# Los Cazadores de Microbios |  Capítulo 1 - Anton van Leeuwenhoek | Paul de Kruif

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFRQ9uEpekY
Translation: es

[00:02] Ah
  Ah

[00:09] 250 years ago a humble man named Benja first peered into a new and mysterious world populated by thousands of different species of tiny beings, some very ferocious and deadly, others subtle and beneficial, and even many whose discovery has been more important to humanity than the discovery of any continent or archipelago.
  Hace 250 años, un hombre humilde llamado Benja se asomó por primera vez a un mundo nuevo y misterioso poblado por miles de especies diferentes de seres diminutos, algunos muy feroces y mortales, otros sutiles y beneficiosos, e incluso muchos cuyo descubrimiento ha sido más importante para la humanidad que el descubrimiento de cualquier continente o archipiélago.

[00:34] Anton Valen 'Avenue Q' October 24, 1632 - August 26, 1723.
  Anton Valen 'Avenue Q' 24 de octubre de 1632 - 26 de agosto de 1723.

[00:43] Now the life of Benja is almost as unknown as were in his time the fantastically tiny animals and plants he discovered.
  Ahora la vida de Benja es casi tan desconocida como lo eran en su tiempo los animales y plantas increíblemente diminutos que descubrió.

[00:53] This is the life of the first microbe hunter.
  Esta es la vida del primer cazador de microbios.

[00:56] It is the story of the audacity and tenacity that characterized him and that are attributes of those who, driven by an indefatigable curiosity, explore and
  Es la historia de la audacia y tenacidad que lo caracterizaron y que son atributos de aquellos que, impulsados por una curiosidad incansable, exploran y

[01:04] penetrate a new and wonderful world.
  penetrar un mundo nuevo y maravilloso.

[01:06] These hunters, in their struggle to record this microcosm, do not hesitate to risk their lives.
  Estos cazadores, en su lucha por registrar este microcosmos, no dudan en arriesgar sus vidas.

[01:14] Their adventures are full of failed attempts to Errors and false hopes;
  Sus aventuras están llenas de intentos fallidos, errores y falsas esperanzas;

[01:18] some of them, the most daring, perished, victims of the deadly microorganisms they diligently studied.
  algunos de ellos, los más audaces, perecieron, víctimas de los mortales microorganismos que diligentemente estudiaban.

[01:27] For many, the glory achieved through their efforts was vain or negligible.
  Para muchos, la gloria alcanzada a través de sus esfuerzos fue vana o insignificante.

[01:32] [Music]
  [Música]

[01:33] Today, scientists constitute a prestigious element of society;
  Hoy en día, los científicos constituyen un elemento prestigioso de la sociedad;

[01:40] they have laboratories in all major cities, and their exploits fill the pages of newspapers, sometimes even before becoming true achievements.
  tienen laboratorios en todas las grandes ciudades, y sus hazañas llenan las páginas de los periódicos, a veces incluso antes de convertirse en verdaderos logros.

[01:48] A moderately qualified student has the doors open to specialize in any branch of science and, in time, to occupy a well-paid professorship in a welcoming and well-equipped university.
  Un estudiante moderadamente calificado tiene las puertas abiertas para especializarse en cualquier rama de la ciencia y, con el tiempo, ocupar una cátedra bien remunerada en una universidad acogedora y bien equipada.

[02:02] But let us go back to the time of BNE Hook, 250 years ago, and
  Pero volvamos a la época de BNE Hook, hace 250 años, y

[02:05] Imagine the young La Avenue, eager for knowledge, recently graduated from school, and facing the dilemma of choosing a career.
  Imagina al joven La Avenue, ansioso por conocimiento, recién graduado de la escuela y enfrentando el dilema de elegir una carrera.

[02:15] In those times, if a boy recovering from mumps asked his father what the cause of this illness was, there is no doubt that the father would answer, "The sick boy is possessed by the evil spirit of mumps."
  En aquellos tiempos, si un niño que se recuperaba de paperas le preguntaba a su padre cuál era la causa de esta enfermedad, no hay duda de que el padre respondería: "El niño enfermo está poseído por el espíritu maligno de las paperas".

[02:26] This explanation was to be convincing, but it had to be accepted without further inquiry for fear of being beaten or thrown out of the house for daring to question his father's science.
  Esta explicación debía ser convincente, pero tenía que aceptarse sin más indagaciones por miedo a ser golpeado o echado de la casa por atreverse a cuestionar la ciencia de su padre.

[02:40] The father was the authority; that was the world 250 years ago when the avenue was born.
  El padre era la autoridad; ese era el mundo hace 250 años cuando nació la avenida.

[02:49] Man had barely begun to shake off the darkest superstitions, ashamed of his ignorance.
  El hombre apenas había comenzado a sacudirse las más oscuras supersticiones, avergonzado de su ignorancia.

[02:56] It was a world in which science was taking its first steps—science, which is nothing other than the attempt to find the truth through careful observation and clear reasoning—that world sent
  Era un mundo en el que la ciencia daba sus primeros pasos —la ciencia, que no es otra cosa que el intento de encontrar la verdad mediante la observación cuidadosa y el razonamiento claro— ese mundo envió

[03:07] Servetus to the stake for the abominable sin of dissecting a human body and condemned Galileo to life imprisonment for daring to demonstrate that the earth revolved around the sun.
  Servetus a la hoguera por el abominable pecado de diseccionar un cuerpo humano y condenó a Galileo a cadena perpetua por atreverse a demostrar que la tierra giraba alrededor del sol.

[03:19] Antonio Baila Bien was born in 1632 among the blue windmills, the small streets, and the wide canals of Delft, Holland.
  Antonio Baila Bien nació en 1632 entre los molinos de viento azules, las calles pequeñas y los amplios canales de Delft, Holanda.

[03:30] He descended from an honorable family of basket makers and brewers, occupations still highly respected in Holland today.
  Descendía de una honorable familia de cesteros y cerveceros, oficios aún muy respetados en Holanda hoy en día.

[03:37] Antonio's father died young, and his mother sent him to He was sent to school as a child to study for a career as a civil servant, but at 16 he turned his back on books and became an apprentice in an Amsterdam shop.
  El padre de Antonio murió joven, y su madre lo envió a la escuela de niño para estudiar para una carrera como funcionario público, pero a los 16 años dio la espalda a los libros y se convirtió en aprendiz en una tienda de Ámsterdam.

[03:50] For six years this was his university.
  Durante seis años, esta fue su universidad.

[03:53] Imagine a modern science student acquiring scientific knowledge among pieces of fabric, listening for six years to the jingle of the cash drawer bell, and always having to be polite to the long line of Dutch women who desperately haggled over every last penny.
  Imagina a un estudiante de ciencias moderno adquiriendo conocimiento científico entre piezas de tela, escuchando durante seis años el tintineo de la campana del cajón de efectivo, y teniendo que ser siempre cortés con la larga fila de mujeres holandesas que regateaban desesperadamente por cada último centavo.

[04:06] Well,
  Bueno,

[04:14] At 21, Benja left the shop and returned home.
  A los 21 años, Benja dejó la tienda y regresó a casa.

[04:17] Abel got married and opened his own fabric shop.
  Abel se casó y abrió su propia tienda de telas.

[04:23] In the 20 years that followed, very little is known about him except that he remarried and had several children, almost all of whom died of old age.
  En los 20 años que siguieron, se sabe muy poco de él, excepto que se volvió a casar y tuvo varios hijos, casi todos los cuales murieron de vejez.

[04:33] It was surely during this period that he was appointed caretaker of the Delft town hall, and he developed the strange hobby of grinding lenses.
  Fue seguramente durante este período que fue nombrado cuidador del ayuntamiento de Delft, y desarrolló el extraño pasatiempo de pulir lentes.

[04:40] He had heard that by making lenses from a piece of transparent glass, one could see things much larger than they appear to the naked eye.
  Había oído que al hacer lentes con un trozo de vidrio transparente, se podían ver las cosas mucho más grandes de lo que parecen a simple vista.

