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RobKnight_2014-_微生物“成就”你我！_
We humans have always been very concerned about the health of our bodies, but we haven't always been that good at figuring out what's important. 身为人类,我们时常会关心个人的健康问题, 却总是找错重点。
concerned:adj.有关的;关心的;v.关心;与…有关;(concern的过去时和过去分词)
Take the ancient Egyptians , for example: very concerned about the body parts they thought they'd need in the afterlife , but they left some parts out. 以古埃及人为例:他们非常重视 身体的各个部位,因为这将是他们来世的躯体, 但仍会有的放矢。
Egyptians:n.埃及人;埃及语;(Egyptian的复数) afterlife:n.来世;死后的生活;
This part, for example. 以此为例。
Although they very carefully preserved the stomach, the lungs, the liver , and so forth, they just mushed up the brain, drained it out through the nose, and threw it away, which makes sense, really, because what does a brain do for us anyway? 古埃及人会谨慎处理胃、肺 肝等器官, 但对于头部,他们只会冲洗鼻腔, 然后就随便处理掉了, 这样的作法合理的, 想想大脑对我们的幫助为何就知道了？
preserved:v.保护;维护;保留;保存;保养;(preserve的过去式和过去分词) liver:n.肝;(动物供食用的)肝; mushed:v.使成软糊状;坐狗拉的雪橇旅行;(mush的过去分词) drained:adj.精疲力竭; v.排空; (drain的过去分词和过去式)
But imagine if there were a kind of neglected organ in our bodies that weighed just as much as the brain and in some ways was just as important to who we are, but we knew so little about and treated with such disregard . 但试想如果我们所忽视的一个体内器官 它的重量恰巧和大脑相同 决定我们会成为怎样的人, 但因为我们的无知而被打入冷宫。
neglected:adj.被忽略的; v.忽略; (neglect的过去分词和过去式) organ:n.[生物]器官;机构;风琴;管风琴;嗓音; treated:v.以…态度对待;把…看作;(treat的过去分词和过去式) disregard:vt.忽视;不理;漠视;不顾;n.忽视;不尊重;
And imagine if, through new scientific advances, we were just beginning to understand its importance to how we think of ourselves. 再试想,如果随着科技的不断进步 我们开始注意到 原来它对我们如此重要。
scientific:adj.科学的,系统的;
Wouldn't you want to know more about it? 你还会继续对它视而不见吗？
Well, it turns out that we do have something just like that: our gut , or rather, its microbes . 我想,接下来你可能会: 开始关注我们的肠道 或更多东西,比如肠道中的微生物。
gut:n.勇气;肠道;内脏;v.损毁内部;取出…的内脏;adj.非理性的;本能的 microbes:n.细菌,[微]微生物;微生物类(microbe的复数形式);
But it's not just the microbes in our gut that are important. 当然不是只有肠道中的微生物值得关注。
Microbes all over our body turn out to be really critical to a whole range of differences that make different people who we are. 它无处不在,游走于我们体内, 是造成人体差异, 形成不同个体的关键因素。
critical:adj.鉴定的;[核]临界的;批评的,爱挑剔的;危险的;决定性的;评论的;
So for example, have you ever noticed how some people get bitten by mosquitos way more often than others? 举例来说,你有没有发现 有些人就是特别容易被蚊虫叮？
mosquitos:n.蚊子(mosquito的变形);
It turns out that everyone's anecdotal experience out camping is actually true. 事实上每个人的露营经验谈都没有造假。
anecdotal:adj.轶事的;轶事一样的;多轶事的;
For example, I seldom get bitten by mosquitos, but my partner Amanda attracts them in droves, and the reason why is that we have different microbes on our skin that produce different chemicals that the mosquitos detect . 拿我来说,蚊子很少叮我, 但我的太太阿曼达是牠们的最爱, 原因就是我俩表皮上的微生物形成了 不同的化学物质,导致蚊虫的反应不同。
chemicals:n.化学制品;化学品;(chemical的复数) detect:vt.察觉;发现;探测;
Now, microbes are also really important in the field of medicine. 目前,微生物对医疗也发挥着重要作用。
in the field of:在…方面,在…领域;
So, for example, what microbes you have in your gut determine whether particular painkillers are toxic to your liver. 比如,肠道中的微生物能判断 某些止痛剂对肝脏是否有毒副作用。
determine:v.决定;确定;测定;查明;形成;影响;裁决;安排; painkillers:n.止痛药(painkiller的复数形式); toxic:adj.有毒的;中毒的;
They also determine whether or not other drugs will work for your heart condition. 它们还能判断其它药物是否会影响你的心脏功能。
whether or not:是否…;
And, if you're a fruit fly , at least, your microbes determine who you want to have sex with. 如果你是只果蝇,微生物至少 能决定你向往的交配对象。
fruit fly:n.果蝇;实蝇;
We haven't demonstrated this in humans yet but maybe it's just a matter of time before we find out. (Laughter) 当然对于人类尚未明断 但相信有一天我们会找到答案（笑声）
demonstrated:v.证明;证实;论证;说明;表达;(demonstrate的过去分词和过去式)
So microbes are performing a huge range of functions. 所以,微生物的作用很多。
