On January 26, 2013, a band of al-Qaeda militants entered the ancient city of Timbuktu on the southern edge of the Sahara Desert.
2013年1月26日，一群基地武装分子进入了位于撒哈拉沙漠南端的古城廷巴克图。
There, they set fire to a medieval library of 30,000 manuscripts written in Arabic and several African languages
他们放火烧了一座中世纪的图书馆，里面有三万份手稿，全是由阿拉伯文以及几种非洲语言撰写而成，
and ranging in subject from astronomy to geography, history to medicine,
题材遍及天文学、地理学、历史和医学，
including one book which records perhaps the first treatment for male erectile dysfunction.
其中一本书记载的可能是第一笔治疗男性勃起障碍的处方。
Unknown in the West, this was the collected wisdom of an entire continent,
西方人有所不知，这可是整块非洲大陆的智慧结晶，
the voice of Africa at a time when Africa was thought not to have a voice at all.
是非洲在大家认为无声的时期所发出的声音。
The mayor of Bamako, who witnessed the event, called the burning of the manuscripts "a crime against world cultural heritage."
巴马科市长目睹此事，称这起火烧手稿事件为“破坏世界文化遗产之罪”。
And he was right -- or he would have been, if it weren't for the fact that he was also lying.
他说的对，或者说如果他没说谎的话，他这么说就是对的
In fact, just before, African scholars had collected a random assortment of old books and left them out for the terrorists to burn.
事实上，在那之前，非洲学者已经事先取出几类古书，避免这些书被恐怖分子烧毁。
Today, the collection lies hidden in Bamako, the capital of Mali, moldering in the high humidity.
今天，这套书藏在马里的首都巴马科，因为湿度太重而逐渐腐坏。
What was rescued by ruse is now once again in jeopardy, this time by climate.
之前千方百计拯救的东西，现在又再次陷入危机，这次是受到气候威胁。
But Africa, and the far-flung corners of the world, are not the only places,
但非洲和那些远在天边的世界角落，不是唯一、
or even the main places in which manuscripts that could change the history of world culture are in jeopardy.
甚至不是主要让那些改变世界文明历史的手稿陷入险境的地方。
Several years ago, I conducted a survey of European research libraries and discovered that,
几年前，我对欧洲研究图书馆做调查，发现
at the barest minimum, there are 60,000 manuscripts pre-1500 that are illegible because of water damage, fading, mold and chemical reagents.
保守估计，至少有六万份史前1500年的手稿变得难以阅读，因为受到水的侵蚀、褪色、霉菌和化学试剂影响。
The real number is likely double that,
实际数字可能是两倍，
and that doesn't even count Renaissance manuscripts and modern manuscripts and cultural heritage objects such as maps.
而且还不把文艺复兴时期和近代的手稿，还有文化遗产文物，比如地图这类的算进来。
What if there were a technology that could recover these lost and unknown works?
如果有一种高科技可以还原这些丢失的和未知的文字呢？
Imagine worldwide how a trove of hundreds of thousands of previously unknown texts could radically transform our knowledge of the past.
想想看，世界范围内这些成百上千以前不为人知的手稿，可以彻底地改变我们对于过去的了解。
Imagine what unknown classics we would discover which would rewrite the canons of literature, history, philosophy, music
想想看，那些我们会发掘的不为人知的名著，可以改写文学经典、历史 哲学、音乐等等，
or, more provocatively, that could rewrite our cultural identities, building new bridges between people and culture.
甚至更激进点说，能改写我们的文化身份，在人和文化之间建立新的桥梁。
These are the questions that transformed me from a medieval scholar, a reader of texts, into a textual scientist.
这些问题改变了我，从一个中世纪的学者，一个文本读者，变为一个考证学家。
What an unsatisfying word "reader" is.
让人不满意的是读者这两个字。
For me, it conjures up images of passivity, of someone sitting idly in an armchair waiting for knowledge to come to him in a neat little parcel.
这让我脑海浮现一种被动的样貌，就像某人呆坐在沙发椅上，等着知识装在精巧的包装里送上门。
How much better to be a participant in the past, an adventurer in an undiscovered country, searching for the hidden text.
要是能成为过去的参与者就好多了，当一个探险家，前往无人发掘之境，寻找隐藏的文字。
As an academic, I was a mere reader.
