Longreads Best of 2016: Science Writing
We asked a few writers and editors to choose some of their favorite stories of the year in various categories.
我们请几位作家和编辑在不同类别中选择一些他们今年最喜欢的故事。
Here, the best in science writing.
这里是最好的科学写作。
* * *
** **
Brendan Borrell
布伦丹·博雷尔
A freelance writer in Brooklyn.
布鲁克林的自由撰稿人。
## The Amateur Cloud Society That (Sort of) Rattled the Scientific Community (Jon Mooallem, The New York Times Magazine)
## 业余云协会（某种程度上）震惊了科学界（Jon Mooallem，纽约时报杂志）
Whenever one of Mooallem’s stories come out, I pretty much drop what I’m working on, kick back on my couch, and read it with a big, stupid grin.
每当穆阿勒姆的一篇故事出版时，我都会放下手中的工作，靠在沙发上，带着傻乎乎的大笑读完它。
This delightful piece about a self-professed “idler” who discovers a new type of cloud is the perfect match between writer and subject matter.
这篇令人愉快的文章讲述了一个自称“闲人”的人发现了一种新型云，这是作者和主题之间的完美匹配。
I guarantee that the moment you start reading, you, too, will float away from whatever it is you probably should be doing.
我保证，当你开始阅读的那一刻，你也会远离你可能应该做的事情。
## The Billion Dollar Ultimatum (Chris Hamby, BuzzFeed)
## 十亿美元最后通牒（Chris Hamby，BuzzFeed）
I was blown away by this investigation into a global super court that allows businesses to strip countries of their ability to enforce environmental regulations.
对全球超级法院的调查令我震惊，该法院允许企业剥夺各国执行环境法规的能力。
“Known as investor-state dispute settlement, or ISDS, this legal system is written into a vast network of treaties that set the rules for international trade and investment,” Hamby writes.
汉比写道：“这一法律体系被称为投资者与国家争端解决机制（ISDS），被写入庞大的条约网络中，为国际贸易和投资制定规则。”
“Of all the ways in which ISDS is used, the most deeply hidden are the threats, uttered in private meetings or ominous letters, that invoke those courts.” This is the second part of Hamby’s series on the ISDS, and it focuses on an Australian company that was able to strip-mine inside a protected forest in Indonesia.
“在 ISDS 的所有使用方式中，隐藏最深的是在私人会议或不祥的信件中发出的威胁，这些威胁会援引这些法院。”这是 Hamby 关于 ISDS 的系列文章的第二部分，重点介绍了一家能够在印度尼西亚受保护的森林内进行露天采矿的澳大利亚公司。
Even though the company was complicit in the beating and, in one case, killing of protestors, the government was too cowed by the court to revoke the company’s permit.
尽管该公司参与殴打抗议者，甚至在其中一起事件中杀害了抗议者，但政府还是被法院吓倒了，没有撤销该公司的许可证。
Michelle Nijhuis
米歇尔·尼休斯
A science journalist based in the Pacific Northwest, and a contributor to National Geographic.
居住在太平洋西北地区的科学记者，也是《国家地理》的撰稿人。
## Austin, Indiana: The HIV Capital of Small-Town America (Jessica Wapner, Mosaic)
## 印第安纳州奥斯汀：美国小镇的艾滋病之都（杰西卡·瓦普纳，马赛克）
In December 2014, the single largest HIV outbreak in U.S. history began in Austin, Indiana, a town of 4,100 people on the southern end of the state.
2014 年 12 月，美国历史上最大规模的艾滋病疫情在印第安纳州奥斯汀爆发，该州南端有 4,100 人。
Though Austin’s struggles with drug addiction and poverty were reported at the time of the outbreak, freelance journalist Jessica Wapner takes a much deeper and more detailed look at the town and the source of its problems in this feature for Mosaic.
尽管奥斯汀在疫情爆发时就曾报道过与毒瘾和贫困作斗争的情况，但自由撰稿人杰西卡·瓦普纳 (Jessica Wapner) 在马赛克的这篇专题文章中对这个小镇及其问题的根源进行了更深入、更详细的了解。
I appreciated both her old-fashioned shoe-leather reporting — she found many of her sources in Austin by simply knocking on doors and gaining the trust of residents — and her analysis of the outbreak as part of a “syndemic,” a cluster of health and other problems that public-health experts say must be treated as a whole, not as isolated parts.
