To see a world in a grain of sand
從一粒沙子看到一個世界
That quarry’s nature, reported this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is not a complete surprise. A larger virus, called Mimivirus, which lives in freshwater amoebas, turned up in 2003 and a few other, similar, viruses have been found since then. But CroV is by far the biggest to come out of the sea.
本周的《美國國家科學院院刊》報道了這一新發(fā)現(xiàn)病毒的性質，這也并非完全出人意料。因為另一個比較大稱為“Mimivirus”的病毒，是一種生活在淡水中變形蟲，在2003年就被人發(fā)現(xiàn)，還有其他幾個類似的病毒之后也相繼被人發(fā)現(xiàn)。但是CroV是來自海洋的最大的病毒。
Those who like their categories cut and dried may wonder whether viruses are alive or not. Wise biologists do not struggle too much with such questions. Viruses have genes, can reproduce and are subject to the evolutionary pressures imposed by natural selection. That is enough for biology to claim them. As for CroV, those 544 genes (composed of 730,000 base pairs, the DNA letters in which the language of the genes is written) mean its genome is bigger than those of several bacteria—creatures which everyone agrees are alive.
那些習慣于傳統(tǒng)分類學的人可能想知道病毒是活的還是死的。真正明智的生物學家不太糾纏于這類問題。病毒有基因，能再生，需要應對自然選擇的進化壓力。對生物學而言，這足以讓其有資格成為生物了。至于CroV，那些544個基因（由73萬組堿基對組成，這是構成基因語言的DNA字母）表明其基因圖譜比幾種大家認為是活體的細菌生物要大。
The problem with categorical thinking in biology is that evolution does not work like that. It actually works by whatever works working. If an organism can successfully subcontract part of the business of metabolism to another while retaining the rest itself, rather than offloading the whole lot as most viruses do, then there are no rules to stop it happening.
在生物學上，對什么都要分門別類的思維面臨的問題是生物進化的方式并非一成不變。進化實際上是不拘一格，隨遇而安。如果一種生物能夠成功地將部分新陳代謝工作分包給另一個生物，但同時又保留其余的新陳代謝工作，而不是象大多數(shù)病毒那樣把工作全部推掉，那么，就沒有任何規(guī)則阻止其進化。
CroV seems to do just that. Besides the genes that relate to protein synthesis it has others which encode DNA repair mechanisms and still others which are involved with protein recycling and signalling within cells. This is not mere hijacking. It is tantamount to a complete personality transplant for the infected cell.
Crov似乎正是這么做的。除與蛋白合成有關的基因外，它將DNA修復機制的編碼工作以及細胞內蛋白的回收和發(fā)送信號工作都交給其他生物完成。這不僅僅是簡單的劫持。這相當于將特性完整植入被感染的細胞。
About a third of CroV’s genes are similar to Mimivirus genes, suggesting they share a distant ancestor. On the other hand, two-thirds are not. A significant chunk of them seem to have been copied from bacteria. But the majority are unique, and previously unknown to science. A whole new chapter of life, in other words, has been opened.
CroV的基因中，約有三分之一同Mimivirus基因類似，說明它們之間都擁有共同的祖先。從另一方面講，它們之間還有三分之二的基因不同。其中很大一部分似乎是從細菌中復制的。但大多數(shù)基因在科學上特性明顯，屬于新發(fā)現(xiàn)的基因。換句話說，人類已經(jīng)翻開了生命研究的新篇章。
This discovery, then—and the earlier one of C. roenbergensis itself—speak volumes, albeit in a microscopic language, about biodiversity. Two centuries after Carl Linnaeus invented the system now used to describe it, and a century after Charles Darwin worked out what causes it, the ability of that diversity to surprise is still staggering.
