15.真理诞生于一百个问号之后（2143）

15.真理诞生于一百个问号之后

1．有人说过这样一句话:真理诞生于一百个问号之后。

2．其实，这句话本身就是一个真理。

3．纵观千百年来的科学技术发展史,那些在科学领域有所建树的人，都善于从细微的、司空见惯的现象中发现问题，不断发问，不断解决疑问，追根求源，最后把“?"拉直变成“!”， 找到真理。

4．波义耳是17世纪英国著名的化学家。

5．一天，他急匆匆地向自己的实验室走去，路过花圃时，阵阵醉人的香气扑鼻而来，他这才发现花圃里的花已经开了。

6．他摘下几朵紫罗兰插入一个盛水的烧瓶中，然后开始和助手们做实验。

7．不巧的是，一个助手不慎把一滴盐酸溅到了紫罗兰上，爱花的波义耳急忙把冒烟的紫罗兰冲洗了一下，重新插入花瓶中。

8．谁知过了一会儿，溅上盐酸的花瓣竞奇迹般地变红了。

9．波义耳立即敏感地意识到，紫罗兰中有一种物质遇到盐酸会变红。

10．那么，这种物质到底是什么?

11．别的植物中会不会有同样的物质?

12．别的酸对这种物质会有什么样的反应?

13．这一奇怪的现象以及一连串的问题，促使波义耳进行了许多实验。

14．由此他发现，大部分花草受酸或碱的作用都会改变颜色，其中以石蕊地衣中提取的紫色浸液最明显:它遇酸变成红色，遇碱变成蓝色。

15．利用这一特点，波义耳制成了实验中常用的酸碱试纸——石蕊试纸。

16．从那以后，这种试纸一直被广泛应用于化学实验中。

17．无独有偶。

18．20世纪初的一天，因病住院的德国气象学家魏格纳正无聊地看着墙上的世界地图，突然发现南美洲东海岸的凸出部分与非洲西海岸的凹陷部分，竟然不可思议地互相吻合!

19．魏格纳被自己偶然的发现惊呆了。

20．这不会是一种巧合吧?

21．他将地图上的一块块陆地作了比较，结果发现，从海岸线的情形看，地球上所有的大陆都能较好地吻合在一起。

22．病愈之后，魏格纳开始认真地研究这个有趣的现象。

23．他阅读了大量的相关文献，同时搜集古生物学方面的证据。

24．他注意到，一位名叫米歇尔逊的生物学家发现，在美国东海岸有一种蚯蚓，欧洲西海岸的同纬度地区也有这种蚯蚓，而在美国西海岸却没有这种蚯蚓

25．。魏格纳认为，这种蚯蚓的分布情况正说明，欧洲大陆与美洲大陆本来是连在一起的， 否则，蚯蚓即使是插上翅膀也难以飞渡重洋。

26．1915年， 魏格纳系统整理了他的“大陆漂移学说"，出版了《海陆的起源》一书，在地质学界产生了重大影响。

27．更有趣的是一位名叫阿瑟林斯基的俄裔美国睡眠研究专家。

28．一次，他发现儿子在睡觉的时候，眼珠忽然转动起来。

29．他感到很奇怪:为什么睡觉时眼珠会转动?

30．这会不会与做梦有关?

31．会是什么关系呢?

32．阿瑟林斯基带着一连串的疑问， 对自己八岁的儿子进行了实验，结果表明:脑电波的变化与做梦有关。

33．接着，他又对二十名成年人进行了反复的观察实验，最后得出结论:睡眠中眼珠快速转动的时候，人的脑电波也会发生较大的变化，这是人最容易做梦的阶段。

34．阿瑟林斯基的研究成果，成为心理学家研究做梦的重要依据。

35．在科学史上，这样的事例还有很多，这说明科学并不神秘，真理并不遥远。

36．只要你见微知著，善于发问并不断探索，那么，当你解决了若干个问号之后，就有可能发现真理。

37．当然，见微知著、善于发问并不断探索的能力，不是凭空产生的。

38．正像数学家华罗庚说过的，科学的灵感，绝不是坐等可以等来的。

39．如果说科学领域的发现有什么偶然的机遇的话，那么这种“偶然的机遇”只会给那些善于独立思考的人，给那些具有锲而不舍精神的人。

Truth is Born from a Hundred Question Marks

1. Someone once said: Truth is born from a hundred question marks.

2. Actually, this sentence itself is a truth.

3. Looking at the history of scientific and technological development over thousands of years, those who have made achievements in the field of science are good at discovering problems from subtle, commonplace phenomena, constantly asking questions, continuously solving doubts, tracing back to the source, and finally straightening out the "?" into "!" to find the truth.

