Bart Knols: Cheese, dogs and a pill to kill mosquitoes and end malaria

Translator: Joseph Geni Reviewer: Morton Bast

譯者: Karen SONG 審譯者: Mei-Yu Chen

(Mosquito buzzing)

（蚊子叫）

(Swat)

（拍打）

Gotcha.

打著了！

Mosquitoes.

我恨死蚊子了

I hate them.

你們也一樣吧

Don't you?

That awful buzzing sound at night around your ears

夜晚那惱人的蚊子叫縈繞耳邊

that drives you absolutely crazy?

真是讓人崩潰

想像蚊子向你的皮膚裡扎進一根針

Knowing that she wants to stick a needle in your skin

and suck out your blood?

吸走你的血——真是太噁心了！

That's awful, right?

In fact, there's only one good thing I can think of when it gets to mosquitoes.

事實上，關於蚊子我只能想到

一點還能說得過去

When they fly into our bedroom at night,

就是牠們晚上飛進我們的臥室

they prefer to bite my wife.

比較喜歡咬我太太

(Laughter)

But that's fascinating, right?

這其中大有玄機

Why does she receive more bites than I do?

為什麼她比我招蚊子咬？

And the answer is smell,

答案是體味

the smell of her body.

我們的氣味各不相同，皮膚製造不同的化學物質

And since we all smell different and produce chemicals on our skin

有些吸引蚊子，有些則驅離蚊子

that either attract or repel mosquitoes,

some of us are just more attractive than others.

有些人確實比較招蚊子

So my wife smells nicer than I do, or I just stink more than she does.

所以說我太太比我好聞

或者說我比她臭

Either way, mosquitoes find us in the dark by sniffing us out. They smell us.

不管怎麼樣，蚊子在黑暗中通過嗅覺找人

牠們聞得出我們

And during my PhD, I wanted to know exactly

讀博士的時候，我想搞清楚

蚊子通過我們皮膚上的哪種化學物質來挑人

what chemicals from our skin African malaria mosquitoes use

那些非洲瘧蚊如何在夜晚的黑暗中跟蹤我們

to track us down at night.

牠們使用一整組物質

And there's a whole range of compounds that they do use.

And this was not going to be an easy task.

這個任務可不容易完成

And therefore we set up various experiments.

於是我們設計了各種實驗

我們為什麼設計這些實驗？

Why did we set up these experiments?

Because half the world's population

因為世界的一半人口面臨著

runs the risk of contracting a killer disease like malaria

對抗瘧疾這種致命疾病的風險

through a simple mosquito bite.

而關鍵是消除蚊子叮咬

Every 30 seconds, somewhere on this planet,

每30秒，世界上的某個角落

a child dies of malaria,

就有一個孩子死於瘧疾。今天早上

and Paul Levy this morning, he was talking about the metaphor

保羅.萊維談到了美國波音727飛機墜毀事故的隱喻

of the 727 crashing into the United States.

而在非洲，我們遇到的死亡相當於7架大型747客機

Well, in Africa, we have the equivalent of seven jumbo 747s

crashing every day.

每天墜毀

But perhaps if we can attract these mosquitoes to traps,

也許，如果我們能把蚊子引入陷阱

bait it with our smell,

用我們的體味作為誘餌，也許就能夠

we may be able to stop transmission of disease.

阻止疾病傳播

解決這個問題可要花不少工夫

Now, solving this puzzle was not an easy thing,

because we produce hundreds of different chemicals on the skin,

因為我們的皮膚製造上百種不同的化學物質

but we undertook some remarkable experiments

但我們完成了一些了不起的實驗

幫助我們迅速釐清了解開難題的關鍵

that managed us to resolve this puzzle very quickly indeed.

First, we observed that not all mosquito species

首先，我們觀察到不是所有的蚊子

bite on the same part of the body.

都叮咬人類身體的同一個部位。這挺奇怪

Strange.

So we set up an experiment

我們設計了一個實驗

where we put a naked volunteer in a large cage,

我們讓一名全身赤裸的志願者待在一個大籠子裡

(Laughter)

然後放進蚊子

and in that cage, we released mosquitoes

to see where they were biting on the body of that person.

看看這些蚊子叮咬哪些身體部位

And we found some remarkable differences.

這裡有顯著差異

On the left here you see the bites

你們看到左邊圖片上的這些咬痕

是被荷蘭瘧蚊叮咬的

by the Dutch malaria mosquito on this person.

They had a very strong preference for biting on the face.

咬痕明顯集中於面部

In contrast, the African malaria mosquito

而相反的，非洲瘧蚊

卻喜歡咬腳踝和腳

had a very strong preference for biting the ankles and feet of this person.

And that, of course, we should have known all along,

我們當然早就知道這點了

because they're called mosqui-toes, you see?

因為它們叫做 “mosqui-toes” 不是嗎? （蚊子的英文單詞結尾toes是腳趾的意思） （笑聲）

(Laughter)

That's right.

