The human-genome project人类基因组项目
Turning-point 承前启后
Ten years after the reading of the human genome, humanity is about to confront its true nature
解读人类基因组一载后，人类着手面对其庐山真面目
Jun 17th 2010
THE oracle at Delphi had two maxims posted above the entrance to her chamber, for the edification of those who sought her prophecy: “Know thyself” and “Nothing in excess”. Self-knowledge is often the hardest to learn and the least welcome, but the brutal truth is best. Humanity had better hope so, anyway, for the truth will soon out for the entire species.
特尔斐神谕者过去有两句贴在进入她的大厅的入口处上方的格言，旨在教导求祷于神谕的人们：认识自我，忌过分贪图。自知之明通常是最难习得的，也是人们最不乐于接受的，但是残酷无情的真理却是最重要的。不管怎样，人类最好希望如此，因为这种真理将对整个人类显示出来。
注解：It's just a question of syntax : if you understand "nothing in excess" as a
maxim ( "I want nothing in excess" )
June 26th marks the tenth anniversary of the reading of the human genome—the 3-billion-letter-long message that promises self-knowledge to humanity. Each letter is a pair of chemical bases that has accumulated over the 3.8 billion years that life has existed on Earth. Viewed that way—the addition to the message of slightly less than a base-pair a year—the evolution of something as complex as a human being is not such an incredible journey. But it is still an amazing one. Some of it is lost, as the DNA palimpsest has been erased and re-written. Much is the scribbling of vandals who have broken in and scrawled, “We woz ’ere”, in the barbarian tongue of viruses, not yet erased by nature’s librarian, natural selection. And plenty of the rest, the bit that should make sense, can be read but is not yet understood.
6月26日标志着解码人类基因组10周年----由30亿个字母构成的长信息把自知之明给了人类。每一个字母都是一对化学基，这是生命生活在地球上38亿多年而累积起来的。鉴于这种方法---每年不到一组的碱基对的信息的增加----如同人类般复杂的事物进化并不是一次极其难以置信的旅程，但仍是叹为观止的一次。随着载着DNA进化历史的记录被抹去、进行了改写，其中的一些DNA遗失。破坏者们创入、乱涂一空、带着各种病毒般的野蛮语调画上“We woz ’ere” 的涂鸦作品，很多涂鸦并未被大自然这个图书馆管理员（即自然选择）所淘汰。而且余下了数量可观的信息（一些能或许具有意义）可以被解码但还没有理解。
.palimpsest： An object, place, or area that reflects its history: "Spaniards in the sixteenth century . . . saw an ocean moving south . . . through a palimpsest of bayous and distributary streams in forested paludal basins" (John McPhee).
But it will be. Humanity’s foibles will be laid bare. The species’s history, from its tentative beginning in north-east Africa to its current imperial dominion, has already been revealed, just through being able to read the genome. It is now possible, too, to compare Homo sapiens with his closest relative—not the living chimpanzee, with whom he parted company perhaps 5m years ago, but the extinct Neanderthal, a true human. That will do what philosophers have dreamed of, but none has yet accomplished: show just what it is that makes Homo sapiens unique. The genome will answer, too, the age-old question of original sin. By showing what is nature, it will reveal what is nurture—and thus just how flexible and perfectible the human animal really is.
但是将来会解读清楚的。到时，人们的所有缺点都将表露无疑。从人类非洲东南部尝试性阶段的开始到目前人类统治的帝国时代，（人们）仅有能力通过读解基因组，揭露了自身的（进化）史。同样，现在或许能将Homo sapiens（智人）与其近亲---并不是现在存活着的大猩猩，因为人类500万年前就与大猩猩分道扬镳，而是与早已灭绝的真正人种---Neanderthal（尼安德特人）相比较。这将实现哲学家们梦寐以求的东西，然而没有人完成了那个事业：仅仅显示出使Homo sapiens独特的要素。此外，基因也能揭秘原罪这个古老的问题。通过表明何为天生因素，基因能揭露何为后天教化----以此揭秘人类这种动物确实是多么随机应变和渐臻完美的。
Ecce Homo戴荆冠的耶稣画像
That is not, of course, why the genome project started. The pragmatists who began it were motivated by medical considerations. Diseases would be understood better and new targets for drugs discovered.
当然，那也不是这个基因组项目启动的原因。实用主义者开始研究基因是基于各自的医学考虑。人们将更充分地认识各种疾病，而新发明的药物更能有的放矢地针对病魔。
This is happening—more slowly than many hoped, but inexorably (see special report). So, too, is the industrialisation of genomic knowledge as better crops and clever ways of using micro-organisms to make chemicals are developed. Indeed, synthetic life itself is within humanity’s grasp, as Craig Venter’s announcement on May 20th of a bacterium with a synthetic genome has shown.