performing:adj.表演的;演奏的;v.做;执行;演出;运转(perform的现在分词)
They help us digest our food. 它们有助于食物消化。
digest:n.摘要;文摘;概要;汇编;v.消化;领会;领悟;理解;
They help educate our immune system . 可以锤炼我们的免疫系统。
immune system:n.免疫系统;
They help us resist disease , and they may even be affecting our behavior. 还能幫助我们抵抗疾病, 甚至会影响我们的行为。
resist:v.抵制;阻挡;反抗;回击;抵抗;忍住;n.防染剂;防蚀用涂料;防腐剂; disease:n.病,[医]疾病;弊病;vt.传染;使…有病;
So what would a map of all these microbial communities look like? 那么这些微生物群落有着怎样的结构呢？
microbial:adj.微生物的;由细菌引起的; communities:n.社区;社会;团体;共有(community的复数)
Well, it wouldn't look exactly like this, but it's a helpful guide for understanding biodiversity . 我想不太会像这样, 但我们可以藉此了解生物多样性。
biodiversity:n.生物多样性;
Different parts of the world have different landscapes of organisms that are immediately characteristic of one place or another or another. 不同的地方正因为 有了不同的生物体 才赋予了他们独有的特色。
landscapes:n.风景; v.从事庭园设计; organisms:n.[生物]生物体(organism的复数);[生物]有机体; characteristic:n.特征;特点;品质;adj.典型的;独特的;特有的;
With microbiology , it's kind of the same, although I've got to be honest with you: 对于微生物界,道理相同,但我也必须承认:
microbiology:n.微生物学;
All the microbes essentially look the same under a microscope . 它们在显微镜下看起来都一样。
essentially:adv.本质上;本来; microscope:n.显微镜;
So instead of trying to identify them visually , what we do is we look at their DNA sequences , and in a project called the Human Microbiome Project, 所以,既然无法从视觉上区分他们, 那么我们只能从基因序列来辨别, 在一项名为人类微生物组项目的计划中,
identify:v.识别:鉴定:确认:发现: visually:adv.形象化地;外表上;看得见地; sequences:n.[数][计]序列,顺序;继起的事(sequence的复数形式);
NIH funded this $173 million project where hundreds of researchers came together to map out all the A's, T's, G's, and C's, and all of these microbes in the human body. NTH 投资了 17300 万美元, 同时该项目还吸引到了数百位研究人员 为的是弄清所有A*s、 T*s、 G*s和C*s 以及人体内所有微生物的排列组合。
funded:adj.提供资金的;v.提供资金;积存;提供资金偿付的本息;(fund的过去式);
So when we take them together, they look like this. 结果我们看到了这样一幅景象。
It's a bit more difficult to tell who lives where now, isn't it? 这样你很难看出它们的具体位置,对吗？
What my lab does is develop computational techniques that allow us to take all these terabytes of sequence data and turn them into something that's a bit more useful as a map, 我的实验室为此开发了一种计算技术 可将序列数据取值到兆兆字节 同时排列组合成可用性更高的图谱样式,
computational:adj.计算的; techniques:n.技巧;技艺;工艺;技术;(technique的复数) terabytes:n.兆兆字节(信息量度单位,terabyte的复数);
and so when we do that with the human microbiome data from 250 healthy volunteers , it looks like this. 所以如果我们将250名健康的志愿受试者 体内的微生物数据代入其中, 会显示这样的图谱。
volunteers:n.志愿者; v.自愿做; (volunteer的第三人称单数和复数)
Each point here represents all the complex microbes in an entire microbial community . 这其中的每个点都代表整个 微生物群落中各个复杂的微生物。
represents:v.代表;维护…的利益;相当于;(represent的第三人称单数) complex:adj.复杂的;合成的;n.复合体;综合设施; community:n.社区;[生态]群落;共同体;团体;
See, I told you they basically all look the same. 就像我说的,它们的样子都差不多。
basically:adv.主要地,基本上;
So what we're looking at is each point represents one microbial community from one body site of one healthy volunteer. 所以我们的观察重点是每个点是代表一位健康 志愿受试者的某个躯体部位的一个微生物群落。
site:n.地点;位置;场所;v.设置;为…选址;
And so you can see that there's different parts of the map in different colors, almost like separate continents . 我们像区分大陆板块一样,用不同颜色 在图谱中标识不同部位。
continents:n.[地理]大陆,大洲(continent复数);
And what it turns out to be is that those, as the different regions of the body, have very different microbes in them. 由此可以发现 在躯体不同区域 会聚集不同的微生物。
regions:n.地区;地域;行政区;左近;(region的复数)
So what we have is we have the oral community up there in green. 现在我们看到的绿色群落是口腔微生物群落。
oral:adj.口头的; n.(尤指外语考试中的)口试; (大学里的)口试;
Over on the other side , we have the skin community in blue, the vaginal community in purple , and then right down at the bottom, we have the fecal community in brown. 在另一边蓝色的群落是肌肤的微生物群落, 紫色的是阴道微生物群落, 而在右下方棕色的是肛肠区的微生物群落。
on the other side:另一面;在另一边; vaginal:adj.[解剖]阴道的;叶鞘的; purple:n.紫色;紫袍;v.变紫;使成紫色;adj.紫色的;华丽的文辞; fecal:adj.排泄物的;残渣的;糟粕的;
