关于元素周期表的最佳著作 | 盖茨书评

When you walk into my office, one of the first things you see is a huge version of the periodic table. It includes examples or representations of all 118 elements, like a clock with glow-in-the-dark dials for radium and a bottle of Pepto Bismol for bismuth. (Sometimes visitors are just as interested in the table as they are in whatever we’re meeting about—and I don’t blame them!)

当你走进我的办公室，首先映入眼帘的是一个巨大的元素周期表。其中包含了全部118种元素的样品或制品，比如一个带有夜光刻度表盘的镭时钟和一瓶含有铋元素的肠胃腹泻缓解冲剂。（有时参观者会对这面周期表很感兴趣，就像他们对我们见面时讨论的任何事情都感兴趣一样——我没有怪他们的意思！）。

Aside from being a neat piece of art, the periodic table reminds me of how one discovery can lead to countless others. All the complexity of the universe comes from the properties on that chart. Because we understand atoms, we can make chips, and therefore we can make software, and therefore we can make AI. Everything goes back to the periodic table.

元素周期表除了是一件灵巧的艺术品，它还启发了我——一个新发现如何引发无数其他的探索。宇宙的精密与复杂全部来自于这张表上的元素属性。我们通过了解原子得以制造芯片，进而我们可以发明软件，最后还可以创造人工智能。一切都可以追溯到元素周期表。

But how exactly did the periodic table come to be? Anyone who has taken a grade school science class might remember that it was first proposed by the Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleyev. But the table was actually the culmination of two-and-a-half millennia of scientific discovery.

但元素周期表究竟是如何得来的呢？所有上过小学科学课的人可能都记得，元素周期表最早由俄罗斯化学家德米特里·门捷列夫提出。但该表实际上是两千五百年来科学发现的结晶。

1869年版本的元素周期表比现在的要简单得多。

Paul Strathern’s terrific book Mendeleyev’s Dream traces that journey all the way back to ancient Greece, when people first started questioning why the world is the way it is. It’s hard to imagine a time before science. But until Thales of Miletus figured out that the presence of seashell fossils on land must mean the entire world was once a sea, Strathern reminds us that people were more focused on questions of religion than on questions of science.

保罗·斯特拉森的著作《门捷列夫的梦》（中文名暂译）将元素周期表的发明历程一直追溯到古希腊时代，那时人们第一次展开疑问——世界为什么是这个样子。如今很难想象科学萌芽前的时代。斯特拉森指出，在米利都的泰利斯发现陆地上存在贝壳化石，进而推断整个世界曾经是一片汪洋之前，人们更关注的是宗教问题，而不是科学问题。

Strathern spends much of his book exploring chemistry’s roots in alchemy, which was one of the earliest forms of science. For centuries, many of the brightest minds—including Isaac Newton—were fascinated by the idea of turning base materials into gold or an elixir that made you immortal. Although the science proved to be faulty, alchemy inspired generations of scientists to think about how materials interact with each other.

斯特拉森在书中花了大量篇幅来探讨化学与炼金术的渊源，炼金术是最早的科学形态之一。几个世纪以来，许多最富有智慧的人（包括艾萨克·牛顿）都对把基本物质变成黄金或长生不老药的想法非常着迷。尽管这种科学最后被证伪，但炼金术启发了一代又一代的科学家去思考物质之间是如何相互作用的。

Mendeleyev’s Dream sounds like a dense book, but Strathern keeps things light by writing about the many outrageous personalities who studied alchemy and chemistry over the years. One of the most entertaining chapters is about Paracelsus, a Swiss physician and alchemist from the 1500s. Paracelsus made important contributions to toxicology and medicine. He was also a quirky character with a flair for the dramatic. During one of his lectures, Strathern writes, “Paracelsus opened by announcing that he would now reveal the greatest secret in medical science. Whereupon he dramatically uncovered a pan of excrement.” (He’s a man after my own heart.)

《门捷列夫的梦》听起来像是一本晦涩难懂的书，但斯特拉森通过描写多年来研究炼金术和化学的众多古怪人物，来让书的基调保持轻松。其中最有趣的一章是关于帕拉塞尔苏斯，一位16世纪的瑞士医生和炼金术士。帕拉塞尔苏斯对毒理学和医学做出了重要贡献。他也是一个具有戏剧天赋的古怪人物。斯特拉森写道，在帕拉塞尔苏斯的一次演讲中，“帕拉塞尔苏斯在开场时宣布，他现在要揭开医学中最大的秘密。于是，他戏剧性地揭开了一锅粪便。”（他和我很合得来。）

Mendeleyev was also an unusual guy. He was known to get so angry that he would dance “with Rumpelstiltskin-like rage,” and the book’s title refers to his claim that the periodic table came to him in a dream. Regardless of its origins, there is no question of how significant a breakthrough this was. Other scientists had hinted at repeating patterns in the atomic weights of elements, but Mendeleyev was the first to lay them out—and fill in the gaps. He accurately predicted the existence of gallium and germanium before either element was discovered. For the first time, humanity had a road map to understanding the building blocks of the universe.

门捷列夫也是一个怪人。众所周知，他气到极点时，会“带着侏儒怪般的愤怒”跳舞（侏儒怪是德国民间故事中的侏儒状妖怪，译者注），而这本书的书名则是指他声称元素周期表是他做梦梦到的。无论其起源如何，元素周期表无疑是一个极其重大的突破。其他科学家曾暗示过元素的原子量存在重复模式，但门捷列夫是第一个将其列出——并填补上空白的人。在镓和锗元素被发现之前，他就准确地预测了这两种元素的存在。人类首次获得了一份了解宇宙组成元素的指南。

Mendeleyev’s Dream is the best book I’ve ever read on the periodic table. It helps you understand how it all got pieced together and why it’s so helpful. It’s also a fascinating look at how a new science develops. Strathern describes the story of the periodic table as “a wayward parable of human aspiration,” and I agree. The history of chemistry tells us as much about the evolution of human thinking as it does about the science of matter.

《门捷列夫的梦》是我所读过关于元素周期表的最佳著作。这本书能够帮助你理解元素周期表是如何被整理出来的，以及它为何用处颇多。这本书也生动地展现出一门新科学的发展历程。斯特拉森将元素周期表的故事描述为“关于人类雄心壮志的不羁预言”，我同意他的描述。化学的历史不止向我们讲述了物质科学的演变，同样影射了人类思维的进化。