2019年4月6日刊社論
Redesigning life
重新設(shè)計生命
The promise and perils of synthetic biology
合成生物學(xué)的發(fā)展前景及風(fēng)險
For the past four billion years or so the only way for life on Earth to produce a sequence of DNA—a gene—was by copying a sequence it already had to hand. Sometimes the gene would be damaged or scrambled, the copying imperfect or undertaken repeatedly. From that raw material arose the glories of natural selection. But beneath it all, gene begat gene.
在過去40億年左右的時間里荞驴，地球上生命產(chǎn)生DNA序列——基因——的唯一方法就是復(fù)制它已有的序列蔫耽。有時基因會受到破壞或者發(fā)生混亂，導(dǎo)致復(fù)制存在缺陷或重復(fù)進行蕉堰，而這也為多彩的自然選擇提供了原材料。但萬變不離其宗再层，基因孕育了基因柠逞。
That is no longer true. Now genes can be written from scratch and edited repeatedly, like text in a word processor. The ability to engineer living things which this provides represents a fundamental change in the way humans interact with the planet’s life. It permits the manufacture of all manner of things which used to be hard, even impossible, to make: pharmaceuticals, fuels, fabrics, foods and fragrances can all be built molecule by molecule. What cells do and what they can become is engineerable, too. Immune cells can be told to follow doctors’ orders; stem cells better coaxed to turn into new tissues; fertilised eggs programmed to grow into creatures quite unlike their parents.
事實已非如此。現(xiàn)如今酿联，人們可以像在文字處理器中處理文本一樣，從無到有地編寫基因夺巩，并對其進行反復(fù)編輯贞让。由此而來的這種設(shè)計生物的能力代表了人類與地球生命互動方式的根本改變。它使得制造各種各樣過去很難甚至不可能制造的東西成為可能：藥品柳譬、燃料喳张、織物、食品和香水都可以逐個分子地制造出來美澳。細(xì)胞會干什么销部，它們能成為什么樣的細(xì)胞，也都是可以設(shè)計的制跟。免疫細(xì)胞可以按要求聽從醫(yī)生的指令舅桩；干細(xì)胞可以通過更好的誘導(dǎo)轉(zhuǎn)化成新的組織；受精卵可以借助編程發(fā)育成完全不同于父母的人雨膨。
The earliest stages of such “synthetic biology” are already changing many industrial processes, transforming medicine and beginning to reach into the consumer world. Progress may be slow, but with the help of new tools and a big dollop of machine? learning, biological manufacturing could eventually yield truly cornucopian technologies. Buildings may be grown from synthetic wood or coral. Mammoths produced from engineered elephant cells may yet stride across Siberia.
這類尚處于最初階段的“合成生物學(xué)”已經(jīng)在改變很多工業(yè)生產(chǎn)過程擂涛，讓醫(yī)藥煥然一新，并開始進入消費領(lǐng)域聊记。進展也許還比較緩慢撒妈，但借助于新工具和大量的機器學(xué)習(xí)恢暖，生物制造技術(shù)終能碩果累累。用合成木材或珊瑚建造的樓宇也許會拔地而起狰右，而通過大象細(xì)胞基因編輯產(chǎn)生的猛犸象可能會跨越西伯利亞杰捂。
The scale of the potential changes seems hard to imagine. But look back through history, and humanity’s relations with the living world have seen three great transformations: the exploitation of fossil fuels, the globalisation of the world’s ecosystems after the European conquest of the Americas, and the domestication of crops and animals at the dawn of agriculture. All brought prosperity and progress, but with damaging side-effects. Synthetic biology promises similar transformation. To harness the promise and minimise the peril, it pays to learn the lessons of the past.
