What's happening in genomics, and how this revolution is about to change everything we know about the world, life, ourselves, and how we think about them.
在基因組學中發生了什麽? 這場革命又將如何改變我們關於 世界,生命,自我的知識,和我們對此的思考。
If you saw 2001: A Space Odyssey, and you heard the boom, boom, boom, boom, and you saw the monolith, you know, that was Arthur C. Clarke's representation that we were at a seminal moment in the evolution of our species. In this case, it was picking up bones and creating a tool, using it as a tool, which meant that apes just, sort of, running around and eating and doing each other figured out they can make things if they used a tool. And that moved us to the next level.
如果你看過,2001太空漫遊(註:1968年的科幻電影) 你聽到 砰,砰,砰的聲音,看到那個龐然大物 那是Arthur C. Clark的見解(註:2001太空漫遊的作者) 也就是說,我們正處在進化的重要時刻 在這電影中,就是指使用骨頭,製作工具 將它當做工具使用,意味著電影中的猿人 四處活動,覓食,做愛時 發現牠們自己能使用工具來製作東西 這將我們推進了下一個階段
And, you know, we in the last 30 years in particular have seen this acceleration in knowledge and technology, and technology has bred more knowledge and given us tools. And we've seen many seminal moments. We've seen the creation of small computers in the '70s and early '80s, and who would have thought back then that every single person would not have just one computer but probably 20, in your home, and in not just your P.C. but in every device -- in your washing machine, your cell phone. You're walking around; your car has 12 microprocessors. Then we go along and create the Internet and connect the world together; we flatten the world.
你知道,特別是最近30年中 我們已經看到知識和技術的高速發展 技術孕育了更多的知識,創造了更多工具 我們已經歷了許多不可思議的階段 70年代和80年代初,我們看見了小型電腦的發明 有誰那時會覺得,每個人都能擁有不只1臺 而是20臺電腦 這些小型電腦不僅在PC中才有,家中所有的數位設備也都有 在你的洗衣機中,你的電話中 四處走走,你的汽車里就有12個微處理器。 然後,我們繼續創造了網際網路。 將世界連接在一起,我們拉平了世界
We've seen so much change, and we've given ourselves these tools now -- these high-powered tools -- that are allowing us to turn the lens inward into something that is common to all of us, and that is a genome.
我們目睹了如此巨大的變化,並掌握了這些工具 這些強有力的工具 這使我們能將鏡頭向轉向自身 轉向我們所有人的共同點,基因
How's your genome today? Have you thought about it lately? Heard about it, at least? You probably hear about genomes these days.
今天你的基因如何?你最近思考過基因嗎? 或者,至少聽過這個?你可能最近聽說過基因。
I thought I'd take a moment to tell you what a genome is. It's, sort of, like if you ask people, Well, what is a megabyte or megabit? And what is broadband? People never want to say, I really don't understand. So, I will tell you right off of the bat. You've heard of DNA; you probably studied a little bit in biology. A genome is really a description for all of the DNA that is in a living organism. And one thing that is common to all of life is DNA. It doesn't matter whether you're a yeast; it doesn't matter whether you're a mouse; doesn't matter whether you're a fly; we all have DNA. The DNA is organized in words, call them: genes and chromosomes.
我認為,我要花點時間來解釋什麽是基因 這是一種...好像你問別人 嗯,什麽是百萬位元組?什麽是寬頻? 人們才不會承認說:我不知道這是什麼 所以,我乾脆直接告訴各位 你應該聽說過DNA,你可能在生物學中學過一點 一個基因組就是生物所有DNA的描述 所有生命都有的一樣東西,就是DNA 無論你是一個酵母 無論你是一隻老鼠 或者你是一隻蒼蠅,我們都擁有DNA DNA組織起來的詞組,稱為,基因和染色體
And when Watson and Crick in the '50s first decoded this beautiful double helix that we know as the DNA molecule -- very long, complicated molecule -- we then started on this journey to understand that inside of that DNA is a language that determines the characteristics, our traits, what we inherit, what diseases we may get. We've also along the way discovered that this is a very old molecule, that all of the DNA in your body has been around forever, since the beginning of us, of us as creatures. There is a historical archive.