[04:51] We know about Benja's life between the ages of 20 and 40, but it is undeniable that at that time he was considered an ignorant man.
  Sabemos sobre la vida de Benja entre los 20 y los 40 años, pero es innegable que en ese momento era considerado un hombre ignorante.

[04:58] He could speak nothing but Dutch, a language despised by the esoteric world, which considered it the domain of shopkeepers, fishermen, and braziers.
  No podía hablar más que neerlandés, un idioma despreciado por el mundo esotérico, que lo consideraba dominio de tenderos, pescadores y caldereros.

[05:07] At that time, cultured people expressed themselves in
  En ese tiempo, la gente culta se expresaba en

[05:09] Latin, but Benja couldn't even read it.
  Latín, pero Benja ni siquiera podía leerlo.

[05:12] The Bible in Dutch was his only book.
  La Biblia en neerlandés era su único libro.

[05:17] With all his ignorance, it actually worked in his favor because, isolated from all the verbiage of his time, he had no guide other than his own eyes, his personal reflections, and his own unique judgment—a system not difficult for him, for there was never a man more stubborn than our Antonio La Benja.
  Con toda su ignorancia, en realidad funcionó a su favor porque, aislado de toda la verborrea de su tiempo, no tenía otra guía que sus propios ojos, sus reflexiones personales y su propio juicio único—un sistema no difícil para él, pues nunca hubo un hombre más terco que nuestro Antonio La Benja.

[05:35] How fun it would be to see things magnified through a lens, but buying lenses?
  Qué divertido sería ver las cosas magnificadas a través de una lente, pero ¿comprar lentes?

[05:46] Benja, never was a man more distrustful.
  Benja, nunca hubo un hombre más desconfiado.

[05:49] Not him, he would make them himself.
  Él no, él mismo las haría.

[05:52] [Music]
  [Música]

[05:53] Visiting optical shops, he learned the rudiments necessary to grind lenses.
  Visitando tiendas de óptica, aprendió los rudimentos necesarios para tallar lentes.

[05:57] He frequented the company of alchemists and apothecaries, from whom he observed their secret methods for obtaining metals from minerals, and he began to learn the trade.
  Frecuentaba la compañía de alquimistas y boticarios, de quienes observaba sus métodos secretos para obtener metales de los minerales, y comenzó a aprender el oficio.

[06:07] The goldsmith was a man of the finest craftsmanship; it was
  El orfebre era un hombre de la más fina artesanía; era

[06:10] It wasn't enough for him that his lenses equaled the best made in Holland, but that they had to surpass them.
  No era suficiente para él que sus lentes igualaran a los mejores fabricados en Holanda, sino que tenían que superarlos.

[06:16] Even after achieving this, he would spend hours upon hours refining them.
  Incluso después de lograr esto, pasaba horas y horas refinándolos.

[06:22] Then he mounted his lenses in frames or blanks of gold, silver, or copper that he himself had extracted from the ores amidst bonfires, smoke, and strange smells.
  Luego montaba sus lentes en marcos o piezas de oro, plata o cobre que él mismo había extraído de los minerales en medio de hogueras, humo y olores extraños.

[06:32] Nowadays, for a modest sum, researchers can acquire a gleaming microscope, turn the micrometer screw, and prepare to observe, without many of them even knowing or caring how the device is constructed.
  Hoy en día, por una suma modesta, los investigadores pueden adquirir un microscopio brillante, girar el tornillo micrométrico y prepararse para observar, sin que muchos de ellos siquiera sepan o les importe cómo está construido el dispositivo.

[06:48] But as for Benja, naturally his neighbors called him crazy, yet even with his hands blistered and covered in sores, he persisted in his work, forgetting his family and without a thought for his friends.
  Pero en cuanto a Benja, naturalmente sus vecinos lo llamaban loco, sin embargo, incluso con las manos ampolladas y cubiertas de llagas, persistía en su trabajo, olvidándose de su familia y sin pensar en sus amigos.

[07:03] He worked until late into the night, devoted to his delicate task.
  Trabajaba hasta altas horas de la noche, dedicado a su delicada tarea.

[07:09] His good neighbors chuckled to themselves as
  Sus buenos vecinos se reían para sus adentros mientras

[07:10] Our man sought a way to manufacture a minuscule lens, less than three millimeters in diameter, so perfect that it would allow him to see the smallest things.
  Nuestro hombre buscó una manera de fabricar una lente minúscula, de menos de tres milímetros de diámetro, tan perfecta que le permitiera ver las cosas más pequeñas.

[07:19] The smallest things were magnified enormously and with perfect clarity.
  Las cosas más pequeñas se magnificaban enormemente y con perfecta claridad.

[07:25] Our shopkeeper was very uneducated, but he was the only man in all of Holland who knew how to make such lenses, and he himself said of his neighbors, "We must forgive them in view of their ignorance."
  Nuestro tendero era muy inculto, pero era el único hombre en toda Holanda que sabía cómo hacer tales lentes, y él mismo decía de sus vecinos: "Debemos perdonarlos en vista de su ignorancia".

[07:35] Satisfied with himself and at peace with the world, this shopkeeper dedicated himself to examining with his lenses everything that fell into his hands.
  Satisfecho consigo mismo y en paz con el mundo, este tendero se dedicó a examinar con sus lentes todo lo que caía en sus manos.

[07:43] He analyzed the muscle fibers of a whale and the scales of his own skin.
  Analizó las fibras musculares de una ballena y las escamas de su propia piel.

[07:47] At the butcher shop, he obtained ox eyes and was amazed by the structure of the lens.
  En la carnicería, consiguió ojos de buey y quedó asombrado por la estructura del cristalino.

[07:54] He spent whole hours observing the wool of sheep and the hairs of beavers and hares, whose fine filaments transformed under his little piece of glass into thick trunks.
  Pasaba horas enteras observando la lana de las ovejas y los pelos de castores y liebres, cuyos finos filamentos se transformaban bajo su pequeño trozo de vidrio en gruesos troncos.

[08:03] With the utmost care, he says, he examined the head of a fly, inserting the brain mass onto the very fine needle of his microscope.
  Con el mayor cuidado, dice, examinó la cabeza de una mosca, insertando la masa cerebral en la finísima aguja de su microscopio.

[08:11] Upon looking at it, he was astonished.
  Al mirarlo, quedó asombrado.

[08:15] He examined cross-sections of wood from two different species of trees and observed the interior of plant seeds.
  Examinó secciones transversales de madera de dos especies diferentes de árboles y observó el interior de las semillas de las plantas.

[08:24] "Impossible!" he exclaimed when for the first time he contemplated the incredible perfection of the sucking mouth of a flea and the legs of a The louse was like a puppy sniffing everything around it indiscriminately, without any regard for the consequences.
  "¡Imposible!" exclamó cuando por primera vez contempló la increíble perfección de la boca succionadora de una pulga y las patas de un piojo que era como un cachorro olfateando todo a su alrededor indiscriminadamente, sin ningún cuidado por las consecuencias.

[08:41] 2 There was never a man more skeptical than Benja.
  2 Nunca hubo un hombre más escéptico que Benja.

[08:45] He looked and looked again, a hundred times, at this bee stub or that louse leg.
  Miró y volvió a mirar, cien veces, este trozo de abeja o esa pata de piojo.

[08:54] For months on end, he left samples stuck on the needle of his strange microscope.
  Durante meses enteros, dejó muestras pegadas en la aguja de su extraño microscopio.

[08:57] And to be able to observe other things, he was forced to make hundreds of microscopes so he could re-examine the first specimens and carefully compare the results of the new observations.
  Y para poder observar otras cosas, se vio obligado a fabricar cientos de microscopios para poder reexaminar los primeros especímenes y comparar cuidadosamente los resultados de las nuevas observaciones.