这正是现在所发生的----虽然步伐比许多人希望的要缓慢很多，但发展势头不可阻挡（请看专题报告）。所以，随着庄稼改良技术和许多利用各种微生物技术制造化学药品的灵巧手段都得到了发展，基因组知识工业化也发展迅速。正如5月20日，Craig Venter在具有合成基因组的一个细菌的声明所显示那样，事实上，目前合成生命本身就处于人类的掌控之中。
All these are great advances—but in the end, perhaps, not as great as the threat and promise of self-knowledge. Which recalls the oracle’s second admonition: nothing in excess.
所有的这些都是巨大的进步----但是最终这些进步可能没有自知之明的承诺与潜在的威胁那样重要。这使人们回忆起那道神谕的第二条劝戒：忌过分贪图。
Genomics may reveal that humans really are brothers and sisters under the skin. The species is young, so there has been little time for differences to evolve. Politically, that would be good news. It may turn out, however, that some differences both between and within groups are quite marked. If those differences are in sensitive traits like personality or intelligence, real trouble could ensue.
基因组学或许揭示：在本质上，全球人类一家亲，都是兄弟姊妹。人类目前还很年轻，因此这段时间还不足以出现进化差异。就政治而言，那也许是一个好消息。然而，它也可能证明：两个种群之间和种群内部的一些差异是相当明显的。假如这些差异在于诸如人格或智商一类的敏感特征，那么真正的麻烦可能接踵而来。
注解：human ("being) noun [C] a man, woman or child:
People must be prepared for this possibility, and ready to resist the excesses of racialism, nationalism and eugenics that some are bound to propose in response. That will not be easy. The liberal answer is to respect people as individuals, regardless of the genetic hand that they have been dealt. Genetic knowledge, however awkward, does not change that.
人们必须准备好应对这种可能性，并自愿抵制过度的种族主义、国家主义和优生学，这些都是一些人回应基因组研究必将提出的。那将不会是很容易的。自由主义者的答案是无论人类如何以基因将人归类，都要尊重每个个体。不论基因学的知识多么的令人尴尬，它并没有改变那个答案。
Turning-point 承前启后
Ten years after the reading of the human genome, humanity is about to confront its true nature
解读人类基因组一载后，人类着手面对其庐山真面目
Jun 17th 2010
THE oracle at Delphi had two maxims posted above the entrance to her chamber, for the edification of those who sought her prophecy: “Know thyself” and “Nothing in excess”. Self-knowledge is often the hardest to learn and the least welcome, but the brutal truth is best. Humanity had better hope so, anyway, for the truth will soon out for the entire species.
特尔斐神谕者过去有两句贴在进入她的大厅的入口处上方的格言，旨在教导求祷于神谕的人们：认识自我，忌过分贪图。自知之明通常是最难习得的，也是人们最不乐于接受的，但是残酷无情的真理却是最重要的。不管怎样，人类最好希望如此，因为这种真理将对整个人类显示出来。
注解：It's just a question of syntax : if you understand "nothing in excess" as a
maxim ( "I want nothing in excess" )
June 26th marks the tenth anniversary of the reading of the human genome—the 3-billion-letter-long message that promises self-knowledge to humanity. Each letter is a pair of chemical bases that has accumulated over the 3.8 billion years that life has existed on Earth. Viewed that way—the addition to the message of slightly less than a base-pair a year—the evolution of something as complex as a human being is not such an incredible journey. But it is still an amazing one. Some of it is lost, as the DNA palimpsest has been erased and re-written. Much is the scribbling of vandals who have broken in and scrawled, “We woz ’ere”, in the barbarian tongue of viruses, not yet erased by nature’s librarian, natural selection. And plenty of the rest, the bit that should make sense, can be read but is not yet understood.
6月26日标志着解码人类基因组10周年----由30亿个字母构成的长信息把自知之明给了人类。每一个字母都是一对化学基，这是生命生活在地球上38亿多年而累积起来的。鉴于这种方法---每年不到一组的碱基对的信息的增加----如同人类般复杂的事物进化并不是一次极其难以置信的旅程，但仍是叹为观止的一次。随着载着DNA进化历史的记录被抹去、进行了改写，其中的一些DNA遗失。破坏者们创入、乱涂一空、带着各种病毒般的野蛮语调画上“We woz ’ere” 的涂鸦作品，很多涂鸦并未被大自然这个图书馆管理员（即自然选择）所淘汰。而且余下了数量可观的信息（一些能或许具有意义）可以被解码但还没有理解。
.palimpsest： An object, place, or area that reflects its history: "Spaniards in the sixteenth century . . . saw an ocean moving south . . . through a palimpsest of bayous and distributary streams in forested paludal basins" (John McPhee).
