5分钟英语精读-生物合成-人类革命还是生化危机?

FOR THE past four billion years or so the only way for life on Earth to produce a sequence of DNA—a gene—was by copying a sequence it already had to hand. Sometimes the gene would be damaged or scrambled, the copying imperfect or undertaken repeatedly. From that raw material arose the glories of natural selection. But beneath it all, gene begat gene.在过去40亿年左右的时间里，地球上唯一能够生产DNA序列的方法就是通过复制它已经拥有的序列。 有时基因会被破坏或扰乱，复制不完美或反复进行。 从那个原材料中产生了自然选择的荣耀。 但在这一切之下，基因生成基因。【scramble-mixup confuse】【begat: create/bring about] 【beneath it all, ...begat...] [from the ...arose the glories of...]

That is no longer true. Now genes can be written from scratch and edited repeatedly, like text in a word processor. The ability to engineer living things which this provides represents a fundamental change in the way humans interact with the planet’s life. It permits the manufacture of all manner of things which used to be hard, even impossible, to make: pharmaceuticals, fuels, fabrics, foods and fragrances can all be built molecule by molecule. What cells do and what they can become is engineerable, too. Immune cells can be told to follow doctors’ orders; stem cells better coaxed to turn into new tissues; fertilised eggs programmed to grow into creatures quite unlike their parents.那不再是真的。 现在，基因可以从头开始编写并重复编辑，就像文字处理器中的文本一样。 设计生物的能力代表了人类与地球生命互动方式的根本变化。 它允许制造过去很难甚至不可能制造的各种东西：药品，燃料，织物，食品和香料都可以逐个分子地建造。 什么样的细胞以及它们可以成为什么样的细胞也是可以实现的。 可以告诉免疫细胞遵循医生的命令; 干细胞更好地哄骗变成新组织; 受精卵被编程成长成与父母完全不同的生物。[scratch: small cut or mark] 【represent  a fundamental change in the way】  【permits to make】[be told to follow doctor's order][better coaxed to] [programmed to...]【quite unlike】

The earliest stages of such “synthetic biology” are already changing many industrial processes, transforming medicine and beginning to reach into the consumer world . Progress may be slow, but with the help of new tools and a big dollop of machine learning, biological manufacturing could eventually yield truly cornucopian technologies. Buildings may be grown from synthetic wood or coral. Mammoths produced from engineered elephant cells may yet stride across Siberia.这种“合成生物学”的最早阶段已经在改变许多工业过程，改变医学并开始进入消费世界（参见技术季刊）。 进展可能很慢，但借助新工具和大量机器学习，生物制造最终可以产生真正的聚宝盆技术。 建筑物可以用合成木材或珊瑚种植。 由生物工程过的大象细胞产生的猛犸象可能跨越西伯利亚。【a big dollop of : lump] [cornucopian: plenty plethora] [yield truly cornucopian...] [stride across]

The scale of the potential changes seems hard to imagine. But look back through history, and humanity’s relations with the living world have seen three great transformations: the exploitation of fossil fuels, the globalisation of the world’s ecosystems after the European conquest of the Americas, and the domestication of crops and animals at the dawn of agriculture. All brought prosperity and progress, but with damaging side-effects. Synthetic biology promises similar transformation. To harness the promise and minimise the peril, it pays to learn the lessons of the past.潜在变化的规模似乎难以想象。 但回顾过去的历史，人类与生活世界的关系已经发生了三大转变：生物化石燃料的发现开采，欧洲征服美洲后世界生态系统的全球化，以及作物和动物的驯化。 农业。 所有这些都带来了繁荣和进步，但具有破坏性的副作用。 合成生物学承诺类似的转变。 为了利用这一承诺并将危险降到最低，学习过去的教训是值得的。[look back through history] [exploitation: use/take advantage][at the dawn of][with damaging side effects][to harness the promise] [to minimize the peril] [it pays to learn the lessons of the past]

Start with the most recent of these previous shifts. Fossil fuels have enabled humans to drive remarkable economic expansion in the present using biological productivity from ages past, stored away in coal and oil. But much wilderness has been lost, and carbon atoms which last saw the atmosphere hundreds of millions of years ago have strengthened the planet’s greenhouse effect to a degree that may prove catastrophic. Here, synthetic biology can do good. It is already being used to replace some products made from petrochemicals; in time it could replace some fuels, too. This week Burger King introduced into some of its restaurants a beefless Whopper that gets its meatiness from an engineered plant protein; such innovations could greatly ease a shift to less environmentally taxing diets. They could also be used to do more with less. Plants and their soil microbes could produce their own fertilisers and pesticides, ruminants less greenhouse gas—though to ensure that synthetic biology yields such laudable environmental goals will take public policy as well as the cues of the market.从最近的这些转变开始。化石燃料使人类能够利用过去时代的生物生产力，储存在煤和石油中，推动当前显着的经济扩张。但是已经失去了许多荒野，数十亿年前持续看到大气的碳原子已经将地球的温室效应加强到可能证明是灾难性的程度。在这里，合成生物学可以做得很好。它已被用于替代石化产品制造的一些产品;及时它也可以取代一些燃料。本周，汉堡王在其一些餐厅中引入了一种不含牛肉的Whopper，它通过工程植物蛋白获得了丰富的味道。这些创新可以大大减轻转向减少环境负担的饮食。它们也可以用来做更少的事情。植物及其土壤微生物可以生产自己的肥料和杀虫剂，反刍动物减少温室气体 - 尽管确保合成生物学产生如此值得称道的环境目标将采取公共政策以及市场的推动。[enable human to...] [have strengthen ...to the degree that...] [do more with less] [laudable: admirable creditable] [yield laudable goal]