當Watson和Crick在50年代中 首次揭示我們稱之為DNA分子的美妙的雙螺旋結構 非常長而複雜的分子 自此,我們開始了探索的路途 DNA內存在一種語言,來決定我們的特徵,性徵 決定我們繼承什麽,我們可能染上什麽疾病 我們同樣發現DNA是一種古老的分子 所有你體內的DNA 從我們作為生物之初就一直存在 這是個歷史性的成就
Living in your genome is the history of our species, and you as an individual human being, where you're from, going back thousands and thousands and thousands of years, and that's now starting to be understood. But also, the genome is really the instruction manual. It is the program. It is the code of life. It is what makes you function; it is what makes every organism function. DNA is a very elegant molecule. It's long and it's complicated. Really all you have to know about it is that there's four letters: A, T, C, G; they represent the name of a chemical. And with these four letters, you can create a language: a language that can describe anything, and very complicated things. You know, they are generally put together in pairs, creating a word or what we call base pairs. And you would, you know, when you think about it, four letters, or the representation of four things, makes us work.
基因中存在著我們種族的歷史 我們作為個體的歷史 以及我們千萬年前的起源 這些現在開始被瞭解 但同時,基因是一份指導手冊 這是一個程序,一個生命的密碼 它是使我們運轉的東西 是使每一個生物體運轉的東西 DNA是一個精緻的分子 它即長,又複雜 所有你需要知道的,只是四個字母 A T C G,他們各自代表化學物的名稱 通過這四個字母,你能創造一種語言 這種語言能描述一切,即使是非常複雜的東西, 它們總是成對出現 組成一個詞(例:A-T,C-G),或稱之為“鹼基對(base pairs)” 你可以這樣想 就是這四個字母,組成所有生命的一切
And that may not sound very intuitive, but let me flip over to something else you know about, and that's computers. Look at this screen here and, you know, you see pictures and you see words, but really all there are are ones and zeros. The language of technology is binary; you've probably heard that at some point in time. Everything that happens in digital is converted, or a representation, of a one and a zero. So, when you're listening to iTunes and your favorite music, that's really just a bunch of ones and zeros playing very quickly. When you're seeing these pictures, it's all ones and zeros, and when you're talking on your telephone, your cell phone, and it's going over the network, your voice is all being turned into ones and zeros and magically whizzed around. And look at all the complex things and wonderful things we've been able to create with just a one and a zero.
這聽上去不太直覺 讓我講一些你瞭解的東西,比如電腦 看著這兒的螢幕,你看到了圖片和單字 但其實這裡只有1和0 二進制的語言 你可能曾經聽過這些 所有數位資訊都是被轉換過 或者被描述為,1和0 所以,當你聽著iTunes和你喜歡的音樂時 實際上,是一組1和0在快速的變化 當你看著這些照片,實質上都是1和0 當你在電話、手機上聊天 通過網絡傳輸 在網絡上,你的聲音全在傳送中被轉換成了1和0 看看所有複雜而美妙的事物 我們只需要用0和1就能創造出來
Well, now you ramp that up to four, and you have a lot of complexity, a lot of ways to describe mechanisms. So, let's talk about what that means. So, if you look at a human genome, they consist of 3.2 billion of these base pairs. That's a lot. And they mix up in all different fashions, and that makes you a human being. If you convert that to binary, just to give you a little bit of sizing, we're actually smaller than the program Microsoft Office. It's not really all that much data. I will also tell you we're at least as buggy. (Laughter)
現在,2個擴大成4個,複雜度就大大的提升了 可以用更多方式來描述人體結構 所以,我們來談談這意味著什麽 一個人類基因 它包含32億個鹼基對,超級多 它們以各種不同的方式組合 這讓你成為了一個人類 如果你將這些轉換成二進制,給你一點大小的概念 我們實際上比Microsoft Office軟體容量還小 人體沒有那麼多的數據 老實說我們還帶有很多漏洞 (觀眾笑聲)
This here is a bug in my genome that I have struggled with for a long, long time. When you get sick, it is a bug in your genome. In fact, many, many diseases we have struggled with for a long time, like cancer, we haven't been able to cure because we just don't understand how it works at the genomic level. We are starting to understand that.