可能發(fā)生的變化之大，似乎難以想象棋蚌。但是回顧歷史嫁佳，人類與生物世界的關(guān)系經(jīng)歷了三次巨大的轉(zhuǎn)變：化石燃料的開采、歐洲征服美洲后世界生態(tài)系統(tǒng)的全球化附鸽，以及農(nóng)業(yè)發(fā)展初期農(nóng)作物的培植和動物的馴化脱拼。所有這些都帶來了繁榮和進步瞒瘸，但也產(chǎn)生了破壞性的副作用坷备。合成生物學(xué)可能也會造成類似的轉(zhuǎn)變。為了利用好發(fā)展前景同時將風(fēng)險降至最低情臭，吸取過去的教訓(xùn)省撑，何樂而不為呢！
The new biology calls all in doubt
新的生物學(xué)讓一切都充滿了疑問
Start with the most recent of these previous shifts. Fossil fuels have enabled humans to drive remarkable economic expansion in the present using biological productivity from ages past, stored away in coal and oil. But much wilderness has been lost, and carbon atoms which last saw the atmosphere hundreds of millions of years ago have strengthened the planet’s greenhouse effect to a degree that may prove catastrophic. Here, synthetic biology can do good. It is already being used to replace some products made from petrochemicals; in time it could replace some fuels, too. This week Burger King introduced into some of its restaurants a beefless Whopper that gets its meatiness from an engineered plant protein; such innovations could greatly ease a shift to less environmentally taxing diets. They could also be used to do more with less. Plants and their soil microbes could produce their own fertilisers and pesticides, ruminants less greenhouse gas—though to ensure that synthetic biology yields such laudable environmental goals will take public policy as well as the cues of the market.
先說說最近發(fā)生的這些轉(zhuǎn)變俯在【癸化石燃料讓人類能夠利用過去儲存在煤和石油中的生物生產(chǎn)力，推動當(dāng)今顯著的經(jīng)濟擴張跷乐。但是很多荒野消失了肥败，幾億年前最后一次出現(xiàn)在大氣中的碳原子也讓地球的溫室效應(yīng)增強了，其程度可能被證明是災(zāi)難性的愕提。在這方面馒稍，合成生物學(xué)可以發(fā)揮作用。它已經(jīng)被用來取代一些石油化工產(chǎn)品浅侨；假以時日纽谒，它也會替代一些燃料。本周如输，漢堡王(Burger King)在其部分餐廳推出了一款無肉皇堡鼓黔，其肉質(zhì)口味來自一種基因工程植物蛋白；這類創(chuàng)新可以極大地方便向低環(huán)境負(fù)擔(dān)飲食的轉(zhuǎn)變不见。有了這些創(chuàng)新澳化，可以少花錢多辦事。植物及其土壤微生物可以生產(chǎn)自己的化肥和殺蟲劑稳吮，反芻動物可以排出更少的溫室氣體——不過肆捕，為了確保合成生物學(xué)能夠達成如此值得稱贊的環(huán)境目標(biāo)，既要考慮公共政策盖高，也需要市場引導(dǎo)慎陵。
The second example of biological change sweeping the world is the Columbian exchange, in which the 16th century’s newly global network of trade shuffled together the creatures of the New World and the Old. Horses, cattle and cotton were introduced to the Americas; maize, potatoes, chilli and tobacco to Europe, Africa and Asia. The ecosystems in which humans live became globalised as never before, providing more productive agriculture all round, richer diets for many. But there were also disastrous consequences. Measles, smallpox and other pathogens ran through the New World like a forest fire, claiming tens of millions of lives. The Europeans weaponised this catastrophe, conquering lands depleted and disordered by disease.
生物變化席卷世界的第二個例子是哥倫布交換眼虱，16世紀(jì)新形成的全球貿(mào)易網(wǎng)絡(luò)將新世界與舊世界的生物混雜在一起。馬席纽、牛和棉花被引入美洲捏悬；玉米、土豆润梯、辣椒和煙草被銷往歐洲过牙、非洲和亞洲。人類賴以生存的生態(tài)系統(tǒng)前所未有地全球化纺铭，提高了各地農(nóng)業(yè)生產(chǎn)力寇钉，為許多人帶來更豐富的飲食。但也有災(zāi)難性的后果舶赔。麻疹扫倡、天花和其他病原體像森林大火一樣在新世界蔓延，奪走了數(shù)千萬人的生命竟纳。歐洲人拿這場災(zāi)難當(dāng)作武器撵溃，征服了因疾病而枯竭和混亂的土地。
Synthetic biology could create such weapons by design: pathogens designed to weaken, to incapacitate or to kill, and perhaps also to limit themselves to particular types of target. There is real cause for concern here—but not for immediate alarm. For such weaponisation would, like the rest of cutting-edge synthetic biology, take highly skilled teams with significant resources. And armies already have lots of ways to flatten cities and kill people in large numbers. When it comes to mass destruction, a disease is a poor substitute for a nuke. What’s more, today’s synthetic-biology community lives up to ideals of openness and public service better than many older fields. Maintained and nurtured, that culture should serve as a powerful immune system against rogue elements.
