Who Invented Sex Geoffrey Simmons

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1 TRUTH IN THE TEST TUBE 606 Page 1 D. Fisher 1550 words May, 2008 FEATURE: Who Invented Sex? (First in SERIES of 4) 是谁创造了性? PROF.: Professor, who invented sex? How did it originate? 教授, 是谁创造了性? 性是怎样开始的? Different people have various opinions about that. Let's see what we can learn. 不同的人有不同的意见. 让我们来看看可以学到什么. FORMAT: THEME AND ANNOUNCEMENT At various times during the past years, we've discussed the complex ways that various organs of the human body work. 在过去几年里, 我们多次详细讨论过人体各种器官的功能. PROF.: Even more amazing than the intricacy of any single organ, we've marveled at the way the multiple organs within the body work smoothly together. 任何一个器官其结构功能都是令人叹为观止的错综复杂, 我们更惊奇有这么多的器官可以非常顺畅的一起工作. Some of my friends expand the conversation to include the way two humans work smoothly together. This week one asked me: How did sex originate? 有些我的朋友们以多项会话的方式, 包括两个人以上一起讨论讲话. 这个星期其中一个人问我 : 性别是怎幺来的? PROF.: The on-line encyclopedia Wikipedia contains an article on the topic Evolution of Sex. Its opening sentence says, The evolution of sex is a major puzzle in modern evolutionary biology. 网上的维基百科全书有一篇文章, 题目是性的进化, 其开头第一句说, 性进化在现代进化生物学上是一个重大难题. Is that a subtle way of saying we don't know how it originated? 我们不知道它的起源, 这不是一个很狡猾的说法吗? PROF.: Yes. Another on-line source says, This wonderful understatement masks a gaping hole in Darwinian theory: how to explain not only one purposefully complex living being, but a mating pair. Scientists have tried hard to develop a credible explanation of how males and females could have developed not just in humans, but also in the many other species that reproduce sexually. Richard Dawkins usually is sure that the answer to every question is evolution did it. But even he admits, There are many theories of why sex exists, and none of them is knock-down convincing. 1 是的. 另一个网上资料说, 这美好的轻描淡写给达尔文理论找个洞埋藏起来 : 这不但要解释一个有目的的复杂生命体, 同时也包括交配. 科学家曾试图努力发展一个可信的解释, 就是男性和女性是如何发展出的不但是人类, 同时也包括许多其它物种的性繁殖. 1 It is not such a strong idea that it destroys all theories or speculations that oppose it.

FORMAT: THEME AND ANNOUNCEMENT At various times during the past years, we've discussed the complex ways that various organs of the human body work. 在过去几年里, 我们多次详细讨论过人体各种器官的功能.