[09:09] Only when he was sure there was no
  Solo cuando estuvo seguro de que no había

[09:11] Variation in what he glimpsed after looking and looking at it hundreds of times did he say this to some drawing of his observations.
  Variación en lo que vislumbró después de mirar y mirarlo cientos de veces dijo esto a algún dibujo de sus observaciones.

[09:22] And even then, he was not entirely satisfied.
  Y aun así, no estaba completamente satisfecho.

[09:24] He used to say, "People who take up a microscope for the first time say, 'Now I see one thing, then it seems different.'
  Solía decir: "Las personas que toman un microscopio por primera vez dicen: 'Ahora veo una cosa, luego parece diferente'.

[09:34] Even the most skilled observer can be wrong in these observations."
  Incluso el observador más hábil puede equivocarse en estas observaciones".

[09:39] He spent more time than many would believe, but he carried them out with great pleasure, ignoring those who asked him why he was going to so much trouble and what his purpose was.
  Pasó más tiempo del que muchos creerían, pero los llevó a cabo con gran placer, ignorando a quienes le preguntaban por qué se tomaba tantas molestias y cuál era su propósito.

[09:50] But I don't write for these people, but for philosophers, so for 20 years I worked in complete isolation.
  Pero no escribo para estas personas, sino para filósofos, así que durante 20 años trabajé en completo aislamiento.

[09:59] At that time, the second half of the 17th century, new movements were emerging all over the world.
  En ese momento, la segunda mitad del siglo XVII, estaban surgiendo nuevos movimientos en todo el mundo.

[10:04] In England, France, and Italy, singular men began to doubt what until then had been considered truth.
  En Inglaterra, Francia e Italia, hombres singulares comenzaron a dudar de lo que hasta entonces se había considerado verdad.

[10:11] "We will no longer remain silent because
  "Ya no permaneceremos en silencio porque

[10:14] Aristotle affirms this or the Pope that, these rebels said.
  Aristóteles afirma esto o el Papa aquello, decían estos rebeldes.

[10:19] We will only be guided by our own observations, repeated a thousand times, and by the exact weights of our scales.
  Solo nos guiaremos por nuestras propias observaciones, repetidas mil veces, y por los pesos exactos de nuestras balanzas.

[10:26] We will only adhere to the result of our experiments and nothing more.
  Solo nos adheriremos al resultado de nuestros experimentos y nada más.

[10:31] And in England, a few of these revolutionaries formed a society called the Invisible College, which had to be invisible because if Cranwell had found out about the strange matters they intended to elucidate, he would have hanged them as conspirators and heretics.
  Y en Inglaterra, algunos de estos revolucionarios formaron una sociedad llamada el Colegio Invisible, que tenía que ser invisible porque si Cranwell se hubiera enterado de los extraños asuntos que pretendían dilucidar, los habría ahorcado como conspiradores y herejes.

[10:46] And you have to see what experiments those skeptical researchers came up with!
  ¡Y hay que ver qué experimentos se les ocurrieron a esos investigadores escépticos!

[10:50] The wisdom of that time affirmed that if a spider was placed inside a circle made with unicorn horn powder, it could not get out of it.
  La sabiduría de aquella época afirmaba que si se colocaba una araña dentro de un círculo hecho con polvo de cuerno de unicornio, no podía salir de él.

[11:02] And what did the members of the Invisible College do?
  ¿Y qué hicieron los miembros del Colegio Invisible?

[11:05] And one of them brought what was supposed to be unicorn horn powder, and another arrived with a small spider.
  Y uno de ellos trajo lo que se suponía que era polvo de cuerno de unicornio, y otro llegó con una pequeña araña.

[11:13] The entire society gathered under the light of large
  Toda la sociedad se reunió bajo la luz de grandes

[11:14] Candelabras, and in the midst of great silence, the experiment began.
  Candelabros, y en medio de un gran silencio, comenzó el experimento.

[11:18] The result was that a circle was made with unicorn horn powder, placing a spider in the center, but immediately the spider ran out of the circle.
  El resultado fue que se hizo un círculo con polvo de cuerno de unicornio, colocando una araña en el centro, pero inmediatamente la araña salió corriendo del círculo.

[11:29] How elementary, we would think today, of course, but we remember that among the members of that society were Robert Boyle, founder of scientific chemistry, and also Isaac Newton.
  Qué elemental, pensaríamos hoy, por supuesto, pero recordamos que entre los miembros de esa sociedad estaban Robert Boyle, fundador de la química científica, y también Isaac Newton.

[11:43] Such was the invisible college, and when Charles II ascended the throne, the college emerged from clandestinity, achieving the dignity of a Royal Society of England.
  Tal era el colegio invisible, y cuando Carlos II ascendió al trono, el colegio emergió de la clandestinidad, alcanzando la dignidad de una Royal Society de Inglaterra.

[11:53] Its members were the first audience of the BNE Hood in Delft.
  Sus miembros fueron la primera audiencia del BNE Hood en Delft.

[11:58] There was a man who didn't laugh at Antonio dancing in hook.
  Había un hombre que no se rió de Antonio bailando en gancho.

[12:01] It was Graf's arena.
  Era la arena de Graf.

[12:03] Here in the Royal Society, he was appointed a corresponding member for having informed him about his studies of the human ovary.
  Aquí en la Royal Society, fue nombrado miembro correspondiente por haberlo informado sobre sus estudios del ovario humano.

[12:09] Although by then the avenue was very sullen and distrustful, he allowed Graf to look through those tiny lenses, unique in all of Europe.
  Aunque para entonces la avenida estaba muy hosca y desconfiada, permitió que Graf mirara a través de esos diminutos lentes, únicos en toda Europa.

[12:18] After looking through them, Craft felt Ashamed of his own fame,
  Después de revisarlos, Craft se sintió avergonzado de su propia fama,

[12:22] he hastened to write to his colleagues at the Royal Society: "Have Antonio Val Avenue write to you about his discoveries with all the naive familiarity of a country bumpkin who doesn't grasp the profound wisdom of the philosophers to whom he is addressing himself."
  se apresuró a escribir a sus colegas de la Royal Society: "Que Antonio Val Avenue les escriba sobre sus descubrimientos con toda la ingenua familiaridad de un palurdo que no comprende la profunda sabiduría de los filósofos a quienes se dirige".

[12:41] Benja replied to the Royal Society's request.
  Benja respondió a la solicitud de la Royal Society.

[12:44] It was a long missive written in vernacular Dutch with digressions on everything that exists under the stars.
  Era una larga misiva escrita en neerlandés vernáculo con digresiones sobre todo lo que existe bajo las estrellas.

[12:52] The letter was headed thus: "Exposition of some of the observations made with a microscope devised by Mr. Lab in Hook concerning the substances found in the skin, in the flesh, etc., the sting of a bee, etc."
  La carta estaba encabezada así: "Exposición de algunas de las observaciones realizadas con un microscopio ideado por el Sr. Lab en Hook sobre las sustancias encontradas en la piel, en la carne, etc., el aguijón de una abeja, etc."

[13:06] The Royal Society was absorbed.
  La Royal Society estaba absorta.

[13:09] Those sophisticated and wise gentlemen were mesmerized and amused, but above all, the Society was astonished by the wonders.
  Aquellos caballeros sofisticados y sabios estaban hechizados y divertidos, pero sobre todo, la Sociedad estaba asombrada por las maravillas.

[13:18] Aben Hud claimed to have seen through his lenses.
  Aben Hud afirmó haber visto a través de sus lentes.

[13:20] In
  En

[13:21] Thanking Benja, the secretary of the Royal Society told him that he hoped this, his first communication, would be followed by others, and it was—hundreds of them over the course of 50 years.
  Agradeciendo a Benja, el secretario de la Royal Society le dijo que esperaba que esta, su primera comunicación, fuera seguida por otras, y así fue: cientos de ellas a lo largo de 50 años.

[13:34] Letters in a familiar style, saturated with savory comments on the ignorance of his neighbors, exposing the impostures of charlatans, refuting age-old superstitions, interspersed with reports of his own health.
  Cartas en un estilo familiar, saturadas de comentarios sabrosos sobre la ignorancia de sus vecinos, exponiendo las imposturas de los charlatanes, refutando supersticiones ancestrales, intercaladas con informes de su propia salud.

