万物简史 第430期:小生物的世界(1)

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It's probably not a good idea to take too personal an interest in your microbes. 要是你对身边的微生物过于在意，这很可能不是个好习惯。

Louis Pasteur, the great French chemist and bacteriologist, 法国大化学家、微生物学家路易·巴斯德

became so preoccupied¹ with them that he took to peering critically at every dish placed before him with a magnifying glass, 对他身边的微生物如此小心，连放到面前的每盆菜肴都要用放大镜仔细看一眼。

a habit that presumably did not win him many repeat invitations to dinner. 由于他的这种习惯，很多人有可能不会再邀请他吃饭。

In fact, there is no point in trying to hide from your bacteria, for they are on and around you always, in numbers you can't conceive. 实际上，你也无须回避细菌，因为你的身上和周围总是有很多细菌，多得简直无法想象。

If you are in good health and averagely diligent² about hygiene³, 即使你身体很健康，而且总的来说很注意卫生，

you will have a herd⁴ of about one trillion bacteria grazing on your fleshy plains— about a hundred thousand of them on every square centimeter of skin. 也大约有一万亿个细菌在你的皮肤上进食——每平方厘米上有10万个左右。

They are there to dine off the ten billion or so flakes⁵ of skin you shed every day, 它们在那里吃掉100亿片左右你每天脱落的皮屑，

plus all the tasty oils and fortifying⁶ minerals that seep⁷ out from every pore and fissure⁸. 再加上从每个毛孔和组织里流出来的味道不错的油脂，以及强身壮体的矿物质。

You are for them the ultimate food court, with the convenience of warmth and constant mobility⁹ thrown in. 你是它们举行冷餐会的场所，还具有暖暖和和、不停地移动的便利条件。

By way of thanks, they give you B.O. 为了表示感激，它们给你体臭。

And those are just the bacteria that inhabit your skin. 上面说的只是寄生在你皮肤上的细菌。

There are trillions more tucked away in your gut¹⁰ and nasal passages, clinging to your hair and eyelashes, 还有几万亿个细菌钻进你的肠胃里和鼻孔里，粘在你的头发和睫毛上，

swimming over the surface of your eyes, drilling through the enamel¹¹ of your teeth. 在你的眼睛表面游泳，在你的牙龈上打孔。

Your digestive system alone is host to more than a hundred trillion microbes, of at least four hundred types. 光你的消化系统就是100万亿个以上细菌的寄主，至少有400多个品种。

Some deal with sugars, some with starches¹², some attack other bacteria. 有的分解糖，有的处理淀粉，有的向别的细菌发起攻击。

A surprising number, like the ubiquitous intestinal¹³ spirochetes, have no detectable¹⁴ function at all. 许多细菌没有明显的作用，比如无处不在的肠内螺旋体。

They just seem to like to be with you. 它们似乎只喜欢跟你在一起。

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