And we've just over the last few years found out that the microbes in different parts of the body are amazingly different from one another. 近几年来,我们惊奇地发现 人体不同部位的微生物 竟然各不相同。
So if I look at just one person's microbes in the mouth and in the gut, it turns out that the difference between those two microbial communities is enormous . 所以,如果我们观察一个人口腔和 肠道中的微生物, 会发现这两个部位的微生物群落 的差异相当大。
enormous:adj.庞大的,巨大的;凶暴的,极恶的;
It's bigger than the difference between the microbes in this reef and the microbes in this prairie . 人体中微生物群落的差异比 暗礁和草原微生物群落的差异更大。
reef:礁,礁脉 prairie:n.大草原;牧场;
So this is incredible when you think about it. 细想真是不可思议。
incredible:adj.难以置信的,惊人的;
What it means is that a few feet of difference in the human body makes more of a difference to your microbial ecology than hundreds of miles on Earth. 这表示如果从微生物生态学来看, 人体中微生物存在的些许差异 转变为地球生态,其差异可以是天差地别的。
And this is not to say that two people look basically the same in the same body habitat , either. 也就是说,两个看似相同的人 未必有相同的体内环境。
habitat:n.[生态]栖息地,产地;
So you probably heard that we're pretty much all the same in terms of our human DNA. 你可能听过这样的说法 如果从人类的 DNA 来看,每个人都几近相同。
all the same:仍然:依然:照样:
You're 99.99 percent identical in terms of your human DNA to the person sitting next to you. 以 DNA 来说,你和 隔壁的人相似度可达 99.99%。
identical:adj.同一的;完全相同的;n.完全相同的事物;
But that's not true of your gut microbes: you might only share 10 percent similarity with the person sitting next to you in terms of your gut microbes. 但是说道肠道微生物就不一样了: 从肠道微生物的角度来看, 相邻两人的相似度可能仅有10%。
similarity:n.类似;相似点;
So that's as different as the bacteria on this prairie and the bacteria in this forest. 这就好比草原中存活的细菌 不同于森林中存活的细菌。
bacteria:n.[微]细菌;
So these different microbes have all these different kinds of functions that I told you about, everything from digesting food to involvement in different kinds of diseases , metabolizing drugs, and so forth. 如同我之前提到的,正是这些各不相同的微生物 在人体中产生了不同的功用, 从消化食物 到影响各类病症、 代谢药物等等。
digesting:n.蒸煮;v.消化;吸收;接受,领会(digest的现在分词); involvement:n.牵连;包含;混乱;财政困难; diseases:n.[医]病(disease的复数);[医]疾病;[植保]病害;疾病种类; metabolizing:vt.使新陈代谢;使变形;vi.新陈代谢;
So how do they do all this stuff ? 那么微生物是如何集结成群,发挥作用的？
stuff:n.东西:物品:基本特征:v.填满:装满:标本:
Well, in part it's because although there's just three pounds of those microbes in our gut, they really outnumber us. 一方面是因为, 这些仅重三磅的肠道卫生物 其实际数目却是惊人的。
outnumber:vt.数目超过;比…多;
And so how much do they outnumber us? 你问数目有多惊人？
Well, it depends on what you think of as our bodies. 这取决于你怎么看待人体。
Is it our cells? 如果你支持细胞论？
Well, each of us consists of about 10 trillion human cells, but we harbor as many as 100 trillion microbial cells. 那么每个人都是由约10万亿个人体细胞组成的, 而我们体内存有的微生物细胞达100万亿个。
consists:v.由…构成;由…组成(consist的三单形式); trillion:n.[数]万亿;adj.万亿的;num.[数]万亿; harbor:n.港口;港湾;(比喻)避难所;[军]坦克掩蔽场;v.停泊;包含;隐匿;怀抱(恶意);
So they outnumber us 10 to one. 也就是说相当于10个我们。
Now, you might think, well, we're human because of our DNA, but it turns out that each of us has about 20,000 human genes , depending on what you count exactly, but as many as two million to 20 million microbial genes. 当然,如果你推崇DNA的概念, 那么目前已知的确切数字是, 我们体内的遗传因子约为20,000个, 而微生物基因的数量可达200万至2000万个。
genes:n.基因;(gene的复数)
So whichever way we look at it, we're vastly outnumbered by our microbial symbionts . 所以无论是支持哪种理论, 我们都是由无数的微生物共生体组成的。
whichever:pron.任何一个;无论哪个;adj.无论哪个;无论哪些; vastly:adv.极大地;广大地;深远地; outnumbered:v.(在数量上)压倒,比…多;(outnumber的过去式和过去分词) symbionts:n.[生态]共生体;共栖程序(symbiont的复数);
And it turns out that in addition to traces of our human DNA, we also leave traces of our microbial DNA on everything we touch. 所以我们不但要研究人类的DNA, 我们所接触对象的 微生物DNA也是有待挖掘的领域。
in addition to:除…之外; traces:v.跟踪;探索;n.痕迹;踪迹;(trace的复数和第三人单数)
We showed in a study a few years ago that you can actually match the palm of someone's hand up to the computer mouse that they use routinely with up to 95 percent accuracy . 我们在过去几年进行的研究显示, 如将某人留在常用鼠标上的物质 与其本身的掌纹相比较, 其匹配率可高达95%。