[13:47] But between paragraphs of this familiar prose, the enlightened members of the Royal Society had the honor of reading immortal and glorious descriptions of the discoveries made with the magic eye of that Dell grocer.
  Pero entre párrafos de esta prosa familiar, los miembros ilustrados de la Royal Society tuvieron el honor de leer descripciones inmortales y gloriosas de los descubrimientos realizados con el ojo mágico de ese tendero de Dell.

[14:00] And what discoveries!
  ¡Y qué descubrimientos!

[14:03] When we reflect on them, many of the fundamental scientific discoveries seem incredibly simple.
  Cuando reflexionamos sobre ellos, muchos de los descubrimientos científicos fundamentales parecen increíblemente simples.

[14:11] How can we explain that for thousands of years men groped about without seeing what was right in front of their eyes?
  ¿Cómo podemos explicar que durante miles de años los hombres anduvieran a tientas sin ver lo que tenían justo delante de sus ojos?

[14:18] The same thing happened with microbes.
  Lo mismo sucedió con los microbios.

[14:21] Today, there is hardly anyone who hasn't
  Hoy en día, casi no hay nadie que no haya

[14:23] Seen them somersaulting on the screen of some movie theater.
  Los he visto haciendo volteretas en la pantalla de algún cine.

[14:27] People of little education have seen them swimming under the lenses of microscopes, and the most novice medical student is able to show us the germs of hundreds of diseases.
  Personas de poca educación los han visto nadando bajo los lentes de los microscopios, y el estudiante de medicina más novato puede mostrarnos los gérmenes de cientos de enfermedades.

[14:38] Why was it so difficult to discover microbes?
  ¿Por qué fue tan difícil descubrir los microbios?

[14:42] But let us put aside our petulance and let us remember that when he came to retirement, microscopes did not exist, only simple magnifying glasses or lenses through which he could have stared at the fence until he grew old without discovering a creature smaller than a cheese mite.
  Pero dejemos a un lado nuestra petulancia y recordemos que cuando llegó a la jubilación, los microscopios no existían, solo simples lupas o lentes a través de los cuales podría haber mirado fijamente la cerca hasta envejecer sin descubrir una criatura más pequeña que un ácaro del queso.

[15:00] We have already said that he continually perfected his lenses with the persistence of a lunatic, examining everything in front of him, both the most intimate and the most unpleasant.
  Ya hemos dicho que perfeccionaba continuamente sus lentes con la persistencia de un lunático, examinando todo lo que tenía delante, tanto lo más íntimo como lo más desagradable.

[15:11] But this apparent mania served as preparation for that fortuitous day when, through his toy lens mounted in gold, he observed a small drop of clear rainwater.
  Pero esta aparente manía sirvió como preparación para aquel día fortuito en que, a través de su lente de juguete montada en oro, observó una pequeña gota de agua de lluvia clara.

[15:22] What he saw that day is the beginning of
  Lo que vio ese día es el comienzo de

[15:25] This story.
  Esta historia.

[15:28] Benja was a manic observer, but who else but such a singular man would have thought to observe something so uninteresting—one of the millions of drops of water that fall from the sky?
  Benja era un observador maníaco, pero ¿quién más que un hombre tan singular habría pensado en observar algo tan poco interesante: una de los millones de gotas de agua que caen del cielo?

[15:41] His 19-year-old daughter, Maria, who lovingly cared for her eccentric father, watched him as he, completely absorbed, took a small glass tube, heated it red-hot, and stretched it until it was as thick as a hair.
  Su hija de 19 años, María, que cuidaba con cariño a su excéntrico padre, lo observó mientras él, completamente absorto, tomaba un pequeño tubo de vidrio, lo calentaba al rojo vivo y lo estiraba hasta que quedó tan grueso como un cabello.

[15:54] Maria adored her father; woe to the neighbor who dared to... to make fun of him, but what on earth did he intend to do with that capillary tube?
  María adoraba a su padre; ay del vecino que se atreviera a... a burlarse de él, pero ¿qué diablos pretendía hacer con ese tubo capilar?

[16:03] Now our distracted man, with dilated eyes, breaks the tube into pieces, goes out into the garden, and bends over a clay pot there to measure the amount of rainfall.
  Ahora nuestro hombre distraído, con los ojos dilatados, rompe el tubo en pedazos, sale al jardín y se inclina sobre una maceta de barro para medir la cantidad de lluvia.

[16:16] He returns to the laboratory, the glass tube in line, on the microscope's needle.
  Regresa al laboratorio, el tubo de vidrio en línea, sobre la aguja del microscopio.

[16:21] Suddenly, Benja's agitated voice is heard: "Come here quickly!
  De repente, se oye la voz agitada de Benja: "¡Ven aquí rápido!

[16:24] In the rainwater, there are little
  En el agua de lluvia, hay pequeños

[16:29] Creatures swimming and turning.
  Criaturas nadando y girando.

[16:34] They are a thousand times smaller than any of the creatures we can see with the naked eye.
  Son mil veces más pequeñas que cualquiera de las criaturas que podemos ver a simple vista.

[16:38] Look what I've discovered!
  ¡Mira lo que he descubierto!

[16:42] The day of her life had arrived for Benja.
  El día de su vida había llegado para Benja.

[16:46] Alexander discovered gigantic elephants in India, never before seen by the Greeks.
  Alejandro descubrió elefantes gigantes en la India, nunca antes vistos por los griegos.

[16:51] But these elephants were as familiar to the Indians as horses were to Alexander.
  Pero estos elefantes eran tan familiares para los indios como los caballos para Alejandro.

[16:56] Caesar, in England, encountered savages who astonished him, but those Britons knew each other as centurions.
  César, en Inglaterra, se encontró con salvajes que lo asombraron, pero esos britanos se conocían entre sí como centuriones.

[17:05] How Caesar Balboa boasted of having seen the Pacific before any European, and that ocean was as familiar to the Indians of Central America as the Mediterranean for Balboa, but La Ven Job, this Dell janitor, had admired a fantastic world of beings invisible to the naked eye, creatures that had lived, grown, fought, and died completely hidden from
  Cómo César Balboa se jactó de haber visto el Pacífico antes que cualquier europeo, y ese océano era tan familiar para los indios de América Central como el Mediterráneo para Balboa, pero La Ven Job, este conserje de Dell, había admirado un mundo fantástico de seres invisibles a simple vista, criaturas que habían vivido, crecido, luchado y muerto completamente ocultas de

[17:30] The gaze of man since the beginning of time, beings of a species that destroys and annihilates entire races of men, ten million times larger than themselves, beings fiercer than fire-breathing dragons or hydra-headed monsters, silent killers that slay children in their warm cradles and kings in their fortified palaces.
  La mirada del hombre desde el comienzo de los tiempos, seres de una especie que destruye y aniquila razas enteras de hombres, diez millones de veces más grandes que ellos mismos, seres más feroces que dragones que escupen fuego o monstruos de múltiples cabezas, asesinos silenciosos que matan niños en sus cálidas cunas y reyes en sus palacios fortificados.

[17:53] This is the invisible, insignificant, yet relentless and sometimes benevolent world to which La Ven Hop, among all men of all countries, was the first to glimpse.
  Este es el mundo invisible, insignificante, pero implacable y a veces benévolo al que La Ven Hop, entre todos los hombres de todos los países, fue el primero en vislumbrar.

[18:05] That was the day of his life for La Ven Hop.
  Ese fue el día de su vida para La Ven Hop.

[18:09] Our man shamed us with the admiration and wonder that nature caused him, so full of perplexing events and impossible things.
  Nuestro hombre nos avergonzó con la admiración y el asombro que la naturaleza le causó, tan llena de eventos desconcertantes y cosas imposibles.

