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JenniferKahn_2016-_基因剪辑现在可以永远改变整个种群_
So this is a talk about gene drives, but I'm going to start by telling you a brief story. 这是一个有关于基因驱动的演讲, 想象新的性状并没有一个像蚊子不会飞那样的
gene:n.基因;遗传基因;遗传因子;
20 years ago, a biologist named Anthony James got obsessed with the idea of making mosquitos that didn't transmit malaria . 20年前,一位名为安东尼·詹姆斯的 生物学家正致力于培育不会传播 疟疾的蚊子。
biologist:n.生物学家; obsessed:v.使痴迷;使迷恋;使着迷;(obsess的过去式和过去分词) mosquitos:n.蚊子(mosquito的变形); transmit:v.传送;发射;播送;传播;传染; malaria:n.[内科]疟疾;瘴气;
It was a great idea, and pretty much a complete failure. 想法很好,但是结果是失败的。
For one thing , it turned out to be really hard to make a malaria-resistant mosquito. 首先,让蚊子不携带疟疾 是非常困难的。
For one thing:首先;一则;
James managed it, finally , just a few years ago, by adding some genes that make it impossible for the malaria parasite to survive inside the mosquito. 最终,詹姆斯在几年之前 这种情况不再是理所当然的了。 蚊子抵抗疟原虫的寄生成为可能。
finally:adv.终于;最终;(用于列举)最后;彻底地; genes:n.基因;(gene的复数) parasite:n.寄生虫;食客;
But that just created another problem. 但是接下来还有一个问题。
Now that you've got a malaria-resistant mosquito, how do you get it to replace all the malaria-carrying mosquitos? 我们有了抵抗疟疾的蚊子, 要如何替换那些携带疟疾的蚊子呢？
There are a couple options , but plan A was basically to breed up a bunch of the new genetically-engineered mosquitos release them into the wild and hope that they pass on their genes. 有很多方案, 方案一主要依靠培育的办法, 向大自然中释放一群新型的 经过基因改造的蚊子, 寄希望于它们大量繁殖,稀释原来的基因。
options:n.选择; v.得到或获准进行选择; (option的三单形式) basically:adv.主要地,基本上; breed:v.繁殖;孕育;培育(动植物);导致;以…方式教育;n.品种; a bunch of:一群;一束;一堆; release:v.释放;发射;让与;允许发表;n.释放;发布;让与;
The problem was that you'd have to release literally 10 times the number of native mosquitos to work. 可是问题在于差不多要释放 10倍于原来蚊子数量的转基因蚊子才有效果。
literally:adv.按字面:字面上:确实地: native:adj.本国的;土著的;天然的;与生俱来的;天赋的;n.本地人;土产;当地居民;
So in a village with 10,000 mosquitos, you release an extra 100,000. 如果一个小镇上有一万只蚊子, 就要释放十万只转基因蚊子。
extra:adj.额外的:n.额外的事物:adv.额外:另外:
As you might guess, this was not a very popular strategy with the villagers. 可以想象 小镇村民肯定不会接受这个方案。
strategy:n.策略;行动计划;部署;战略;
(Laughter) （笑声）
Then, last January, Anthony James got an email from a biologist named Ethan Bier . 后来,今年一月的时候,安东尼詹姆斯收到了一封来自于 一名叫伊森比尔的生物学家的邮件。
Bier:n.棺材;尸架;棺材架;
Bier said that he and his grad student Valentino Gantz had stumbled on a tool that could not only guarantee that a particular genetic trait would be inherited , but that it would spread incredibly quickly. 比尔说他和他的研究生瓦伦蒂诺·甘茨 无意中发现了一种工具, 不仅可以保证特定的基因会被遗传, 而且基因传播的速度难以置信的快。
grad:n.毕业生;校友; stumbled:v.绊脚;跌跌撞撞地走;蹒跚而行;(stumble的过去分词和过去式) guarantee:n.保证;担保;保证人;保证书;抵押品;v.保证;担保; genetic:adj.基因的;遗传学的; trait:n.特性,特点;品质;少许; inherited:v.继承(金钱、财产等);接替(责任等);继任;(inherit的过去式和过去分词) incredibly:adv.难以置信地;非常地;
If they were right, it would basically solve the problem that he and James had been working on for 20 years. 如果他们是对的,就从基本上解决了这个 詹姆斯潜心研究20年的问题。
