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2020年翻译资格考试(catti)一级笔译材料(3)

Synthetic Biology: Redesigning Life

合成生物学:生命再设计(节选)

The promise and perils of synthetic biology

合成生物学的希望与风险

The new biology calls all in doubt

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 well. It is already being used to replace some products made from petrochemicals; in time it could replace some fuels, too. Burger King recently 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 marke


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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

新生物学让一切充满变数

先从三次转变中距今最近的一次说起。化石燃料的使用释放了过去存储在煤和石油中的生物生产力,大大推动了当今人类经济的发展。但大片荒野不复存在,碳原子上一次充斥于大气是在亿万年前,如今它们的存在大大加重了地球的温室效应,甚至可能导致灾难性后果。在这方面,合成生物学可以有所贡献。它已被用来取代一些石油化工产品,假以时日可能还会取代一些燃料。最近,汉堡王在其部分餐厅推出了一款无牛肉皇堡,其中的肉味来自一种转基因植物蛋白。此类创新可以让人类向更环保饮食方式的转变变得轻松许多。同时,创新还有事半功倍的效果。植物及其土壤微生物可以制造出自身所需的肥料和杀虫剂,反刍动物可以减少排放温室气体。当然,要确保合成生物学达成如此值得称道的环境目标,还需要公共政策以及市场的指引。

生物变化席卷世界的第二个例子是哥伦布大交换——16世纪新生成的全球贸易网络将新旧大陆的生物糅合到了一起。马、牛和棉花被引入美洲;玉米、土豆、辣椒和烟草被引入欧洲、非洲和亚洲。人类赖以生存的生态系统前所未有地实现了全球化,为各地提供了更高产的农业,为许多人提供了更丰富的食物。但它也带来了灾难性的后果。麻疹、天花和其他一些病原体像森林大火一样在新大陆肆虐,夺走了数千万人的生命。欧洲人将这场灾难当作武器,用以征服因疾病而衰乱的土地。

合成生物学可能会被利用来蓄意制造这样的武器:能使人衰弱的、致残或致命的病原体,或许还能被限定于攻击特定目标。这确实值得担忧,但眼下还不必恐慌。因为研制这样的武器就像其他前沿合成生物技术那样,需要高技能团队和大量资源。再者,军队已经有很多方式来夷平城市和实施大规模杀戮。疾病在大规模杀伤方面很难匹敌核武器。更重要的是,相比很多旧领域,如今的合成生物学界更符合开放和公共服务的理想原则。若能加以维系和培育,这种文化应该能成为抵御破坏分子的强大免疫系统。

最早的生物大转变,即驯化,带来了迄今为止人类生活方式的最大变化。从无心到有意,人类将谷物培育得更丰产,让牲畜更温顺,狗更听话,猫更友善(这最后一项充其量只算取得了部分成功)。这促成了更高的聚居密度和新的社会组织形式:市场、城市和国家。人类不仅驯化了农作物和动物,也驯化了自己,让自给型农业的苦役和压迫性的政治等级制度成为可能。

合成生物学将产生类似的级联效应,改变人类彼此之间的关系,还有可能改变人类自身的生物学特性。对胚胎重新编辑的能力是如今大多数伦理担忧之所在,对此确实也有担忧的理由。未来,这些担忧可能进一步蔓延:我们该如何看待那些拥有像大猩猩般上肢力量的人,或者那些不知悲伤为何物的人?很难说人类会以何种方式改变自身的生物学特性,但毫无疑问有些选择会引发争议。

这就引出了此次转变与上述三次转变的主要不同。前三次转变的意义都只是事后的发现。而这一次,我们可以事先预见。这次转变不会完美无缺——肯定会有出人意料的影响。但对预期和期望目标的追求将驱动合成生物学的发展。合成生物学将挑战人类的智慧和远见。或许它会超出人类的能力。但如果精心发展它,却也可能提升人类的这些能力。

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