palm:n.手掌;手心;棕榈树;v.把…藏在手中(尤指玩戏法); routinely:adv.例行公事地;老一套地; accuracy:n.[数]精确度,准确性;
So this came out in a scientific journal a few years ago, but more importantly, it was featured on "CSI: Miami," 数年前曾有科学杂志报道过这项发现, 不过美国影集“CSI:迈阿密系列”令它街知巷闻,
journal:n.杂志;日记;日志;(用于报纸名)…报;
so you really know it's true. 可见这不是编剧杜撰的。
(Laughter) （大笑）
So where do our microbes come from in the first place ? 那么微生物从何而来？
in the first place:首先;起初;
Well if, as I do, you have dogs or kids, you probably have some dark suspicions about that, all of which are true, by the way . 像我一样,如果你有养狗或小孩, 可能难免会对此产生些邪恶的疑虑, 顺便一提,这都说得通。
suspicions:n.怀疑;感觉;看法;猜疑;不放心;(suspicion的复数) by the way:顺便说一下;
So just like we can match you to your computer equipment by the microbes you share, we can also match you up to your dog. 正如我们可以将你留在计算机设备上的 的微生物与本体作比较, 同样的结果也可以印证在狗的身上。
But it turns out that in adults, microbial communities are relatively stable , so even if you live together with someone, you'll maintain your separate microbial identity over a period of weeks, months, even years. 结果我们发现,成人的微生物群落 相对稳定。 所以即使你和某人生活在一起, 仍可维持数周、数月、甚至数年 你独有的微生物特性。
relatively:adv.相当程度上;相当地;相对地; stable:n.马厩;牛棚;adj.稳定的;牢固的;坚定的;vi.被关在马厩;赶入马房; maintain:v.维持;保持;维修;保养;坚持(意见); identity:n.身份;同一性,一致;特性;恒等式;
It turns out that our first microbial communities depend a lot on how we're born. 也就是说我们最初的微生物群落 取决于我们的出生环境。
So babies that come out the regular way, all of their microbes are basically like the vaginal community, whereas babies that are delivered by C-section , all of their microbes instead look like skin. 所以,对于顺产的宝宝 他们的微生物特性通常更接近于阴道部位的群落特征, 而剖腹产的宝宝, 其微生物特性更接近于肌肤的微生物群落。
whereas:conj.然而;鉴于;反之; C-section:n.剖腹产;
And this might be associated with some of the differences in health associated with Cesarean birth, such as more asthma , more allergies , even more obesity , all of which have been linked to microbes now, 而这种差异也可能被认为与 剖腹产宝宝的体质健康有关联, 比如目前就有较多人认为微生物可能 与哮喘、过敏甚至是肥胖症有关,
associated:adj.有关联的; v.联想; (associate的过去分词和过去式) Cesarean:adj.剖腹产的;凯撒的;n.剖腹产(等于Caesarean); asthma:n.[内科][中医]哮喘,气喘; allergies:n.变态反应;过敏反应;(allergy的复数) obesity:n.肥大,肥胖;
and when you think about it, until recently , every surviving mammal had been delivered by the birth canal, and so the lack of those protective microbes 基于这一点,反观直至目前, 每个经产道分娩的哺乳动物, 以及所缺少的、
recently:adv.最近;新近; mammal:n.哺乳动物; protective:adj.防护的;关切保护的;保护贸易的;
that we've co-evolved with might be really important for a lot of these different conditions that we now know involve the microbiome. 共同进化、起保护作用的微生物, 可能正是催生出不同微生物学条件的重要因素。
When my own daughter was born a couple of years ago by emergency C-section, we took matters into our own hands and made sure she was coated with those vaginal microbes that she would have gotten naturally . 几年前我太太在紧急情况下 剖腹产下我的女儿, 我们只能自食其力 后天给予女儿如同顺产般 可受到的阴道微生物群的保护。
emergency:n.紧急情况;突发事件;非常时刻;adj.紧急的;备用的; naturally:adv.自然地;自然而然地;轻而易举;天生地;大方地;
Now, it's really difficult to tell whether this has had an effect on her health specifically , right? 目前,我们尚无法判断 这对她的健康是否有用,不是吗？
specifically:adv.特别地;明确地;
With a sample size of just one child, no matter how much we love her, you don't really have enough of a sample size to figure out what happens on average, 我们的观察样本只有一个孩子,无论我们多爱她, 我们还是缺少足够的观察样本, 推断出平均水平,
but at two years old, she hasn't had an ear infection yet, so we're keeping our fingers crossed on that one. 直到她两岁时,尚未患支气管炎, 为此我们也一直祈祷她健康。
infection:n.感染;传染;(身体某部位的)感染;传染病; fingers crossed:手指交叉;希望有好运;意思是保佑;
And what's more, we're starting to do clinical trials with more children to figure out whether this has a protective effect generally . 同时我们也开始通过临床试验观察其他孩子, 藉此判断这种微生物是否能起到一般保护作用。
clinical:adj.临床的;诊所的; generally:adv.通常;普遍地,一般地;
