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万物简史(MP3+中英字幕) 第600期:生命的物质(26)

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This is clearly a pity in one important sense, for if you had individual genes that determined height or propensity to diabetes or to baldness or any other distinguishing trait, then it would be easy — comparatively easy anyway — to isolate and tinker with them. Unfortunately, thirty-five thousand genes functioning independently is not nearly enough to produce the kind of physical complexity that makes a satisfactory human being. Genes clearly therefore must cooperate.

在一个重要意义上,这显然是一件憾事,因为如果你具有个别决定身高、糖尿病或谢顶倾向或其他任何明显特征的基因,你就可以很容易地——反正相对容易地——将它们加以隔离并根治。不幸的是,3.5万个基因如果独立工作远远不足以制造比一个令人满意的复杂人体。很明显,基因必须彼此协同工作。
复杂的基因

A few disorders — hemophilia, Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease, and cystic fibrosis, for example — are caused by lone dysfunctional genes, but as a rule disruptive genes are weeded out by natural selection long before they can become permanently troublesome to a species or population. For the most part our fate and comfort — and even our eye color — are determined not by individual genes but by complexes of genes working in alliance. That's why it is so hard to work out how it all fits together and why we won't be producing designer babies anytime soon.

有一些身心失调的病症,比如血友病、帕金森综合征、杭廷顿斯舞蹈病以及囊性纤维变性——是由个别机能不良的基因引起的,但是一般来说,远在它们变得足以对物种或人类造成永久性的麻烦之前,依照自然选择的规律,它们就被淘汰掉了。令人欣慰的是,我们的命运在很大程度上——即便是我们眼惰的颜色——不是由个别基因决定的,而是各种各样的基因通力协作的结果。因此,对手为什么我们总是很难了解它们彼此是怎样形成为一个整体的,以及为什么我们不能在短期内培育出我们所预先设计的婴儿,也就不难理解了。
In fact, the more we have learned in recent years the more complicated matters have tended to become. Even thinking, it turns out, affects the ways genes work. How fast a man's beard grows, for instance, is partly a function of how much he thinks about sex (because thinking about sex produces a testosterone surge).
实际上,我们对近年来的研究结果了解得越多,我们不明了的事情也就越多。实验证明,即便是意念也会对基因的工作方式产生影响。比如,一个男人的胡须长得多快,某种程度上取决于他在多大程度上想到了与性有关的事情(因为想到与性有关的事情会产生大量睾丸素糖)。

重点单词   查看全部解释    
dysfunctional [dis'fʌŋkʃənəl]

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adj.

 
diabetes [.daiə'bi:ti:z]

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n. 糖尿病

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disruptive [dis'rʌptiv]

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adj. 破坏的;分裂性的;制造混乱的

 
propensity [prə'pensiti]

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n. 倾向,习性

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complexity [kəm'pleksiti]

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n. 复杂,复杂性,复杂的事物

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complicated ['kɔmplikeitid]

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adj. 复杂的,难懂的
动词complica

 
function ['fʌŋkʃən]

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n. 功能,函数,职务,重大聚会
vi. 运行

 
comfort ['kʌmfət]

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n. 舒适,安逸,安慰,慰藉
vt. 安慰,使

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determined [di'tə:mind]

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adj. 坚毅的,下定决心的

 
population [.pɔpju'leiʃən]

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n. 人口 ,(全体)居民,人数

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