我既欣赏她老式的鞋皮式报道——她在奥斯汀通过简单地敲门并获得居民的信任就找到了许多消息来源——也欣赏她将此次疫情视为“综合症”的一部分的分析，公共卫生专家表示，必须将这些健康问题和其他问题视为一个整体，而不是孤立的部分。
Empathetic, smart, and important.
有同理心、聪明、重要。
## Seeding Doubt: How Self-Appointed Guardians of ‘Sound Science’ Tip the Scales Toward Industry (Liza Gross, The Intercept)
## 播种怀疑：自封的“健全科学”守护者如何将天平推向工业（Liza Gross，The Intercept）
In this investigation, funded by the Food and Environment Reporting Network, Liza Gross digs into the history of Sense About Science, a London-based charity that presents itself as a neutral arbiter in public policy debates involving science.
在这项由食品与环境报告网络资助的调查中，丽莎·格罗斯深入研究了 Sense About Science 的历史，这是一家总部位于伦敦的慈善机构，在涉及科学的公共政策辩论中将自己定位为中立仲裁者。
Gross found that Sense About Science and its US affiliate, Sense About Science USA, undertake some initiatives that serve the public’s interest.
格罗斯发现，Sense About Science 及其美国附属机构 Sense About Science USA 采取了一些服务于公众利益的举措。
But the groups are far from neutral: the founder of the British organization worked with some of the architects of the tobacco industry’s disinformation campaign, and both groups have promoted results that favor industry interests over public health.
但这些团体远非中立：英国组织的创始人与烟草业虚假信息运动的一些策划者合作，两个团体都提倡有利于行业利益而不是公共卫生的结果。
At a time when even the concept of truth is debatable, and no fact can be taken for granted, such deep dives into the reliability of our public messengers are more essential than ever.
在连真理的概念都存在争议、任何事实都不能被视为理所当然的时代，对我们公共信息传递者可靠性的深入研究比以往任何时候都更加重要。
Gross, like Wapner, is a freelance journalist; that they were able to report and execute these challenging stories without long-term institutional support is heartening, and raises the bar for the rest of us.
格罗斯和瓦普纳一样，都是一名自由记者。他们能够在没有长期机构支持的情况下报告和执行这些具有挑战性的故事，这令人振奋，并为我们其他人提高了门槛。
Deborah Halber
黛博拉哈尔伯
A journalist and author based in Boston.
居住在波士顿的记者和作家。
## Intersex: Seeking the Beauty in Difference (Martha Henriques, Mosaic)
## 双性人：寻求差异之美（玛莎·亨利克斯，马赛克）
I remember reading Jeffrey Eugenides’ expansive 2002 novel, “Middlesex,” with fascination and admiration.
我记得读过杰弗里·尤金尼德斯 (Jeffrey Eugenides) 2002 年的长篇小说《米德尔塞克斯》(Middlesex)，我怀着着迷和钦佩的心情。
It tells the story of Callie, the daughter of an entrepreneurial Greek-American family who discovers at age 14 that she is a hermaphrodite, and decides to identify as a man after she learns the truth about her condition.
该剧讲述了卡莉 (Callie) 的故事，她是希腊裔美国企业家家庭的女儿，14 岁时发现自己是雌雄同体，并在了解自己的真实状况后决定将自己定位为男性。
More than a decade after “Middlesex,” we can watch “Transparent,” hear North Carolinians debate unisex bathrooms and follow Bruce Jenner’s transformation into Caitlyn, but the spectrum of intersex and transgender individuals still struggle with pervasive misinformation and misunderstanding.
《中性人》十多年后，我们可以观看《透明家庭》，听到北卡罗来纳州人争论男女通用的浴室，并关注布鲁斯·詹纳变身凯特琳，但双性人和跨性别者仍然与普遍存在的错误信息和误解作斗争。
In Mosaic, Martha Henriques finds out what it’s like growing up intersex and meets those fighting to improve intersex rights.