So how we're born has a tremendous effect on what microbes we have initially , but where do we go after that? 可见分娩方式不同,初生时体内微生物的不同, 其影响也是巨大的,那么接下来我们该做什么？
tremendous:adj.极大的,巨大的;惊人的;极好的; initially:adv.最初,首先;开头;
What I'm showing you again here is this map of the Human Microbiome Project Data, so each point represents a sample from one body site from one of 250 healthy adults. 这里我将再次出示这张 人体微生物项目数据图谱, 图谱中的每个点都代表 250 位健康成年人 各个身体部位的取样结果。
And you've seen children develop physically. 各位已经熟悉儿童的生理发育,
You've seen them develop mentally . 也瞭解他们的心理成长,
mentally:adv.精神上,智力上;心理上;
Now, for the first time, you're going to see one of my colleague's children develop microbially. 现在,你们将首次见证 我同事的一个孩子在微生物意义上的蜕变。
So what we are going to look at is we're going to look at this one baby's stool , the fecal community, which represents the gut, sampled every week for almost two and a half years. 我们接下来要观察的对象 就是这个孩子的“粑粑”, 即代表肠道的粪便菌落, 我们每周采样,持续近两年半时间。
stool:n.凳子;大便;粪便;v.长出新枝;排便
And so we're starting on day one. 我们从第一天开始观察,
What's going to happen is that the infant is going to start off as this yellow dot, and you can see that he's starting off basically in the vaginal community, as we would expect from his delivery mode. 这个黄球的运动轨迹就是婴儿的微生物发育过程, 它基本上从阴道菌落开始出发, 这也符合孩子的分娩方式。
infant:n.婴儿;幼儿;未成年人;adj.婴儿的;幼稚的;初期的;未成年的; delivery:n.[贸易]交付;分娩;递送;
And what's going to happen over these two and a half years is that he's going to travel all the way down to resemble the adult fecal community from healthy volunteers down at the bottom. 在两年半的时间里, 它由上而下运动, 最终与底部的健康志愿者粪便菌落相吻合。
resemble:v.看起来像;显得像;像;
So I'm just going to start this going and we'll see how that happens. 我们来看这一运动过程是怎样的。
What you can see, and remember each step in this is just one week, what you can see is that week to week, the change in the microbial community of the feces of this one child, the differences week to week are much greater 请注意,黄球的每一步移动都历时一周, 大家可以看到这个孩子 粪便微生物菌落的每周变化情况, 这种变化远远超出了
feces:n.排泄物;渣滓;
than the differences between individual healthy adults in the Human Microbiome Project cohort , which are those brown dots down at the bottom. 人类微生物菌落专案对列中 健康成人个体之间的差异。 底部的褐色球表示成人个体的微生物菌落。
individual:n.个人;有个性的人;adj.单独的;个别的; cohort:n.一群人,一批人;同伙;支持者;
And you can see he's starting to approach the adult fecal community. 我们可以看到,它正开始接近成人粪便菌落。
approach:n.方法;路径;v.接近;建议;着手处理;
This is up to about two years. 此时已过去了近两年时间。
But something amazing is about to happen here. 但一场“奇迹”即将在这里上演。
is about to:眼看就要;即将;正要;行将;
So he's getting antibiotics for an ear infection. 孩子因为耳部感染而服用了抗生素,
antibiotics:n.抗菌素;抗生素(如青霉素);(antibiotic的复数)
What you can see is this huge change in the community, followed by a relatively rapid recovery . 这导致其微生物菌落发生巨变, 接着是相对快速的修复。
recovery:n.恢复,复原;痊愈;重获;
I'll just rewind that for you. 我们再来看一遍。
rewind:n.重绕;倒带器;vt.倒回;重绕;vi.倒回;重绕;
And what we can see is that just over these few weeks, we have a much more radical change, a setback of many months of normal development, followed by a relatively rapid recovery, and by the time he reaches day 838, which is the end of this video, 经过短短几周时间, 我们发现微生物菌落的变化越来越大, 拖累了孩子数个月的正常发育, 接下来是相对快速的修复, 等到第838天, 也就是这段影片的结尾处,
radical:n.自由基;激进分子;游离基;adj.根本的;彻底的;完全的;全新的; setback:n.挫折;退步;逆流;
you can see that he has essentially reached the healthy adult stool community, despite that antibiotic intervention . 我们可以清楚地看到,尽管有抗生素的干预, 孩子的粪便菌落已经与健康成人相差无几。
despite:prep.尽管,不管;n.轻视;憎恨;侮辱; intervention:n.介入;调停;妨碍;
So this is really interesting because it raises fundamental questions about what happens when we intervene at different ages in a child's life. 这个过程非常有趣, 它暗示了对不同年龄段的儿童进行干预会引发某些问题。
fundamental:n.基础; adj.十分重大的; intervene:vi.干涉;调停;插入;
So does what we do early on, where the microbiome is changing so rapidly, actually matter, or is it like throwing a stone into a stormy sea, where the ripples will just be lost? 微生物的变化是如此之快, 是否意味着我们早期的干预行为, 就像在风大浪急的海面投入一粒石子, 泛不起丝毫涟漪？