這一發(fā)現(xiàn)—以及早先發(fā)現(xiàn)的C. roenbergensis —充分說明了生物的多樣性，盡管是以微生物的語言表述的。生物多樣性至今依然讓人眼花繚亂，目不暇接，盡管卡爾?林奈（Carl Linnaeus）200年前就發(fā)明了我們現(xiàn)在仍然使用的其描述體系，盡管達爾文100年前就找到了其發(fā)生的原因。
Science and Technology
譯者心得：
1. 本文是科技文章，又是微生物的，很多業(yè)外人士有恐懼感（我也不例外），想象拉丁文名字就夠頭大的。但這類文章語言比較規(guī)范，邏輯性強，所以，通過專業(yè)工具書解決掉最困難的名稱之外，其他部分的翻譯，同一般英文一樣。
2. 幾個詞匯的處理。首句中的“matter”很多人譯為“事情”，“是關于什么什么的事情”，這樣的譯文讀起來很羅嗦，其實擔子大一些，置之不理，中文意思也出來了。另外，“Viruses have genes, can reproduce and are subject to the evolutionary pressures imposed by natural selection. That is enough for biology to claim them”本段中的“Claim”不太好翻，for biology to claim them，讓生物學對它們有主張，讓生物學認領它們，其實就是“它們有資格屬于生物范疇”的意思，如果直譯，估計譯者本人也覺得不是滋味。
3. 一個復雜句子的處理?！?span lang="EN-US">In that context, the discovery by Curtis Suttle of the University of British Columbia and his colleagues of a critter they propose to call Cafeteria roenbergensis virus, or CroV, should not be surprising”，先看一下直翻，“從這個意義上講，由英屬哥倫比亞大學的Curtis Suttle和他的同事發(fā)現(xiàn)的一種他們建議命名為Cafeteria roenbergensis 病毒的生物，或CroV，不應該太出人意料?！边@樣的句子不能說不對，但但起來非常羅嗦，翻譯腔太強，因此，在準確表述愿意的前提下，我譯為“從這個意義上講，英屬哥倫比亞大學的Curtis Suttle和他的同事發(fā)現(xiàn)的一種新生物，不應該太出人意料。他們建議將其命名為Cafeteria roenbergensis病毒，或CroV?！睂⒃洳馂閮删洌蛊涓现形男形牧晳T。這在翻譯中很常見，畢竟譯出的東西是讓中國人看的。
4. 一個簡單句型的處理?！?span lang="EN-US">It is found in every ocean”，這句話很簡單，它被發(fā)現(xiàn)于各大洋，它存在于各大洋等等，都不錯。但鑒于前文出現(xiàn)“hunts down and eats bacteria, to be the most abundant predator ”這類動作性很強的語句，我們不妨在這里也“生動”一些，譯為“各大洋都能見到其身影”。
5. 關于邏輯性。翻譯其實就是理解外語的邏輯性，然后將其外語按照譯入語的邏輯性進行翻譯。本文中CroV和Cafeteria roenbergensis什么關系？不要被名字嚇倒，注意這句“CroV, as its full name suggests, is a parasite of Cafeteria roenbergensis, a single-celled planktonic organism that was itself discovered only in 1988”，說得是CroV其實是寄生在Cafeteria roenbergensis上的一種生物，是宿主身上的一種病毒。關系弄清了，下文接著講的都是宿主Cafeteria roenbergensis的事情，它們如何捕食，生存在什么地方。這其實也就間接介紹了CroV。
6. 名言警句的引用。《經(jīng)濟學人》的文章經(jīng)常不經(jīng)意間引用一些名言警句、詩詞歌賦，恰當?shù)乇硎銎湟饬x。本文不例外?！?span lang="EN-US">To see a world in a grain of sand”在本文中就有類似中文“麻雀雖小，五臟俱全”的意思，即使是一粒沙子，那上面生存著蕓蕓眾生。建議大家看一部動畫片，“Horton hears a who”，里邊講的是一頭大象如何同一朵蒲公英上的生命群體溝通的故事。這句話來自英國詩人William Blake的一首詩：
“A Grain of Sand
一粒沙子
William Blake/威廉.布萊克
To see a world in a grain of sand,
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour.
從一粒沙子看到一個世界，
從一朵野花看到一個天堂，
把握在你手心里的就是無限，
