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I live in Utah, a place known for having some of the most awe-inspiring natural landscapes on this planet.
我在犹他州生活，这里因拥有地球上最令人惊叹的一些自然景观而闻名遐迩。
It's easy to be overwhelmed by these amazing views, and to be really fascinated by these sometimes alien-looking formations.
这些壮丽的景观是那么震撼心魄，这些时常犹如世外之物的形态也令人深深着迷。
As a scientist, I love observing the natural world.
作为一名科学家，我热爱观察自然世界。
But as a cell biologist, I'm much more interested in understanding the natural world at a much, much smaller scale.
但作为一名细胞生物学家，我更感兴趣的是在一个更加微小的尺度上理解自然世界。
I'm a molecular animator,
我是一名分子动画师，
and I work with other researchers to create visualizations of molecules that are so small, they're essentially invisible.
我与其他研究者合作，为小到看不见的分子创作可视化影像。
These molecules are smaller than the wavelength of light,
这些分子比光的波长还小，
which means that we can never see them directly, even with the best light microscopes.
也就是说，我们永远不可能直接看见它们，即使用最先进的光学显微镜也做不到。
So how do I create visualizations of things that are so small we can't see them?
那么我是如何为小到看不见的东西创作视觉图像的呢？
Scientists, like my collaborators, can spend their entire professional careers working to understand one molecular process.
科学家们，例如我的合作伙伴，往往会终其职业生涯致力于理解一个分子过程。
To do this, they carry out a series of experiments that each can tell us a small piece of the puzzle.
为此，他们进行了一系列实验，每个实验能告诉我们这块拼图的一小部分。
One kind of experiment can tell us about the protein shape,
一种实验能告诉我们蛋白质的形状，
while another can tell us about what other proteins it might interact with, and another can tell us about where it can be found in a cell.
另一种实验则能告诉我们这个分子会和其他哪些蛋白互动，更有别的实验告诉我们它在细胞里的什么地方。
And all of these bits of information can be used to come up with a hypothesis, a story, essentially, of how a molecule might work.
所有这些信息的碎片整合在一起，就能形成一个假设，也就是一个关于分子如何工作的故事。
My job is to take these ideas and turn them into an animation.
我的工作就是把这些概念转换成动画。
This can be tricky, because it turns out that molecules can do some pretty crazy things.
这个工作可以很棘手，因为事实上，分子的行为很难琢磨。
But these animations can be incredibly useful for researchers to communicate their ideas of how these molecules work.
但这些动画对研究者相当有用，可以帮助他们沟通关于分子工作原理的想法。
They can also allow us to see the molecular world through their eyes.
它们也能让我们通过它们的眼睛看见分子世界。
I'd like to show you some animations, a brief tour of what I consider to be some of the natural wonders of the molecular world.
我想展示一些动画，带领大家进行一场短途观光，看看我心目中分子世界的“自然奇观”。
First off, this is an immune cell.
第一个是免疫细胞。
These kinds of cells need to go crawling around in our bodies in order to find invaders like pathogenic bacteria.
这些细胞在我们身体里四处爬行，以便发现诸如病菌这样的入侵者。
This movement is powered by one of my favorite proteins called actin, which is part of what's known as the cytoskeleton.
它的动作由我最喜欢的蛋白之一，肌动蛋白驱动，这种蛋白是所谓“细胞骨架”的一部分。
Unlike our skeletons, actin filaments are constantly being built and taken apart.
和我们的骨架不同，肌动蛋白纤维（微丝）一直在不停的被组装和拆散。
The actin cytoskeleton plays incredibly important roles in our cells.
肌动蛋白骨架在我们的细胞中扮演着至关重要的角色。
They allow them to change shape, to move around, to adhere to surfaces and also to gobble up bacteria.
它们让细胞改变形状，四处移动，附着于表面，以及吞噬细菌。
Actin is also involved in a different kind of movement.
肌动蛋白还和另一种不同的运动有关。
In our muscle cells, actin structures form these regular filaments that look kind of like fabric.
在我们的肌肉细胞中，肌动蛋白结构形成了这些看起来像布料的规则纤维。
When our muscles contract, these filaments are pulled together and they go back to their original position when our muscles relax.
当肌肉收缩时，这些纤维就收紧，当肌肉放松时，它们又恢复到原来的位置。
Other parts of the cytoskeleton, in this case microtubules, are responsible for long-range transportation.
细胞骨架的其它组成部分，比如说微管，则负责长途运输。
They can be thought of as basically cellular highways that are used to move things from one side of the cell to the other.
你可以把它们想象成细胞的高速公路，用来把东西从细胞一端运送到另一端。
Unlike our roads, microtubules grow and shrink, appearing when they're needed and disappearing when their job is done.
和我们的公路不同，微管能够生长、收缩，在需要它们时出现，完成任务后消失。
The molecular version of semitrucks are proteins aptly named motor proteins,
半挂式卡车的分子版本则被贴切的称为“马达蛋白”，
that can walk along microtubules, dragging sometimes huge cargoes, like organelles, behind them.