這坨肥肉就是我的基因中的一個漏洞 我與它鬥爭了很多年 當你生病時,這就是你基因組出現的一個漏洞 事實上,很多我們抗爭很久的疾病 如癌症,我們不能治癒它 是因為我們還不知道病因在基因組上如何運作 我們才正在開始了解基因
So, up to this point we tried to fix it by using what I call shit-against-the-wall pharmacology, which means, well, let's just throw chemicals at it, and maybe it's going to make it work. But if you really understand why does a cell go from normal cell to cancer? What is the code? What are the exact instructions that are making it do that? then you can go about the process of trying to fix it and figure it out. So, for your next dinner over a great bottle of wine, here's a few factoids for you.
我們開始嘗試修復基因 通過一種像是"往牆上丟大便"的藥物學手段 意思是說,我們拼命往癌細胞上砸一堆化學藥品 或許有些藥品會起作用 但為何不弄懂一個正常細胞會變為癌細胞的原因? 控制癌細胞的密碼是什麼? 在發病時的確切指令是什麽? 然後,你才能來嘗試修復這組基因並指出它的位置 為了你下次晚餐時能選出高級葡萄酒,我給你一些相關事實
We actually have about 24,000 genes that do things. We have about a hundred, 120,000 others that don't appear to function every day, but represent this archival history of how we used to work as a species going back tens of thousands of years. You might also be interested in knowing that a mouse has about the same amount of genes.
我們體內有大約24,000個基因在運作 剩下120,000個基因 並不會運作 但卻記錄了我們人類這個物種 在數千萬年前的歷史檔案 你也許有興趣知道 老鼠跟人有大致相同的基因數目
They recently sequenced Pinot Noir, and it also has about 30,000 genes, so the number of genes you have may not necessarily represent the complexity or the evolutionary order of any particular species. Now, look around: just look next to your neighbor, look forward, look backward. We all look pretty different. A lot of very handsome and pretty people here, skinny, chubby, different races, cultures. We are all 99.9% genetically equal. It is one one-hundredth of one percent of genetic material that makes the difference between any one of us. That's a tiny amount of material, but the way that ultimately expresses itself is what makes changes in humans and in all species.
現今正在為黑比諾葡萄(Pinot Noir)排序基因,它同樣有約30,000個基因 所以,擁有的基因數目並不能代表複雜性 或者某個物種的進化等級 現在,看看四周的人 前看,後看,我們看上去都很不相同 很多帥氣,漂亮的人,纖細的,豐滿的 不同種族,文化,但我們99.9%的基因是相同的 只有萬分之一的遺傳物質不同 這造成了我們之間的差異 如此微量的物質 完全透露出 這導致了人類和所有物種中的變化
So, we are now able to read genomes. The first human genome took 10 years, three billion dollars. It was done by Dr. Craig Venter. And then James Watson's -- one of the co-founders of DNA -- genome was done for two million dollars, and in just two months. And if you think about the computer industry and how we've gone from big computers to little ones and how they get more powerful and faster all the time, the same thing is happening with gene sequencing now: we are on the cusp of being able to sequence human genomes for about 5,000 dollars in about an hour or a half-hour; you will see that happen in the next five years.
目前,我們能夠閱讀基因 獲得第一個人類基因耗時10年,花了30億美元 是由Craig Venter博士完成 然後,James Watson,DNA模型的發現者之一 他的基因獲取耗費2百萬美元,只用了2個月 想想電腦產業 我們如何從大型電腦到小型電腦 它們如何變的更快更強 同樣的事發生在基因測序領域 目前最新的技術正在研究, 如何在一個或者半個小時內,同時只要花費5000美元就能完成基因測序 這將在未來五年內實現
And what that means is, you are going to walk around with your own personal genome on a smart card. It will be here. And when you buy medicine, you won't be buying a drug that's used for everybody. You will give your genome to the pharmacist, and your drug will be made for you and it will work much better than the ones that were -- you won't have side effects. All those side effects, you know, oily residue and, you know, whatever they say in those commercials: forget about that. They're going to make all that stuff go away.