合成生物學(xué)可以通過設(shè)計制造出這樣的武器：設(shè)計具有削弱锥累、致殘或殺傷性的病原體缘挑，或許還可以針對特定類型的目標(biāo)設(shè)計相應(yīng)的病原體。這確實令人感到擔(dān)憂桶略，但眼下我們不必緊張语淘。這是因為，這類武器化設(shè)計將像其他尖端合成生物學(xué)一樣际歼，需要擁有巨大資源的高技術(shù)團隊惶翻。而且，軍隊已經(jīng)有很多辦法去大規(guī)模地夷平城市蹬挺，殺戮民眾维贺。就大規(guī)模殺傷性而言，疾病并不能很好地替代核武器巴帮。更為重要的是溯泣，相比諸多古老的研究領(lǐng)域，現(xiàn)今的合成生物學(xué)界更加開放透明榕茧，也更加秉承服務(wù)大眾的理念垃沦。這種文化如果得以傳承和發(fā)揚，應(yīng)該能夠像一個強大的免疫系統(tǒng)一樣用押，抵御胡作非為之徒肢簿。
The earliest biological transformation—domestication—produced what was hitherto the biggest change in how humans lived their lives. Haphazardly, then purposefully, humans bred cereals to be more bountiful, livestock to be more docile, dogs more obedient and cats more companionable (the last a partial success, at best). This allowed new densities of settlement and new forms of social organisation: the market, the city, the state. Humans domesticated themselves as well as their crops and animals, creating space for the drudgery of subsistence agriculture and oppressive political hierarchies.
最早的生物學(xué)轉(zhuǎn)變——馴養(yǎng)——使人類生活方式發(fā)生了迄今為止最大的變化。通過人類先是隨意而后又有目的地培育和馴養(yǎng)，谷物更加豐裕池充，牲畜更加溫順桩引，狗更加聽話，貓更加友善（最后一種情況充其量只能算是部分成功）收夸。新的密集定居地和社會組織形式由此形成：市場坑匠、城市和國家。人類不僅馴養(yǎng)了農(nóng)作物和動物卧惜，也教化了自己厘灼，繁重而乏味的自給性農(nóng)業(yè)和壓迫性政治等級制度因此得以存續(xù)下來。
Synthetic biology will have a similar cascading effect, transforming humans’ relationships with each other and, potentially, their own biological nature. The ability to reprogram the embryo is, rightly, the site of most of today’s ethical concerns. In future, they may extend further; what should one make of people with the upper-body strength of gorillas, or minds impervious to sorrow? How humans may choose to change themselves biologically is hard to say; that some choices will be controversial is not.
合成生物學(xué)將產(chǎn)生類似的連鎖效應(yīng)咽瓷，不僅改變?nèi)祟惐舜酥g的關(guān)系设凹，并可能改變?nèi)祟愖陨淼纳锾匦浴ε咛ミM行重新編程的能力成為當(dāng)今大多數(shù)倫理問題的焦點茅姜，這是理所當(dāng)然的事情闪朱。在未來，它們可能會進一步延伸拓展匈睁；我們應(yīng)該如何看待擁有大猩猩上半身力量的人监透，或者不會產(chǎn)生悲傷情緒的人桶错？人類如何選擇從生物學(xué)上改變自己還很難說航唆；而其中有些選擇將會引起爭議，卻是明擺著的院刁。
Which leads to the main way in which this transformation differs from the three that came before. Their significance was discovered only in retrospect. This time, there will be foresight. It will not be perfect: there will certainly be unanticipated effects. But synthetic biology will be driven by the pursuit of goals, both anticipated and desired. It will challenge the human capacity for wisdom and foresight. It might defeat it. But carefully nurtured, it might also help expand it.
這一次轉(zhuǎn)變的主要方式與之前的三次是不同的糯钙，為何？之前的幾次轉(zhuǎn)變退腥，人們只是在回顧歷史時才發(fā)現(xiàn)其重要意義任岸。而這一次，人們將有遠見卓識狡刘。它不會是完美的：肯定會產(chǎn)生意想不到的影響享潜。但是，推動合成生物學(xué)向前發(fā)展的嗅蔬，將是人們對預(yù)料之中或者渴望實現(xiàn)的目標(biāo)的追求剑按。它將挑戰(zhàn)人類的智慧和遠見——也許會戰(zhàn)勝人類的智慧和遠見，但如果加以精心培育扶持澜术，它也可能會讓人類變得更有智慧艺蝴、更有遠見。
（陳繼龍譯自《經(jīng)濟學(xué)人》雜志2019年4月6日刊）