它们能在微管上行走，有时候在身后拖着大型“货物”，比如说细胞器。
This particular motor protein is known as dynein,
这种马达蛋白叫做动力蛋白，
and its known to be able to work together in groups that almost look, at least to me, like a chariot of horses.
能够以小组为单位工作，至少在我看来，几乎和战车的马匹一样。
As you see, the cell is this incredibly changing, dynamic place, where things are constantly being built and disassembled.
如各位所见，细胞是一个时刻变化、非常活跃的地方，各种东西都在不停的被修筑和拆解。
But some of these structures are harder to take apart than others, though.
但其中有些结构却比别的更难拆散。
And special forces need to be brought in in order to make sure that structures are taken apart in a timely manner.
必须动用特殊的力量以确保这些结构能被及时拆除。
That job is done in part by proteins like these.
这份工作的一部分是由这些蛋白胜任的。
These donut-shaped proteins, of which there are many types in the cell,
这些甜甜圈形状的蛋白种类繁多，分布在细胞各处，
all seem to act to rip apart structures by basically pulling individual proteins through a central hole.
看上去全都能将单个蛋白拖进中央孔洞，从而把蛋白结构撕扯开来。
When these kinds of proteins don't work properly,
当这种蛋白无法正常工作时，
the types of proteins that are supposed to get taken apart can sometimes stick together and aggregate
本应被它们分解的那些蛋白有时会黏在一起，聚集成块，
and that can give rise to terrible diseases, such as Alzheimer's.
这有可能引起可怕的疾病，比如阿茨海默症。
And now let's take a look at the nucleus, which houses our genome in the form of DNA.
现在让我们看看细胞核，其内部以DNA的形式保管着我们的基因组。
In all of our cells, our DNA is cared for and maintained by a diverse set of proteins.
在我们所有的细胞中，DNA由一组功能各异的蛋白照料和维护。
DNA is wound around proteins called histones, which enable cells to pack large amounts of DNA into our nucleus.
DNA被缠绕在组蛋白上，这样细胞就能把大量DNA塞进细胞核里。
These machines are called chromatin remodelers,
这些“机器”被称为染色质重塑器，
and the way they work is that they basically scoot the DNA around these histones and they allow new pieces of DNA to become exposed.
它们载着DNA在组蛋白上移动，让新的DNA片段暴露出来。
This DNA can then be recognized by other machinery.
这段DNA随后能被其它“机器”所识别。
In this case, this large molecular machine is looking for a segment of DNA that tells it it's at the beginning of a gene.
在这个例子中，这个大型分子机器在寻找一段能告诉它“这里是基因的起始位置”的DNA。
Once it finds a segment, it basically undergoes a series of shape changes
当它找到这个片段后，它会进行一系列形状变化，
which enables it to bring in other machinery that in turn allows a gene to get turned on or transcribed.
以结合其他的“装置”，最终启动或转录基因。
This has to be a very tightly regulated process, because turning on the wrong gene at the wrong time can have disastrous consequences.
这个过程必须被非常严密的控制，因为在错误的时间启动错误的基因将导致灾难性后果。
Scientists are now able to use protein machines to edit genomes. I'm sure all of you have heard of CRISPR.
科学家们现在能够利用蛋白机器编辑基因组。我相信大家都听说过CRISPR。
CRISPR takes advantage of a protein known as Cas9, which can be engineered to recognize and cut a very specific sequence of DNA.
CRISPR技术利用一种叫做Cas9的蛋白，经过工程改造后，Cas9能识别并剪切DNA上非常特定的序列。
In this example, two Cas9 proteins are being used to excise a problematic piece of DNA.
在这个例子里，我们用两个Cas9蛋白切除了一段有问题的DNA。
For example, a part of a gene that may give rise to a disease.
比如说，基因中一个可能引起疾病的片段。
Cellular machinery is then used to basically glue two ends of the DNA back together.
然后利用细胞机器把DNA的两个断点重新“黏合”起来。
As a molecular animator, one of my biggest challenges is visualizing uncertainty.
作为一名分子动画师，我面临的最大挑战之一就是如何将不确定性具象化。
All of the animations I've shown to you represent hypotheses,
我给各位展示的所有动画代表的只是一些假设，
how my collaborators think a process works, based on the best information that they have.
是我的合作者们基于他们掌握的最佳信息，对于一个分子过程的设想。
But for a lot of molecular processes, we're still really at the early stages of understanding things, and there's a lot to learn.
但对于很多分子过程来说，我们对它们的理解仍处于初始阶段，还有许多待研究之处。
The truth is that these invisible molecular worlds are vast and largely unexplored.
事实是，这些看不见的分子世界幅员辽阔，大部分还未经勘探。
To me, these molecular landscapes are just as exciting to explore as a natural world that's visible all around us. Thank you.
对我来说，这些分子景观和我们身边看得见的自然世界一样，是那么引人入胜。谢谢。