那將意味著,你能隨身攜帶 一張附有你個人基因信息的智能卡。就像這張卡大小。 當你買藥物 你不用買一種適合所有人的藥物 把你的基因給藥師 藥會為你量身定做 這會比現在的要好的多 你不會有副作用 所有這些副作用,你知道,比如肥油殘留,你知道 無論它們在廣告中如何稱呼,都可以忘掉 這些都將消失
What does a genome look like? Well, there it is. It is a long, long series of these base pairs. If you saw the genome for a mouse or for a human it would look no different than this, but what scientists are doing now is they're understanding what these do and what they mean. Because what Nature is doing is double-clicking all the time. In other words, the first couple of sentences here, assuming this is a grape plant: make a root, make a branch, create a blossom. In a human being, down in here it could be: make blood cells, start cancer. For me it may be: every calorie you consume, you conserve, because I come from a very cold climate. For my wife: eat three times as much and you never put on any weight. It's all hidden in this code, and it's starting to be understood at breakneck pace.
基因是什麽樣子的呢? 嗯,是一個很長很長的鹼基組 若你看過老鼠或者人的基因,跟這個其實差不多 而科學家現在做的是 研究它們如何運作,意味著什麽 因為大自然正不斷的點擊滑鼠來執行基因程式 換句話說,這裡的前幾個句子 表示,這是一顆葡萄樹 有根,有枝條,開花 在人類中個,這裡可能是 產生血細胞,發生癌症 對我來說,可能是:每吃一卡路里,保存一卡路里 因為我來自寒冷地區 對我的妻子來說:吃三倍的食物,也絕不會發胖 這都隱含在這些編碼中 現在,這些開始以驚人的速度被理解
So, what can we do with genomes now that we can read them, now that we're starting to have the book of life? Well, there's many things. Some are exciting. Some people will find very scary. I will tell you a couple of things that will probably make you want to projectile puke on me, but that's okay. So, you know, we now can learn the history of organisms.
現在,我們能閱讀基因 我們開始閱讀這部生命之書 這裡有太多的內容,有些讓人振奮 有些人會覺得這很可怕,讓我來告訴你一些事情 講解過程中你也許會想對我吐口水,但沒關係 你知道,我們現在可以研究生物的歷史
You can do a very simple test: scrape your cheek; send it off. You can find out where your relatives come from; you can do your genealogy going back thousands of years. We can understand functionality. This is really important. We can understand, for example, why we create plaque in our arteries, what creates the starchiness inside of a grain, why does yeast metabolize sugar and produce carbon dioxide. We can also look at, at a grander scale, what creates problems, what creates disease, and how we may be able to fix them. Because we can understand this, we can fix them, make better organisms.
你能做一個簡單的實驗:刮刮臉頰,那皮屑送去測試 你能找出你的親緣關係 你能建立長達千年的家譜關係 我們能瞭解其中的實用性在何處,這很重要 我們能瞭解,譬如爲什麽動脈會產生血小板 是什麽轉化成了糧食中的澱粉 為什麽酵母會轉化糖,形成二氧化碳 從宏觀一點的角度來看,是什麽導致這些問題 是什麽導致了疾病,我們如何治癒疾病 因為,我們能理解這些的話 能修復基因的話,就能創造更好的人類
Most importantly, what we're learning is that Nature has provided us a spectacular toolbox. The toolbox exists. An architect far better and smarter than us has given us that toolbox, and we now have the ability to use it. We are now not just reading genomes; we are writing them.
更重要的是,我們學習的 是自然給我們提供的巨大的那個工具箱 真的有這個工具箱 而且是一個比我們聰敏、優秀的建築師給予了我們這個工具箱 現在我們有能力來使用它了 我們現在不只是閱讀基因,我們書寫他們
This company, Synthetic Genomics, I'm involved with, created the first full synthetic genome for a little bug, a very primitive creature called Mycoplasma genitalium. If you have a UTI, you've probably -- or ever had a UTI -- you've come in contact with this little bug. Very simple -- only has about 246 genes -- but we were able to completely synthesize that genome. Now, you have the genome and you say to yourself, So, if I plug this synthetic genome -- if I pull the old one out and plug it in -- does it just boot up and live? Well, guess what. It does.
