TED演讲：宏观历史(6)

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　　How do you stabilize¹ those huge molecules³ that seem to be viable⁴? 那是怎么稳定那些大量的、似乎有存活的分子的呢？

　　Well, it's here that life introduces an entirely⁵ new trick. 这就是生命呈现的一个全新的窍诀。

　　You don't stabilize the individual; you stabilize the template, the thing that carries information, and you allow the template to copy itself.  不能稳定个体；只能稳定模板，那是携带信息的东西，让模板复制自己。

　　And DNA⁶, of course, is the beautiful molecule² that contains that information. 当然，DNA是美丽的分子，包含着信息。

　　You'll be familiar with the double helix of DNA. Each rung contains information. 你熟悉双螺旋型的DNA。每个链都包含信息。

　　So, DNA contains information about how to make living organisms. And DNA also copies itself. 所以DNA就包含关于如何创造生命体的信息。同时DNA也能自我拷贝。

　　So, it copies itself and scatters⁷ the templates through the ocean. So the information spreads. 所以它自我拷贝，同时把模板扩散到海洋中。因此信息也传递开了。

　　Notice that information has become part of our story. The real beauty of DNA though is in its imperfections. 值得注意的是，信息已经成为我们故事中的一部分。DNA真正的魅力在于它的不完美。

　　As it copies itself, once in every billion rungs, there tends to be an error. 当它自我拷贝的时候，在每十亿个链中有一个链可能产生错误。

　　And what that means is that DNA is, in effect, learning. 也就是说，实际上DNA在进化。

　　It's accumulating new ways of making living organisms because some of those errors work. 它在积累创造生命体的新方法，因为有些错误是可以运作的。

　　So DNA's learning and it's building greater diversity and greater complexity⁸. 所以DNA是在进化，它在呈现丰富多样性和大量的复杂性。

　　And we can see this happening over the last four billion years. 我们看到这进化持续发生了四十多亿年。

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