The second example of biological change sweeping the world is the Columbian exchange, in which the 16th century’s newly global network of trade shuffled together the creatures of the New World and the Old. Horses, cattle and cotton were introduced to the Americas; maize, potatoes, chilli and tobacco to Europe, Africa and Asia. The ecosystems in which humans live became globalised as never before, providing more productive agriculture all round, richer diets for many. But there were also disastrous consequences. Measles, smallpox and other pathogens ran through the New World like a forest fire, claiming tens of millions of lives. The Europeans weaponised this catastrophe, conquering lands depleted and disordered by disease.生物变化席卷全球的第二个例子是哥伦比亚交易所，其中16世纪新的全球贸易网络将新世界和旧世界的生物混合在一起。 马，牛和棉花被引入美洲; 玉米，土豆，辣椒和烟草到欧洲，非洲和亚洲。 人类生活的生态系统变得前所未有地全球化，为全年提供更富有成效的农业，为许多人提供更丰富的饮食。 但也有灾难性的后果。 麻疹，天花和其他病原体像森林大火一样穿越新大陆，夺走了数千万人的生命。 欧洲人利用把这场灾难为武器，用以征服因疾病而枯竭和混乱的土地。[the changes sweeping the world] [weaponize this catastrophe] [land depleted and disordered by...]

Synthetic biology could create such weapons by design: pathogens designed to weaken, to incapacitate or to kill, and perhaps also to limit themselves to particular types of target. There is real cause for concern here—but not for immediate alarm. For such weaponisation would, like the rest of cutting-edge synthetic biology, take highly skilled teams with significant resources. And armies already have lots of ways to flatten cities and kill people in large numbers. When it comes to mass destruction, a disease is a poor substitute for a nuke. What’s more, today’s synthetic-biology community lives up to ideals of openness and public service better than many older fields. Maintained and nurtured, that culture should serve as a powerful immune system against rogue elements.合成生物学可以通过设计制造这样的武器：病原体旨在削弱，瘫痪或杀死，也可能限制自己特定类型的目标。 这里有令人担忧的真正原因 - 但不是立即报警。 对于这样的武器化，就像其他尖端的合成生物学一样，需要拥有大量资源的高技能团队。 军队已经有很多方法可以压扁城市并大量杀人。 在大规模杀伤性方面，疾病是核武器的降维替代品。 更重要的是，今天的合成生物学社区比许多旧领域更能实现开放和公共服务的理想。 保持和培养，文化应该成为一个强大的免疫系统，以防止邪恶滋生。[pathogen: microbe bacterium] [designed to weaken, to incapacitated or to kill这一句令人毛骨悚然，嘿嘿】【flatten cities] [mass destruction]

The earliest biological transformation—domestication—produced what was hitherto the biggest change in how humans lived their lives. Haphazardly, then purposefully, humans bred cereals to be more bountiful, livestock to be more docile, dogs more obedient and cats more companionable (the last a partial success, at best). This allowed new densities of settlement and new forms of social organisation: the market, the city, the state. Humans domesticated themselves as well as their crops and animals, creating space for the drudgery of subsistence agriculture and oppressive political hierarchies.最早的生物转化 - 驯化 - 产生了迄今为止人类如何生活的最大变化。 有条不紊地，然后有目的地，人类培育谷物更丰富，牲畜更温顺，狗更顺从和猫更伴侣化。 这使得新的解决密度和新的社会组织形式：市场，城市，国家。 人类驯化自己以及庄稼和动物，为需要长期劳苦枯燥投入的自给农业和可压缩的政治等级创造了空间。[haphazardly: carelessly] [cats more companionable, really?] [create space for] [drudgery of subsistence agriculture]【oppressive political hierarchies]

Synthetic biology will have a similar cascading effect, transforming humans’ relationships with each other and, potentially, their own biological nature. The ability to reprogram the embryo is, rightly, the site of most of today’s ethical concerns. In future, they may extend further; what should one make of people with the upper-body strength of gorillas, or minds impervious to sorrow? How humans may choose to change themselves biologically is hard to say; that some choices will be controversial is not.合成生物学将具有类似的级联效应，改变人类彼此之间的关系，并可能改变他们自己的生物学本质。 重新编程胚胎的能力，正确地说是当今大多数伦理问题的所在地。 将来，它们可能会进一步延伸; 人们应该怎样制造具有大猩猩上身力量的人，或者不受悲伤影响的人？ 人类如何选择在生物学上改变自己很难说; 有些选择会引起争议。[cascade: fall in a rush] [ethical concern] [impervious: impassable]

Which leads to the main way in which this transformation differs from the three that came before. Their significance was discovered only in retrospect. This time, there will be foresight. It will not be perfect: there will certainly be unanticipated effects. But synthetic biology will be driven by the pursuit of goals, both anticipated and desired. It will challenge the human capacity for wisdom and foresight. It might defeat it. But carefully nurtured, it might also help expand it.什么能导致这场生物变革与之前的变革不同？ 之前的变革的重要意义只有人类会看自身命运时候才被发现。 而这一次变革，将是前瞻的。 它不会是完美的：肯定会产生意想不到的影响。 但合成生物学将由追求预期和期望的目标驱动。 它将挑战人类的智慧和远见能力。 它可能会自己打败自己。 但如经过仔细培养和引导，它也可能自我扩展。[retrospect vs foresight]