As a test, they engineered two mosquitos to carry the anti-malaria gene and also this new tool, a gene drive, which I'll explain in a minute. 实验中需要两只携带抗疟疾基因的蚊子, 以及新的工具,即基因驱动装置, 一会儿我会详细介绍。
Finally, they set it up so that any mosquitos that had inherited the anti-malaria gene wouldn't have the usual white eyes, but would instead have red eyes. 实验的设计是任何携带 抗疟疾基因的蚊子 将拥有红色的眼睛,而不是常见的白色眼睛。
That was pretty much just for convenience so they could tell just at a glance which was which. 这只是为了更好的通过肉眼 就可以区分它们的基因携带情况。
convenience:n.方便;便利;适宜;便利的事物(或设施); glance:v.浏览;扫视;瞥一眼;匆匆一看;n.一瞥;扫视;匆匆一看;
So they took their two anti-malarial , red-eyed mosquitos and put them in a box with 30 ordinary white-eyed ones, and let them breed. 研究者把两只抗疟疾红眼蚊子 放入一个有30只普通白眼蚊子的盒子中, 让它们自由繁殖。
anti-malarial:抗疟; red-eyed:adj.红眼的;眼圈哭红的;
In two generations, those had produced 3,800 grandchildren. 两代繁殖之后,培养了3800个子二代。
That is not the surprising part. 这并不是让人惊讶的部分。
This is the surprising part: given that you started with just two red-eyed mosquitos and 30 white-eyed ones, you expect mostly white-eyed descendants . 下面才是惊人的部分: 如果一开始只有两只红眼蚊子, 三十只白眼蚊子, 它们自由繁殖的后代大多数应该是白眼。
descendants:n.后裔;后代;子孙;派生物;(descendant的复数)
Instead, when James opened the box, all 3,800 mosquitos had red eyes. 然而当詹姆斯打开盒子, 3800只蚊子全部都是红眼。
When I asked Ethan Bier about this moment, he became so excited that he was literally shouting into the phone. 当我问伊森比尔这一时刻的感受时, 他太兴奋了,在电话里一直叫喊着。
That's because getting only red-eyed mosquitos violates a rule that is the absolute cornerstone of biology , 因为只得到了红色眼睛的蚊子 打破了生物学的绝对基本定律,
violates:违反;亵渎;侵犯; cornerstone:n.基础;柱石;地基; biology:n.(一个地区全部的)生物;生物学;
Mendelian genetics . 孟德尔遗传学定律。
genetics:n.遗传学;
I'll keep this quick, but Mendelian genetics says when a male and a female mate , their baby inherits half of its DNA from each parent. 这部分我大概讲一下, 孟德尔遗传学认为当雄性和雌性交配, 它们的后代会遗传父母各一半的基因。
female:adj.女性的;雌性的;柔弱的,柔和的;n.女人;[动]雌性动物; mate:n.助手,大副; v.使配对; inherits:v.继承;经遗传获得;接替(责任等);继任;(inherit的第三人称单数)
So if our original mosquito was aa and our new mosquito is aB, where B is the anti-malarial gene, the babies should come out in four permutations : aa, aB, aa, Ba. 所以如果本来蚊子的基因是aa转基因蚊子的基因是aB, B是抗疟疾基因, 后代应该呈现下面四种基因组合:
original:n.原件;原作;原物;原型;adj.原始的;最初的;独创的;新颖的; permutations:n.[数]排列(permutation的复数);
Instead, with the new gene drive, they all came out aB. 然而使用了新的基因驱动之后, 它们全变成了aB型。
Biologically , that shouldn't even be possible. 从生物的角度说这应该是不可能的。
Biologically:adv.生物学上,生物学地;
So what happened? 到底发生了什么呢？
The first thing that happened was the arrival of a gene-editing tool known as CRISPR in 2012. 首先, 2012年一种叫做CRISPR的基因修改工具进入了人们的视野。
Many of you have probably heard about CRISPR, so I'll just say briefly that CRISPR is a tool that allows researchers to edit genes very precisely, easily and quickly. 很多人可能听说过CRISPR, 简而言之CRISPR是一种允许研究者 快速,精准,简单地修改基因的工具。
briefly:adv.简要地;简短地;暂时地; edit:v.编辑;剪辑;编纂;编选;n.编辑[校订]工作;
It does this by harnessing a mechanism that already existed in bacteria . 这种工具利用了一种存在于细菌中的机制。