這個公司,我所在的公司,Synthetic Genomics (註:美國企業,致力於基因技術開發、基因商業) 創造了第一個擁有完全合成基因的小蟲 一種非常古老的生物,叫黴漿菌 如果你有尿路感染,或者曾有過尿路感染 你就曾與這種小蟲打過交道 它非常簡單,只有246個基因 而我們能夠完全合成這些基因 現在,你擁有了基因,然後你對自己說 如果我將原有的基因取出,將合成的基因注入進去 它能啟動並存活嗎? 嗯,猜猜看,它確實能
Not only does it do that; if you took the genome -- that synthetic genome -- and you plugged it into a different critter, like yeast, you now turn that yeast into Mycoplasma. It's, sort of, like booting up a PC with a Mac O.S. software. Well, actually, you could do it the other way. So, you know, by being able to write a genome and plug it into an organism, the software, if you will, changes the hardware. And this is extremely profound.
不僅它能這樣,若你將合成的基因 注射進到其他的生物體中,比如酵母 你就能將酵母變成黴漿菌 這就像,在PC上運行MAC的作業系統 嗯,事實上,您能反過來做 所以,通過修改一個基因 然後再放進某個生物體中 這個軟體會改變硬體 這個是非常奧妙的地方
So, last year the French and Italians announced they got together and they went ahead and they sequenced Pinot Noir. The genomic sequence now exists for the entire Pinot Noir organism, and they identified, once again, about 29,000 genes. They have discovered pathways that create flavors, although it's very important to understand that those compounds that it's cranking out have to match a receptor in our genome, in our tongue, for us to understand and interpret those flavors.
所以,去年,法國和義大利宣稱合作 第一個為黑比諾葡萄測量基因測序 現在有了黑比諾葡萄的完整基因序列 他們有確認了一次,一共29,000個基因 他們發現了能產生不同口味的基因路徑 這個發現很重要 即,這些測出的成份 與我們舌頭上的感受器相匹配 讓這些味道能被我們的舌頭讀取,然後變成特定的口味
They've also discovered that there's a heck of a lot of activity going on producing aroma as well. They've identified areas of vulnerability to disease. They now are understanding, and the work is going on, exactly how this plant works, and we have the capability to know, to read that entire code and understand how it ticks. So, then what do you do? Knowing that we can read it, knowing that we can write it, change it, maybe write its genome from scratch. So, what do you do? Well, one thing you could do is what some people might call Franken-Noir. (Laughter)
他們同樣發現 有些活性物質產生了香氣 他們確認了葡萄易受疾病感染的脆弱點 他們正不斷的進行分析了解, 徹底搞清楚這些植物該如何運作,然後我們就有能力理解、 閱讀完整的基因密碼,理解它如何表達 然後你怎麼做呢? 我們能閱讀它,撰寫它,改變它 也許可以從頭改寫基因,你猜自己會變怎樣? 嗯,可能大家都會叫做法蘭克福-黑比諾 (觀眾笑聲)
We can build a better vine. By the way, just so you know: you get stressed out about genetically modified organisms; there is not one single vine in this valley or anywhere that is not genetically modified. They're not grown from seeds; they're grafted into root stock; they would not exist in nature on their own.
我們能創造更優質的葡萄樹 順帶一提,如你所知 各位對基因改造生物感到緊張 我們不會對在河谷或是自然界的植物 作基因改造 改造的植物不會從種子生長出來,合成基因是被移植到植物體內 而且這些被改造的植物不能在自然界中獨立生存
So, don't worry about, don't stress about that stuff. We've been doing this forever. So, we could, you know, focus on disease resistance; we can go for higher yields without necessarily having dramatic farming techniques to do it, or costs. We could conceivably expand the climate window: we could make Pinot Noir grow maybe in Long Island, God forbid. (Laughter)
不要擔心,不要緊張,我們會一直這麼做 我們會集中研究在葡萄的抗菌力 我們能獲得更高的葡萄產量, 不用依靠神奇的栽培技術,或者大量成本 我們可以有信心的擴大可種植的氣候範圍 我們能讓黑比諾葡萄生長在紐約長島,即使上帝不同意 (觀眾笑聲)
We could produce better flavors and aromas. You want a little more raspberry, a little more chocolate here or there? All of these things could conceivably be done, and I will tell you I'd pretty much bet that it will be done. But there's an ecosystem here. In other words, we're not, sort of, unique little organisms running around; we are part of a big ecosystem.
