4生物技术的世纪

《4生物技术的世纪》由会员分享，可在线阅读，更多相关《4生物技术的世纪（3页珍藏版）》请在装配图网上搜索。

1、个人收集整理 仅供参考学习4. The Biotechl CenturyRing farewell to the century of physics, the one in which we split the atom and turnedsilicon into comput ing power. Its time to ring in the cen tury of biotech no logy. Just as thediscovery of the electro n in 1897 was a sem inal eve nt for the 20th cen tury, the

2、 seeds for the21st cen tury were spaw ned in 1953, whe n James Wats on blurted out to Francis Crick howfour nu cleic acids2 could pair to form the self-copy ing code of a DNA molecule. Now were justa few years away from one of the most importa nt breakthroughs of all time: deciphering3 thehuman geno

3、me4, the 100,000 genes en coded by 3 billi on 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18971897 年电子的发现是 2020 世纪里的惊人的事件一样，19531953 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DNADNA（脱氧核糖核酸）分子能自复制的密码 一一这一事件为 2121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 1010 万个基因构成

4、，这些基因在人类 DNADNA 中由 3030 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56Before 20th cen tury, medici ne con sisted main ly of amputati on saws morph ine andcrude remedies that were about as effective as bloodletting. The flu epidemic of 1918 killed asmany people (more tha n 20 millio n) in just a

5、 few mon ths as perished in78four years of World War I. Since then, antibiotics and vaccines have allowed us to vanq uish entire classes of diseases. As a result, life expecta ncy in the U.S. jumped from about 47 years atthe beg inning of the cen tury to 76 now.But 20th cen tury medici ne did little

6、 to in crease the n atural life-spa n of healthy humans.The next medical revolution will change that, because genetic engineering has the potential toconquer cancer, grow new blood vessels in the heart, block the910growth of blood vessels in tumors, create new organs from stem cells and perhaps eve

7、n resetthe primeval gen etic cod ing that causes cells to age.Our childre n may be able (I hope, I fear) to choose their kids traitsto select their genderand eye color; perhaps to tinker with their IQs, personalities and athletic abilities. They couldclone themselves, or one of their kids, or a cele

8、brity they admire, or maybe eve n us after wevedied.13In the 5 million years since we hominids separated from apes, our DNA has evolved lessthan % . But in the next century well be able to alter our DNA14radically, encoding our visions and vanities while concocting new life-forms. When Dr.Fra nken个人

9、收集整理 仅供参考学习stei n made his mon ster, he wrestled with the moral issue of whether he should allow it toreproduce:“ Had I the right, for my own ben efit, to in flict the curseupon everlasti ng gen erati ons?uchVquesti ons require us to develop new moralphilosophies?Probably not. Instead, well reach ag

10、ain for a time-tested moral notion, one sometimescalled the Golden Rule and which Immanuel Kant, the millenniums most15meticulous moralist, gussied up into a categorical imperative: Do unto others as you wouldhave them do unto you; treat each pers on as an in dividual rather tha n as a mea ns to som

11、eend.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

12、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

13、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。15.meticulousadj.严谨的个人收集整理 仅供参考学习1.biotechn.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 种为脱氧核糖核酸 DNA此处应是“四种核苷酸”(fournucleotides)比较合适。另据科学豕最新公布的结果，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.deciphervt.揭开，揭示4.ge no men.生基因组，染色体组5.amputati onsaws 截肢6.morph inen.药吗啡7.a ntibioticn.微抗菌素，抗生素8.vacc inen.疫苗，菌苗9.tumorn.医肿瘤，肿块lO.stemcells 干细胞11.traitn.( 指纯生物学的)性状12.ti nkerwith修改13.homi nidn.人科动物14.c on coctvt.调制