[18:18] How I would like to go back to those dawns of science when men began to stop believing in miracles, finding themselves before new even more wondrous events would occur if for a moment I could experience what
  Cómo me gustaría volver a esos albores de la ciencia cuando los hombres comenzaron a dejar de creer en milagros, encontrándose ante nuevos eventos aún más maravillosos ocurrirían si por un momento pudiera experimentar lo que

[18:32] Our naive Dutchman felt: his excitement at discovering that world and the nausea provoked by those despicable, swarming creatures, as he called them.
  Nuestro ingenuo holandés sintió: su emoción al descubrir ese mundo y la náusea provocada por esas despreciables criaturas pululantes, como él las llamaba.

[18:43] I have already said that Benja was a very distrustful man.
  Ya he dicho que Benja era un hombre muy desconfiado.

[18:49] So enormously small and strange were those little animals that they didn't seem real to him, so he observed them until his hands cramped from holding the microscope for so long and his eyes reddened from staring so intently.
  Tan enormemente pequeños y extraños eran esos animalitos que no le parecían reales, así que los observó hasta que sus manos se acalambraron de sostener el microscopio tanto tiempo y sus ojos se enrojecieron de mirar tan fijamente.

[19:01] But it was true; he saw those beings again, and not just one species, but another larger than the first, moving with great agility on their many legs of incredible subtlety.
  Pero era verdad; vio a esos seres de nuevo, y no solo una especie, sino otra más grande que la primera, moviéndose con gran agilidad sobre sus muchas patas de increíble sutileza.

[19:14] He discovered a third species and a fourth so small that he couldn't discern its shape, but it was alive, it moved, it traveled great distances in this immense world.
  Descubrió una tercera especie y una cuarta tan pequeña que no podía discernir su forma, pero estaba viva, se movía, viajaba grandes distancias en este inmenso mundo.

[19:26] From a drop of water, more agile beings stopped, remaining motionless as if balanced on a point, then they spun.
  De una gota de agua, seres más ágiles se detuvieron, permaneciendo inmóviles como si estuvieran equilibrados en un punto, luego giraron.

[19:34] With the speed of a top, describing a circle no larger than a grain of sand.
  Con la velocidad de un trompo, describiendo un círculo no más grande que un grano de arena.

[19:40] That is how Benja, this man who apparently worked, defined them.
  Así es como Benja, este hombre que aparentemente trabajaba, los definió.

[19:43] Without a plan or method, he was very perceptive.
  Sin un plan ni método, era muy perceptivo.

[19:45] He never ventured to theorize, but he was a wizard at measurements.
  Nunca se aventuró a teorizar, pero era un mago en las mediciones.

[19:52] The difficulty lay in obtaining a measurement for such small objects.
  La dificultad residía en obtener una medida para objetos tan pequeños.

[19:57] With a frown, he muttered, "What size is the tiniest little creature, really?"
  Con el ceño fruncido, murmuró: "¿Qué tamaño tiene la criatura más pequeña, realmente?"

[20:02] Anxious to find a unit of measurement, he rummaged through the corners of his memory, among the thousands of things he had observed so closely.
  Ansioso por encontrar una unidad de medida, rebuscó en los rincones de su memoria, entre los miles de cosas que había observado tan de cerca.

[20:11] The result of his calculations was: "This animal and I are a thousand times smaller than the eye of a large louse."
  El resultado de sus cálculos fue: "Este animal y yo somos mil veces más pequeños que el ojo de un piojo grande."

[20:18] He was a man of precision because we now know that the eye of an adult louse is neither larger nor smaller than the eyes of 10,000 of its kind.
  Era un hombre de precisión porque ahora sabemos que el ojo de un piojo adulto no es ni más grande ni más pequeño que los ojos de 10,000 de su especie.

[20:29] It could, therefore, serve as a kind of comparison.
  Por lo tanto, podría servir como una especie de comparación.

[20:32] But where did these strange and
  Pero, ¿de dónde venían estos extraños y

[20:34] minuscule inhabitants of the water droplet come from? Did they rain

[20:37] from the sky? Did they climb unseen

[20:41] from the ground to the flowerpot?

[20:44] Had God created them from nothing, at his

[20:46] whim? Benja believed in God with the

[20:49] same fervor as any Dutchman of the

[20:51] 17th century. She always mentioned God as

[20:54] the creator of the universe, and not only did she believe

[20:56] in him, but she admired him. From the

[20:59] depths of her heart, she was so great that she

[21:02] knew how to shape the wings

[21:04] of bees with exquisite skill, but at the same time,

[21:07] Bne Hood was also a materialist. Her

[21:10] common sense told her that life

[21:11] comes from life. Her sincere faith

[21:14] told her that God had created all

[21:16] living beings in six days, beginning

[21:19] a process and then resting

[21:21] to reward the good

[21:23] observers by punishing the sloppy

[21:25] and charlatans. She

[21:27] dismissed as improbable the possibility

[21:29] that those animals fell from the

[21:31] sky; it was

[21:33] certain that God could not make

[21:35] the little animals spring from nothing. She

[21:37] had found in the flowerpot there was only

[21:40] one way to elucidate this question:

[21:42] experimenting.

[21:44] Benja carefully washed a glass,

[21:48] dried it, and placed it under the

[21:50] roof gutter. She took a drop in one of her

[21:52] capillary tubes and ran to examine it

[21:54] under the microscope. If there were

[21:57] a few

[21:59] little creatures swimming there, they exist even in

[22:01] fresh rainwater. But in reality, she

[22:04] hadn't proven anything, because perhaps they lived

[22:06] in the gutter and the water carried them along.

[22:09] Then she took a large

[22:11] porcelain plate, glazed blue on the

[22:13] inside, cleaned it meticulously, and

[22:15] going out into the rain, placed it on top of

[22:18] a large drawer, making sure that the

[22:20] raindrops didn't splash mud

[22:22] inside the plate. She poured the first water out so

[22:24] that the container

[22:25] was absolutely clean, and then collected

[22:28] a few drops in her thin tubes. Returning to

[22:31] her laboratory, she said, "I have proven it! This

[22:34] water does not contain a single creature. They don't

[22:37] fall from the sky." [

[22:38] Music] She

[22:40] kept the water, examining it hour after

[22:43] hour and day after day, and on the fourth day, she saw

[22:45] that the tiny creatures began to appear

[22:47] along with prisms of dust and

[22:49] Tiny threads,

[22:51] that's what you call being persistent. Let's imagine

[22:55] a world in which all men

[22:56] submitted their absolute judgments to

[22:58] the ordeals of experiments as

[23:01] logical as a Laven Hood.

[23:04] And do you think he wrote to the Royal

[23:06] Society stating what he had just

[23:08] discovered? Not a chance. He was a

[23:12] circumspect man. Under his lenses passed

[23:15] waters of all kinds: water preserved in

[23:17] the confined atmosphere of his laboratory,

[23:19] water contained in a vessel on the

[23:22] roof of his house, water from the not-so-

[23:24] clean Bell canals, and water from the

[23:26] deep, cool well in his garden. In

[23:29] all of them he could observe the same

[23:31] creatures, gaping at their

[23:33] enormous smallness. He found that thousands of

[23:36] these beings were smaller than a grain of

[23:38] sand, and comparing them to the

[23:40] cheese mite, they bore the same proportion as

[23:42] a bee to a horse. He contemplated them

[23:45] tirelessly, watching them swim among themselves,

[23:47] mingled like a swarm of mosquitoes. He

[23:51] went from shop to shop, naturally

[23:54] stumbling, like all those who,

[23:56] devoid of presence, find what they

[23:57] never set out to seek. His

[24:00] new little creatures were marvelous, but

[24:02] not the Satisfied, he continued to delve

[24:05] into everything imaginable, trying to

[24:07] observe in more detail, searching for the

[24:09] reason behind things. What is it that makes

[24:12] pepper spicy? He wondered one

[24:14] day, making the following conjecture: there

[24:16] must be tiny spikes on the

[24:19] pepper particles that

[24:21] sting the tongue when eaten. But did

[24:23] these spikes exist? He began to

[24:26] fuss with dried pepper, sneezing and

[24:29] sweating, without obtaining any

[24:31] peppercorns small enough

[24:33] to examine under the microscope.