2 TRUTH IN THE TEST TUBE 606 Page 2 理查道金斯通常用肯定的方式, 回答每一个问题是进化造成的. 但即使他承认, 有很多理论谈到为什幺性会存在, 但没有一个具有说服力. None of them makes complete sense. And, of course, none of them has been tested experimentally. 没有一个人具有说服力. 当然, 还有也没有经过实验证明. PROF.: Roddy Bullock [ROD-ee BUL-uk], who is Executive Director of the Intelligent Design Network of the American state of Ohio [oh-hy-oh], points out that Darwin had no convincing answer to the question, Why does sex exist? 若廸布洛克, 美国俄亥俄州智能设计网页的执行主任指出, 达尔文对这个问题没有令人信服的答案, 为何有性别的存在? Does he mean evolution doesn't provide a good explanation of how the male organ and the female organ originated? 他的意思是不是说进化论对于雄性和雌性器官是怎么来的, 无法提供一个很好的解释呢? PROF.: That's part of what he means. He's thinking of more than just what you call the male organ that delivers sperm and the female organ that receives the sperm. It's also hard to find a natural explanation of how the part of a man's body that makes the sperm, could have originated. That's also true of the parts of a woman's body that produce the egg and do a series of other things that enable her to have children. Medical doctor Geoffrey Simmons provides additional details. He devotes two chapters to sex and reproduction in his book What Darwin Didn't Know. 有一部分是这个的意思. 他的想法是多过你所谓的雄性器官是释放精子的, 而雌性器官是接收精子的. 最原始的男性身体制造精子, 它的来源是什么, 那是更不容易找到自然的解释. 同样道理, 女性身体, 可以产生卵子, 以及一连串的其它事情到最后怀孕生孩子, 也是很难解释. 杰富瑞西门子医师提供了更多的细节. 在他的什么是达尔文不知道的书中, 精心的写了两篇有关性及生殖的文章. I see that he calls those two chapters Reproduction: Macroscopic and Reproduction: Microscopic. What does he say about the macroscopic or large-scale part of sex and reproduction 我看到这两章称为生殖 : 宏观和生殖 : 微观. 谈到宏观 - 就是大型的性和生殖. PROF.: He writes, Human genitals are designed to fit snugly together. A man's erection, if it were to be sustained 24/7, 2 would make life very uncomfortable and [make] urination quite difficult. Instead, the penis is designed to remain limp and yet maintain a hydraulic-like system that knows when and how to fill up with blood when an erection is needed. 他写说, 人类的两性生殖器官设计成舒服地结合在一起. 一个男人的勃起, 假如是持续的一天 24 个小时, 一星期 7 天的话, 会非常不舒服, 排尿也有困难. 相反的, 阴茎的设计大部分的时间是松软的, 同时维持类似像一个液压的系统, 当需要勃起时, 就被血液所充满. A hydraulic-like system? What does he mean? 像一个液压系统? 这是什么意思? PROF.: For the male organ to enlarge, blood has to enter it and stay there for a time. The circulatory system achieves that by opening the arteries to that part of the body, while closing the veins. That provides an inlet for blood, but blocks the outlet, making the male organ capable of doing its job hours per day, 7 days a week.

: Roddy Bullock [ROD-ee BUL-uk], who is Executive Director of the Intelligent Design Network of the American state of Ohio [oh-hy-oh], points out that Darwin had no convincing answer to the question,

3 TRUTH IN THE TEST TUBE 606 Page 3 那是指着男性器官的涨大, 血液输入其内并且会停留一段时间. 循环系统会使动脉打开, 让血液可以到达身体的那部位, 同时静脉会闭锁, 提供血液的流进, 而且防止血液流出, 如此男性器官就可以完成他的工作. What other facts about human reproduction make Dr. Simmons think the process was designed? 有关人类的生殖, 还有那些因素, 使得西门子医师认为整个过程是被设计的呢? PROF.: He calls the sperm torpedo-like cells that move themselves by waving their tails with a movement that resembles a propeller. They also have a guidance system that directs them to a woman's fallopian tubes. 他称精子是像鱼雷的细胞, 它们是靠自己的尾巴做类似螺旋桨的动作来移动. 他们也有导航系统, 指引他们进入女人的输卵管之中. I read somewhere that sperm are quite fragile. That's why a man makes so many of them, so that some of them can survive and make a baby. 我曾经在某处看过, 精子是非常脆弱的. 所以男人体内制造的精子数目很多, 因此他们可以生存并且可以制造婴儿. PROF.: That's true. The average man produces about 100 million sperm per day, a thousand with each heartbeat, more than a trillion 3 in a lifetime. But sperm would die within minutes if they were not surrounded by seminal fluid. This liquid enables them to live as long as five days after entering the uterus. Dr. Simmons says, Success, in part, has to do with sheer numbers. Of the hundreds of millions that are propelled with each ejaculation and the several thousand that make it into the uterus, only a few hundred make it to the egg, and only one penetrates it. 对的. 一个男人平均每天可以制造一亿个精子, 每一次心跳就有一千个, 一生中可以制造超过一兆.(1 后面有 12 个 0). 但是精子如果不浸在精液里, 几分钟就会死亡. 精液可以使精子进入子宫后维持生命长达五天之久. 西门子医师说, 要成功, 需要相当数目的精子. 每次的射精有亿万个精子以螺旋桨的方式向前游进到子宫里, 只有几百个能够游到卵子的地方, 而最后只有一个精子可以穿入卵子. We women have a sexual anatomy that is even more complex. What does Dr. Simmons say about it? 我们女性的生殖器官是更加的复杂. 西门子医师是怎么说的呢? PROF.: The woman's bony pelvis 4 protects her ovaries, uterus, and her unborn child. The egg is about the size of the period that is printed at the end of a sentence. When the ovary releases an egg, it knows where to go and how to get there, to be implanted in the uterus. Dr. Simmons illustrates the egg's travel by imagining it enlarged to the size of a golf ball. In his words, Picture a golf ball popping out of a randomly selected window of a huge skyscraper with 250,000 windows, and then falling into someone's outstretched hands in a window at the other end of town. Our golf ball will roll down [45 kilometers] of highway and land inside a hole on the fairway of a golf course it has never seen. 妇女的盆骨保护着她们的卵巢, 子宫和她未出生的胎儿. 卵子的大小像一个句子结束上的句点. 当卵巢释放卵子, 卵子知道要去哪儿, 也知道怎么去, 才能植入子宫. 西门子医师解释卵子的旅程, 他假设卵子像一个高尔夫球的大小. 用他的话来说, 这个图片好象一个高尔夫球, 抛向有 250,000 个窗口的摩天大楼的某一个窗口, 然后穿过在城市另一端的一栋大厦的一个窗口, 落入某人张开的手中. 这个高尔夫球经过 [ 45 公里 ] 高速公路, 最后掉进一个, 一个从来没有见过的高尔夫球场的场道里. 3 In the American sense, a trillion is 1,000,000,000, A pelvis made of bone.

