万物简史 第603期:生命的物质(29)

（单词翻译）

It can all begin to seem impossibly complicated, and in some ways itis impossibly complicated. But there is an underlying¹ simplicity² in all this, too, owing to an equally elemental underlying unity³ in the way life works. All the tiny, deft⁴ chemical processes that animate⁵ cells — the cooperative efforts of nucleotides, the transcription of DNA⁶ into RNA — evolved just once and have stayed pretty well fixed⁷ ever since across the whole of nature. As the late French geneticist Jacques Monod put it, only half in jest: "Anything that is true of E. coli must be true of elephants, except more so."

一切可能从一开始就似乎难以想像的复杂，一切在某种程度上也确实难以想像的复杂，但是，所有这一切又都有一条简单的底线，因为生命的运作方式说到底都是一样的。所有赋予细胞生命的细微而灵巧的化学过程——核苷酸的协调一致：从DNA到RNA的信息传递——在整个自然界只演变过一次，而且至今保持得十分完好。正如已故的法国遗传学家雅奎斯·莫诺半开玩笑地所指出的那样：“大肠杆菌如此，大象也是如此，只是更加如此。”

Every living thing is an elaboration on a single original plan. As humans we are mere⁸ increments⁹ — each of us a musty archive of adjustments, adaptations, modifications¹⁰, and providential tinkerings stretching back 3.8 billion years. Remarkably¹¹, we are even quite closely related to fruit and vegetables. About half the chemical functions that take place in a banana are fundamentally the same as the chemical functions that take place in you.

一切生物都是从原先同一蓝图发展起来的产物。作为人类我们不过是发展得更加充分而已——我们每一个人都是一本保存38亿年之久的发霉记录本，涵盖了反反复复的调整、改造、变更和修补。令人惊讶的是，我们甚至与水果、蔬菜十分接近。发生在一根香蕉里的化学反应，和发生在你身上的化学反应约有50%在本质上是一样的。

It cannot be said too often: all life is one. That is, and I suspect will forever prove to be, the most profound true statement there is.

这句话怎么多说也不会过分：所有生命都是一家。这句话现在是，恐怕将来也将永远证明是世间最为深邃的真情告白。