在《马赛克》中，玛莎·恩里克斯了解了双性人成长的感受，并会见了那些为改善双性人权利而奋斗的人们。
## If Animals Have Rights, Should Robots?
## 如果动物有权利，机器人也应该有权利吗？
(Nathan Heller, The New Yorker)
（内森·海勒，《纽约客》）
This is Nathan Heller, in The New Yorker, taking a fascinating look at how we tend up overplay the human characteristics in some entities (such as the hitchhiking robot hitchBOT, which made its way around a few cities before it was vandalized) and downplay them in others, such as animals, where a growing body of research seems to point to a wider range of experience than once thought possible.
这是《纽约客》中的内森·海勒（Nathan Heller），他以令人着迷的方式审视了我们如何在某些实体（例如搭便车的机器人 hitchBOT，它在遭到破坏之前绕行了几个城市）中夸大了人类特征，而在其他实体（例如动物）中淡化了人类特征，越来越多的研究似乎表明，动物的体验范围比以前想象的要广泛。
Can we give up the notion that we humans have cornered the market on a “magical” existence?
我们能否放弃这样一种观念：人类凭借“神奇”的存在垄断了市场？
Can we get our heads around what it’s actually like to be a gorilla, or a fish, or a mosquito?
我们能否了解大猩猩、鱼或蚊子到底是什么样子？
And how about robots?
那么机器人呢？
Our self-driving car is likely programmed to drive us into walls rather than mow down a row of pedestrians.
我们的自动驾驶汽车可能会被编程为将我们撞到墙上，而不是撞倒一排行人。
If that happens, will we forgive it?
如果发生这种情况，我们会原谅吗？
Elizabeth Lopatto
伊丽莎白·洛帕托
Science editor for The Verge
The Verge 科学编辑
## You Want a Description of Hell?
## 你想要地狱的描述吗？
Oxycontin’s 12-Hour Problem (Harriet Ryan, Lisa Girion And Scott Glover, The Los Angeles Times)
奥施康定的 12 小时问题（Harriet Ryan、Lisa Girion 和 Scott Glover，《洛杉矶时报》）
This explosive series traces the origins of the opioid epidemic.
这个爆炸性的系列节目追溯了阿片类药物流行的起源。
I can’t think of a clearer explanation of how drug marketing matters to patients.
我想不出更清晰的解释来解释药品营销对患者的重要性。
It’s an astonishing feat of investigative reporting, which helps explain a current event — a great example for young journalists.
这是调查报道的惊人壮举，有助于解释时事——这对年轻记者来说是一个很好的例子。
Explaining how Oxycontin’s “higher highs and lower lows” made it possible for addiction to more easily take root in pain patients was vital; the story of how its dosing could accelerate addiction helps explain why the opioid epidemic happened.
解释奥施康定的“更高的高点和更低的低点”如何使疼痛患者更容易上瘾是至关重要的；关于其剂量如何加速成瘾的故事有助于解释阿片类药物流行的原因。
## Addicts For Sale (Cat Ferguson, BuzzFeed News)
## 出售瘾君子（Cat Ferguson、BuzzFeed 新闻）
Again, astonishing investigative reporting that shows how predatory rehab clinics are able to take advantage of addicts.
令人震惊的调查报告再次显示了掠夺性康复诊所如何利用成瘾者。
Defending the vulnerable is an important function of journalism, and this Buzzfeed report is an excellent example of how to do this and why it matters.
保护弱势群体是新闻业的一项重要职能，这份 Buzzfeed 报告是一个很好的例子，说明了如何做到这一点及其重要性。
The “junkie hunters” who profiteer from addicts and their health insurance suggest that if we wish to take addiction seriously in this society, we must rethink how we are handling rehabilitation.
从瘾君子及其健康保险中牟取暴利的“瘾君子猎人”表明，如果我们希望在这个社会认真对待毒瘾问题，我们必须重新思考如何处理康复问题。
## My Sister Made Her End-of-Life Wishes Clear.
## 我姐姐明确表达了她的临终愿望。
Then Dementia Took Hold.