harnessing:v.给(马等)装上挽具(harness的现在分词);治理,利用; mechanism:n.机制;原理,途径;进程;机械装置;技巧; bacteria:n.[微]细菌;
Basically, there's a protein that acts like a scissors and cuts the DNA, and there's an RNA molecule that directs the scissors to any point on the genome you want. 也就是一个扮演了DNA剪刀角色的 蛋白质, 在一个RNA分子的指示下 剪刀可以作用于任何目标基因组。
protein:n.蛋白质; scissors:n.剪刀;v.剪断;删除;(scissor的第三人称单数和复数) molecule:n.[化学]分子;微小颗粒,微粒; genome:n.基因组;染色体组;
The result is basically a word processor for genes. 就像是一个基因文字处理系统。
word processor:na.[计]文字处理器;
You can take an entire gene out, put one in, or even edit just a single letter within a gene. 你可以取出整段基因,再加入一个进行替换, 甚至可以编辑基因中的单个碱基。
And you can do it in nearly any species . 这个工具几乎适用于所有物种。
species:n.[生物]物种;种类;
OK, remember how I said that gene drives originally had two problems? 前面我提过基因驱动有两大难题。
originally:adv.原来;起初;
The first was that it was hard to engineer a mosquito to be malaria-resistant. 首先是如何培育一只 抗疟疾的蚊子。
That's basically gone now, thanks to CRISPR. 多亏了CRISPR,我们解决了这个难题。
But the other problem was logistical . 但是第二个问题随之而来。
logistical:adj.后勤方面的;运筹的,逻辑的;
How do you get your trait to spread? 如何让这个性状得以传播？
This is where it gets clever. 这就是这个装置精巧的地方。
A couple years ago, a biologist at Harvard named Kevin Esvelt wondered what would happen if you made it so that CRISPR inserted not only your new gene but also the machinery that does the cutting and pasting . 几年前,哈佛大学的一名叫做凯文·恩斯福尔特的生物学家 探究如果不仅仅在 新基因中使用CRISPR,在剪切复制机制中 也使用CRISPR,会发生什么情况。
Harvard:n.哈佛大学;哈佛大学学生; you made it:你做到了;你成功了; machinery:n.机械;机器;机构;机械装置; pasting:n.裱糊,涂;粘合;
In other words, what if CRISPR also copied and pasted itself. 换言之,如果CRISPR自己也进行复制粘贴会如何。
what if:如果…怎么办? pasted:adj.膏的(胶的;浆糊的);
You'd end up with a perpetual motion machine for gene editing . 我们就得到了永动的基因修改工具。
perpetual motion:n.永动; editing:v.编辑,校订(文章、书籍等);编选;(edit的现在分词)
And that's exactly what happened. 事实果真如此。
This CRISPR gene drive that Esvelt created not only guarantees that a trait will get passed on, but if it's used in the germline cells, it will automatically copy and paste your new gene into both chromosomes of every single individual . 恩斯福尔特创造的CRISPR基因驱动装置 不仅保证了性状的传播, 而且当它作用于生殖细胞的时候, 它会在每个个体的两条染色体上 自动复制粘贴新的基因。
guarantees:v.保证(guarantee的第三人称单数); n.保证,[法]担保; germline:种系; automatically:adv.自动地;机械地;无意识地;adj.不经思索的; chromosomes:n.[遗][细胞][染料]染色体(chromosome的复数形式); individual:n.个人;有个性的人;adj.单独的;个别的;
It's like a global search and replace, or in science terms, it makes a heterozygous trait homozygous . 就像是全面检索并替换的功能, 用学术术语来说,就是杂合子性状纯合化。
global:adj.全球的;总体的;球形的; heterozygous:adj.杂合的; homozygous:adj.纯合子的;同型结合的;
So, what does this mean? 那么这意味着什么呢？
For one thing, it means we have a very powerful, but also somewhat alarming new tool. 首先,我们拥有了一个很强大, 但同时也令人担忧的新工具。
somewhat:n.几分;某物;adv.有点;多少;几分;稍微;
Up until now, the fact that gene drives didn't work very well was actually kind of a relief . 目前为止,基因驱动还并不是很有效, 这反而让我们感到欣慰。
relief:n.救济;减轻,解除;安慰;浮雕;
