万物简史 第538期:令人惊叹的细胞(2)

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but vastly more fascinating because of their complex interactions. 但是，酵母细胞有着复杂的互动性，因此更有意思。

Your cells are a country of ten thousand trillion citizens, 你的细胞是一个有着l亿亿个公民的国度，

each devoted³ in some intensively specific way to your overall well-being⁴. 每一个公民都以某种特有的方式全心全意地为你的整体利益服务。

There isn't a thing they don't do for you. 它们为了你什么都干，

They let you feel pleasure and form thoughts. 它们让你感觉快乐，产生思想。

They enable you to stand and stretch and caper⁵. 它们使得你能够站立、伸懒腰和蹦蹦跳跳。

When you eat, they extract the nutrients⁶, distribute the energy, and carry off the wastes 当你吃东西的时候，它们摄取养分，供给能量，排除废物，

all those things you learned about in junior high school biology, but they also remember to make you hungry in the first place 干所有你在高中生物学中所了解到的事情，而且它们还不忘记先使你有一种饥饿感，

and reward you with a feeling of well-being afterward⁷ so that you won't forget to eat again. 并使你在就餐后产生舒适的感觉，以后就不会再忘记吃东西。

They keep your hair growing, your ears waxed, your brain quietly purring. 它们使你的头发生长，耳朵产生耳垢，大脑悄无声息地运转。

They manage every corner of your being. 它们管理你身上的每一个角落：

They will jump to your defense⁸ the instant you are threatened. 当你受到威胁时，它们会挺身而出保护你。

They will unhesitatingly die for you—billions of them do so daily. 它们会毫不犹豫地为你而献身——每天有多达数十亿个细胞在这么做：

And not once in all your years have you thanked even one of them. 可是终其一生你从未向它们中的任何一个表达过谢意。

So let us take a moment now to regard them with the wonder and appreciation⁹ they deserve. 因此，现在就让我们肃立片刻，向它们表示我们的敬佩与赞赏之意。

We understand a little of how cells do the things they do, 细胞是怎样完成它们所做的一切，

how they lay down fat or manufacture insulin 它们怎样储存脂肪，怎样制造胰岛素，

or engage in many of the other acts necessary to maintain a complicated entity¹⁰ like yourself—but only a little. 怎样参与维持和你这样复杂的实体所必需的其他活动，我们也许了解一点点——但仅仅是一点点。

You have at least 200,000 different types of protein laboring¹¹ away inside you, 你的身体内活跃着至少20万种不同类型的蛋白质。

and so far we understand what no more than about 2 percent of them do. 可走到目前为止，我们对它们的了解不超过2%。

(Others put the figure at more like 50 percent; it depends, apparently¹², on what you mean by "understand.") （有人将这一数字调高到50%左右。显然，这取决于你如何界定“了解”这个词的含义。）

 

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