离奇事件！消失22年的达尔文笔记本，被“神秘人”归还了……
3月9日，剑桥大学的图书馆馆长杰西卡·加德纳（Jessica Gardner）在办公室门口收到一份“神秘礼物”。
一个亮粉色的手提袋放在地上，袋子里有一个巨大的信封，上面写着：“馆长，复活节快乐，X”。
Two "stolen" notebooks written by Charles Darwin have been mysteriously returned to Cambridge University, 22 years after they were last seen.
But who returned the two postcard-sized notepads is a real whodunit. They were left anonymously in a bright pink gift bag containing the original blue box the notebooks were kept in and a plain brown envelope.
whodunit /huːˈdʌnɪt/ ：n. 侦探小说
On it was printed a short message: "Librarian, Happy Easter X."
The small leather-bound books are worth many millions of pounds and include the scientist's "tree of life" sketch.
"They may be tiny, just the size of postcards, but the notebooks’ impact on the history of science, and their importance to our world-class collections here, cannot be overstated."
The notebooks were originally removed from the Special Collections Strong Rooms – where the rarest and most valuable items are kept – for photography to take place at the library in September 2000, with the photography request completed in November 2000.
During a subsequent routine check in January 2001, it was found that the small box containing the two notebooks had not been returned to its proper place.
For many years, previous university librarians believed that the notebooks had been misplaced in the vast storerooms and collections of Cambridge University Library. Despite a number of searches over the intervening years, they remained undiscovered.
图源：Stuart Roberts/剑桥大学图书馆
At the start of 2020, a new search – the largest in the library's history – was arranged by Dr Gardner involving specialist staff assigned to search specific zones of the library's storage facilities.
However, this failed to locate the notebooks, leading to the conclusion, with the help of national experts in cultural heritage theft and recovery, that they had likely been stolen.
在之后的一年多，全球媒体均报道了“达尔文笔记失踪事件”，但警方和图书馆并没有得到丝毫的线索，直到这个“神秘礼物”被保鲜膜包裹着出现在加德纳的办公室门口。
An agonising delay of five days followed between finding the package and the police granting permission to open the cling film, examine the notebooks and confirm they were genuine.
剑桥大学图书馆馆长杰西卡·加德纳博士看着图书馆工作人员检验笔记本真伪 图源：Stuart Roberts/剑桥大学图书馆
经专家和学者鉴定后，这份“神秘礼物”被认定为当年丢失的达尔文“笔记本B”和“笔记本C”。
加德纳补充道，“笔记本的保存情况非常好，没有受潮或者缺页，显然被放到一个安全的地方，很好地保存起来了。”
达尔文笔记的回归，是科学界的一大幸事，那么，这两本笔记本中到底记载了什么秘密呢？
查尔斯·达尔文摄于1881年
1837年7月，28岁的查尔斯·达尔文在伦敦的家中，翻开了一本红色皮革笔记本，他在扉页上写下：“我认为”，然后草草画了一棵细长的树。
In July 1837, Charles Darwin was a young man of 28. At his home in London, he wrote at the top of the page of one of his red leather notebooks, "I think". Then he drew a spindly sketch of a tree.
剑桥大学历史和科学哲学教授吉姆·西科德解释说：“这些笔记实际上是达尔文试图向自己提出的一个问题：物种从何而来，物种的起源是什么?”
"These notebooks really are Darwin's attempt to pose to himself the question about where do species come from, what is the origin of species?" explains Jim Secord, emeritus professor of history and philosophy of science at Cambridge University.
从1831年起，达尔文以博物学家的身份开始历时5年的环球旅行，一路上，他收集了大量动植物标本，记录下各地的地质和生态。
当游历到靠近南美大陆的加拉帕戈斯群岛时，众多的岛屿和迥异的环境，以及同种动物在不同岛上表现出的多样形态，给年轻的达尔文留下深刻的印象，让他隐隐察觉到环境对动物的影响。
1837年，旅行结束后，达尔文回到英国，在四个笔记本上写下自己的经历与思考。这些资料被后人称作“嬗变笔记本”，也就是“笔记本B、C、D、E”。
笔记本中“生命之树”内页 图源：Stuart Roberts/剑桥大学图书馆
20多年后，《物种起源》一书在1859年11月24日出版，书中更加完整地阐述了“生命树论”这一学说。
More than 20 years later, on November 24, 1859, Darwin published a more fully developed tree of life in On the Origin of Species.
西科德教授说：“当你看着这些笔记本时，就好像进入了达尔文的大脑。这些都是他匆匆记录下的各种信息。”
"It's almost like being inside Darwin's head when you're looking at these notebooks," says Professor Secord. "They're jottings of all sorts of information that he's writing down."
失而复得的“笔记B”和“笔记C”，记录了达尔文在1838年9月阅读马尔萨斯人口论之前的思考，这些笔记为达尔文寻找新物种起源提供了非同寻常的帮助，被当时的人们称之为“神秘中的神秘”。
Notebooks B and C show Darwin's thinking before he read Thomas Malthus's Essay on the Principle of Population in late September 1838, which suggested to Darwin the idea of natural selection as a mechanism for evolution. The notebooks provide an extraordinary insight into Darwin's search for the solution to what one contemporary had called "that mystery of mysteries", the origin of new species.
达尔文的笔记本B和C在剑桥大学图书馆被打开后不久 图源：Stuart Roberts/剑桥大学图书馆
达尔文的进化论是19世纪重大理论成果之一，是摒弃神学、宣扬民主、思想启蒙的重要理论支撑，促进了人们思想认识的发展，时至今日，达尔文的进化论仍是当代生物科学最重要的核心之一。
剑桥图书馆决定在今年7月，策划一个名为《对话达尔文》的主题展，免费展出这两本失而复得的笔记本。
满载着历史与知识的文物，是全人类共同的文化遗产，值得被世界所共享。