[24:35] Finally, he thought of soaking the

[24:38] pepper for several weeks. After this time,

[24:40] with very fine needles, he isolated

[24:43] an almost invisible pinch of pepper and

[24:45] introduced it with a drop of water into one

[24:48] of the capillary tubes. Then he looked. He

[24:50] observed something capable of turning the

[24:52] head of the sanest man. He

[24:54] forgot about the possible little dots on the

[24:57] pepper. With the interest of an

[24:59] attentive child, he observed the acrobatics of an

[25:01] incredible number of small animals of various

[25:04] kinds that moved easily and

[25:06] haphazardly from one side to the other. This is

[25:08] how Job stumbled upon a

[25:10] magnificent culture medium for raising

[25:12] his new and tiny creatures. Little creatures,

[25:16] now the time had come to

[25:18] inform the great

[25:20] lords of men of all this. With the utmost

[25:23] simplicity, he wrote to them, expressing his own astonishment

[25:25] on page after page of neat

[25:28] calligraphy. In plain words, he told them

[25:30] how a million of these little creatures could be found

[25:32] in a grain of sand, and how a

[25:35] single drop of his pepperwater, in which they

[25:37] also thrived, contained

[25:39] more than 2,700,000.

[25:43] Translated into English, the letter was read to

[25:46] the learned skeptics who didn't even

[25:48] believe in the magical virtues of the

[25:49] unicorn's horn, and it astonished the

[25:52] wise audience. But what was this? The

[25:56] Dutchman claimed to have discovered

[25:58] beings so small that in a single drop

[26:00] of water there were as many as the number

[26:02] of inhabitants of his homeland.

[26:04] What nonsense! It was undeniable that the

[26:08] cheese mite was the smallest animal

[26:10] created by God. But there were a

[26:13] few members of the Royal Society who

[26:15] took him seriously. The precision of

[26:18] Bne Hopp was evident to them. Everything he

[26:20] had revealed to them up to this point was

[26:22] verified. The reply consisted of

[26:25] a letter addressed To the

[26:27] scientific concierge, begging him to detail

[26:29] how he had constructed his

[26:30] microscope and explain his method of

[26:33] observation,

[26:35] the letter irritated the 'Avenue Q'. The criticism

[26:38] from the Delft idiots didn't bother him,

[26:40] but the Royal Society—he believed he was

[26:43] dealing with philosophers—would he write to them

[26:46] revealing the requested details or

[26:48] keep his

[26:51] observations to himself from now on. We can imagine him

[26:54] muttering, "Good heavens, these methods for

[26:57] discovering great mysteries! How much

[26:59] work and sweat they have cost me! What

[27:02] ironies I must endure to

[27:04] perfect my microscopes and

[27:06] my methods of observation! But

[27:08] creators need an audience!" He knew that

[27:12] the unbelievers of the Royal Society

[27:13] would be as tenacious in proving the

[27:15] nonexistence of his little creatures as he had been

[27:17] in discovering them. He felt

[27:21] deeply hurt, but creators

[27:22] need an audience,

[27:25] and so he replied in a lengthy

[27:28] letter assuring them that he wasn't exaggerating.

[27:30] He explained his calculations: "Modern

[27:33] microbe hunters with all their

[27:35] apparatus are only slightly

[27:37] more accurate," including a series of

[27:40] computations, sums, multiplications, and

[27:42] divisions, until the letter seemed like the

[27:45] task at hand. of a schoolboy's arithmetic and

[27:47] ended by saying that many citizens

[27:49] of Delft had seen with the aid of his

[27:52] lenses those strange and novel little

[27:54] animals and that they had congratulated him

[27:57] for it, that he would send them certificates

[27:59] from prominent citizens of the 12

[28:02] jazz ticos, a notary public and

[28:04] eight other trustworthy people, but that he would by

[28:06] no means tell them how he had

[28:08] made his microscopes, how he

[28:11] kept his secret

[28:14] so that people could look through his

[28:15] little devices, he himself held them

[28:18] with his own hands and that they should not

[28:20] even dare to touch them because he would

[28:22] throw them out of his house, he was like a child

[28:24] eager and proud to show his

[28:26] friends a beautiful and juicy apple but

[28:29] without allowing them to touch it for fear that he would

[28:31] bite it, so the Royal Society

[28:34] commissioned Robert Hooke and Anima and Ebro to

[28:37] build the best microscopes they

[28:39] were capable of and also to

[28:41] prepare pepperwater of the

[28:42] best quality. On November 15,

[28:46] 1677, Hawk arrived at the meeting in a state of

[28:49] great excitement because Job had not

[28:52] lied, there they were. Incredible

[28:54] creatures! The members rose from their

[28:58] seats, crowding around the

[29:00] microscope. They looked and exclaimed, "That

[29:03] man is a wizard of observation!" An

[29:07] unforgettable day for Benja.

[29:10] Shortly after, the Royal Society

[29:12] appointed him a member and sent him an elegant

[29:14] membership certificate in a silver box

[29:16] whose lid bore the engraved emblem

[29:18] of the society. Benja's reply was

[29:21] not long in coming: "I will serve

[29:24] faithfully for the rest of my life." And

[29:26] true to his promise, he

[29:27] continued sending them those letters, a

[29:29] mixture of family comments and

[29:31] scientific observations, until his death at the

[29:34] age of 91. But sending a microscope? The

[29:39] Royal Society even went so far as to commission

[29:41] Dr. Ma Linux to write a

[29:43] report on that janitor, discoverer

[29:45] of the invisible. Ma Linux offered De La

[29:49] Avenue a considerable sum for one of

[29:51] his microscopes, since he had hundreds of

[29:54] them. Surely he could part with

[29:57] one,

[29:59] but no, the gentleman of the Royal Society

[30:02] wanted something more. There were

[30:05] some oyster embryos in a bottle, here were

[30:08] various little animals, here we made... and so

[30:10] that the Englishman could make his observations,

[30:12] the Dutchman held his microscopes

[30:15] while, out of the corner of his eye... She watched

[30:17] the undoubtedly honorable visitor to ensure he did

[30:19] n't touch anything, hordes of anything at all. "

[30:23] But your instruments are marvelous!"

[30:25] exclaimed Ma. "Linux shows things with

[30:28] a clarity a thousand times greater than the best

[30:30] lenses we have in England." "

[30:33] I would very much like," replied Ven Job, "to

[30:35] show you my best lenses and my

[30:38] special method of observation, but these are

[30:40] things I reserve exclusively for myself

[30:42] and don't teach to anyone, not even my own

[30:45] family." "

[30:49] Those little creatures were

[30:51] everywhere," Benja told the Royal

[30:55] Society, "even in my own mouth I

[30:57] had found a multitude of

[30:58] those beings. Visible despite

[31:01] my 50 years," she wrote. "I have

[31:04] exceptionally well-preserved teeth, as

[31:06] every morning I

[31:08] vigorously rub them with salt, and

[31:11] after cleaning my molars with a

[31:12] goose feather, I rub them vigorously

[31:14] with a cloth." But when she looked at her

[31:16] teeth with a magnifying mirror, she noticed

[31:19] that a white, viscous substance remained between them. "What could

[31:22] that white substance be composed of?" she asked. "I

[31:24] took a particle

[31:27] of this substance from my teeth." He mixed it with

[31:30] pure rainwater, dipped a small tube in it,

[31:32] placed it on the microscope's needle,

[31:34] locked himself in his office, and wondered what it was that

[31:37] emerged from the gray

[31:39] opacity of the lens, becoming

[31:41] perfectly sharp as he focused.

