It’s a popular hubris that we live in an age of unprecedented technological innovation – that our ancestors lived in a time where there were fewer technological advances, blinded as they were by their primitive superstitions and lack of access to the resources we have today.
我们普遍持有一种傲慢的想法：自己生活在一个前所未有的科技创新时代，而我们的先人们则生活在技术进步更少的蒙昧时代，受原始迷信所蒙蔽，并因为缺少如今我们获取资源的各种渠道而不开化。
While we certainly live in an era of amazing technology, it’s not necessarily true that our level of innovation is unprecedented. The fact of the matter is that our ancestors were just as smart as we are (in fact, given the human brain size has been shrinking for centuries, they might have been smarter.) And as archaeologists uncover more about the past, they’ve also learned that many technologies we take for granted today were first developed centuries or even millennia ago, only to be lost.
尽管我们生活在令人惊叹的科技时代，但我们的创新水平未必就是空前仅有的。真相是，我们的祖先像我们现在一样聪明（实际上，鉴于几个世纪以来人类的大脑一直在不断缩小，他们可能比我们更加聪明）。随着考古学家对过去的发现越来越多，他们也已得知许多在我们今天看来理所当然的技术是在几个世纪前甚或几千年前最先开发出来的，只是中途失传了而已。
Take, for example, plastic surgery. It’s something we think of as a relatively new technology, right? But in fact, plastic surgery was practiced in India centuries before the birth of Christ. It continued to be practiced for thousands of years, but wasn’t “discovered” in Europe until the 18th century, when British doctors learned about it from India.
例如，整形手术。我们认为这是一种相对较新的技术，对吗？但事实上，在公元前几百年，印度就有了整形手术。它延续了几千年，并非直到18世纪才被欧洲医生所“发现”，那时一些英国医生从印度了解到了这项技术。
Recently, there have been two recent engineering discoveries from Ancient Rome that have the potential to shake up some major areas of industry – discoveries that show we still have a lot to learn from our ancestors.
近来，有两大源自古罗马时代的工程发现，有可能会震撼一些重要的工业领域——这些发现显示我们要从老祖宗身上学习的还有很多。
The first finding is rather astonishing. As noted earlier this month by Zeeya Merali, a 1, 600 year old chalice known as the Lycurgus Cup have proved to be more than just a stunning work of art. It’s also an example of one of the earliest forms of nanotechnology.
第一个发现令人瞠目结舌。正如本月初齐亚?梅拉里（Zeeya Merali）所指出的那样，事实已经证明，一只1,600年前的出土文物莱克格斯杯（Lycurgus Cup）不仅仅是一件美妙绝伦的艺术品，还是纳米科技的最初形式之一。
The cup, as Merali notes, was actually a mystery for centuries. That’s because it appears green when lit from one angle, but red when lit from a different angle. It wasn’t until the 1990s, after decades of study in the 20th century, that it was determined how it was created. As it turns out, the glass itself was infused with particles of silver and gold that were only about 50 nanometers in diameter. The particular ratio of the mixture was definitely known, as other similar cups have been discovered.
正如梅拉里所说，实际上几个世纪以来，这只杯子都是一个谜。这是因为当从一个角度打光时，它呈现为绿色，而从另一个角度打光时它又是红色的。20世纪经过了数十年研究，直到90年代才确定它是如何制作的。其实，这只杯子的材料是由直径大约只有50纳米的银粒子和金粒子混合而成的。随着其他类似杯子的发现，材料的配比终于被重新发现。
In a paper from 2007, scientists who have studied the cup noted that “[e]ven using modern powerdriven tools, this type of vessel takes a great deal of time to complete.” But more than that, this technology might turn out to revolutionize the pharmaceutical industry.
在2007年的一篇论文中，研究这个杯子的科学家们指出“就算运用现代电动工具，完成制作这件器皿仍需花费大量时间。”但该技术的伟大之处不仅是如此，它可能还会在制药业中引起革命。
That’s because researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, using the same techniques the Romans used, earlier this year developed a device that enables them detect DNA and proteins without having to chemically modify them first. That lowers the overall costs and helps resist errors that occur in the process. The team estimates that their device is about “ 100 times better sensitivity” than any other similar product.