But it will be. Humanity’s foibles will be laid bare. The species’s history, from its tentative beginning in north-east Africa to its current imperial dominion, has already been revealed, just through being able to read the genome. It is now possible, too, to compare Homo sapiens with his closest relative—not the living chimpanzee, with whom he parted company perhaps 5m years ago, but the extinct Neanderthal, a true human. That will do what philosophers have dreamed of, but none has yet accomplished: show just what it is that makes Homo sapiens unique. The genome will answer, too, the age-old question of original sin. By showing what is nature, it will reveal what is nurture—and thus just how flexible and perfectible the human animal really is.
但是将来会解读清楚的。到时，人们的所有缺点都将表露无疑。从人类非洲东南部尝试性阶段的开始到目前人类统治的帝国时代，（人们）仅有能力通过读解基因组，揭露了自身的（进化）史。同样，现在或许能将Homo sapiens（智人）与其近亲---并不是现在存活着的大猩猩，因为人类500万年前就与大猩猩分道扬镳，而是与早已灭绝的真正人种---Neanderthal（尼安德特人）相比较。这将实现哲学家们梦寐以求的东西，然而没有人完成了那个事业：仅仅显示出使Homo sapiens独特的要素。此外，基因也能揭秘原罪这个古老的问题。通过表明何为天生因素，基因能揭露何为后天教化----以此揭秘人类这种动物确实是多么随机应变和渐臻完美的。
Ecce Homo戴荆冠的耶稣画像
That is not, of course, why the genome project started. The pragmatists who began it were motivated by medical considerations. Diseases would be understood better and new targets for drugs discovered.
当然，那也不是这个基因组项目启动的原因。实用主义者开始研究基因是基于各自的医学考虑。人们将更充分地认识各种疾病，而新发明的药物更能有的放矢地针对病魔。
This is happening—more slowly than many hoped, but inexorably (see special report). So, too, is the industrialisation of genomic knowledge as better crops and clever ways of using micro-organisms to make chemicals are developed. Indeed, synthetic life itself is within humanity’s grasp, as Craig Venter’s announcement on May 20th of a bacterium with a synthetic genome has shown.
这正是现在所发生的----虽然步伐比许多人希望的要缓慢很多，但发展势头不可阻挡（请看专题报告）。所以，随着庄稼改良技术和许多利用各种微生物技术制造化学药品的灵巧手段都得到了发展，基因组知识工业化也发展迅速。正如5月20日，Craig Venter在具有合成基因组的一个细菌的声明所显示那样，事实上，目前合成生命本身就处于人类的掌控之中。
All these are great advances—but in the end, perhaps, not as great as the threat and promise of self-knowledge. Which recalls the oracle’s second admonition: nothing in excess.
所有的这些都是巨大的进步----但是最终这些进步可能没有自知之明的承诺与潜在的威胁那样重要。这使人们回忆起那道神谕的第二条劝戒：忌过分贪图。
Genomics may reveal that humans really are brothers and sisters under the skin. The species is young, so there has been little time for differences to evolve. Politically, that would be good news. It may turn out, however, that some differences both between and within groups are quite marked. If those differences are in sensitive traits like personality or intelligence, real trouble could ensue.
基因组学或许揭示：在本质上，全球人类一家亲，都是兄弟姊妹。人类目前还很年轻，因此这段时间还不足以出现进化差异。就政治而言，那也许是一个好消息。然而，它也可能证明：两个种群之间和种群内部的一些差异是相当明显的。假如这些差异在于诸如人格或智商一类的敏感特征，那么真正的麻烦可能接踵而来。
注解：human ("being) noun [C] a man, woman or child:
People must be prepared for this possibility, and ready to resist the excesses of racialism, nationalism and eugenics that some are bound to propose in response. That will not be easy. The liberal answer is to respect people as individuals, regardless of the genetic hand that they have been dealt. Genetic knowledge, however awkward, does not change that.
人们必须准备好应对这种可能性，并自愿抵制过度的种族主义、国家主义和优生学，这些都是一些人回应基因组研究必将提出的。那将不会是很容易的。自由主义者的答案是无论人类如何以基因将人归类，都要尊重每个个体。不论基因学的知识多么的令人尴尬，它并没有改变那个答案。
博文
没有评论:
发表评论