4. Robert Boyle was a famous British chemist in the 17th century.

5. One day, he was hurrying to his laboratory. As he passed by a flower bed, a wave of intoxicating fragrance hit his nose, and he noticed that the flowers in the bed had bloomed.

6. He picked a few violets and placed them in a water-filled flask, then started doing experiments with his assistants.

7. Unfortunately, one assistant accidentally splashed a drop of hydrochloric acid onto the violets. Loving flowers, Boyle quickly rinsed the smoking violets and put them back in the vase.

8. Unexpectedly, after a while, the petals that had been splashed with hydrochloric acid miraculously turned red.

9. Boyle immediately realized that there was a substance in the violets that turned red when it encountered hydrochloric acid.

10. So, what exactly was this substance?

11. Could other plants have the same substance?

12. What reaction would other acids have with this substance?

13. This strange phenomenon and a series of questions prompted Boyle to conduct many experiments.

14. He discovered that most flowers and plants change color when exposed to acids or bases, with the purple extract from litmus lichen being the most noticeable: it turns red when it encounters acid and blue when it encounters a base.

15. Using this characteristic, Boyle made acid-base test paper, commonly known as litmus paper.

16. Since then, this kind of paper has been widely used in chemical experiments.

17. Coincidentally.

18. One day in the early 20th century, German meteorologist Alfred Wegener, who was hospitalized due to illness, was bored and looking at a world map on the wall. He suddenly noticed that the protruding part of the east coast of South America matched the indentation on the west coast of Africa!

19. Wegener was stunned by his accidental discovery.

20. Could this be a coincidence?

21. He compared pieces of land on the map and found that, judging by the shape of the coastlines, all the continents on Earth could fit together quite well.

22. After recovering from his illness, Wegener began to seriously study this interesting phenomenon.

23. He read a large amount of related literature and collected evidence from paleontology.

24. He noted that a biologist named Michelson had discovered that there were earthworms on the east coast of the United States and in areas at the same latitude on the west coast of Europe, but not on the west coast of the United States.

25. Wegener believed that the distribution of these earthworms indicated that the European and American continents were originally connected; otherwise, even if the earthworms had wings, they couldn't fly across the ocean.

26. In 1915, Wegener systematically organized his theory of continental drift and published the book "The Origin of Continents and Oceans," which had a significant impact on the field of geology.

27. Even more interesting is a Russian-American sleep researcher named Nathaniel Kleitman.

28. Once, he noticed that his son's eyeballs moved suddenly while he was sleeping.

29. He was very curious: why do eyeballs move during sleep?

30. Could it be related to dreaming?

31. What could the relationship be?

32. With a series of questions, Kleitman conducted experiments on his eight-year-old son, which showed that changes in brain waves were related to dreaming.

33. He then conducted repeated observational experiments on twenty adults and finally concluded that when the eyeballs move rapidly during sleep, the brain waves also change significantly, which is the stage when people are most likely to dream.

34. Kleitman's research findings have become an important basis for psychologists studying dreams.

35. In the history of science, there are many such examples, showing that science is not mysterious, and truth is not far away.

36. As long as you can see the big picture from small details, are good at asking questions, and constantly explore, then when you solve many question marks, you may discover the truth.

37. Of course, the ability to see the big picture from small details, to be good at asking questions, and to constantly explore, does not come out of nowhere.

38. Just as mathematician Hua Luogeng said, scientific inspiration will not come if you just wait for it.

39. If there is any chance of accidental discoveries in the field of science, this "accidental chance" will only come to those who are good at independent thinking and have a persevering spirit.