Normally when we mess around with an organism 's genes, we make that thing less evolutionarily fit. 通常,当我们对有机体的基因进行研究时, 会研究一些进化中不太可能发生的改变。
Normally:adv.正常地;通常地,一般地; mess around with:瞎搞;乱动;与…勾搭; organism:n.生物;有机体;有机组织;(尤指)微生物; evolutionarily:进化上;
So biologists can make all the mutant fruit flies they want without worrying about it. 生物学家可以随心所欲培育变异果蝇, 根本不用担心任何后果。
biologists:n.生物学家(biologist的复数); mutant:n.突变体;突变异种;adj.突变的;
If some escape, natural selection just takes care of them. 就算有些逃出了实验室,也无法在自然界中存活和繁殖。
natural selection:n.自然选择;物竞天择;
What's remarkable and powerful and frightening about gene drives is that that will no longer be true. 基因驱动的强大和可怕之处在于 这种情况不再是理所当然的了。
remarkable:adj.卓越的;非凡的;值得注意的; frightening:adj.可怕的;骇人的;引起恐惧的;v.使惊吓;使惊恐(frighten的现在分词)
Assuming that your trait does not have a big evolutionary handicap , like a mosquito that can't fly, the CRISPR-based gene drive will spread the change relentlessly until it is in every single individual in the population. 想象新的性状并没有一个像蚊子不会飞那样的 很大的进化缺陷, 基于CRISPR的基因驱动将很快地 让每一个个体拥有这种性状。
Assuming:conj.假设…为真; adj.傲慢的; v.假定; (assume的现在分词) evolutionary:adj.进化的;发展的;渐进的; handicap:n.障碍;不利条件,不利的因素;vt.妨碍,阻碍;使不利; relentlessly:adv.残酷地,无情地;
Now, it isn't easy to make a gene drive that works that well, but James and Esvelt think that we can. 目前为止基因驱动技术还并不完善, 但是詹姆斯和恩斯福尔特相信最终我们可以做到。
The good news is that this opens the door to some remarkable things. 好消息是它拥有美好的前景。
If you put an anti-malarial gene drive in just 1 percent of Anopheles mosquitoes , the species that transmits malaria, researchers estimate that it would spread to the entire population in a year. 只要在1%的疟蚊身上使用 含有抗疟疾基因的基因驱动装置, 疟蚊就是传播疟疾的蚊子, 研究者预测一年之内所有疟蚊都会获得新的基因。
Anopheles:n.疟蚊; mosquitoes:n.蚊子(mosquito的复数); transmits:v.传送;发射;播送;传播;传染;(transmit的第三人称单数) estimate:v.估计;估算;估价;n.估价;(对大小、数量、成本等的)估计;估计的成本;
So in a year, you could virtually eliminate malaria. 所以一年之内就可以根除疟疾。
virtually:adv.事实上,几乎;实质上; eliminate:v.消除;排除;
In practice , we're still a few years out from being able to do that, but still, a 1,000 children a day die of malaria. 实际上我们还需要几年时间来进行试验, 但是目前,每天仍有1000个孩子死于疟疾。
In practice:在实践中;实际上,事实上;
In a year, that number could be almost zero. 一年之内这个数字可能几乎下降为0。
The same goes for dengue fever , chikungunya , yellow fever . 登革热、基孔肯雅热、黄热病也可以同样被根除。
dengue fever:登革热; chikungunya:基孔肯雅病; yellow fever:n.黄热病(热带疾病,可导致死亡);
And it gets better. 这项技术会越来越成熟。
Say you want to get rid of an invasive species, like get Asian carp out of the Great Lakes. 如果你想根除入侵物种, 比如五大湖中的亚洲鲤鱼。
invasive:adj.侵略性的;攻击性的; carp:vi.吹毛求疵;n.鲤鱼;
All you have to do is release a gene drive that makes the fish produce only male offspring . 只要使用基因驱动 让鱼群只能繁衍雄性后代。
offspring:n.后代,子孙;产物;
In a few generations, there'll be no females left, no more carp. 几代之后没有了雌性鲤鱼,鲤鱼种群就会随之消失。
In theory, this means we could restore hundreds of native species that have been pushed to the brink . 理论上我们可以通过这个方式保护 上百种濒临灭绝的本地物种。
restore:v.恢复;修复;恢复(某种情况或感受);使复原; brink:n.(峭壁的)边缘;
OK, that's the good news, this is the bad news. 上面都是好的部分, 下面说说负面影响。