然后痴呆症开始流行。
(Judith Graham, Stat News)
（朱迪思·格雷厄姆，统计新闻）
A powerful first-person essay on what it’s like to watch a loved one slowly disappear in front of you.
这是一篇强有力的第一人称文章，讲述了看着所爱的人慢慢消失在你面前的感觉。
The crux of the essay lies in deciding when to remove Deborah’s feeding tube, and how to honor who Deborah was before dementia as well as who she had become.
这篇文章的关键在于决定何时拔除黛博拉的饲管，以及如何尊重黛博拉在痴呆之前的身份以及她现在的身份。
Too often, writing about dementia is impersonal — it’s rare to see how it affects families, and the unique difficulties that come with this particular kind of illness.
很多时候，关于痴呆症的文章都是客观的——很少看到它如何影响家庭，以及这种特殊疾病带来的独特困难。
## Katharine Hayhoe, a Climate Explainer Who Stays Above the Storm (John Schwartz, The New York Times)
## Katharine Hayhoe，一位站在风暴之上的气候解释者（John Schwartz，《纽约时报》）
Too often scientists find themselves lecturing.
科学家常常发现自己在讲课。
Most people do not want to be lectured.
大多数人不想被说教。
In some cases, this can lead to a standoff.
在某些情况下，这可能会导致僵局。
This profile of Hayhoe not only explains how scientists can speak to ordinary, it provides an example of how scientists can learn to listen.
海霍的这篇简介不仅解释了科学家如何与普通人交谈，还提供了科学家如何学会倾听的例子。
Often, it seems scientists live in their own parallel world; this Hayhoe is firmly of this one.
通常，科学家似乎生活在他们自己的平行世界中。这个海霍绝对是这一类的。
Ross Andersen
罗斯·安德森
Senior Editor at The Atlantic.
《大西洋月刊》高级编辑。
Formerly Deputy Editor of Aeon .
曾任《Aeon》副主编。
## Gravitational Waves Exist: The Inside Story of How Scientists Finally Found Them (Nicola Twilley, The New Yorker)
## 引力波存在：科学家最终如何发现它们的内幕（Nicola Twilley，《纽约客》）
It’s fitting that the year’s most impressive science longread would be about the year’s most impressive scientific discovery.
今年最令人印象深刻的科学长读物是关于今年最令人印象深刻的科学发现的，这是很合适的。
This one would have topped my year-end list even if it ended after the lede, which features a long, lyrical description of a distant black hole collision, and the invisible gravity wave that rolled out of its center more than one billion years ago.
即使它在《莱德》之后结束，这本书也会名列我的年终清单之首，《莱德》以长篇抒情的方式描述了一次遥远的黑洞碰撞，以及十亿多年前从黑洞中心滚出的看不见的重力波。
Late last year, that wave finally reached Earth, where it was intercepted by a sensitive set of instruments built specially for the purpose, over the course of four decades.
去年年底，该波终于到达地球，在四十年的时间里，它被一组专门为此目的建造的敏感仪器拦截。
The scientists behind this epochal observation will almost certainly win a Nobel Prize for their efforts.
这一划时代观察背后的科学家几乎肯定会因其努力而获得诺贝尔奖。
Twilley tells their very human story beautifully.
特威利精彩地讲述了他们的人性故事。
## Learning to Let the Wild Be Wild in Yellowstone (David Quammen, National Geographic)
## 在黄石公园学习让荒野变得狂野（David Quammen，国家地理）
This piece is a true longread.
这篇文章是真正的长读。
It spans an entire issue.
它涵盖了整个问题。
(Check out the gorgeous cover.) Quammen has long been among the world’s finest science writers, and he’s at his highest and best here, weaving together a complex narrative about the century-long expansion of Yellowstone, and what it means for the surrounding towns and ranches, and the planet at large.
（看看华丽的封面。）夸门长期以来一直是世界上最优秀的科学作家之一，他在这里达到了最高和最好的水平，编织了一个关于黄石长达一个世纪的扩张的复杂叙述，以及它对周围的城镇和牧场以及整个地球意味着什么。
National parks are often described as “America’s best idea,” but for many they are only a down payment on a more ambitious conservation agenda, a network of interconnected wilderness reserves that would cover half of Earth’s surface.