這太對了（掌聲）

(Applause)

於是我們集中研究腳上的氣味

And so we started focusing on the smell of feet ...

on the smell of human feet,

研究人類腳上的氣味

我們在論文中得出了一個驚人的結論

until we came across a remarkable statement in the literature

that said that cheese smells after feet

乳酪不如腳丫子味道重

rather than the reverse.

可別搞反了。想想看吧。

Think of it.

And this triggered us to do a remarkable experiment.

這啟發了我們去做另外一項重要的實驗

We tried, with a tiny little piece of Limburger cheese,

我們試著用一小塊林堡乳酪

它有一種近似腳臭的臭味

which smells badly after feet,

來吸引非洲瘧蚊

to attract African malaria mosquitoes.

And you know what? It worked.

你們知道嗎？它真有效。

事實上，它的功效讓我們開發出一種

In fact, it worked so well

that now we have a synthetic mixture of the aroma of Limburger cheese

林堡乳酪氣味的人工混合物，在坦尚尼亞使用

that we're using in Tanzania

and has been shown there

事實證明這種人工混合物比人類的腳更吸引蚊子

to be two to three times more attractive to mosquitoes than humans.

有兩至三倍的吸引力

Limburg, be proud of your cheese,

林堡的人們，你們應該感到自豪!

as it is now used in the fight against malaria.

你們的乳酪可是抗擊瘧疾的利器

(Applause)

（掌聲）

That's the cheese, just to show you.

這就是我提到的乳酪

My second story is remarkable as well.

我的第二個故事同樣精彩

It's about man's best friend. It's about dogs.

是關於人類最好的朋友——狗狗們

And I will show you how we can use dogs in the fight against malaria.

我會向你們展示

如何用狗來對付瘧疾

One of the best ways of killing mosquitoes

殺死蚊子的最好辦法

is not to wait until they fly around like adults

可不是等到成蟲飛到我們身邊

叮咬人類傳播疾病的時候

and bite people and transmit disease.

It's to kill them when they're still in the water as larvae.

而是在牠們還是幼蟲、是在水中生活的孑孓的時候

Why?

為什麼？因為牠們就像CIA

Because they are just like the CIA.

In that pool of water, these larvae are concentrated.

在水塘裡，孑孓集中在一起

They're all together there. They are immobile.

全部固守在一個地方，沒有行動能力，

They can't escape from that water.

牠們無法逃離那片水塘，因為還不會飛

They can't fly.

And they're accessible.

牠們很容易被找到。你大可以走到池塘邊，

You can actually walk up to that pool and you can kill them there, right?

把牠們全殺光。是不是？

So the problem that we face with this

於是我們遇到的問題是

is that, throughout the landscape, all these pools of water with the larvae,

漫山遍野的水塘充斥著孑孓

they are scattered all over the place,

牠們到處都是

which makes it very hard for an inspector like this

像這樣一個殺蟲員

to actually find all these breeding sites and treat them with insecticides.

很難找到所有的據點來噴灑殺蟲劑

所以去年，我們絞盡腦汁

And last year we thought very, very hard, how can we resolve this problem?

來找解決之道。直到我們意識到

Until we realized that just like us -- we have a unique smell --

就像人類有獨特的氣味一樣

孑孓也有獨特的氣味

mosquito larvae also have a very unique smell.

And so we set up another crazy experiment,

我們開始著手另外一項大膽的實驗

because we collected the smell of these larvae,

我們收集孑孓的氣味

弄到布料上，然後做出一項壯舉

put it on pieces of cloth, and then did something very remarkable.

Here we have a bar with four holes

這根橫木上有四個洞

and we put the smell of these larvae in the left hole.

我們把沾有孑孓氣味的布料放在最左邊的洞裡面

Oh, that was very quick.

哦，這段放的有點快

And then you see the dog. It's called Tweed. It's a border collie.

你們看到這只狗，他叫粗花呢，是一隻邊境牧羊犬

他在檢查這些洞，他已經聞出來了

He's examining these holes and now he's got it already.

他回來又檢查了一遍控制洞

He's going back to check the control holes again,

but he's coming back to the first one,

但又回到第一個洞

鎖定了這個氣味

and now he's locking into that smell,

which means that now, we can use dogs with these inspectors

這意味著我們可以使用狗

來幫助殺蟲員更好地找到

to much better find the breeding sites of mosquitoes in the field,

這片田野裡蚊子的繁殖區

and therefore have a much bigger impact on malaria.

更好地去打擊瘧疾

This lady is Ellen van der Zweep.

這位女士名叫艾倫.馮.德.茲威普。她是世界一流的訓狗師

She's one of the best dog trainers in the world,

她認為我們能做的還遠遠不止這些

and she believes that we can do a lot more.