身为学者，我只是个读者。
I read and taught the same classics that people had been reading and teaching for hundreds of years -- Virgil, Ovid, Chaucer, Petrarch
我阅读、教导的经典，是千百年来人们一直在阅读和教导的经典，像是弗吉尔、奥维德、乔叟、佩特拉克，
and with every scholarly article that I published I added to human knowledge in ever-diminishing slivers of insight.
我发表的每一篇学术文章，都只是在人类知识加上一笔会永远消逝的见解。
What I wanted to be was an archaeologist of the past, a discoverer of literature, an Indiana Jones without the whip -- or, actually, with the whip.
我想成为的是过去的考古学家、文学的发现者、没有鞭子的印第安纳·琼斯，其实有鞭子也不错。
And I wanted it not just for myself but I wanted it for my students as well.
不只是为了我自己，也是为了我的学生。
And so six years ago, I changed the direction of my career.
因此六年前，我转行了。
At the time, I was working on "The Chess of Love," the last important long poem of the European Middle Ages never to have been edited.
那时候我在编辑《棋之爱》，最新发现的欧洲中古世纪长诗，从未编辑过。
And it wasn't edited because it existed in only one manuscript
没人编是因为它只存在一份手稿中，
which was so badly damaged during the firebombing of Dresden in World War II that generations of scholars had pronounced it lost.
这份手稿在二战炮轰德勒斯登时被严重损毁，世代学者都声称它已经不见了。
For five years, I had been working with an ultraviolet lamp trying to recover traces of the writing
五年来，我一直靠着一盏紫外线灯，试图还原书写的字迹，
and I'd gone about as far as technology at the time could actually take me.
我做到当时科技能帮我的极限。
And so I did what many people do.
因此后来我和大家做一样的事。
I went online, and there I learned about how multispectral imaging had been used to recover
我上网，学到关于多光谱造像过去怎么用来复原
two lost treatises of the famed Greek mathematician Archimedes from a 13th-century palimpsest.
希腊知名数学家阿基米德的两份论文，原稿写在13世纪羊皮纸上。
A palimpsest is a manuscript which has been erased and overwritten.
羊皮纸这种手稿会一直被清除、覆写。
And so, out of the blue, I decided to write to the lead imaging scientist on the Archimedes palimpsest project,
因此，突然灵光一闪，我决定写封信给那位负责阿基米德羊皮纸计划的首席影像科学家，
Professor Roger Easton, with a plan and a plea. And to my surprise, he actually wrote back.
罗杰·伊斯顿教授，信中附上计划和请愿。让我惊讶的是，他回我信了。
With his help, I was able to win a grant from the US government to build a transportable, multispectral imaging lab.
凭借他的帮忙，我申请到美国政府补助，建造一个可移动的多光谱造像实验室。
And with this lab, I transformed what was a charred and faded mess into a new medieval classic.
有了这个实验室，我得以将焦黑、褪色的东西，转变为崭新的中古世纪经典。
So how does multispectral imaging actually work?
那到底多光谱造像要怎么做？
Well, the idea behind multispectral imaging is something that anyone who is familiar with infrared night vision goggles will immediately appreciate:
首先，多光谱造像背后的想法是每个戴过红外线夜视镜的人都熟悉的原理，马上就能理解：
that what we can see in the visible spectrum of light is only a tiny fraction of what's actually there.
我们在可见光谱中可以看到的只是实景的一小部分。
The same is true with invisible writing.
看不见的笔迹也一样。

Our system uses 12 wavelengths of light between the ultraviolet and the infrared,
我们的机器使用的12道光，波长介于紫外线和红外线之间，
and these are shown down onto the manuscript from above from banks of LEDs,
这些光从上方这些LED灯照在手稿上，
and another multispectral light source which comes up through the individual leaves of the manuscript.
另一个多光谱光源从每张手稿下朝上照射出。
Up to 35 images per sequence per leaf are imaged this way using a high-powered digital camera equipped with a lens which is made out of quartz.
每次每页最多可连续造出35张影像，运用高功率数字相机和一颗用石英做的镜头。
There are about five of these in the world. And once we capture these images,
全世界大概有五颗。只要我们捕捉到影像，
we feed them through statistical algorithms to further enhance and clarify them,
就能透过统计算法，进一步强化、辨析，
using software which was originally designed for satellite images and used by people like geospatial scientists and the CIA.
搭配的软件是原先设计给卫星影像、地理空间科学家和中央情报局使用的。
The results can be spectacular.
