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Like Schr?dinger's contribution, what he did was based on mathematical and physical principle, not on experiment; it was a work of scientific imagination.
与薛定谔一样，他并不是基于实验，而是基于数学和物理定理，基于科学的幻想。
There were other suggestions in the literature for the nature of the 'morphogenetic field', but at some point Alan decided to accept the idea that it was defined by some variation of chemical concentrations, and to see how far he could get on the basis of that one idea.
关于形态形成过程的本质，还有许多其它解释，图灵的想法是，这个过程取决于化学浓度的变化。他要基于这个前提，试试看能走多远，
It took him back to the days of the iodates and sulphites, to the mathematics of chemical reactions.
这使他回到了碘酸盐和亚硫酸盐的那段时光，他要研究化学反应的数学模型。
But the new problem was of another order.
但是这个新问题，还有更高层次的要求，
It was not merely to examine substance A changing into substance B, but to discover circumstances in which a mixture of chemical solutions, diffusing and reacting with each other, could settle into a pattern, a pulsating pattern of chemical waves; waves of concentration into which the developing tissue would harden; waves which would encompass millions of cells, organising them into a symmetrical order far greater in scale.
他不但要研究A物质反应成B物质，还要研究在什么情况下，这种化学反应才能形成一种模式，一种化学波的脉冲模式，这种化学浓度波，可以使生物组织形成形态，使几百万个细胞，组合出大规模的秩序。
This was the fundamental idea, parallel to Schr?dinger's—that a chemical soup could contain the information required to define a large-scale chemical pattern in space.
这是图灵的基本想法，他认为化学物质本身，就蕴含着组成大规模的化学模式所需要的信息。
There was one central, fundamental problem.
还有一个核心而基础的问题，
This was the process described and illustrated in Natural Wonders, in which a perfect sphere of cells would suddenly develop a groove, determining the head and tail ends of the emergent animal.
《自然奇迹》描述了胚胎的发育过程，一个完美的细胞球，会突然长出一条沟，并形成动物的头部和尾部。
The problem was this: if the sphere were symmetrical, and the chemical equations were symmetrical, without knowledge of left or right, up or down, where did this decision come from?
这里的问题是，如果那个球是匀称的，各处的化学反应也是一样的，那么它是如何分出上下左右的？
It was just such a phenomenon that inspired Polanyi to claim that some immaterial force must be at work.
这个现象，使波兰尼不遗余力地强调非自然的力量。
In some way information was being created at this point, and this went against what was normally expected.
这个过程以某种方式产生了信息，但却违背了人们通常的认识。
When the lump of sugar has been dissolved in the tea, no information remains, at the chemical level, as to where it was.
方糖融化在茶里，在化学层面上，它的信息丢失了。
