Nathan Wolfe: What's left to explore?

Translator: Timothy Covell Reviewer: Morton Bast

譯者: I-Hsiang Lin 審譯者: Yuguo Zhang

Recently I visited Beloit, Wisconsin.

最近我去了威斯康辛州的貝洛伊特市，

And I was there to honor a great 20th century explorer,

目的是為了宣揚一位偉大的20世紀探險家

Roy Chapman Andrews.

Roy Chapman Andrews。

During his time at the American Museum of Natural History,

當他在美國自然歷史博物館工作時，

Andrews led a range of expeditions to uncharted regions,

Andrews率領一系列到地圖上未標明地區的探險活動，

like here in the Gobi Desert.

像是這里的戈壁沙漠。

He was quite a figure.

他是個不簡單的人物。

He was later, it's said, the basis of the Indiana Jones character.

據說他之後成為印第安那瓊斯這個角色的靈感來源。

And when I was in Beloit, Wisconsin,

當我在威斯康辛州的貝洛伊特市時，

I gave a public lecture to a group of middle school students.

我對一群中學學生發表公眾演說。

And I'm here to tell you,

我在這裡跟你說，

if there's anything more intimidating than talking here at TED,

如果有任何事比在TED這裡演講還要嚇人，

it'll be trying to hold the attention

那就是試著要在45分鐘的演講內

of a group of a thousand 12-year-olds for a 45-minute lecture.

掌握1000個12歲孩童的注意力。

Don't try that one.

別輕易嘗試。

At the end of the lecture they asked a number of questions,

在演講的最後，他們問了幾個問題，

but there was one that's really stuck with me since then.

其中有一個自此之後深印我腦海中。

There was a young girl who stood up,

有一個年輕女生站起來，

and she asked the question:

她問了這個問題：

"Where should we explore?"

「我們應該要去那裡探索？」

I think there's a sense that many of us have

我想普遍很多人認為

that the great age of exploration on Earth is over,

偉大的地球探索年代已經結束，

that for the next generation

對下一代來說，

they're going to have to go to outer space or the deepest oceans

他們將必須去外太空還是深海處

in order to find something significant to explore.

尋求重要的可探索事物。

But is that really the case?

但這真的是事實嗎？

Is there really nowhere significant for us to explore

地球上真的沒有剩下的重要地方

left here on Earth?

可以讓我們探索嗎？

It sort of made me think back

這有點讓我回想到

to one of my favorite explorers in the history of biology.

生物學歷史中我最喜愛的探險家之一。

This is an explorer of the unseen world, Martinus Beijerinck.

這就是未知世界的探險家，Martinus Beijerinck。

So Beijerinck set out to discover the cause

Beijerinck一開始要尋找

of tobacco mosaic disease.

菸草鑲嵌病的起因。

What he did is he took the infected juice from tobacco plants

他做的事是取出菸草屬植物的受感染汁液，

and he would filter it through smaller and smaller filters.

然後用愈來愈小的過濾器一再過濾。

And he reached the point

到某個時候，

where he felt that there must be something out there

他感覺一定有比當時認知的

that was smaller than the smallest forms of life that were ever known --

最微小型態的生命體-- 也就是細菌 --

bacteria, at the time.

還要更小的東西存在。

He came up with a name for his mystery agent.

他為這神秘的媒介命了名。

He called it the virus --

他稱之病毒(virus) --

Latin for "poison."

源自拉丁文中的「毒藥(poison)。」

And in uncovering viruses,

在揭露病毒的過程中，

Beijerinck really opened this entirely new world for us.

實際上Beijerinck為我們開啟了一個全新的世界。

We now know that viruses make up the majority

現在我們知道病毒構成地球上

of the genetic information on our planet,

絕大部分的基因信息，

more than the genetic information

比起所有其它形式的生命體的

of all other forms of life combined.

基因信息加總後都還要多。

And obviously there's been tremendous practical applications

顯然地已經有大量的實務應用

associated with this world --

和這個新世界有關係 --

things like the eradication of smallpox,

像是天花的滅絕，

the advent of a vaccine against cervical cancer,

預防子宮頸癌疫苗的出現，

which we now know is mostly caused by human papillomavirus.

而我們現在知道大多數子宮頸癌都是由人類乳突病度所引起。

And Beijerinck's discovery,

而Beijerinck的發現

this was not something that occurred 500 years ago.

不是500年前發生的事情。

It was a little over 100 years ago

Beijerinck在100多年前

that Beijerinck discovered viruses.

發現病毒。

So basically we had automobiles,

基本上當時我們已經有了汽車，

but we were unaware of the forms of life

但是我們未查覺在我們的星球上

that make up most of the genetic information on our planet.

構成大多數基因信息的生命體。

We now have these amazing tools

現在我們有這些驚人的工具

to allow us to explore the unseen world --

允許我們探索未知的世界 --

things like deep sequencing,

像是深度定序，

which allow us to do much more than just skim the surface

讓我們可以做得比只看到表面還要多，

and look at individual genomes from a particular species,

而且可以看某一特別物種的單獨基因組，

but to look at entire metagenomes,

當我們看整個宏基因組，

the communities of teeming microorganisms in, on and around us

我們身邊充滿了微生物的群體，

and to document all of the genetic information in these species.

還有紀錄這些種類中所有的基因信息。

We can apply these techniques

我們可以將這些技術應用在

to things from soil to skin and everything in between.

從土壤到皮膚間的所有物體上。

In my organization we now do this on a regular basis

在我的組織裡，現在我們定期

to identify the causes of outbreaks

鑑定不清楚明確肇因

that are unclear exactly what causes them.