国家公园经常被描述为“美国最好的主意”，但对许多人来说，它们只是更雄心勃勃的保护议程的首付，这是一个相互关联的荒野保护区网络，将覆盖地球表面的一半。
Quammen’s piece is a good first look at the challenges those future conservationists might face.
夸门的文章很好地展示了未来的自然资源保护主义者可能面临的挑战。
It may become one of their essential texts.
它可能成为他们的重要文本之一。
Kara Platoni
卡拉·普拉托尼
A science reporter from Oakland, California, who teaches at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism and is the author of We Have the Technology, a book about biohacking.
来自加利福尼亚州奥克兰的科学记者，在加州大学伯克利分校新闻研究生院任教，是一本关于生物黑客的书《我们拥有技术》的作者。
## Speak, Memory (Casey Newton, The Verge)
## 说话，记忆（凯西·牛顿，The Verge）
When her friend suddenly dies, Eugenia Kuyda builds a chat bot using thousands of his text messages, which allows his loved ones to ask “him” questions and get a remarkably apt response.
当她的朋友突然去世时，尤金尼亚·库伊达（Eugenia Kuyda）使用他的数千条短信构建了一个聊天机器人，这使得他的亲人可以向“他”提出问题并得到非常恰当的答复。
The result is part digital memorial, part ethereal therapist, part Magic 8-Ball—and all bittersweet.
其结果是部分是数字纪念馆，部分是空灵的治疗师，部分是魔术八球——而且都是苦乐参半。
(“How are you there?” one person asks the bot in the chat logs included with the story.
（“你在那里怎么样？”一个人在故事中的聊天日志中问机器人。
“I’m OK.
“我没事。”
A little down.
有点低落。
I hope you aren’t doing anything interesting without me?” the bot responds.) The article is alternately a reminder that we already live in the sci-fi future (remember the Finn from William Gibson’s Sprawl trilogy, who builds an artificial intelligence “construct” of himself that communicates from beyond the grave?), a meditation on the nature of what it means to grieve in the online age, and, ultimately, a think piece on how humans are creatures that make personalities out of words.
我希望如果没有我，你不会做任何有趣的事情吧？”机器人回应。）这篇文章交替提醒我们已经生活在科幻未来（还记得威廉·吉布森的蔓延三部曲中的芬兰人，他为自己构建了一个人工智能“结构”，可以在坟墓之外进行交流吗？），对网络时代悲伤意味着什么的本质的思考，以及最终对人类如何成为通过语言创造个性的生物的思考。
## The Case for Leaving City Rats Alone (Becca Cudmore, Nautilus)
## 让城市老鼠独自一人的案例（Becca Cudmore，Nautilus）
This story neatly does what the very best science writing should: It starts with a far-out proposition that makes you do a head snap, and then piles on surprising tidbit after tidbit until you arrive at a conclusion you never thought you’d hold.
这个故事巧妙地做到了最好的科学写作应该做的事情：它以一个让你猛然一惊的遥远命题开始，然后不断地堆砌出一个又一个令人惊讶的花絮，直到你得出一个你从未想过会持有的结论。
In this case, the author rides along with a veterinary pathology student who is part of a project tracking the rats of Vancouver, BC.
在本例中，作者与一名兽医病理学学生同行，该学生是不列颠哥伦比亚省温哥华老鼠追踪项目的一部分。
She creates a portrait of rat society that is sophisticated and remarkably familiar (They live on the same block as their families!
她创造了一幅复杂且非常熟悉的老鼠社会肖像（它们和家人住在同一个街区！
They have turf wars over immigration!) as well as of a rat digestive system that is freakishly good at hybridizing bacteria from different spaces and species to create superbugs.
他们围绕移民展开地盘争夺战！）以及老鼠的消化系统，该系统非常擅长将来自不同空间和物种的细菌杂交以产生超级细菌。
(“The rat gut acts as a mixing bowl,” says the scientist overseeing the project.) When you exterminate rats, you scatter their families, pushing them into new turf where they fight with the neighbors, swapping blood and bacteria that might combine to create something new.
