猴舍裡的反思

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本文發表於《大眾科學》的前部落格網路,反映了作者的觀點,不一定代表《大眾科學》的觀點


經過一年的合作,現在是時候反思和感恩了。 你願意加入我們嗎?

今天標誌著“靈長類動物日記”在大眾科學部落格網路的最新版本以及我與藝術家兼靈長類動物夥伴納撒尼爾·戈爾德合作的一週年紀念日。週年紀念日對我們人類物種非常重要。幾乎所有人類社會都有年度慶祝活動,以反思和紀念過去一年的事件,併為來年帶來好運。這樣做的原因尚不清楚,但我認為這與試圖從我們存在的普遍混亂中創造秩序有關。當然,在美國,這是為了讓賀卡公司繼續經營下去。

本著紀念的精神,我們都想感謝大眾科學的編輯——特別是博拉,他在保持這艘船平穩航行方面發揮了重要作用——感謝他們給我們這個機會,感謝那些才華橫溢且支援我們的網路博主,他們的作品經常激勵我們,也感謝你們所有人,讀者們,你們的反饋使我們的工作如此有意義(但稍後會更多地談到你們)。


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首先,我想感謝納撒尼爾,並說過去一年與他合作是多麼的快樂。他令人難以置信的藝術作品裝飾了我寫的每一篇文章,包括對我採訪過的靈長類動物學家弗蘭斯·德·瓦爾莎拉·布拉弗·赫迪的原創肖像。納撒尼爾用油彩和墨水創造的視覺效果與我嘗試用36個字母數字符號和少量標點符號喚起的視覺效果相同。他的作品非常出色,他的兩幅影像“精神健康”“依戀”被選為網路每週影像,我們的合作被強調為未來科學傳播的典範。這是一次很棒的旅程。

但現在輪到你了。 效仿Not Exactly Rocket Science 的 Ed Yong,我們想了解一下和我們在一起的靈長類動物,無論你是否關注了每一篇文章,或者這是你第一次來。 請在評論中介紹一下自己。 另外,不要被註冊嚇到。 你不必使用你的真實姓名,也不必等待登入資訊透過電子郵件傳送給你。只需註冊,然後回到這裡登入。

1) 你是誰? 你有科學背景嗎? 如果有,是什麼吸引你來到這裡,而不是選擇更充實、更學術性的內容? 如果沒有,是什麼把你帶到這裡,你為什麼留下來? 請盡情發表你的評論。

2) 告訴其他人關於這個部落格,特別是,嘗試選擇一個不是科學家,但你認為可能對這個部落格中的內容感興趣的人。 當你試圖向他們滔滔不絕地講科學時,有沒有家人或朋友給你投來奇怪、可憐的目光? 把他們送到這裡,看看他們會怎麼說。

3) 你是如何找到我們的? 我對你是如何找到我們,或者定期關注我們,透過 Twitter、Facebook 和/或其他你可能用來整理你的資訊流的 RSS 機制之外的機制感興趣。

4) 你喜歡《靈長類動物日記》的什麼? 納撒尼爾和我這樣做主要是因為這是出於對工作的熱愛,我們很想聽聽你對我們過去一年所做工作的欣賞之處。 你還記得哪些帖子或圖片? 你在這裡看到的工作是否引發了線下對話? 是什麼讓你回到這裡?

至於我過去一年工作的反思,我沒有什麼可補充的,除了庫爾特·馮內古特在他的書《歡迎來到猴舍》中所寫的

“我從 1949 年開始成為一名作家。我是自學成才的。我沒有任何關於寫作的理論可以幫助他人。當我寫作時,我只是變成了我似乎必須成為的樣子。我身高六英尺二英寸,體重將近二百磅,而且動作不協調,除非游泳。所有借來的肉都在寫作。

在水中,我是美麗的。”

我從 2002 年左右才開始成為作家,比他矮兩英寸。但其他一切都差不多。

About Eric Michael Johnson

I grew up in an old house in Forest Ranch, California as the eldest of four boys. I would take all day hikes with my cat in the canyon just below our property, and the neighbor kids taught me to shoot a bow and arrow. I always loved reading and wrote short stories, poems, and screenplays that I would force my brothers to star in. A chance encounter with a filmmaker from Cameroon sent me to Paris as his assistant and I stayed on to hitchhike across Europe. Nearly a year later, I found myself outside a Greek Orthodox Church with thirty Albanian and Macedonian migrants as we looked for work picking potatoes.

After my next year of college I moved to Los Angeles to study screenwriting and film production. My love of international cinema deepened into larger questions about the origins of human societies and cultures. I entered graduate school with a background in anthropology and biology, joining the world-renowned department of Evolutionary Anthropology at Duke University to pursue a PhD in great ape behavioral ecology. But larger questions concerning the history and sociology of scientific ideas cut my empirical research short. I am now completing a dissertation at University of British Columbia on the intersection between evolutionary biology and politics in England, Europe, and Russia in the nineteenth century. In 2011 I met the economist and Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen whose work inspired my award-winning research.

My writing has always been a labor of love and a journey unto itself. I have written about the hilarity that ensues once electrodes are stuck into your medial ventral prefrontal cortex for Discover, the joy of penis-fencing with the endangered bonobo for Wildlife Conservation, and the "killer-ape" myth of human origins from Shakespeare's The Tempest to Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey for Times Higher Education. My work has appeared online for Wired, PLoS Blogs, Psychology Today, Huffington Post, SEED, ScienceBlogs, Nature Network and a host of independent science related websites. I have appeared four times in The Open Laboratory collection of the year's best online science writing and was selected the same number as a finalist for the Quark Science Prize, though better writers have always prevailed. I am currently working on my first book.

If I am not engaged in a writing or research project I spend time with my young son, Sagan. Whenever I get the chance I go on backpacking trips in the mountains of British Columbia or catch the latest film from Zhang Yimou, the Coen Brothers, or Deepa Mehta. To this day one of my favorite passages ever written is from Henry David Thoreau's Walden where he describes an epic battle between ants in Concord, an injured soldier limping forward as the still living heads of his enemies cling to his legs and thorax "like ghastly trophies at his saddle-bow." Thoreau helped fugitive slaves to escape while he mused on the wonder and strange beauty of the natural world. Not a bad way to spend an afternoon.

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