科学美国人60秒 SSS 诺贝尔奖得主将进化当作解决问题的算法

（单词翻译）

This is Scientific American's 60-second Science, I'm Steve Mirsky.

这里是科学美国人——60秒科学系列，我是史蒂夫·米尔斯基。

"I'm an engineer, trained as an engineer. I have degrees in mechanical and chemical engineering, and some people claim that I practice chemistry without a license¹."

“我是名工程师，受过工程师培训。我有机械和化学工程的学位，但有些人却说我没有许可证就从事化学工作。”

Frances Arnold. The Caltech scientist shared the 2018 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

以上是弗朗西斯·阿诺德所说。她是加州理工学院的科学家，也是2018年诺贝尔化学奖的得奖者之一。

"But what I care about is how do we share the planet with all the other living things and have a planet that's worth living in, while we cure disease and make our quality of life better?"

“但我关心的是，在我们治愈疾病和提高生活质量的同时，我们如何与所有其他生物共享地球，如何拥有一颗值得居住的星球？”

Arnold spoke² April 9th at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C., at an event honoring 10 U.S. Nobel and Kavli Prize laureates. The evening was sponsored by the Kavli Foundation and produced by Scientific American. Arnold's Nobel Prize was for directing the evolution of enzymes³ to make them work even better or in entirely⁴ new ways.

4月9日，华盛顿特区的美国国家科学院举行了纪念10位美国诺贝尔奖和卡夫利奖获奖者的活动，阿诺德在活动上发表了讲话。这场晚会由卡夫利基金会赞助，《科学美国人》制作。阿诺德因实现酶的定向进化并使其更好或以全新的方式发挥作用而被授予诺贝尔奖。

"And it seems to me that this tremendously powerful algorithm of evolution that... create complexity⁵ and that create materials and create all of the lovely things in the biological world, we should learn how to use that algorithm to solve the biggest problems that we face. How do we house, fuel, feed, clothe 10 billion people? And it's the biological world that can do this because we're learning how to harness this 4 billion years worth of work...."

“在我看来，这是极其强大的进化算法，创造了复杂性、创造了物质、还创造了生物界中所有可爱的东西，我们应该学习如何使用这种算法解决我们面临的最大问题。我们要如何为100亿人提供住房、燃料、食物和衣服？这是生物界可以做到的，因为我们正在学习如何利用这一40亿年的成果……”

"The problem is no one knows how a sequence of DNA⁶ encodes a function ... we can only read it. No one can compose that. But we have the process of composing it, and that is called evolution. And by using that process we can make these things that will help us live sustainably."

“问题是没有人知道DNA序列是如何编码功能的……我们只能读取它。没有人能编写出来。但我们拥有编写过程——进化。利用这一过程，我们能制造出这些帮助我们可持续生存的东西。”

"Because who knows how to use renewable resources? The biological world does. Biology can take carbon dioxide from the environment and create living plants, and nitrogen and simple starting materials, and create complicated useful things. So I'm hoping that we too will learn how to do that and use our science to do that."

“因为谁知道如何利用可再生资源呢？生物界知道。生物界可以从环境中提取二氧化碳，创造活的植物、氮和简单的起始原料，并造成出复杂有用的东西。所以我希望我们也要学习如何做到这一点，如何用我们的科学做到这一点。”

For Scientific American — 60-Second Science. I'm Steve Mirsky.

谢谢大家收听科学美国人——60秒科学。我是史蒂夫·米尔斯基。