的爆發症的發生原因。

And just to give you a sense of how this works,

讓我大概解釋一下這如何運作，

imagine that we took a nasal swab from every single one of you.

想像我們取了你們每個人的鼻腔標本。

And this is something we commonly do

我們通常會找

to look for respiratory viruses like influenza.

呼吸系統的病毒，像是流行性感冒。

The first thing we would see

首先我們會看

is a tremendous amount of genetic information.

非常大量的基因信息。

And if we started looking into that genetic information,

當我們開始觀察基因信息時，

we'd see a number of usual suspects out there --

我們會看到一些普通的可疑物 --

of course, a lot of human genetic information,

當然，很多的人類基因信息，

but also bacterial and viral information,

還有細菌和病毒訊息，

mostly from things that are completely harmless within your nose.

大部分都來自你鼻子內完全無害的東西，

But we'd also see something very, very surprising.

但我們也發現了令人非常吃驚的事情。

As we started to look at this information,

當我們開始觀察資訊時，

we would see that about 20 percent of the genetic information in your nose

我們看到你鼻子內大約百分之20的基因信息

doesn't match anything that we've ever seen before --

不符合任何我們以前曾經見過的東西 --

no plant, animal, fungus, virus or bacteria.

不是植物、動物、菌類、病毒或細菌。

Basically we have no clue what this is.

基本上我們不知道這是什麼。

And for the small group of us who actually study this kind of data,

對我們這些實際在研究這種資料的小團體，

a few of us have actually begun to call this information

其實我們當中有些人開始稱這個資訊為

biological dark matter.

生物暗物質。

We know it's not anything that we've seen before;

我們知道它不是任何以前我們見過的東西。

it's sort of the equivalent of an uncharted continent

它有點像是我們基因信息中

right within our own genetic information.

未知的大陸。

And there's a lot of it.

而且為數眾多。

If you think 20 percent of genetic information in your nose is a lot

如果你認為你鼻腔中百分之20的基因信息已經是很多的

of biological dark matter,

生物暗物質，

if we looked at your gut,

再來看看你的腸子，

up to 40 or 50 percent of that information is biological dark matter.

高達百分之40或50的信息是生物暗物質。

And even in the relatively sterile blood,

即使是在相對比較下無菌的血液中，

around one to two percent of this information is dark matter --

大約百分之一到二的信息是暗物質 --

can't be classified, can't be typed or matched with anything we've seen before.

無法跟我們見過的任何東西歸類或配對在一起。

At first we thought that perhaps this was artifact.

一開始我們想或許這是人工製品。

These deep sequencing tools are relatively new.

深度定序的技術還相當新。

But as they become more and more accurate,

但當它們變得愈來愈準確，

we've determined that this information is a form of life,

我們已經確定這信息是一種生命型態，

or at least some of it is a form of life.

或者至少當中有部分是有生命的。

And while the hypotheses for explaining the existence of biological dark matter

當解釋生物暗物質存在的假設

are really only in their infancy,

都還在初步階段，

there's a very, very exciting possibility that exists:

代表有個非常令人興奮的可能性存在：

that buried in this life, in this genetic information,

那就是埋藏在生命的基因信息裡

are signatures of as of yet unidentified life.

是截至目前為止尚未被辨識出的生命的特徵。

That as we explore these strings of A's, T's, C's and G's,

當我們探索一連串的A、T、C和G堿基時，

we may uncover a completely new class of life

我們可能會像Beijerinck一樣

that, like Beijerinck, will fundamentally change

發現一個全新的生命種類，而從根本改變了

the way that we think about the nature of biology.

我們對生物學本質的認知。

That perhaps will allow us to identify the cause of a cancer that afflicts us

或許這可容許我們找出折磨人類的癌症病源，

or identify the source of an outbreak that we aren't familiar with

或者辨別我們不熟悉的爆發病症原因，

or perhaps create a new tool in molecular biology.

或者創造出分子生物學的新工具。

I'm pleased to announce that,

我很高興地宣布，

along with colleagues at Stanford and Caltech and UCSF,

在斯坦福大學、加州理工學院和加州大學舊金山分校的同仁合作下，

we're currently starting an initiative

我們正開始要

to explore biological dark matter for the existence of new forms of life.

探索生物暗物質，以尋求新種類生命的存在。

A little over a hundred years ago,

大約一百多年前，

people were unaware of viruses,

人們不知道病毒，

the forms of life that make up most of the genetic information on our planet.

一種組成我們地球上大多數基因信息的生物型態。

A hundred years from now, people may marvel

一百年後，人們可能驚訝於

that we were perhaps completely unaware of a new class of life

現在的我們完全沒有察覺到

that literally was right under our noses.

眼前就有一種新的生物種類。

It's true, we may have charted all the continents on the planet

這是真的，我們可能記錄了地球上所有的大陸，

and we may have discovered all the mammals that are out there,

我們也可能發現了所有的哺乳類動物，

but that doesn't mean that there's nothing left to explore on Earth.

但這不表示地球上沒有其它可探索的事物。

Beijerinck and his kind

Beijerinck和他的同伴

provide an important lesson for the next generation of explorers --

提供了重要的啟示給下個世代的探險家 --

people like that young girl from Beloit, Wisconsin.

像來自威斯康辛州的貝洛伊特市的小女孩。

And I think if we phrase that lesson, it's something like this:

如果我們要說出這個啟示，應該是：

Don't assume that what we currently think is out there is the full story.

不要假設我們現在認為存在的就是全部。

Go after the dark matter in whatever field you choose to explore.

追求任何一個你選擇要探索的領域中的暗物質。

There are unknowns all around us

未知存在於我們周遭，

and they're just waiting to be discovered.

且等待被發現。

Thank you.

謝謝。

(Applause)

(掌聲)