Privileged Hands: A Scientific Life 恩典之手

Privileged Hands: A Scientific Life
Geerat Vermeij

Privileged hands give insight into evolution

October 1, 1996

On his knees, hands buried in sand and seaweed, UC Davis geology professor Geerat Vermeij finds a shell. His fingers move across its surface, feeling the ridges and contours, searching for clues, finding information unnoticed by the untrained eye. For Vermeij, his fingers are his eyes. An internationally known evolutionary biologist and the world's leading authority on an ancient "arms race" among mollusks, Vermeij is blind. His new book, "Privileged Hands: A Scientific Life" (W.H. Freeman, 1996), tells the story of Vermeij's challenges and triumphs as well as of the science of evolution. Born with a rare form of glaucoma, Vermeij has been completely blind since the age of three. He created opportunities for himself -- overcoming prejudice and ignorance about the blind -- studying at Princeton and Yale before embarking on his distinguished career as a professor and scientist and receiving the MacArthur "genius" Award. For Vermeij, the study of shells is a window on larger questions of life, evolution and earth history.

Amazon.com Review

This remarkable memoir by the great marine biologist Geerat Vermeij, who is perhaps the world's leading authority on marine mollusks and who has been blind since the age of three, resonates on several levels: it is, first of all, a profound and vivid exploration of the current state of evolutionary theory; secondly, an engaging memoir of scientific exploration carried out in exotic locales; and finally, an acute examination of what it means to be sightless. Vermeij's extraordinary life reads like that of one of the great early biological explorers, whose theories were all based on extensive fieldwork in remote spots. It is also an inspiring tale of a man who, thanks to a remarkably devoted and intelligent family and his own inexhaustible scientific curiosity, overcame his handicap to further the sum of human knowledge. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

This gets off to a slow start: the beginning section is weighted down with labored accounts of each teacher, class and playmate of the author's childhood. However, readers should persevere: this is an absolutely delightful memoir, tracing the intellectual development and career of a distinguished and consummately likable evolutionary biologist. Vermeij was born in Holland; his parents emigrated to America in 1955, when he was nine, in part because they wanted the best possible education for their son, who was bright, gifted?and blind. Propelled by his sharp intellect, will and bountiful curiosity, Vermeij turned his childhood fascination with shells into a rewarding career. A critic of affirmative action, he maintains that he never wanted to be held to different standards than his classmates or colleagues, and has often battled prejudice about the abilities of the blind. He here recounts a rich life, filled with teaching, researching, writing books and papers and editing scientific journals. But it is clearly fieldwork that impassions him the most. He is in his element wading through tidal pools in his sneakers, accompanied by his wife or daughter or a research assistant, identifying by touch the species that inhabit the intertidal zone. Vermeij, who teaches at UC-Davis, offers an interesting exploration of the "cold war" between crabs and snails, a classic example of parallel evolution: the claws of the former become more massive and powerful as the shells of their prey thicken to repel predators. He makes evolution accessible, reminding us that we are caught up in its sweep no less than the fossilized brachiopods in his collection. Vermeij occasionally indulges in atrocious puns, but on the whole his prose is clean and direct, even lyrical at times, as when he writes of shell-seeking expeditions on tropical shores. His autobiography will offer untold encouragement to those facing the challenge of a physical disability.

恩典之手

作者：海拉特．韋梅耶
譯者：莊安祺
出版社：時報文化
出版日期：2002年01月22日

閱讀此書，是一個很大的享受。若是不稍加注意，我想讀者很可能會忘了「作者的失明」這個事實。這不只是一本科學家的回憶錄，還記錄了一段不平凡的生命之旅。

作者佛爾邁三歲就雙目失明，即使如此，卻絲毫不減他對大自然的熱愛、強烈的好奇心與豐富活潑的想像力。

「我相信我有滿懷的熱情、強烈的好奇心，並且充滿了信心與毅力。」

書中，佛爾邁描述了他的家庭關係與求學過程。在他的人生中，雙手發揮了極至的作用，不但代替了眼睛來「看」世界， 而且更為他帶來了遠超過眼睛所能見的「三度視野」。指間的敏銳感觸，成了他看世界的工具。透過指尖，為他心靈所呈現的自然萬物，無一不美好，無一不神奇， 且各具獨特意義。手指的溫柔細膩，將這整個世界一點一滴的描繪在他的心中，為他建構了一個多彩繽紛的天地。

所以，若說這雙手是「被上天賦予著某種特殊意義而出生」，以彌補佛爾邁的失明之憾，成就作者的一生風采，一點也不為過。「我的好奇心一旦覺醒就源源不絕︰我想要屬於自己的貝殼，也渴望知道它們的名字，和這些貝殼的生活特性………我向大家宣佈，我將來要做貝類學者。」

於是，佛爾邁，自此訂下了他一生的志向──矢志研究海洋生物。九歲，舉家由荷蘭遷至美國，也開始了他在海洋生物學 上的追求之旅。一路走來，一直擁有家人的尊重與支持的他，更有幸遇見了很多好的指導者，帶給他一次又一次的啟發與深省，領他走向更寬廣更深遠的路。每一份 經歷，都銘記在心。如今，佛爾邁已美夢成真，並且成為世上首屈一指的海洋生物權威。

於此本精彩自傳中，佛爾邁博士不僅陳述了自己的家庭關係與求學過程，表現出正面行動精神，同時提出了他對生物演化多樣性、觀察重要性的看法觀點，帶領讀者展開一場引人入勝的知識探索之旅。

誠如《紐約時報》所讚譽，這絕對會是一段「一段動心知性的探索之旅！」