Gene drives are so effective that even an accidental release could change an entire species, and often very quickly. 基因驱动的效率太高, 以至于不经意释放的样本都可能在短时间内引起整个种群的 巨大改变。
effective:adj.有效的,起作用的;实际的,实在的;给人深刻印象; accidental:n.偶然;[乐]临时符;adj.不测的;非本质的;
Anthony James took good precautions . 詹姆斯做好了预防措施。
precautions:n.防范;预防措施;预警(precaution的复数);
He bred his mosquitos in a bio-containment lab and he also used a species that's not native to the US so that even if some did escape, they'd just die off, there'd be nothing for them to mate with. 他在一个生物控制实验室繁殖蚊子, 并且蚊子也并不是美国本土的种类, 所以就算蚊子逃跑了, 也会因为没有办法交配而灭绝。
bred:v.交配繁殖;培育(动植物);孕育;导致;(breed的过去分词和过去式)
But it's also true that if a dozen Asian carp with the all-male gene drive accidentally got carried from the Great Lakes back to Asia, they could potentially wipe out the native Asian carp population. 但是如果有一些携带只繁殖雄性后代基因驱动的亚洲鲤鱼 偶然从五大湖被带回了亚洲, 这可能会让整个亚洲鲤鱼种群灭绝。
accidentally:adv.意外地:偶然,偶然地; potentially:adv.可能地,潜在地; wipe:v.擦;抹;拭;消除;n.擦;拭;揩;(湿)抹布;
And that's not so unlikely , given how connected our world is. 鉴于现在世界联系的紧密程度,这是很有可能的。
unlikely:adj.不大可能发生的;非心目中的;非想象的;难以相信的;
In fact, it's why we have an invasive species problem. 这也是为什么会出现物种入侵。
And that's fish. 这是鱼类的情况。
Things like mosquitos and fruit flies, there's literally no way to contain them. 而像蚊子和果蝇一类的生物, 它们经常漂洋过海,
They cross borders and oceans all the time. 基本上是没有办法限制它们的。
OK, the other piece of bad news is that a gene drive might not stay confined to what we call the target species. 另外一个坏消息, 基因驱动不一定被限制在 我们所谓的靶物种上。
confined:adj.狭窄的; v.限制(confine的过去式和过去分词);
That's because of gene flow, which is a fancy way of saying that neighboring species sometimes interbreed . 这是源于基因流动, 基因流动意思是相似的物种 偶尔会彼此杂交。
fancy:n.幻想; adj.想象的; v.想象; neighboring:adj.邻近的;接壤的;v.邻近;使接近;位于…附近;(neighbor的现在分词) interbreed:vt.异种交配;混种;使品种间杂交;vi.异种交配;混种;杂种繁殖;
If that happens, it's possible a gene drive could cross over, like Asian carp could infect some other kind of carp. 如果发生了杂交,有可能基因驱动会穿过物种的限制, 比如亚洲鲤鱼可能会影响其他的鲤鱼种类。
infect:v.传染;使携带病菌;使感染(计算机病毒);
That's not so bad if your drive just promotes a trait, like eye color. 如果基因驱动只是改变了一个性状,比如眼睛颜色,可能还好。
promotes:v.促进;推动;促销;推销;提升;晋升;(promote的第三人称单数)
In fact, there's a decent chance that we'll see a wave of very weird fruit flies in the near future. 而实际上,近期很可能将会有 大量奇怪的果蝇被培育出来。
decent:adj.正派的;得体的;相当好的; weird:adj.奇怪的;奇异的;离奇的;n.命运;宿命;命运女神;
But it could be a disaster if your drive is deigned to eliminate the species entirely. 不过如果基因驱动 被用于毁灭物种,可能会导致大的灾难。
disaster:n.灾难,灾祸;不幸; deigned:vi.屈尊;vt.赐予;
The last worrisome thing is that the technology to do this, to genetically engineer an organism and include a gene drive, is something that basically any lab in the world can do. 更为可怕的是基因驱动的技术, 这种能够培育含有基因驱动的有机体的技术, 基本上在世界上任何一个实验室都可以做到。
worrisome:adj.令人烦恼的,令人不安的;麻烦的; technology:n.技术;工艺;术语; genetically:adv.从遗传学角度;从基因方面;
An undergraduate can do it. 本科生就可以做到。
undergraduate:n.本科生;