（“老鼠的肠道就像一个搅拌碗，”监督该项目的科学家说。）当你消灭老鼠时，你就分散了它们的家人，将它们推到新的地盘上，在那里它们与邻居战斗，交换血液和细菌，这些细菌可能结合起来创造出新的东西。
So maybe, the argument goes, it’s better to leave rats where they are, keeping local germs …
因此，有人认为，也许最好把老鼠留在原地，保留当地的细菌……
well, local.
嗯，本地的。
A.N.
一个。
Devers
德弗斯
Critic, writer, and contributing editor at Longreads and A Public Space, who lives in London, England for the time being.
评论家、作家、Longreads 和 A Public Space 的特约编辑，目前居住在英国伦敦。
## Digging for Glory (Paige Williams, The New Yorker)
## 挖掘荣耀（佩吉·威廉姆斯，《纽约客》）
An illuminating profile on a star paleoanthropologist Dr. Lee Berger, who has touted a remarkable number of major discoveries in his career including controversial and hotly debated announcements of new species that some paleoanthropologist’s argue are contributing to “species inflation” and an overly complicated evolutionary picture for homo sapiens.
本书对明星古人类学家李·伯杰博士进行了富有启发性的介绍，他在职业生涯中吹捧了许多重大发现，其中包括备受争议和激烈争论的新物种的公布，一些古人类学家认为这些新物种导致了“物种膨胀”以及智人过于复杂的进化图景。
What emerges from Williams keen look at her subject, is that Berger is not just a scientist, but a master of the stage, a showman who announces his discoveries with the flourish and skill of a great magician’s slight of hand.
从威廉姆斯对她的主题的敏锐观察中可以看出，伯杰不仅是一位科学家，而且是一位舞台大师，一位以伟大魔术师的华丽和技巧宣布他的发现的表演者。
Beneath Williams story are questions she doesn’t directly ask, but emerge from her work.
威廉姆斯的故事背后有一些她没有直接提出的问题，而是从她的作品中浮现出来的。
What of Berger’s research is actually groundbreaking?
伯杰的哪些研究实际上具有开创性？
What is overstatement?
什么是夸张？
What is inaccurate?
什么是不准确的？
What role does narrative play in promoting science?
叙事在促进科学方面发挥什么作用？
After Nature has rejected twelve of his papers including those on a discovery of a species he named “Homo naledi, or Star Man” Berger is quoted at a talk openly embracing Facebook as a valid scientific platform: “A paragraph on Facebook may be as powerful as a paper in Nature,” he says.
在《自然》杂志拒绝了他的 12 篇论文之后，其中包括那些关于发现他命名为“纳莱迪人”或“星人”的物种的论文，伯杰在一次公开拥抱 Facebook 作为有效科学平台的演讲中引用了伯杰的话：“Facebook 上的一段话可能与《自然》杂志上的一篇论文一样强大，”他说。
It may be more powerful, as we have recently watched fake news dominate and steer the 2016 presidential election, but what’s most worrisome about Williams statement, is that it demonstrates at least one expert scientist choosing the platform over a peer-reviewed path that is slow and meticulous in search of truth, and truth and power are two completely different things.
它可能更强大，因为我们最近看到假新闻主导并引导了 2016 年总统选举，但威廉姆斯的声明最令人担忧的是，它表明至少有一位专家科学家选择了该平台，而不是一条缓慢而细致的同行评审路径来寻找真相，而真相和权力是完全不同的两件事。
## NASA’s ‘Hidden Figures’ (Margot Shetterly, Al-Jazeera)
## NASA 的“隐藏人物”（Margot Shetterly，半岛电视台）
Writer Margot Shetterly’s bestselling first book, Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race uncovers the forgotten history and under-acknowledged contribution of Nasa’s black female scientists in launching America’s space program who worked in a blacks-only wing at the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory in Hampton, Virginia.