[31:44] Here was an incredibly subtle being

[31:47] leaping in the water of the tube like the fish

[31:49] called a pike. There was also a second

[31:51] species that swam slightly

[31:53] forward, suddenly turning and

[31:55] then performing a series of somersaults. There were other,

[31:58] slower-moving creatures, like

[32:00] simple curved sticks, but the

[32:02] Dutchman, by dint of observing them until his

[32:04] eyes reddened, managed to see them

[32:07] move. They were alive; it was

[32:10] undeniable. He had a veritable zoo in his mouth. There were

[32:13] creatures

[32:16] shaped like flexible reeds that

[32:18] moved with the majestic pomp of

[32:20] an episcopal procession. There were spirals

[32:23] that swirled in the water like

[32:24] agitated corkscrews.

[32:27] For this man, everything that fell into his

[32:30] hands was an object of experimentation,

[32:32] even himself. Tired of his

[32:35] long observations, he went for a

[32:37] walk under the enormous trees that

[32:39] were shedding their leaves. Yellowish in

[32:41] the dark mirrors of the canals, she

[32:44] needed to rest. Suddenly she came across

[32:47] an old man, a very

[32:49] interesting fellow. While talking to this old man,

[32:52] who wrote the letter to the

[32:54] Royal Society, a person of orderly life

[32:56] who never drinks brandy and rarely

[32:58] wine and doesn't smoke, I inadvertently noticed his

[33:02] long, gaunt teeth. It occurred to me to

[33:05] ask him how long it had been since he had

[33:07] cleaned them. To which he

[33:08] replied that he had never done so in

[33:10] his life. Instantly, he forgot about his

[33:13] tired eyes. What a zoo he must have

[33:17] in his mouth! The old man

[33:19] dragged that

[33:21] dirty but virtuous victim of his

[33:22] curiosity to his laboratory, hoping, of course, to

[33:25] find millions of little creatures in his

[33:27] mouth, but mainly wishing to

[33:29] inform the Royal Society that the

[33:31] man's mouth harbored a new

[33:33] species of creature that slithered

[33:35] among the others, folding its body into

[33:37] graceful coils like a snake. The

[33:40] water in the little tube seemed animated by

[33:41] those tiny beings. It

[33:44] seems strange that in none of her 112

[33:47] letters did the Benja make the slightest allusion

[33:50] to the harm that these little animals could

[33:52] cause to man. She had seen them in the

[33:55] drinking water, discovered them in her mouth,

[33:57] years later found them in the

[33:59] intestines of frogs and

[34:00] horses, and even in her own

[34:02] bowels when she was struck by what she called "loose bowels." She

[34:07] found them in swarms without it

[34:09] ever occurring to her that these little

[34:11] creatures could be the cause of her

[34:13] ailment.

[34:14] Modern hunters, if they have

[34:16] the time to study the

[34:18] writings of Benja Job, have much to

[34:20] learn from her refusal to draw

[34:21] hasty conclusions, avoiding being led astray

[34:24] by imagination. For

[34:26] in the last 50 years,

[34:28] thousands of microbes have been denounced

[34:30] as the cause of as many

[34:32] diseases, when in

[34:34] most cases these germs

[34:36] were merely casual guests in the body

[34:38] when the illness appeared.

[34:41] Benja was very careful not to make

[34:44] hasty attributions. By

[34:46] instinct, she understood the

[34:48] infinite complexity of reality, and given the

[34:50] confusing labyrinth of causes that govern

[34:52] life, she avoided falling into the danger of

[34:54] determining one thing as the cause of another.

[34:58] The years passed; she continued running

[35:01] her shop and made sure that the

[35:03] Delft town hall was thoroughly

[35:05] swept. He grew more brusque and

[35:07] distrustful, spending more and more hours

[35:09] peering through his hundreds of microscopes

[35:11] and making countless

[35:13] admirable discoveries. He was the first to observe, in

[35:17] the tail of a small fish whose head he had

[35:19] previously inserted into a

[35:20] glass tube, the capillaries through which

[35:23] blood passes from the arteries to the

[35:24] veins, thus completing the English garden's theory of

[35:27] blood circulation.

[35:28] To his scrutinizing eyes,

[35:31] even the most sacred, the

[35:34] most unclean, and the most romantic aspects of life were merely

[35:38] interesting material for observation.

[35:40] He discovered the spermatozoa of man,

[35:43] and his cold investigation of such

[35:45] delicate matters might have been deemed

[35:47] indecent had he been a

[35:49] less innocent man. As

[35:52] the years passed, his name

[35:54] became known throughout Europe.

[35:56] Peter the Great of Russia came to pay

[35:58] his respects, and the Queen of England made

[36:01] a trip to Dell for the sole purpose of

[36:03] contemplating the wonders seen

[36:05] through his microscopes at the request of

[36:07] the Royal Society. He refuted all kinds of

[36:09] superstitions, and apart from Robert Boyle, he...

[36:12] Isaac Newton was the most famous

[36:15] member of that institution. He lost

[36:17] his mind with so many honors, not at all,

[36:21] because to begin with, he already held himself in

[36:23] very high esteem. His pride knew no

[36:27] bounds, nor did his humility before the

[36:29] mystery that surrounded him and

[36:31] all men. He admired the god of his

[36:34] country, but his true god was

[36:37] truth. Here is his profession of faith: "

[36:41] I am determined not to cling stubbornly

[36:43] to my ideas, abandoning them as soon as I

[36:46] find plausible reasons to

[36:48] do so. As true as this is, my

[36:51] sole purpose, and to the best of my

[36:53] ability, is to set the truth before my

[36:56] eyes and employ the little talent that has been

[36:58] granted to me in leading the world away from

[37:00] its old pagan superstitions,

[37:02] walking in the truth, never abandoning it."

[37:04] The health of Bne Hawk was

[37:06] truly surprising. At 80

[37:09] human years, he still looked firm when

[37:12] holding the microscope so that his

[37:13] visitors could look at those famous

[37:16] creatures, but he liked to drink at

[37:19] night. What Dutchman? It seems that his

[37:23] only indisposition was the malaise he

[37:25] felt in the mornings, natural after

[37:27] those nights of drinking. He loathed

[37:30] doctors.

[37:33] How could they understand the

[37:34] body's illnesses if they didn't know even a thousandth

[37:37] of what he knew about how it

[37:39] was constituted? Consequently,

[37:42] Job continued to follow his own

[37:45] strange theories about his ailment.

[37:47] He knew that blood was full of

[37:49] tiny globules—he had been the first

[37:52] to see them—and that these globules had to

[37:54] pass through the very thin capillaries

[37:56] to go from the arteries to the veins. He hadn't

[37:59] discovered them himself in the

[38:00] tail of a fish. He deduced, then, that the blood

[38:04] thickened after those nights

[38:06] of revelry, hindering its passage through

[38:08] the capillaries. He would manage

[38:11] to make it more fluid himself. He wrote about this

[38:14] to the Royal Society

[38:17] when he was not too sick. The

[38:20] next morning, he drank many cups of coffee, as

[38:22] hot as possible, until he broke out in a

[38:24] sweat. If this remedy didn't make

[38:27] me recover, neither could the

[38:30] entire pharmacopoeia of an apothecary. It was the

[38:33] only thing he had done for years when he

[38:35] had a fever. This habit of drinking

[38:37] very hot coffee led him to make

[38:40] another very curious observation related

[38:43] to the little animals. Whenever he did this... He was drawn

[38:46] to spying on a new fact of

[38:47] nature, for he lived enveloped in

[38:49] those dramas that unfolded

[38:51] under the lens of his microscope, like a

[38:53] child wide-eyed listening to a

[38:55] fairy tale. He had just read us the same

[38:58] story of nature,

[39:01] always finding new aspects in this

[39:02] living book. So, years after

[39:06] discovering microbes in his mouth,

[39:07] one fine morning, amidst

[39:10] the sweats brought on by his

[39:12] curative plan of drinking enormous quantities of

[39:14] coffee, he happened to examine again the

[39:16] white substance that covered his teeth.