我們能創造更好的口味和香氣 你想稍微帶點覆盆子口味,或者一點巧克力味? 這些都可以實現, 我打賭這個一定會實現 但是我們有一個生態系統 話句話說,我們不是那種可以到處亂跑的小生命 我們是這個大生態系統中的一部分
In fact -- I'm sorry to inform you -- that inside of your digestive tract is about 10 pounds of microbes which you're circulating through your body quite a bit. Our ocean's teaming with microbes; in fact, when Craig Venter went and sequenced the microbes in the ocean, in the first three months tripled the known species on the planet by discovering all-new microbes in the first 20 feet of water. We now understand that those microbes have more impact on our climate and regulating CO2 and oxygen than plants do, which we always thought oxygenate the atmosphere.
事實上,我得告訴各位 在你的消化道中有約10磅的微生物 它在你的身體中循環, 我們的海洋中存在微生物 事實上,當Craig Venter為海洋微生物做基因測序時 實驗開始的前三個月中,透過在水面下20英尺的觀察 就讓這個星球的已知生物數量增加了3倍 我們現在知道,這些微生物對我們氣候產生的影響比植物更大 調節二氧化碳,氧氣 我們以為植物調節了氣候中的氧氣量
We find microbial life in every part of the planet: in ice, in coal, in rocks, in volcanic vents; it's an amazing thing. But we've also discovered, when it comes to plants, in plants, as much as we understand and are starting to understand their genomes, it is the ecosystem around them, it is the microbes that live in their root systems, that have just as much impact on the character of those plants as the metabolic pathways of the plants themselves.
我們發現在地球的任何一個角落都有微生物 在冰層中,煤中,岩石中,火山口中,非常不可思議 但我們也發現,在植物中 就我們所研究的植物中 它們的周圍同樣存在一個生態系統 微生物生存在他們的根系 這些微生物對植物特性的影響 與植物自身代謝途徑一樣重要
If you take a closer look at a root system, you will find there are many, many, many diverse microbial colonies. This is not big news to viticulturists; they have been, you know, concerned with water and fertilization. And, again, this is, sort of, my notion of shit-against-the-wall pharmacology: you know certain fertilizers make the plant more healthy so you put more in. You don't necessarily know with granularity exactly what organisms are providing what flavors and what characteristics. We can start to figure that out. We all talk about terroir; we worship terroir; we say, Wow, is my terroir great! It's so special. I've got this piece of land and it creates terroir like you wouldn't believe.
如果你仔細觀察植物根部 會發現這兒有很多不同的細菌聚落 這對葡萄栽培者不是什麽大新聞 農夫們專注於葡萄的灌溉問題和肥料問題 而這是另一種我剛所提的"往牆上丟大便"的藥物學手法: 知道某肥料能使植物更健康,然後就會多放一點 其實,你不需要瞭解葡萄顆粒大小的問題 只需要瞭解,葡萄的器官組織提供什麽口味和特性 我們現在開始搞清這個問題 我們都在談論地域,我們推崇肥沃土地 我們說,哇嗚,我的土地超肥沃 我這片土地肥沃到嚇死人
Well, you know, we really, we argue and debate about it -- we say it's climate, it's soil, it's this. Well, guess what? We can figure out what the heck terroir is. It's in there, waiting to be sequenced. There are thousands of microbes there. They're easy to sequence: unlike a human, they, you know, have a thousand, two thousand genes; we can figure out what they are.
不過,現在我們開始爭論於--- 是氣候造成某地適合某植物的生長?還是土地?還是其他東西? 我們能搞清楚,形成特產生產地的原因是什麼 只要等我們作出基因序列即可 這些地方有上千種微生物 他們能很容易的測序,不像人類 他們只有一、兩千種基因 我們能弄清楚這些基因
All we have to do is go around and sample, dig into the ground, find those bugs, sequence them, correlate them to the kinds of characteristics we like and don't like -- that's just a big database -- and then fertilize. And then we understand what is terroir. So, some people will say, Oh, my God, are we playing God? Are we now, if we engineer organisms, are we playing God? And, you know, people would always ask James Watson -- he's not always the most politically correct guy ... (Laughter) ... and they would say, "Are, you know, are you playing God?" And he had the best answer I ever heard to this question: "Well, somebody has to." (Laughter)
我們所需要做的就是,四處走走,取樣,挖土,找到這些蟲子 給它們做基因測序,了解牠們身上的特性是我們想要的還是不想要的 資料庫會非常龐大,然後根據這些資料種植施肥 我們才會知道為什麼會出現這些沃土 有人會說,哦,天哪,我們在當上帝嗎? 如果我們能改變生物基因結構,不就是在當上帝了嗎? 人民可能會問James Watson說: 他在政治方面一直選錯邊站... (觀眾笑聲) 人們會問說:“你是想扮演上帝嗎?” 然後他以我從未聽過的方式回答: “喔,總要有人做吧” (觀眾笑聲)
I consider myself a very spiritual person, and without, you know, the organized religion part, and I will tell you: I don't believe there's anything unnatural. I don't believe that chemicals are unnatural. I told you I'm going to make some of you puke. It's very simple: we don't invent molecules, compounds. They're here. They're in the universe. We reorganize things, we change them around, but we don't make anything unnatural.
