4 生物技术的世纪 (doc)
4. The Biotech1 Century Ring farewell to the century of physics, the one in which we split the atom and turned silicon into computing power. It's time to ring in the century of biotechnology. Just as the discovery of the electron in 1897 was a seminal event for the 20th century, the seeds for the 21st century were spawned in 1953, when James Watson blurted out to Francis Crick how four nucleic acids2 could pair to form the self-copying code of a DNA molecule. Now we're just a few years away from one of the most important breakthroughs of all time: deciphering3 the human genome4, the 100,000 genes encoded by 3 billion chemical pairs in our DNA. 跟物理学的世纪说再见的时候到了。在那个世纪里，人类的成就之一是裂解了原子， 并把硅转变成有计算的能力。现在该是敲响生物技术世纪之门的时候了。正如1897年电 子的发现是20世纪里的惊人的事件一样，1953年詹姆斯·沃森突发奇想，对弗朗西斯·克 里克说出了四种核酸如何能配对形成DNA(脱氧核糖核酸)分子能自复制的密码——这一事件 为21世纪播撒下了种子。现在，只要再过几年，我们距离揭开人类基因组(由10万个基因 构成，这些基因在人类DNA中由30亿个化学对编码)，这是人类有史以来最重要的突破之 一。 〔绿色部分为编辑的话，无声音，但有注释，建议保留〕 Before 20th century, medicine consisted mainly of amputation saws5, morphine6 and crude remedies that were about as effective as bloodletting. The flu epidemic of 1918 killed as many people (more than 20 million) in just a few months as perished in four years of World War I. Since then, antibiotics7 and vaccines8 have allowed us to vanquish entire classes of diseases. As a result, life expectancy in the U.S. jumped from about 47 years at the beginning of the century to 76 now. But 20th century medicine did little to increase the natural life-span of healthy humans. The next medical revolution will change that, because genetic engineering has the potential to conquer cancer, grow new blood vessels in the heart, block the growth of blood vessels in tumors9, create new organs from stem cells10 and perhaps even reset the primeval genetic coding that causes cells to age. 　　Our children may be able (I hope, I fear) to choose their kids' traits11: to select their gender and eye color; perhaps to tinker with12 their IQs, personalities and athletic abilities. They could clone themselves, or one of their kids, or a celebrity they admire, or maybe even us after we've died. 　　In the 5 million years since we hominids13 separated from apes, our DNA has evolved less than 2％ . But in the next century we'll be able to alter our DNA radically, encoding our visions and vanities while concocting14 new life-forms. When Dr.Frankenstein made his monster, he wrestled with the moral issue of whether he should allow it to reproduce:“ Had I the right, for my own benefit, to inflict the curse upon everlasting generations?” Will such questions require us to develop new moral philosophies? 　　Probably not. Instead, we'll reach again for a time-tested moral notion, one sometimes called the Golden Rule and which Immanuel Kant, the millennium's most meticulous15 moralist, gussied up into a categorical imperative: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you; treat each person as an individual rather than as a means to some end. 生物技术的世纪 在20世纪之前，医学的主要治疗办法是截肢、吗啡，以及跟放血的疗效差不多少的粗 放治疗法。1918年的一场流感在几个月内就夺走了2000多万人的生命。这个数字相当于 第一次世界大战四年内的死亡人数。此后，抗生素与疫苗的出现，使我们征服了各种疾 病。于是，美国人的预期寿命从20世纪初的47岁一跃达到现在的76岁。 　　然而，20世纪的医学对健康人的自然生命周期的增长几乎无能为力。 下一次医学革命将会改变这种状况，因为遗传工程有潜力征服癌症，在心脏里培植新 血管，阻断肿瘤中血运系统的生长，由干细胞培养新器官，甚至还可能重塑引起细胞衰 老的原始遗传密码。 　　我们的孩子也许能(我既希望，又害怕)选择他们子女的性状：选择他们的性别、眼 睛的颜色；也许还能修改他们的智商、性格、体育才能。他们还可能克隆他们自己，或 者克隆他们孩子中的某一个，或者克隆一位他们敬慕的名人，甚至可能在我们死后把我 们克隆出来。 　　在人科动物从猿类分化出来后的500万年中，我们的DNA进化了还不到2％。但是到了 21世纪，我们就可能大幅度地改变我们的DNA，按照我们的设计和愿望制造出新的生命形 式。当弗兰肯斯坦博士制造出一个怪物之后，他就为是否应该让这个怪物繁殖后代这一 伦理问题所困扰：“为我个人的利益，我是否有权力让世世代代都遭殃?”这类问题需要我 们建立新的伦理观吗? 　　可能用不着吧。相反，我们还是得遵循早已为时间所考验过的道德规范，有时候人 们把这一规范叫做金科玉律。这条金科玉律被伊马努埃尔·康德这位千年一见的最细心的 道德家描述成绝对信条：你想别人怎样待你，你就怎样待别人；要把每个人看作是独立 的人，而不是为了达到某种目的的工具。 1.biotech[9βαΙΕθ?τεκνΙκσ]n.生物技术 2.fournucleicacids四种核酸。专业上显然是错误的概念。目前，人类发现与生命物质 有关的只有两种核酸，一种为核糖核酸RNA，一种为脱氧核糖核酸DNA，此处应是“四种核 苷酸”(fournucleotides)比较合适。另据科学家最新公布的结果，人类基因组由31.647 亿个碱基对组成，共有3万至3.5万个基因，远小于原先10万个基因的估计。 3.decipher[δι5σαιφΕ]vt.揭开，揭示 4.genome[5δ
4 生物技术的世纪 (doc)