stormy:adj.暴风雨的;猛烈的;暴躁的; ripples:n.涟漪;波纹(ripple的复数);v.呈波状(ripple的单三形式);
Well, fascinatingly , it turns out that if you give children antibiotics in the first six months of life, they're more likely to become obese later on than if they don't get antibiotics then or only get them later, 结果,我们却惊奇地发现, 如果儿童在出生后六个月内服用抗生素, 他们将来会比同时期不服用抗生素 或稍晚服用的儿童更容易变胖,
fascinatingly:adv.极有吸引力地;迷人地; obese:adj.肥胖的,过胖的;
and so what we do early on may have profound impacts on the gut microbial community and on later health that we're only beginning to understand. 所以我们早期的干预行为 可能会给儿童的肠道微生物菌落 以及他们未来的健康埋下严重的隐患。
profound:adj.深厚的;意义深远的;渊博的; impacts:n.影响; v.有影响,有作用;
So this is fascinating, because one day, in addition to the effects that antibiotics have on antibiotic-resistant bacteria, which are very important, they may also be degrading our gut microbial ecosystems , 这是令人震惊的发现,因为将来会有一天, 抗生素除了对耐抗生素细菌 产生重大影响之外, 还可能削弱人类肠道微生物生态系统,
antibiotic-resistant:adj.耐抗生素的; degrading:adj.降低身份的; v.降低…身份; (degrade的现在分词) ecosystems:n.生态系统(ecosystem的复数);
and so one day we may come to regard antibiotics with the same horror that we currently reserve for those metal tools that the Egyptians used to use to mush up the brains before they drained them out for embalming . 到那时,我们会谈抗生素色变, 那种恐惧感丝毫不亚于对埃及人 使用金属工具捣碎人脑,然后使脑浆流尽 进行尸体防腐的做法所产生的恐惧。
horror:n.恐惧;厌恶;震惊;对某事物的强烈畏惧(或憎恨); currently:adv.当前;一般地; embalming:v.对(尸体)进行防腐处理;(embalm的现在分词)
So I mentioned that microbes have all these important functions, and they've also now, just over the past few years, been connected to a whole range of different diseases, including inflammatory bowel disease, heart disease, colon cancer , and even obesity. 我刚提到了微生物具有这些重要作用, 并且经过前几年的潜心研究, 我们发现微生物与多种疾患息息相关, 包括炎性肠病、 心脏病、结肠癌, 甚至肥胖症。
inflammatory:adj.炎症性的;煽动性的;激动的; bowel:n.肠;内部最深处 colon:n.[解剖]结肠;冒号(用于引语,说明,例证等之前);科郎(哥斯达黎加货币单位); cancer:n.癌症;恶性肿瘤;
Obesity has a really large effect, as it turns out, and today, we can tell whether you're lean or obese with 90 percent accuracy by looking at the microbes in your gut. 肥胖对人的影响不可小觑, 通过观察人体肠道内的微生物, 我们现在有9成的把握 判断一个人是消瘦还是肥胖。
lean:v.前俯(或后仰):倾斜:adj.肉少的:难以赚钱的:贫乏的:n.瘦肉:
Now, although that might sound impressive , in some ways it's a little bit problematic as a medical test, because you can probably tell which of these people is obese without knowing anything about their gut microbes, 尽管这听上去令人振奋, 但就医学试验而言,某些方面仍存在障碍, 因为即使你对肠道微生物一无所知, 也能分辨这两个人中谁比较胖,
impressive:adj.感人的;令人钦佩的;给人以深刻印象的; problematic:adj.问题的;有疑问的;不确定的;
but it turns out that even if we sequence their complete genomes and had all their human DNA, we could only predict which one was obese with about 60 percent accuracy. 而即便掌握了他们的完整基因组序列 以及全部的人体DNA, 我们也只有6成的把握推断谁患有肥胖症。
genomes:n.[遗]基因组(genome复数); predict:v.预报;预言;预告;
So that's amazing, right? 是不是感到大跌眼镜？
What it means that the three pounds of microbes that you carry around with you may be more important for some health conditions than every single gene in your genome. 这意味着对于某些健康状况而言, 人体内的三磅微生物可能 比基因组内的每一个基因都重要。
And then in mice, we can do a lot more. 后来,我们对小鼠做了大量的试验。
So in mice, microbes have been linked to all kinds of additional conditions, including things like multiple sclerosis , depression , autism , and again, obesity. 小鼠体内的微生物关乎各种健康状况, 包括多发性硬化、 抑郁症、自闭症,还有肥胖症。
additional:adj.附加的,额外的; multiple sclerosis:n.多发性硬化; depression:n.沮丧;洼地;不景气;忧愁; autism:n.[心理][内科]孤独症;自我中心主义;
But how can we tell whether these microbial differences that correlate with disease are cause or effect? 然而,如何判断这些与疾病息息相关的 微生物差异究竟是因还是果？
correlate:vi.关联;vt.使有相互关系;互相有关系;n.相关物;相关联的人;adj.关联的;
Well, one thing we can do is we can raise some mice without any microbes of their own in a germ-free bubble . 我们做了这样一个试验: 在无菌气泡袋中培育体内无自身微生物的小鼠,
germ-free:[医][食品]无菌的; bubble:n.泡;气泡;肥皂泡;一点感情;v.起泡;冒泡;洋溢着(某种感情);