Simmons think the process was designed? 有关人类的生殖, 还有那些因素, 使得西门子医师认为整个过程是被设计的呢? PROF.

4 TRUTH IN THE TEST TUBE 606 Page 4 That's real precision! 这的确是十分精确! PROF.: When a woman is pregnant, her uterus adjusts as the embryo grows. It nourishes the developing embryo by growing a placenta. It stretches as much as is needed, and then, at a precise moment, it pushes the baby out through the birth canal. 当一位妇女怀孕, 她的子宫会调整, 适合胚胎的生长. 通过长成的胎盘来供应胎儿养分, 让他成长. 子宫能够伸展, 足够让婴儿生存的大小, 到了生产的时候, 就会有宫缩, 把婴儿推出产道. There's a lot more to sex and reproduction than just the gonads. 还有更多关于性及生殖的事, 不仅仅是性腺 ( 贺尔蒙 ). PROF.: That's true. Dr. Simmons points out, Every living species has its own unique, matching number of chromosomes. An animal with 13 chromosomes cannot mate with a species with 12 or 14 chromosomes. Whenever that rare mismatch does happen, such as a horse mating with a donkey to produce a mule, the offspring our usually sterile or monster-like. Cats cannot mate with dogs, mosquitoes with lies, lizards with amphibians... Nor do they care to. Humans have 23 pairs of chromosomes, so he reasons, If we are descendents of amphibians, which have 13 pairs of chromosomes, not only did the original 13 chromosomes change, but 10 pairs of chromosomes, with approximately 130 million chemical bases on each, were added. 是的. 西门子医师指出, 每种活物都有他们独特, 及特定数目的染色体. 一个有 13 对染色体的动物不能与有 12 或 14 对染色体的交配. 就算有少数的杂交, 好象马与驴交配产生的骡子, 但是它们的后代不能生育, 样子也是不伦不类. 猫不能和狗交配, 蚊子不能与跳蚤, 蜥蜴不能与两栖类牠们绝对不会如此交配. 人类有 23 对染色体, 他的理由是如果我们是两栖类的后代, 两栖类只有 13 对染色体, 所以不只是原来的 13 对染色体要改变, 还要有 10 对染色体的增加, 同时有将近 13 亿个化学因素加在每对染色体上. That's a lot of complexity. 真是很复杂啊呀. PROF.: But there's more yet. Each sperm is built like a torpedo, with enzymes at its tip that can break through the exterior surface of the egg. After one sperm has entered, its head detaches. Then a chemical reaction strengthens the egg's outer wall so that no more sperm can enter. The 23 chromosomes in the sperm readily combine with the 23 chromosomes in the egg. Millions of characteristics are decided at the moment of conception. The way the genes blend determines what sex the new baby will be, and what color of hair and eyes. They also determine what diseases he or she will be likely to develop, as well his various aptitudes. 还有更多的呢. 每一个精子像一个鱼雷, 他尖端的酶, 使他可以穿破卵子的表面. 当一个精子进入之后, 就被隔离. 该受精卵的外膜产生化学反应而坚固, 不容许其它的精子进入. 在精子里. 的 23 个染色体与卵子的 23 个染色体进行结合. 成千上万的特症就在这个时候决定了. 基因的融合形成了新婴儿的性别, 头发和眼睛的颜色. 同时也决定了一些遗传的疾病, 以及多样的习性及天资聪颖与否. When we discover how many ways a male and a female have to harmonize, we get back to our opening question: How did sex originate? If men and women evolved from a sub-human species, how did they synchronize so well? How did they coordinate the number of chromosomes each would carry?