这是因为今年年初，伊利诺伊大学乌尔班纳-香槟分校的研究者们采用与古罗马人相同的技术开发出了一种设备，可使他们无需先进行化学改性就能检测到DNA和蛋白质。这不但有助于降低整体成本，还有助于避免化学改性过程中出现的错误。该团队估计，他们的设备“其灵敏度比其他任何类似设备高百倍”。
In their paper, published in Advanced Optical Materials, the research teams says that “We envisage extensive use of the device for DNA microarrays, therapeutic antibody screening for drug discovery and pathogen detection in resource poor setting and a low cost, higher sensitive alternative to existing SPR/LSPR instruments.”
在他们这篇发表于《先进光学材料》（Advanced Optical Materials）的论文中，研究团队表示“我们预见该设备将应用广泛：制作DNA微阵列、在资源匮乏的条件下做用于新药研发的治疗性抗体筛查，以及成为目前表面等离子体共振（SPR）/局域表面等离子体共振（LSPR）仪器的一种更加灵敏的低成本替代品。”
But the Ancient Romans aren’t content to only revolutionize medicine. Soon, you may be living or working on a building or road that’s built with the same materials that the Romans built their own with – materials that, when created, also produce fewer carbon emissions.
然而，古罗马人并不满足于仅仅颠覆当今的医药界。你可能很快将生活或工作在与罗马城建造材料相同的建筑或道路上——这种材料在制造过程中产生的碳排放也更少。
That’s thanks to the work of a research team at the University of California at Berkeley, which has studied the ways that Roman concrete has managed to endure for over 2, 000 years in the same conditions that cause modern concrete to degrade after about 50 years.
这多亏加州大学伯克利分校一个研究团队的努力，该团队研究了罗马混凝土经受得住2,000多年岁月侵蚀的原因，在同样条件下，现代混凝土大约只消50年就已风化剥落了。
“Roman concrete has remained coherent and well-consolidated for 2, 000 years in aggressive maritime environments, ” said researcher Marie Jackson in a press release. “It is one of the most durable construction materials on the planet, and that was no accident.”
“罗马混凝土被海风侵蚀了2,000多年，胶结力仍然很强而且非常坚固，”研究员玛丽?杰克逊（Marie Jackson）在一次新闻发布会上说道，“它是地球上最耐久的建筑材料，而且这并非偶然。”
The key to the durability of Roman concrete was its mixture of lime and volcanic ash, which produces a concrete that includes aluminum, something most modern cements lack. Modern cements also rely on limestone, but the Roman recipe calls for much less of it. That means that Roman concrete can be created at temperatures nearly a thousand degrees lower than modern cements. As a result, using Roman cement means not only a more durable material, but also one that can be produced with less fuel in less time – making it both more efficient and more environmentally sustainable.
罗马混凝土耐久的关键是石灰与火山灰的混合，这样生产出的混凝土包含了铝，这是大多数现代水泥所缺少的成分。现代水泥也有赖于石灰岩，但罗马混凝土所需的石灰岩要少很多。这意味着，罗马混凝土的烧制温度可以比现代水泥的烧制温度低上近千度。因此，采用罗马水泥意味着不仅可以更加耐久，而且烧制时消耗的燃料也更少、时间也更短——这使得该材料更高效而且更环保。
That’s a good thing, considering that “manufacturing Portland cement accounts for seven percent of the carbon dioxide that industry puts into the air, ” as lead researcher Paulo Monteiro noted in a statement.
正如首席研究员保罗?蒙特罗（Paulo Monteiro）在一份声明中所指出的，考虑到“生产波特兰水泥所排放的二氧化碳占到了整个建筑业的7%”，这可是好事一件。
The research team’s chemical analysis of Roman concrete was recently published in the Journal of the American Ceramic Society, and more of their research will be published later this year.
该研究团队对罗马水泥所做的化学分析最近发表于《美国陶瓷协会杂志》（Journal of the American Ceramic Society），他们的更多研究将于今年随后出版。
These new applications of Ancient Roman technology have, I think, something powerful to teach us in the present day. Many of the problems that face civilization are as old as civilization itself. And as we look for innovative ways to deal with those problems, it’s a mistake to only look for guidance in new ideas. It may be that if we look backwards at what our ancestors did, we may find that they’ve already solved our problems for us. We just have to be humble enough to accept that.
我认为，如今这些古罗马科技的新应用给我们这些现代人好好地上了一课。许多人类文明所面对的问题就像文明自身一样古老。随着我们寻找解决这些问题的创新方法，仅仅在新理念中寻求指引是错误的。如果我们回望先人们的所作所为，他们可能早已为我们解决了问题。我们只需要谦恭地去接受。
