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We don't know what life is- which is a crazy place to be right now.
我们不知道生命是什么，现在这么说让人不敢相信。
We still do not know what life is, even life on Earth.
我们仍然不知道生命是什么，即便是地球上的生命。
There's a gap in the current physics as defined, or current physics as we think about it, as this kind of timeless universe.
在当前物理学，或者说我们所认为的当前物理学的定义中存在一个鸿沟，就是所谓的永恒宇宙。
The Universe kind of unfolds a bit like a clockwork music box, where you play the music and it would just happen, right?
宇宙就像发条音乐盒一样，只要你播放音乐，一切就会自然发生，对吧？
And you could go backwards and then go forwards.
你可以向后走，也可以向前走。
And that doesn't really explain adequately how life got started or the novelty and open-endedness of biology, and in contrast, biology, which is doing all sorts of crazy things, new species are being invented all the time; where human beings are developing new technologies, new culture, or add-ons, new memes; that we have this massive disconnect between the physics of the Universe, and what we understand is the physics of the Universe, and what's happening in evolution.
这并不能充分解释生命是如何开始的，也无法解释生物学的新奇性和开放性，相比之下，生物学领域的发展更为疯狂，人们还在不断发现新物种；人类正在开发新技术、新文化或附加物、新模因；宇宙物理学与我们所理解的宇宙物理学和进化中发生的事情之间存在巨大脱节。
And the fact that evolution exists in the physical universe and is defined by the same reality or rules, if you like, means that maybe there is a space for understanding how we bridge the gap between physics and biology.
物理宇宙中存在进化，并且由相同的现实或规则定义，这个事实意味着，也许存在一个空间，能让我们知道如何弥合物理学和生物学之间的鸿沟。
My name is Lee Cronin. I am the Regis Professor of Chemistry at the University of Glasgow, and I'm doing research, explore all things in the Universe to do with chemistry, origin of life, and the creation of life.
我是李·克罗宁。我是格拉斯哥大学的雷吉斯化学教授，我正在研究，探索宇宙中与化学、生命起源和生命创造有关的所有事物。
Well, so there's kind of two weird universes: There's the physics universe, where we understand the standard model, and gravity and time and quantum mechanics, from the Big Bang, to the formation of the stars.
嗯，有两种奇怪的宇宙：一是物理宇宙，我们在物理宇宙中去理解标准模型，以及引力、时间和量子力学，从大爆炸到恒星的形成。
But then we've got the evolution of biology that occurred on Earth, starting about 4 billion years ago.
然后，我们有了生物学的进化，它发生在地球上，大约始于40亿年前。
And since the 4 billion years, there's been innovation, going right up to the technology produced by humans.
在这40亿年里，一直有创新，直到人类创造的技术出现。
I noticed an interesting problem that the physics of the Universe does not really predict the emergence of biology, and doesn't really explain why biology started to evolve.
我注意到一个有趣的问题，宇宙物理学并不能真正预测生物学的出现，也不能真正解释生物学为什么开始进化。
Although we have the Theory of Evolution that was put forward by Darwin, and actually, Darwin did a fantastic job at understanding slow variation that occurs, there was no kind of moment to bridge the gap from physics to biology in one leap.
虽然有达尔文提出了进化论，实际上，在理解缓慢发生的变异方面，达尔文非常出色，但从物理学一下子跨越到生物学，中间是没有任何桥梁的。
What 'Assembly Theory' does, it actually allows us to explain how inanimate matter becomes evolutionary, and literally how we can turn sand into cells by the process selection.
什么是“组装理论”呢，它其实解释了无生命的物质是如何进化的，以及我们如何通过过程选择将沙子变成细胞。
What does life actually do?
生命到底是干什么的？
And put very succinctly, life creates complicated things at scale.
简而言之，生命创造了大规模的复杂事物。
And I can give you a really a simple example, like just take an outlandish one, like an iPhone.
举个很简单的例子，拿一个比较奇特的东西来说，比如iPhone。
If you went to Mars and you found a single iPhone, you might be kind of curious, maybe it was a random event.
如果你在火星上发现一部iPhone，你可能会觉得好奇，也许它只是随机事件。
But if you find two iPhones, find three, find 10, find 100, and they all work, you can start to be increasingly sure that those iPhones were produced by a technological process connected to a living system.
但是，如果你发现了两部iPhone，三部，十部，一百部，而且它们都能正常工作，你就可以越来越确定这些iPhone是由与生命系统相关的技术过程生产出来的。
And so that's really in a nutshell what assembling encapsulates- this ability to generate complexity at scale, over a lot of different things.
这就是组装封装的真正意义所在——这种规模性地生成复杂性的能力，涵盖了很多不同的事物。
As a chemist, I think about molecules all the time.
作为一名化学家，我一直在思考分子相关的问题。
And a molecule is a series of atoms connected by things called bonds.
分子是由一系列原子组成的，这些原子通过一种叫做化学键的东西连接在一起。
So, when I was developing the idea of 'Assembly Index' and applying it to molecules, I imagined that I could take a molecule, just cut off different atoms, and keep cutting and cutting and cutting, 'til there's nothing left but atoms.