Then we can add in some microbes that we think are important, and see what happens. 然后,给它们添加一些我们认为重要的微生物, 看会发生什么情况。
When we take the microbes from an obese mouse and transplant them into a genetically normal mouse that's been raised in a bubble with no microbes of its own, it becomes fatter than if it got them from a regular mouse. 当我们从肥胖症小鼠身上提取微生物, 移植到气泡袋中培育的 体内无自身微生物的基因正常小鼠身上时, 它比从普通小鼠移植微生物时变得更胖。
transplant:v.移植;迁移;使移居;n.移植;移居者; genetically:adv.从遗传学角度;从基因方面;
Why this happens is absolutely amazing, though. 这背后的原因令人震惊不已。
absolutely:adv.绝对地;完全地;
Sometimes what's going on is that the microbes are helping them digest food more efficiently from the same diet, so they're taking more energy from their food, but other times, the microbes are actually affecting their behavior. 有些时候,微生物幫助 小鼠更高效地消化食物, 从而摄取更多的能量, 另一些时候,微生物实际会影响它们的行为。
efficiently:adv.有效地;效率高地(efficient的副词形式);
What they're doing is they're eating more than the normal mouse, so they only get fat if we let them eat as much as they want. 它们吃的比正常小鼠多, 如果不加限制,只会越吃越胖。
So this is really remarkable , right? 这一点很耐人寻味,对吗？
remarkable:adj.卓越的;非凡的;值得注意的;
The implication is that microbes can affect mammalian behavior. 它意味着微生物可能影响哺乳动物的行为。
implication:n.含意;可能的影响(或作用、结果);暗指;(被)牵连; mammalian:adj.哺乳类动物的;n.哺乳类;
So you might be wondering whether we can also do this sort of thing across species , and it turns out that if you take microbes from an obese person and transplant them into mice you've raised germ-free, those mice will also become fatter 大家可能很好奇,这一做法能否沿用到其他物种？ 从一个胖人身上提取微生物, 移植到无菌培育的小鼠身上, 与从一个瘦人身上提取微生物相比,
species:n.[生物]物种;种类;
than if they received the microbes from a lean person, but we can design a microbial community that we inoculate them with that prevents them from gaining this weight. 前者会导致小鼠变得更胖, 但我们可以设计一种微生物菌落,给这些小鼠接种, 预防其体重增加。
inoculate:vt.[医]接种;嫁接;灌输;
We can also do this for malnutrition . 这种做法同样适合治疗营养不良。
malnutrition:n.营养失调,营养不良;
So in a project funded by the Gates Foundation , what we're looking at is children in Malawi who have kwashiorkor, a profound form of malnutrition, and mice that get the kwashiorkor community transplanted into them lose 30 percent of their body mass in just three weeks, 在一个盖茨基金会资助的专案中, 我们把关注的目光投向马拉维 患有誇休可尔症,即恶性营养不良的儿童, 我们将誇休可尔菌落移植到小鼠体内后, 小鼠在短短三周内 体重暴降了30％,
Foundation:n.基础;地基;基金会;根据;创立; Malawi:n.马拉维(非洲国家); transplanted:移植;转移; mass:n.块,团; adj.群众的,民众的; v.聚集起来,聚集;
but we can restore their health by using the same peanut butter-based supplement that is used for the children in the clinic, and the mice that receive the community from the healthy identical twins of the kwashiorkor children do fine. 不过,我们可以利用在诊所中治疗孩子的 花生酱补充物使小鼠重获健康, 相比之下,从誇休可尔症孩子的健康同卵双胞胎身上 移植菌落的小鼠却健康状况良好。
restore:v.恢复;修复;恢复(某种情况或感受);使复原; peanut:n.花生;微不足道的人;adj.微不足道的; supplement:v.补充;增补;n.补遗;增补(物);补充(物);添加物;
This is truly amazing because it suggests that we can pilot therapies by trying them out in a whole bunch of different mice with individual people's gut communities and perhaps tailor those therapies all the way down to the individual level. 这真是不可思议,它意味着我们可以 使用不同的人体肠道菌落, 在一群小鼠中进行疗法试点, 并且有望做到个性化定制。
therapies:n.治疗方法(therapy复数形式); bunch:n.群;串;突出物;vi.隆起;打褶;形成一串;vt.使成一串;使打褶;
So I think it's really important that everyone has a chance to participate in this discovery. 所以,我认为让每个人都有机会 从这一发现中获益至关重要。
participate:v.参加;参与;
So, a couple of years ago, we started this project called American Gut, which allows you to claim a place for yourself on this microbial map. 为此,我们在几年前 启动了这个名为“美国肠道”的专案, 让每个人在这张微生物图上占得一席之地。
claim:v.要求;声称;需要;认领;n.要求;声称;索赔;断言;值得;
This is now the largest crowd-funded science project that we know of -- over 8,000 people have signed up at this point. 这是我们迄今已知的最大众筹专案—— 已有8000多人报名参加。
What happens is, they send in their samples, we sequence the DNA of their microbes and then release the results back to them. 专案流程很简单,报名者寄来样本, 我们生成微生物DNA序列,再将结果寄回给他们。