我認為我是一個有信仰的人 當然,不是那種有組織的宗教信仰 我告訴你,我不相信非自然的現像 我不認為化學是非自然的 這樣講可能會讓你作嘔 其實很簡單,我們並沒有發明分子或化合物 它們一直存在,它們充斥在這個宇宙裡 我們重新組織它們、稍微改變它們 但我們沒有生產任何非自然的東西
Now, we can create bad impacts -- we can poison ourselves; we can poison the Earth -- but that's just a natural outcome of a mistake we made. So, what's happening today is, Nature is presenting us with a toolbox, and we find that this toolbox is very extensive. There are microbes out there that actually make gasoline, believe it or not. There are microbes, you know -- go back to yeast. These are chemical factories; the most sophisticated chemical factories are provided by Nature, and we now can use those. There also is a set of rules.
我們目前有做出一些負面行為 我們正在污染地球 但基因工作方面的失敗品還是自然的產物 今日事情是怎麼發展的,自然給我們一個工具箱 這個工具箱裡工具眾多 信不信由你,我們有能產生油氣的細菌 這些微生物....就像酵母 它們都是個小小的化學工廠 大自然創造了這些最有效率的化學工廠 我們現在能夠使用它 同時有一些規則
Nature will not allow you to -- we could engineer a grape plant, but guess what. We can't make the grape plant produce babies. Nature has put a set of rules out there. We can work within the rules; we can't break the rules; we're just learning what the rules are. I just ask the question, if you could cure all disease -- if you could make disease go away, because we understand how it actually works, if we could end hunger by being able to create nutritious, healthy plants that grow in very hard-to-grow environments, if we could create clean and plentiful energy -- we, right in the labs at Synthetic Genomics, have single-celled organisms that are taking carbon dioxide and producing a molecule very similar to gasoline. So, carbon dioxide -- the stuff we want to get rid of -- not sugar, not anything. Carbon dioxide, a little bit of sunlight, you end up with a lipid that is highly refined. We could solve our energy problems; we can reduce CO2,; we could clean up our oceans; we could make better wine. If we could, would we? Well, you know, I think the answer is very simple: working with Nature, working with this tool set that we now understand, is the next step in humankind's evolution.
有些是自然界不允許的行為 我們能改變葡萄的基因,但想想 我們不能讓葡萄生產嬰兒 自然有一些法則 我們能在規則內運作,但不能打破規則 我們正在學習這些規則是什麽 我只想問,如果你能治癒一切疾病 如果你能驅除一切疾病 因為我們瞭解疾病的所有一切 如果我們能通過生產營養的、健康的植物來終結饑荒 同時能在惡劣條件下種植 如果我們能創造乾淨和豐沛的能源 在Synthetic Genomics的實驗室中 我們有一種單細胞生物,能攝取二氧化碳 並生產一種類似油氣的分子 是二氧化碳喔----是我們想要擺脫的麻煩,而不是糖或者其他什麽 二氧化碳,加上一點陽光 你能得到想要的類脂化合物 我們能解決能源問題,我們能減少二氧化碳 我們能淨化海洋,我們能做優質的酒 如果我們都能做到,那我們該做嗎? 嗯,我認為這個問題很簡單 和自然共處,使用這些我們瞭解的工具, 是人類進化的下一個階段
And all I can tell you is, stay healthy for 20 years. If you can stay healthy for 20 years, you'll see 150, maybe 300.
我想告訴你的是,請平安健康的再活20年 如果你能再活20年,你就能活到150歲,甚至300歲
Thank you.
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