结果可能非常惊人。
You may already have heard of what's been done for the Dead Sea Scrolls, which are slowly gelatinizing.
也许你听过先例《死海古卷》的成果，现在这卷书快糊掉了。
Using infrared, we've been able to read even the darkest corners of the Dead Sea Scrolls.
透过红外线，我们甚至可以看清《死海古卷》最不清楚的角落。
You may not be aware, however, of other Biblical texts that are in jeopardy.
不过你可能会注意到其它圣经文本也处于险境。
Here, for example, is a leaf from a manuscript that we imaged, which is perhaps the most valuable Christian Bible in the world.
例如这一页手稿，我们已经造像，这大概是世界上最珍贵的圣经。
The Codex Vercellensis is the oldest translation of the Gospels into Latin, and it dates from the first half of the fourth century.
《韦尔切利拉丁抄本》是世界上最早译为拉丁文的福音书，可追溯到四世纪上半叶。
This is the closest we can come to the Bible at the time of the foundation of Christendom under Emperor Constantine,
这本圣经的年代是最接近君士坦丁大帝以基督教立国，
and at the time also of the Council of Nicaea, when the basic creed of Christianity was being agreed upon.
以及尼西亚会议对基督教基本教义取得一致意见的时期。
This manuscript, unfortunately, has been very badly damaged,
很不幸，这份抄本已严重受损，
and it's damaged because for centuries it had been used and handled in swearing in ceremonies in the church.
而且受损是因为几世纪以来，世代人们手持着它在教堂仪式中宣誓。
In fact, that purple splotch that you see in the upper left hand corner is Aspergillus,
其实，你在左上角看到的这块紫色污点是曲菌，
which is a fungus which originates in the unwashed hands of a person with tuberculosis.
这种真菌来自肺结核患者未洗净的双手。
Our imaging has enabled me to make the first transcription of this manuscript in 250 years.
我们造的影像，让我可以为此抄本制作出250年来第一份副本。
Having a lab that can travel to collections where it's needed, however, is only part of the solution.
有一间能移动到文物收藏处的实验室，其实只是解决方法的一部分。
The technology is expensive and very rare, and the imaging and image processing skills are esoteric.
这项科技昂贵又稀有，造像和影像的制成技术也鲜为人知。
That means that mounting recoveries is beyond the reach of most researchers and all but the wealthiest institutions.
这代表了要复原文物是大多数学者办不到的，只有有钱机构能做到。
That's why I founded the Lazarus Project,
这就是为什么我筹备拉撒路计划，
a not-for-profit initiative to bring multispectral imaging to individual researchers and smaller institutions at little or no cost whatsoever.
这项非营利倡议将多光谱造像带给个人研究员以及小型机构，只需少许费用或根本不要钱。
Over the past five years, our team of imaging scientists, scholars and students
过去五年来，我的团队，包含造像科学家、学者和学生，
has travelled to seven different countries and have recovered some of the world's most valuable damaged manuscripts,
前往七个国家复原了几件世界极珍贵的受损手搞，
included the Vercelli Book, which is the oldest book of English,
包含《韦尔切利手抄本》，最古老的英文书籍；
the Black Book of Carmarthen, the oldest book of Welsh,
《卡马森的黑皮书》，最古老的威尔士书籍；
and some of the most valuable earliest Gospels located in what is now the former Soviet Georgia.
以及几件最珍贵、古老的福音书，藏身在前苏联的乔治亚。
So, spectral imaging can recover lost texts.
因此多光谱造像可以复原很多遗失的文字。
More subtly, though, it can recover a second story behind every object,
而且更巧妙的是能够复原隐身在每个文物背后的第二个故事，
the story of how, when and by whom a text was created, and, sometimes, what the author was thinking at the time he wrote.
关于文本创作的原因、时间和人物的故事，有时候还能复原作者书写时的想法。
Take, for example, a draft of the Declaration of Independence written in Thomas Jefferson's own hand,
例如，这份《美国独立宣言》草稿，由托马斯·杰佛逊亲手写下，
which some colleagues of mine imaged a few years ago at the Library of Congress.
这是由我的几位同事数年前在国会图书馆造的像。
Curators had noticed that one word throughout had been scratched out and overwritten.
馆长发现有一个字在整篇里不断被擦去又覆写。
The word overwritten was "citizens." Perhaps you can guess what the word underneath was. "Subjects."