A talented high schooler with some equipment can do it. 甚至有天赋的高中生在有设备的情况下都可以做到。
Now, I'm guessing that this sounds terrifying . 这就很可怕了。
terrifying:adj.令人恐惧的;骇人的;极大的;v.使害怕,使恐怖;(terrify的现在分词)
(Laughter) （笑声）
Interestingly though, nearly every scientist I talk to seemed to think that gene drives were not actually that frightening or dangerous. 有趣的是,几乎每一个和我探讨基因驱动的科学家 都不认为基因驱动实际上那么可怕和危险。
Interestingly:adv.有趣地;
Partly because they believe that scientists will be very cautious and responsible about using them. 一部分原因是他们相信科学家们 使用这个技术时都会非常小心谨慎。
cautious:adj.谨慎的;十分小心的; responsible:adj.负责的,可靠的;有责任的;
(Laughter) （笑声）
So far, that's been true. 目前为止确实如此。
But gene drives also have some actual limitations . 不过基因驱动也有一些实际的限制。
limitations:n.局限性;(限制)因素;边界(limitation的复数形式);
So for one thing, they work only in sexually reproducing species. 首先它只能应用于有性生殖的物种。
sexually:adv.性,性欲 reproducing:v.复制;繁殖(reproduce的ing形式);重述;
So thank goodness, they can't be used to engineer viruses or bacteria. 所以谢天谢地,它们并不能用在细菌和病毒的培育上。
Also, the trait spreads only with each successive generation. 其次,性状只有在不停繁衍下才会传播。
successive:adj.连续的;继承的;依次的;接替的;
So changing or eliminating a population is practical only if that species has a fast reproductive cycle, like insects or maybe small vertebrates like mice or fish. 所以只有在繁殖周期很短的物种中 改变或者灭绝种群才是可能的。 比如昆虫或者类似于鼠类或者鱼类的小型脊椎动物。
eliminating:v.排除;清除;消除;淘汰;(eliminate的现在分词) practical:adj.实际的;真实的;客观存在的;n.实习课;实践课; reproductive:adj.生殖的;再生的;复制的; vertebrates:n.[脊椎]脊椎动物(vertebrate的复数);
In elephants or people, it would take centuries for a trait to spread widely enough to matter. 对于大象或者人类,可能需要几百年, 改变的性状才可能传播的足够广。
Also, even with CRISPR, it's not that easy to engineer a truly devastating trait. 另外,就算有CRISPR,想要制造一个真正可以引发灭绝的性状也不是简单的事。
devastating:adj.毁灭性的; v.毁灭; (devastate的现在分词)
Say you wanted to make a fruit fly that feeds on ordinary fruit instead of rotting fruit, with the aim of sabotaging American agriculture. 比如你想制造一种果蝇, 它们以普通水果为食,而不是腐烂的水果, 打算以此摧毁美国的农业。
fruit fly:n.果蝇;实蝇; sabotaging:v.蓄意破坏;刻意阻碍;妨碍;捣乱(sabotage的现在分词)
First, you'd have to figure out which genes control what the fly wants to eat, which is already a very long and complicated project. 首先你要搞清楚, 哪个基因控制果蝇的择食, 这已经是很复杂的项目了。
complicated:adj.复杂的;难懂的;v.使复杂化;(complicate的过去分词和过去式)
Then you'd have to alter those genes to change the fly's behavior to whatever you'd want it to be, which is an even longer and more complicated project. 接下来你要根据你的想法通过改变基因 去改变果蝇的习性, 这将是更加复杂的项目。
alter:v.更改;修改(衣服使更合身);
And it might not even work, because the genes that control behavior are complex . 甚至可能压根儿没什么效果, 因为基因对于行为的控制是非常复杂的。
complex:adj.复杂的;合成的;n.复合体;综合设施;
So if you're a terrorist and have to choose between starting a grueling basic research program that will require years of meticulous lab work and still might not pan out, or just blowing stuff up? 所以如果你是一个恐怖分子, 你会选择开始一个耗时多年的 艰苦卓绝的也许还没有结果的实验, 还是直接选择炸毁目的地？
grueling:adj.累人的;紧张的;使极度疲劳的; meticulous:adj.一丝不苟的;小心翼翼的;拘泥小节的; stuff:n.东西:物品:基本特征:v.填满:装满:标本:
You'll probably choose the later. 多半是后者。
This is especially true because at least in theory, it should be pretty easy to build what's called a reversal drive. 而且至少在理论上, 制造一个逆转驱动装置也应该很简单。
especially:adv.尤其;特别;格外;十分; reversal:n.逆转;[摄]反转;[法]撤销;
That's one that basically overwrites the change made by the first gene drive. 这样就可以覆盖第一个基因驱动进行的改变。
overwrites:vt.重写; vi.写得过多或过长; n.重写; (美)代理佣金;
So if you don't like the effects of a change, you can just release a second drive that will cancel it out, at least in theory. 所以如果你对于改变的结果不满意, 启动第二个装置取消改变, 至少理论上是可行的。
OK, so where does this leave us? 那么这一切到底告诉了我们什么呢？
We now have the ability to change entire species at will. 我们现在可以随意改变整个种群。
Should we? 是这样么？
Are we gods now? 我们扮演上帝的角色了么？
I'm not sure I'd say that. 我不这么认为。
But I would say this: first, some very smart people are even now debating how to regulate gene drives. 我想说的是: 首先,很多睿智的人 现在已经开始讨论如何规范基因驱动。
debating:v.讨论,辩论;仔细考虑;思考;盘算;(debate的现在分词) regulate:v.调节;控制;
At the same time , some other very smart people are working hard to create safeguards , like gene drives that self-regulate or peter out after a few generations. 与此同时另外一些聪明的人 开始制定安全保护措施, 比如让基因驱动自我调控,或者在经过几代之后逐渐消失。
At the same time:同时;另一方面;与此同时; safeguards:n.保障措施; v.[安全]保护; self-regulate:自我调节
That's great. 这是很好的。
But this technology still requires a conversation. 但是这项技术仍然需要更多讨论。
And given the nature of gene drives, that conversation has to be global. 而且鉴于基因驱动的本质, 全球都应该参与到讨论之中。
What if Kenya wants to use a drive but Tanzania doesn't? 如果肯尼亚想使用一个基因驱动但坦桑尼亚不想怎么办？
Who decides whether to release a gene drive that can fly? 谁来决定可以广泛传播的基因驱动什么时候释放？
I don't have the answer to that question. 我不知道答案。
All we can do going forward, I think, is talk honestly about the risks and benefits and take responsibility for our choices. 接下来我们能做的 是实事求是的讨论利弊, 并且对我们做出的选择负责。
By that I mean, not just the choice to use a gene drive, but also the choice not to use one. 我的意思是,不仅仅是选择使用基因驱动, 也可以选择禁用它。
Humans have a tendency to assume that the safest option is to preserve the status quo . 人类倾向的最安全的方案 就是维持现状。
tendency:n.倾向,趋势;癖好; assume:v.承担;假定;采取;呈现; preserve:vt.保存;保护;维持;腌;禁猎;n.保护区;禁猎地;加工成的食品; status quo:n.现状;原来的状况;
But that's not always the case. 但是事实往往不一定如此。
Gene drives have risks, and those need to be discussed, but malaria exists now and kills 1,000 people a day. 基因驱动确实有风险,也需要认真讨论, 但是疟疾现在每天都夺去1000个人的生命。
To combat it, we spray pesticides that do grave damage to other species, including amphibians and birds. 为了对抗疟疾我们播撒了对于其他物种,包括两栖类和鸟类 都伤害巨大的杀虫剂。
combat:v.战斗;防止;减轻;与…搏斗;n.战斗;搏斗;打仗; spray:n.喷雾; v.喷; pesticides:n.[农药]农药;[农药]杀虫剂(pesticide的复数); grave:adj.重大的;严肃的;黯淡的;n.墓穴,坟墓;死亡;v.雕刻;铭记; amphibians:n.两栖动物;[古生]两栖类;
So when you hear about gene drives in the coming months, and trust me, you will be hearing about them, remember that. 所以如果接下来的几个月你听到了基因驱动, 你们一定会听到的, 请记住我说的话。
It can be frightening to act, but sometimes, not acting is worse. 行动意味着风险, 但是有时无动于衷更加致命。
(Applause) （掌声）