当一位妇女怀孕, 她的子宫会调整, 适合胚胎的生长. 通过长成的胎盘来供应胎儿养分, 让他成长. 子宫能够伸展, 足够让婴儿生存的大小, 到了生产的时候, 就会有宫缩, 把婴儿推出产道.

5 TRUTH IN THE TEST TUBE 606 Page 5 当我们发现男女的结合, 在很多方面都需要协调之后, 还是要回到我们开始的问题 : 最原始的性是从哪里来的呢? 假如男人和女人是从次人类的物种逐渐进化而来的, 他们怎么能够同步发展得这么完美呢? 他们如何使每个染色体的数目协调得恰到好处呢? PROF.: An even bigger question is, how did the two s develop into humans at the same time? If the man arrived at human status first, what kind of good fortune arranged that the first woman became human during the man's lifetime? 还有更大的问题, 人类的两个性别是怎样同时发展出来的? 假如男人先进化成人类, 他需要多大的运气, 在他有生之年, 要等到第一个女人的进化完成呢? How does Dr. Simmons answer? 西门子医师怎么回答这个问题? PROF.: He summarizes, All aspects of human reproduction either had to have evolved in unbelievably specific, compatible, and parallel ways or else all these aspects arrived simultaneously. Every significant change in the male's reproductive system had to have been met with a reciprocal change in the female's [system] (or vice versa). There could not have been sexual drive or attraction without matching desire, a fully functional penis without complementary female vagina, male hormones without female hormones, mobile sperm without a mature egg, 23 male chromosomes without 23 compatible female chromosomes, an opening into the cervix for the sperm to enter without an opening in a fallopian tube for the egg, or a maturation plan for the embryo without a uterus to receive and nurture it. 他总结说, 所有人类生殖的各方面, 要么是由必须有令人难以置信的进化过程, 兼容和并行的方式, 否则就是, 所有各方面同时出现而配搭完美. 男性的每一个大的改变, 都配合女性生殖系统的好处.( 反过来也一样 ) 没有渴望在一起就不可能有性和吸引力的动力, 一个功能完整的阴茎若没有与女性的阴道匹配, 男性激素没有女性激素, 活动的精子没有成熟的卵子,23 个男性染色体没有 23 个女性染色体, 精子进入一个开放的骨盆腔, 而没有开放的输卵管给卵子, 或者一个成熟的胚胎没有孕育他的子宫等等, 缺一不可. That's an impressive list. 这些清单真是令人钦佩. PROF.: But it's not a complete list of everything that a couple needs. It's merely a summary of the first of two chapters that Dr. Simmons has written on the subject. 这些清单并没完全列出一对配偶所需要的. 这只是西门子医师的头两章的择要而已. That's right. You mentioned that we'll discuss the other chapter tomorrow. 是的. 你说过我们将要在明天的节目中再讨论其它章节. PROF.: He concludes, All of these well-coordinated and complex functions speak to purposeful design. As we consider all that is involved, the most logical explanation of sex and the ability to have children, is that they are generous gifts from the God who is wise enough to know how to make the entire system work so amazingly well. 他结论束是, 所有这些美好的协调和复杂的功能都是为特定的目标而设计的. 我们要全盘考虑, 对性和生育要合乎逻辑的解释, 这些都是上帝慷慨的礼物, 祂的智能能够知道如何使整个系统运作的极其美妙完整

: An even bigger question is, how did the two s develop into humans at the same time?

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