[39:20] But what had happened? He

[39:23] found no animal, or rather,

[39:25] none alive, for he could barely

[39:28] discern myriad inert bodies and

[39:30] one or two that moved slowly

[39:31] as if sick. In the name of all the

[39:35] saints of the celestial court,

[39:38] I hope that none of the gentlemen of

[39:40] the Royal Society think of looking for

[39:42] things in his mouth, for if he doesn't find them, he

[39:44] will disprove my

[39:45] observations. But let's see, the coffee he had just

[39:49] drunk was so hot that it

[39:50] almost touched his lips, and the tartar

[39:53] observed was on his

[39:55] incisor teeth, exactly where the coffee

[39:57] had passed. What would he

[40:00] find if He examined the tartar on his

[40:02] molars and was greatly surprised to see an

[40:05] incredible number of tiny creatures in such a

[40:07] small amount of tartar.

[40:09] Had he not seen them with his own

[40:11] eyes, he would never have believed it. He

[40:13] then proceeded to carry out careful experiments

[40:15] in test tubes, heating the water with its

[40:17] minuscule inhabitants to a temperature

[40:20] slightly higher than that of a hot bath.

[40:22] Instantly, the

[40:24] bugs' mad dashes ceased. When the

[40:27] water cooled, they did not regain their vitality. It was the

[40:30] hot coffee that had killed the little creatures on

[40:32] his incisor teeth.

[40:35] With what pleasure he contemplated them again!

[40:38] But he felt annoyed and frustrated

[40:40] because he could not distinguish the heads

[40:42] or tails of those little animals that

[40:45] writhed back and forth

[40:46] without turning with the same speed.

[40:49] But they must have heads and tails, as well as a

[40:52] liver, brain, and blood vessels. In his

[40:55] mind, he returned to his work from

[40:57] forty years ago when, under his

[40:59] powerful lenses, he discovered that fleas

[41:01] and cheese mites, so crude and

[41:03] simple to the naked eye, possessed a

[41:06] system as complicated and perfect as that of

[41:08] humans. But despite his attempts

[41:11] with his best microscopes, those The

[41:13] little creatures always appeared as

[41:15] simple cords or in the form of spheres or

[41:17] spirals. In view of this, he contented himself

[41:21] with calculating, in order to communicate to the Royal

[41:23] Society, what the diameter of the

[41:25] invisible blood vessels of the

[41:27] microbes would be.

[41:28] [Music] Of course, it never even occurred to him to

[41:31] imply that he had seen them; he was

[41:33] only amused to amaze

[41:35] those gentlemen with his

[41:36] speculations about the incredible

[41:38] smallness of microbes.

[41:41] Although Antonio La Ven Hood lacked the

[41:43] imagination to deduce that those

[41:45] despicable little creatures could be the

[41:47] cause of diseases in man, he

[41:49] managed to demonstrate that those

[41:51] microscopic beings were capable of devouring and

[41:53] killing beings much larger than

[41:55] themselves. He also used to examine the

[41:59] mussels and crabs that he took from the

[42:01] canals. He found millions of

[42:04] embryos inside their mothers and

[42:06] tried to develop them outside the

[42:08] maternal body in a vessel with canal water. "

[42:10] I wonder," he said to himself, "how is it that the

[42:13] canals are not teeming with mussels,

[42:15] given the enormous quantity that the

[42:18] females carry inside them?" Day after

[42:20] day he was an organ In the vessel of water

[42:22] that contained the viscous mass of

[42:23] embryos, observing them with his lenses

[42:25] to see if they were growing, but what was

[42:28] happening there? To his astonishment, he saw

[42:31] the contents of the shells disappear. done by

[42:34] millions of microbes that

[42:35] voraciously attacked the mussels

[42:37] [Music]

[42:38] life feeds on life it is cruel

[42:41] but it is the divine will he reflected

[42:44] for our good undoubtedly because

[42:47] if these little animals did not exist the

[42:49] canals would be teeming with mussels

[42:51] given that each mother carries within her

[42:53] more than a thousand children as we see

[42:56] Antonio La Ven Juca accepted and praised

[42:58] everything like a good son of his time in

[43:01] that century the researchers did not

[43:03] yet arrive as

[43:05] Pastel did later to defy God and to protest

[43:07] against the inexorable cruelty of

[43:09] nature towards humanity towards

[43:11] its children

[43:13] at the end of 'Avenue Q' of the 80 years and his

[43:16] teeth loosened as had to

[43:18] happen even to an organism as

[43:20] strong as his he did not complain about the

[43:23] inevitable arrival of the winter of his

[43:25] life he pulled out a tooth to

[43:27] examine it with his lenses observing the little

[43:30] animals he found in the

[43:31] Swedish root why not study them once more

[43:35] perhaps he would discover some new detail

[43:38] that he had inadvertently

[43:39] missed before when he reached the At 85, his

[43:43] friends recommended he abandon

[43:45] his studies to rest. He

[43:48] frowned and, opening his eyes to a diva,

[43:51] replied, "

[43:53] The fruits that ripen in autumn are the

[43:56] most lasting." At 85, he

[43:59] considered himself in the autumn of his life.

[44:02] Benja was quite a spectacle; he

[44:05] delighted in the exclamations of

[44:06] admiration from those who peered into

[44:08] his microscopic world or from those who

[44:10] received his rambling and

[44:12] marvelous letters. But they had to be

[44:14] philosophers and lovers of science; on the

[44:17] other hand, he didn't like to teach. "No

[44:20] one has ever been taught," wrote the famous

[44:23] philosopher Light Knicks, "because if I were to teach

[44:25] someone, I would have to do it with others;

[44:27] I would impose a slavery upon myself, and what I

[44:31] desire is to remain a

[44:32] free man. But if I don't teach you, the

[44:35] youth, the

[44:37] art of making lenses as precise

[44:38] as yours will disappear from the earth, and the

[44:40] observation of new little animals will cease."

[44:43] Light Knicks replied, "

[44:45] Impressed by my discoveries,

[44:47] the students and professors of the

[44:49] University of Leiden hired

[44:51] three expert

[44:52] lens polishers to teach classes." And what have been

[44:55] the results? None. In my opinion, the

[44:59] purpose of such courses is to

[45:01] profit by trading in

[45:03] knowledge or scientific prestige,

[45:04] which has nothing to do with the

[45:07] discovery of things hidden from

[45:09] our eyes. I am convinced that

[45:11] among a thousand people, not one is

[45:13] capable of continuing my studies, for that

[45:16] would require

[45:18] unlimited time and a great deal of money, not to mention the

[45:20] dedicated attention required if

[45:22] something like that is to be achieved. The first

[45:25] microbe hunter, in 1723, at the age of 91,

[45:30] on his deathbed, called to his friend

[45:33] Juliet. He could not raise his hand; his eyes,

[45:36] once full of animation, were now

[45:38] dull, and his eyelids were beginning to

[45:41] seal with the cement of death. "

[45:42] Vliet, my friend," he murmured, "please have

[45:46] these two letters

[45:48] on the table translated and send them to the Royal

[45:50] Society of Man." In

[45:51] this way, he fulfilled the promise made 50

[45:54] years earlier. And as he wrote, he continued

[45:56] transmitting the letters, saying, "I send to

[45:58] you, learned gentlemen, the last gift

[46:01] of my friend, hoping that his

[46:03] last words will be pleasing to you."

[46:06] Thus, he crossed the threshold of death

[46:08] of the first microbe hunter.

[46:11] Regarding Spice and Sand, which

[46:12] was much more brilliant about cake, with

[46:15] greater imagination than Benja,

[46:17] about Robert Coche, whose work

[46:19] produced more tangible benefits in

[46:21] trying to rid humanity of the

[46:23] torments caused by microbes, and

[46:25] about many other researchers who today

[46:27] enjoy far greater fame, but none

[46:30] of them has been as sincere or as

[46:32] disconcertingly strict as this one,

[46:34] with Sergio Dutch, who could well have given them

[46:36] all lessons in

[46:38] tripp.

[46:40] [Music]