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One of the most remarkable aspects of the human brain is its ability to recognize patterns and describe them.
人类大脑有一个惊人的特性，就是能认出事物运作的模式并描述它。
Among the hardest patterns we've tried to understand is the concept of turbulent flow in fluid dynamics.
其中让我们最难理解的是流体力学中紊流的概念。
The German physicist Werner Heisenberg said, "When I meet God, I'm going to ask him two questions:
德国物理学家维尔纳·海森堡说，“当我见到上帝时，我要问他两个问题：
why relativity and why turbulence? I really believe he will have an answer for the first."
相对论和紊流为什么存在？我很相信他可以回答前者。”
As difficult as turbulence is to understand mathematically, we can use art to depict the way it looks.
用数理方法理解紊流相当困难，但是我们可以把它画出来。
In June 1889, Vincent van Gogh painted the view just before sunrise from the window of his room at the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole asylum in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence,
1889年六月，梵高画了日出前从圣雷米疗养院窗户望出去的景色，
where he'd admitted himself after mutilating his own ear in a psychotic episode.
他将自己耳朵割除后住在那个精神病院。
In "The Starry Night," his circular brushstrokes create a night sky filled with swirling clouds and eddies of stars.
在画作《星月夜》里，他用漩涡状的笔触画出充满卷云和涡状星星的夜空。
Van Gogh and other Impressionists represented light in a different way than their predecessors, seeming to capture its motion,
梵高和后期印象派画家以另一种形式呈现光影，而前期画家则是著重於刻画动作，
for instance, across sun-dappled waters, or here in star light that twinkles and melts through milky waves of blue night sky.
例如：阳光斑驳的水面在湛蓝夜空中，加上乳白色波浪线条画出摇曳的星光。
The effect is caused by luminance, the intensity of the light in the colors on the canvas.
这个效果是光的亮度，也就是油画中色彩强度造成的。
The more primitive part of our visual cortex, which sees light contrast and motion,
我们视觉皮质里比较原生的部分判断光线对比和物体运动，
but not color, will blend two differently colored areas together if they have the same luminance.
而非辨识色彩也就是将两种不同颜色但同样亮度的区域混在一起。
But our brains' primate subdivision will see the contrasting colors without blending.
但视觉皮质中演化的分支会区辨颜色对比而不会将他们混合。
With these two interpretations happening at once, the light in many Impressionist works seems to pulse, flicker and radiate oddly.
当两种视觉处理方式同时发生时，印象派画中的光线变得非常突出。
That's how this and other Impressionist works use quickly executed prominent brushstrokes
这就是为什么印象派的作品倾向用大胆的笔触
to capture something strikingly real about how light moves.
来捕捉细微的光影流动。
60 years later, Russian mathematician Andrey Kolmogorov furthered our mathematical understanding of turbulence
六十年后，俄罗斯数学家安德雷·柯尔莫哥洛夫开拓了数理上对紊流的理解。
when he proposed that energy in a turbulent fluid at length R varies in proportion to the 5/3rds power of R.
他提出在一个长度R的紊水流中能量会与R的5/3次方成正比。
Experimental measurements show Kolmogorov was remarkably close to the way turbulent flow works,
实验数据证实柯尔莫哥洛夫的模型非常接近紊流的流动方式。
although a complete description of turbulence remains one of the unsolved problems in physics.
虽然紊流完整的解释仍是物理学中一项待解的难题。
A turbulent flow is self-similar if there is an energy cascade.
有能量梯度的紊流型态都相类似。
In other words, big eddies transfer their energy to smaller eddies, which do likewise at other scales.
换句话说，大涡流传递能量给小涡流，这在其他规模也适用。
Examples of this include Jupiter's Great Red Spot, cloud formations and interstellar dust particles.
举例来说，木星上的红斑云、星际尘埃都包含在内。
In 2004, using the Hubble Space Telescope, scientists saw the eddies of a distant cloud of dust and gas around a star,
2004年科学家用哈伯天文望远镜观测到星星周围有漩涡状的星尘和气体，
and it reminded them of Van Gogh's "Starry Night."
因此想起了梵高的《星月夜》。
This motivated scientists from Mexico, Spain and England to study the luminance in Van Gogh's paintings in detail.
促使墨西哥、西班牙和英国的科学家开始研究梵高画作裡的颜色亮度。
They discovered that there is a distinct pattern of turbulent fluid structures close to Kolmogorov's equation hidden in many of Van Gogh's paintings.
他们发现梵高画中有紊流结构，类似柯尔莫哥洛夫的模型。
The researchers digitized the paintings, and measured how brightness varies between any two pixels.
研究者将这些画作数位化，并测量两点像素间的亮度。
From the curves measured for pixel separations,
根据像素间的曲率，
they concluded that paintings from Van Gogh's period of psychotic agitation behave remarkably similar to fluid turbulence.
他们认为梵高精神病期间的作品精准画出紊流的型态。
His self-portrait with a pipe, from a calmer period in Van Gogh's life, showed no sign of this correspondence.
而平稳期间叼着烟斗的自画像则不符合紊流的结构。
And neither did other artists' work that seemed equally turbulent at first glance, like Munch's "The Scream."
其他画家所作类似紊流的画如孟克的《吶喊》，也不符合。
While it's too easy to say Van Gogh's turbulent genius enabled him to depict turbulence,
虽然我们可以说是梵高的天赋让他描绘出紊流的结构，
it's also far too difficult to accurately express the rousing beauty of the fact that in a period of intense suffering,
但是人们很难在承受痛苦时精准表达如此困难的概念，
Van Gogh was somehow able to perceive and represent one of the most supremely difficult concepts nature has ever brought before mankind,
梵高竟然能够理解并呈现世界上最深奥复杂的概念，甚至早于人类出现的概念，
and to unite his unique mind's eye with the deepest mysteries of movement, fluid and light.
并用他独特的慧眼看透移动、水流和光影的奥秘。