release:v.释放;发射;让与;允许发表;n.释放;发布;让与;
We also release them, de-identified, to scientists, to educators, to interested members of the general public , and so forth, so anyone can have access to the data. 我们还将结果“去识别化”, 发布给科研人员、教育工作者,还有感兴趣的普通民众, 让每个人都能分享这些资料。
general public:n.普通百姓;大众;公众;
On the other hand , when we do tours of our lab at the BioFrontiers Institute , and we explain that we use robots and lasers to look at poop , it turns out that not everyone wants to know. 不仅如此, 我们还来到 BioFrontiers 研究所的实验室, 循循善诱地向大家介绍使用机器人和镭射来观察“粑粑”, 结果,并不是所有人都表现得兴致盎然。
On the other hand:另一方面; Institute:v.开始(调查);制定;创立;提起(诉讼);n.学会,协会;学院; poop:n.船尾;傻子;内幕消息;v.使精疲力尽;使船尾受击;
(Laughter) （笑声）
But I'm guessing that many of you do, and so I brought some kits here if you're interested in trying this out for yourself. 但我猜想在座的各位很多人都有兴趣, 所以我今天带来了一些试验用具, 有兴趣的话,大家可以亲自尝试。
kits:n.装备;小桶;锦囊(kit的复数);
So why might we want to do this? 我们为什么要这样做？
Well, it turns out that microbes are not just important for finding out where we are in terms of our health, but they can actually cure disease. 因为我们发现,微生物不仅有助于 我们瞭解自身的健康状况, 而且能够治愈疾病。
This is one of the newest things we've been able to visualize with colleagues at the University of Minnesota . 这是我们与明尼苏达大学的同事 能够形象化展示的最新发现之一。
visualize:vt.形象,形象化;想像,设想;vi.显现; colleagues:n.同事;同行(colleague的复数); Minnesota:n.明尼苏达州(美国中北部洲);
So here's that map of the human microbiome again. 我们再来看一下这张人类微生物菌落图。
What we're looking at now -- 现在,我们来看这里--
I'm going to add in the community of some people with C. diff . 我准备在这里增加一些难辨梭状芽孢杆菌携带者的菌落。
diff:abbr.扩散器(diffuser);微分;差速器(differential);
So, this is a terrible form of diarrhea where you have to go up to 20 times a day, and these people have failed antibiotic therapy for two years before they're eligible for this trial. 这是一种严重的腹泻细菌, 人感染后一天要跑20多趟厕所, 这些腹泻患者用了两年的抗生素疗法仍不见成效, 最终入选了我们的微生物疗法试验。
diarrhea:n.腹泻,痢疾; therapy:n.治疗,疗法; eligible for:合格;够资格;
So what would happen if we transplanted some of the stool from a healthy donor , that star down at the bottom, into these patients . 如果我们将健康捐赠者的粪菌, 即这张图底部的星形微生物, 移植到腹泻患者身上会怎样？
donor:n.捐赠者;供者;赠送人;adj.捐献的;经人工授精出生的; patients:n.接受治疗者,病人;(patient的复数)
Would the good microbes do battle with the bad microbes and help to restore their health? 良性微生物与恶性微生物会相互较量, 幫助患者恢复健康吗？
So let's watch exactly what happens there. 让我们仔细观察究竟会发生什么。
Four of those patients are about to get a transplant from that healthy donor at the bottom, and what you can see is that immediately, you have this radical change in the gut community. 其中四名患者将从底部的 健康捐赠者那里移植粪菌, 然后你会看到肠道菌落 立刻发生天翻地覆的变化。
are about to:眼看就要;即将;正要;行将;
So one day after you do that transplant, all those symptoms clear up, the diarrhea vanishes , and they're essentially healthy again, coming to resemble the donor's community, and they stay there. 等到某一天移植完成后, 所有症状荡然无存, 腹泻彻底消失, 患者基本恢复健康,形成了与捐赠者相似的菌落, 并长久地保持下去。
symptoms:n.症状;征候;征兆;(symptom的复数) vanishes:v.[数]消失(vanish的三单形式);
(Applause) （掌声）
So we're just at the beginning of this discovery. 所以,这就是我们新的发现。
at the beginning of:在…的开始;
We're just finding out that microbes have implications for all these different kinds of diseases, ranging from inflammatory bowel disease to obesity, and perhaps even autism and depression. 微生物对各种不同的疾病, 从炎性肠病到肥胖症, 甚至包括自闭症和抑郁症, 都具有十分重要的意义。
implications:n.蕴涵式;暗指,暗示;含蓄,含意;卷入(implication的复数);
What we need to do, though, is we need to develop a kind of microbial GPS, where we don't just know where we are currently but also where we want to go and what we need to do in order to get there, and we need to be able to make this simple enough that even a child can use it. (Laughter) 我们要做的, 就是开发一种微生物 GPS, 让我们瞭解自己目前身在何处, 未来要去往何方, 也知道如何到达目的地, 而且,我们要让一切变简单, 连小孩都能信手拈来。（笑声）
Thank you. 谢谢。
(Applause) （掌声）