作家玛格特·谢特利的畅销第一本书《隐藏人物：帮助赢得太空竞赛的黑人女数学家的美国梦和不为人知的故事》揭示了美国宇航局黑人女科学家在启动美国太空计划过程中被遗忘的历史和未被充分认识的贡献，她们在弗吉尼亚州汉普顿的兰利纪念航空实验室的黑人专用部门工作。
In this excerpt from Al-Jeezera’s The Stream, Shetterley describes how as a daughter of an engineer she grew up surrounded by so many African-Americans with careers in science that she believed it was “just what black folks did,” to watching their contributions be lost, underplayed, and undervalued.
在 Al-Jeezera 的《The Stream》的摘录中，谢特利描述了作为一名工程师的女儿，她是如何在众多从事科学事业的非裔美国人的包围下长大的，她相信这“正是黑人所做的”，看着他们的贡献被遗失、被低估和低估。
Shetterley’s history of black women at NASA is an important work correcting the historical record.
谢特利在美国国家航空航天局 (NASA) 的黑人女性历史是一部纠正历史记录的重要著作。
If the scientific community wants to attract people from all walks of life and gain trust in its findings, then they must start by demonstrating and applauding the value non-white, non-male contributors.
如果科学界想要吸引各行各业的人们并获得对其研究结果的信任，那么他们必须首先展示和赞扬非白人、非男性贡献者的价值。
Ben Huberman
本·休伯曼
Editor, WordPress.com / Automattic
WordPress.com / Automattic 编辑
## The Empty Brain (Robert Epstein, Aeon)
## 空荡荡的大脑（罗伯特·爱泼斯坦，Aeon）
Who doesn’t like a juicy scientific polemic?
谁不喜欢有趣的科学辩论？
Epstein’s piece attacks — with panache, one might add — a common rhetorical strategy to speak about the human brain as an information-processing machine: a computer.
爱泼斯坦的文章攻击了一种常见的修辞策略——有人可能会补充道，这种策略将人脑视为一种信息处理机器：一台计算机。
He patiently unpacks the problems with that metaphor, and its nefarious effects on brain research (and its funding).
他耐心地揭示了这个比喻的问题，及其对大脑研究（及其资助）的邪恶影响。
The article has been widely shared, and generated a lively discussion — including numerous thoughtful dissents.
这篇文章得到了广泛转发，并引发了热烈的讨论——其中包括许多深思熟虑的异议。
I’m happily under-qualified to say whether or not my brain is computer-like, but I learned a lot from this piece.
我很高兴没有资格说我的大脑是否像计算机一样，但我从这篇文章中学到了很多东西。
And as a poetry lover, it’s heartening to see that metaphors — metaphors!
作为一名诗歌爱好者，看到这些隐喻是令人振奋的——隐喻！
— play such an important role in the way we arrange and construct scientific knowledge.
——在我们安排和构建科学知识的方式中发挥着如此重要的作用。
Sari Botton
纱丽波顿
Writer, contributing editor to Longreads, editorial director of the non-profit TMI Project, and owner of Kingston Writers’ Studio.
作家、Longreads 的特约编辑、非营利组织 TMI 项目的编辑总监以及 Kingston Writers’ Studio 的所有者。
## Breast-Feeding the Microbiome (Ed Yong, The New Yorker)
## 母乳喂养微生物组（Ed Yong，《纽约客》）
This excerpt of London-based science writer Ed Yong’s I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life is fascinating–perhaps particularly to a person with a crummy immune system, who wasn’t breastfed.
伦敦科普作家埃德·杨（Ed Yong）的《我包含多种：我们体内的微生物和对生命的更宏大的看法》的这段摘录很有趣——也许特别是对于一个免疫系统很差、没有接受母乳喂养的人来说。
It points to many of breast milk’s nutritional superior qualities, most importantly its apparent ability to fortify the body’s microbiome by feeding it with a variety of protective human milk oligosaccharides, or H.M.O.s, thus strengthening the immune system.
它指出了母乳的许多营养优势，最重要的是，母乳能够通过喂食各种保护性母乳低聚糖（H.M.O.）来强化人体微生物群，从而增强免疫系统。
See more from our Best of 2016 series
查看我们的 2016 年最佳系列的更多内容