在我提出“组装指数”的概念并将其应用到分子上时，我设想自己拿到一个分子，切掉它身上不同的原子，不停地切啊切，直到最后只剩下原子。
So, say if I've got a molecule that's made up out of carbon, nitrogen and oxygen, I would just cut all those off, and at the bottom of my tree, I would be left with a base, where I had carbon atoms, nitrogen atoms, and oxygen atoms.
假设我有一个由碳、氮和氧组成的分子，我会把这些都切掉，在这棵树根处，只留下一个碱基，里面有碳原子、氮原子和氧原子。
And then to recover the molecule, I'd put 'em together in the right sequence to the molecule.
然后为了恢复这个分子，我会将它们按照正确的顺序组合在一起，以形成这个分子。
And so the Assembly Index is just, take a molecule and I'd chop it up: What is the minimum number of chops I need to make to turn that molecule back into its building blocks?
所以，组装指数，就是拿一个分子，把它切碎：我最少需要切割多少次，才能把这个分子变回其组成部分？
The Assembly Index is literally a measure of the minimum amount of information required to make that molecule.
组装指数实际上是制造该分子所需的最小信息量的度量。
One of the motivations for developing Assembly Theory at the beginning was to help NASA try and see if we could find life elsewhere in the solar system.
一开始，开发组装理论的动机之一，是为了帮助美国国家航空航天局试试看我们能否在太阳系的其他地方找到生命。
What NASA wanted to do was understand Assembly Theory and the Assembly Index as a universal marker for biology.
美国国家航空航天局想要了解组装理论和组装指数，将其作为生物学的通用标记。
I wanted to challenge the current approach taken by NASA, which is very Earth-centrist.
我想挑战美国国家航空航天局（NASA）目前所采取的方法，这种方法奉行以地球为中心。
They were looking for molecules we would find on Earth in biology, and I think that's fundamentally wrong.
他们在寻找我们会在地球上的生物学中发现的分子，而我认为这从根本上就是错误的。
The molecules on Earth aren't necessarily universal living signatures- but complexity is.
地球上的分子不一定是普遍的生命特征——但复杂性是。
And so when I started to convince NASA of this, this is when they started to get involved, and say, "Okay, we're gonna give you samples from meteorites, from different places in the Universe, so we could use this to really map not just Earth, but also parts of outer space."
我刚开始说服NASA相信这一点时，他们参与了进来，说：“好吧，那我们从陨石中给你提供样本，这些样本来自宇宙的不同地方，这样就不光可以用它来绘制地球的地图，还可以绘制部分外太空的地图。”
Because, right now, the only place where we know there is life in the Universe is on Earth.
因为，目前，我们所知道的宇宙中唯一有生命的地方就是地球。
So, what we wanna do is benchmark life on Earth using this technique, and then go further out, and see if we can then find life on Mars and in the outer solar system.
所以，我们想做的是，利用这项技术，对地球上的生命进行基准测试，然后进一步探索，看看我们是否能在火星和太阳系外找到生命。
Can I explain how matter became life?
我能解释一下物质是如何变成生命的吗？
Yeah, rocks to dinosaurs is one, yep.
对，岩石变成恐龙就是一个，是的。
Assembly Theory challenges the notion that life is vastly impossible, because Assembly Theory explains how rocks, step-by-step, by grinding together, undergo selection, and produce complexity, step-by-step-by-step.
组装理论挑战了生命极其不可能的观念，因为组装理论解释了岩石是如何一步一步地相互研磨，经历选择，再逐步产生复杂性的。
And this is something that really, we're being able to quantify very carefully.
这是我们确实能够精确量化的东西。
And so, the environment on planet Earth at the origin of life, created the chemistry and the environment; the cooking started.
因此，在生命起源时，地球环境创造了化学物质和环境；然后便开始了烹调。
And really, there's only one thing that is the key to the origin of life, and life in the Universe, and that is one word: existence.
说真的，关于生命起源，以及宇宙中的生命，就只有一个关键点，那就是一个词：存在。
For an object to exist, it has to survive for a longer time than its natural life.
对于某个物体来说，要想存在，它必须比其自然寿命存活更长的时间。
This process of copying an existence to defy the law of being erased is how life starts to emerge.
这种复制存在以违抗被抹除的法则的过程，就是生命开始出现的方式。
It is the battle to emerge from the maelstrom of randomness and persist, and it's so simple.
这是一场从混乱的漩涡中挣扎而出并坚持存在下去的战斗，就是这么简单。
It's like the simplest observation ever: copying and existence. That's all life is.
这就像是有史以来最简单的观察：复制和存在。这就是生命的全部。
Life is extremely fragile chemistry that has found a way to copy itself to continue to exist.
生命是极其脆弱的化学物质，为了继续存在，它找到了一种自我复制方式。
And we are, as in living things, the oldest artifacts on Earth, even older than some of the rocks, because we are able to copy ourselves and keep going, which is so interesting.
而我们，在生物界中，是地球上最古老的人工制品，甚至比一些岩石还要古老，因为我们能够复制自己并继续存在，这很有趣。
And so it's just existence and copying, those two things gives you biology.
所以，生物学就是存在和复制，这两点造就了生物学。