由於我們也知道瘧疾寄生蟲的攜帶者

Since we also know that people that carry malaria parasites

smell different compared to people that are uninfected,

與沒有感染的人有不同的氣味

she's convinced that we can train dogs to find people that carry the parasite.

她相信我們也可以通過訓練狗

來找到這些攜帶者

That means that in a population where malaria has gone down all the way

這就意味著，在一個瘧疾受到控制的人群中

只有很少的人是攜帶者

and there's few people remaining with parasites,

that the dogs can find these people,

而狗能找到這些人

we can treat them with antimalarial drugs and give the final blow to malaria.

我們可以使用抗瘧疾藥物為他們治療，徹底終結瘧疾

Man's best friend in the fight against malaria.

狗也是人類抗擊瘧疾的最好朋友

我的第三個故事也許更有意義

My third story is perhaps even more remarkable ...

而且我得說今天是我第一次對公眾講述這個故事

and, I should say, has never been shown to the public until today.

(Audience cheers)

Yeah.

是的

It's a crazy story, but I believe it's perhaps the best and ultimate revenge

這很瘋狂，但我相信這也許是最好的

向蚊子復仇的終極武器

against mosquitoes ever.

In fact, people have told me

事實上，有人告訴我他們現在居然

that now they will enjoy being bitten by mosquitoes.

享受被蚊子叮咬

And the question of course is,

這裡的疑問當然是，

what would make someone enjoy being bitten by mosquitoes?

是什麼讓人們享受蚊子叮咬？

And the answer I have right here ...

答案

就在我的口袋裡

in my pocket --

(Laughter)

if I get it.

我有這個

It's a tablet.

這是一個藥片，很簡單的一個藥片

A simple tablet,

and when I take it with water ...

當我用水服下

it does miracles.

它能產生奇蹟

Thank you.

謝謝你

（喝水）

Now, let me show you how this works.

讓我告訴你們它有什麼效果

Here in this box, I have a cage

在這個盒子裡有一個籠子

關著好幾百隻

with several hundred hungry female mosquitoes ...

饑餓的雌蚊子

(Laughter)

that I'm just about to release.

我即將釋放牠們（笑聲）

(Laughter)

Just kidding, just kidding.

開玩笑，我只是在開玩笑

(Laughter)

What I'm going to show you is, I'm gonna stick my arm into it

我要把胳膊伸進去

and I will show you how quickly they will bite.

向你們展示牠們咬過來有多迅速

開始了！

There we go.

別慌，我在實驗室裡一直這麼做

Don't worry, I do this all the time in the lab.

There we go.

好了，開始。

OK.

Now, on the video --

現在我放的這個錄影

on the video here,

I'm going to show you exactly the same thing,

會向你們展示同樣的情景

唯一的不同是拍這段錄影時

except that what I'm showing you on the video

happened one hour after I took the tablet.

我已經服藥一個小時了

Have a look.

看看吧。放錯了……好。不好意思。

That doesn't work.

OK. Sorry about that.

I'm sticking in my arm, I'm giving them a big juicy blood meal,

我把胳膊放進去，我給了牠們一頓大餐

I'm shaking them off, and we follow them through time

我把它們晃走，然後跟蹤拍攝

它們變得非常非常虛弱

to see these mosquitoes get very, very sick indeed,

here shown in fast motion.

用快進來放

And three hours later, what we see at the bottom of the cage

三個小時後我們再來看籠子的底部

全是死蚊子

is dead mosquitoes ...

而且死透了。我要說，女士們先生們

very dead mosquitoes.

And I'm going to say, ladies and gentlemen,

we have swapped the cards with mosquitoes.

我們反敗為勝了

They don't kill us. We kill them.

牠們殺不了我們，是我們殺死牠們。

(Applause)

（鼓掌）

好了——（笑聲）——

Now --

(Laughter)

Maastricht, be prepared.

馬斯垂克，準備好了！

讓我們想想我們能做到什麼

Now, think of what we can do with this.

We can actually use this to contain outbreaks

我們可以用這種藥來

of mosquito-born diseases, of epidemics, right?

傳播蚊子的瘟疫，對不對？

更進一步，想像一下這種情形

And better still, imagine what would happen

在一個廣大地區，人人都吃了這種藥

if, in a very large area, everyone would take these drugs, for just three weeks.

吃上三個禮拜

That would give us an opportunity

這就是個大好機會來真正消滅

to actually eliminate malaria as a disease.

這個地區的瘧疾

用乳酪、狗、和藥片來滅蚊

So cheese, dogs and a pill to kill mosquitoes.

That's the kind of out-of-the-box science that I love doing ...

這就是我喜歡研究的“偏門”科學

為了人類的福祉

for the betterment of mankind,

but especially for her,

特別是為了她。為了讓她能在一個

so that she can grow up in a world without malaria.

沒有瘧疾的世界長大。謝謝大家（鼓掌）

Thank you.

(Applause)