这个被覆写的字是“公民”。也许你能猜出底下原本的字。“臣民”。
There, ladies and gentlemen, is American democracy evolving under the hand of Thomas Jefferson.
各位女士、先生，美国的民主在托马斯·杰佛逊之手下展开了。
Or consider the 1491 Martellus Map, which we imaged at Yale's Beinecke Library.
或是想想1491年马提勒斯的地图，我们在耶鲁的拜内克古籍善本图书馆造了像。
This was the map that Columbus likely consulted before he traveled to the New World
当年哥伦布就是先查了这份地图，才到新大陆航行，
and which gave him his idea of what Asia looked like and where Japan was located.
这份地图带给他对亚洲的印象以及日本所在位置的概念。
The problem with this map is that its inks and pigments had so degraded over time
这份地图的问题在于。上面的墨料随着时间的推移严重褪色
that this large, nearly seven-foot map, made the world look like a giant desert.
以至于这个巨大的几乎有七英尺的地图，使世界看起来像一个巨大的沙漠。
Until now, we had very little idea, detailed idea, that is, of what Columbus knew of the world and how world cultures were represented.
直到现在，我们还是不了解其中的细节，关于哥伦布对世界的了解，以及世界文化是如何表示的。
The main legend of the map was entirely illegible under normal light.
地图上的主要图案在正常光下很难被辨认。
Ultraviolet did very little for it. Multispectral gave us everything.
紫外线在这里很难起作用。但多谱成像技术给了我们一切支持。
In Asia, we learned of monsters with ears so long that they could cover the creature's entire body.
在亚洲，我们知道了有种怪兽有巨长的耳朵，可以遮住整个生物的身体。
In Africa, about a snake who could cause the ground to smoke.
在非洲，有种蛇能使地面引起烟雾。
Like starlight, which can convey images of the way the Universe looked in the distant past,
地图就好像星光一样，告知我们遥远过去的宇宙是什么样的，
so multispectral light can take us back to the first stuttering moments of an object's creation.
所以多谱成像的光可以让我们回到物体被首先创造出来时，那个稚嫩而不成熟的时刻。
Through this lens, we witness the mistakes, the changes of mind, the naivetés, the uncensored thoughts,
通过透镜，我们目睹了错误的发生，思维的改变，天真和未经雕琢的想法，
the imperfections of the human imagination that allow these hallowed objects and their authors to become more real, that make history closer to us.
不够完美的人类想象让这些神圣的物体和它们的作者变得更加真实，让历史与我们更进一步。
What about the future? There's so much of the past, and so few people with the skills to rescue it before these objects disappear forever.
未来是怎样的呢？过去的东西有那么多，但是可以在这些物品完全消失之前挽救它的人却又那么少。
That's why I have begun to teach this new hybrid discipline that I call "textual science."
这也是为什么我开始教授一个新的混合学科，我把它称之为“考证科学”。
Textual science is a marriage of the traditional skills of a literary scholar
考证科学是由将传统技术和文学探索的合并起来的学者组成，
the ability to read old languages and old handwriting, the knowledge of how texts are made in order to be able to place and date them
他们拥有阅读古文字和古文献的能力，还了解关于文献是如何被创造的知识，为了能够处理和确定这些文献的年代，
with new techniques like imaging science, the chemistry of inks and pigments, computer-aided optical character recognition.
我们运用了新的技术，比如像成像技术，油墨和颜料化学，计算机辅助光学和字符识别。
Last year, a student in my class, a freshman, with a background in Latin and Greek,
去年，一个我班级里的学生，一名大一学生，拥有拉丁和希腊血统，，
was image-processing a palimpsest that we had photographed at a famous library in Rome.
运用成像技术处理我们在罗马的一个著名图书馆拍摄的一篇重写本。
As he worked, tiny Greek writing began to appear from behind the text.
随着工作的进行，微小的希腊文字在文本中开始浮现出来。
Everyone gathered around, and he read a line from a lost work of the Greek comic dramatist Menander.
所有人聚在一起，他开始读上面的文字，那时一行出自希腊喜剧家米南德遗失的作品中的文字。
This was the first time in well over a thousand years that those words had been pronounced aloud. In that moment, he became a scholar.
这是上千年来第一次那些文字被大声朗诵出来。在那一刻，他成为了学者。
Ladies and gentlemen, that is the future of the past. Thank you very much.
各位女士、先生，这就是过去的未来。非常谢谢大家。