生命出现时，我们往往甚至不知道它的名字。
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