演講MP3+雙語文稿:這種細菌可以吃塑料

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聽力課堂TED音頻欄目主要包括TED演講的音頻MP3及中英雙語文稿，供各位英語愛好者學(xué)習(xí)使用。本文主要內(nèi)容為演講MP3+雙語文稿:這種細菌可以吃塑料，希望你會喜歡！

【演講人及介紹】Morgan Vague

資深研究員助理Morgan Vague，研究蟲子和細菌。

【演講主題】這種細菌可以吃塑料

【演講文稿-中英文】

翻譯者 Buyun Ping 校對 psjmz mz

00:13

Plastics: you know about them, you may notlove them, but chances are you use them every single day. By 2050, researchersestimate that there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish.

塑料——你們了解塑料，你們也許不喜歡塑料，但事實是你們每天都要用到它。據(jù)研究人員估計，到2050年，海洋中塑料的數(shù)量將超過魚類。

00:29

Despite our best efforts, only nine percentof all plastic we use winds up being recycled. And even worse, plastic isincredibly tough and durable and researchers estimate that it can take anywherefrom 500 to 5,000 years to fully break down. It leaches harmful chemicalcontaminants into our oceans, our soil, our food, our water, and into us.

盡管我們非常努力，我們用過的塑料中僅有9%被回收利用。更糟糕的是，塑料十分牢固，經(jīng)久耐用，據(jù)研究人員估計，可能需要500到5000年，這些塑料才會分解。它釋放有毒化學(xué)成分進入海洋、土壤，進入我們的食物、我們的水源，最終被我們吸收。

01:00

So how did we wind up with so much plasticwaste? Well, it's simple. Plastic is cheap, durable, adaptable, and it'severywhere. But the good news is there's something else that's cheap, durable,adaptable and everywhere. And my research shows it may even be able to help uswith our plastic pollution problem.

那么我們是如何制造出這么多塑料垃圾的呢？很簡單。塑料廉價耐用，用處廣，而且到處都是。好消息是，還有一樣?xùn)|西，同樣廉價耐用，用處廣，而且到處都是。我的研究表明，它也許可以幫助我們解決塑料污染問題。

01:25

I'm talking about bacteria. Bacteria aremicroscopic living beings invisible to the naked eye that live everywhere, inall sorts of diverse and extreme environments, from the human gut, to soil, toskin, to vents in the ocean floor, reaching temperatures of 700 degreesFahrenheit. Bacteria live everywhere, in all sorts of diverse and extremeenvironments. And as such, they have to get pretty creative with their foodsources. There's also a lot of them. Researchers estimate that there areroughly five million trillion trillion -- that's a five with 30 zeros after it-- bacteria on the planet. Now, considering that we humans produce 300 milliontons of new plastic each year, I'd say that our plastic numbers are lookingpretty comparable to bacteria's.

我要說的是細菌。細菌是肉眼不可見的微生物，它到處都是，存在于多樣和極端的環(huán)境中，存在于人類腸道、土壤和皮膚，存在于溫度高達700 華氏度的海底火山口。細菌無處不在，存在于多樣和極端的環(huán)境中。正因如此，它們的食物來源同樣豐富多彩。它們的種類也很豐富。研究人員估計在地球上有5百萬兆兆—— 5后面有30個零——的細菌存在?？紤]到我們?nèi)祟惷磕甓紩a(chǎn)3億噸塑料，我想說我們生產(chǎn)的塑料數(shù)量和細菌數(shù)量有的一拼。

02:25

So, after noticing this and after learningabout all of the creative ways that bacteria find food, I started to think:could bacteria in plastic-polluted environments have figured out how to useplastic for food? Well, this is the question that I decided to pursue a coupleof years ago. Now, fortunately for me, I'm from one of the most polluted citiesin America, Houston, Texas.

所以，意識到這點，以及學(xué)習(xí)了細菌的所有食物來源后，我開始想：生活在塑料污染環(huán)境下的細菌，是否進化出了吃塑料的能力呢？幾年前我決定仔細研究這個問題。幸運的是，我出身于美國污染最嚴重的城市之一，德州休斯頓。

02:54

(Laughs)

（笑聲）

02:55

In my hometown alone, there are sevenEPA-designated Superfund sites. These are sites that are so polluted, that thegovernment has deemed their cleanup a national priority. So I decided to trekaround to these sites and collect soil samples teeming with bacteria. I startedtoying with a protocol, which is fancy science talk for a recipe. And what Iwas trying to cook up was a carbon-free media, or a food-free environment. Anenvironment without the usual carbons, or food, that bacteria, like us humans,need to live.

僅僅在我家鄉(xiāng)，就有7所環(huán)境保護局指定的超級基金污染場址。這些場所的污染之嚴重，政府甚至將對它們的清潔工作列為全國優(yōu)先項目。我決定到這些場所去，收集一些富含細菌的土壤樣本。我開始擺弄一個原型機，它就等同于科學(xué)界的食譜。我想“烹飪”出的是無碳媒介，或是沒有食物的環(huán)境。一個沒有常見的碳，也沒有食物的環(huán)境，而細菌，像人類一樣，也需要生存下去。

03:36

Now, in this environment, I would providemy bacteria with a sole carbon, or food, source. I would feed my bacteriapolyethylene terephthalate, or PET plastic. PET plastic is the most widelyproduced plastic in the world. It's used in all sorts of food and drinkcontainers, with the most notorious example being plastic water bottles, ofwhich we humans currently go through at a rate of one million per minute. So,what I would be doing, is essentially putting my bacteria on a forced diet ofPET plastic and seeing which, if any, might survive or, hopefully, thrive.

在這個環(huán)境中，我將為細菌提供唯一的碳，或者可以說食物、資源。我將為它們提供聚對苯二甲酸乙二酯，也就是俗稱的PET塑料。PET塑料是世界上產(chǎn)量最大的塑料。它被用于制作所有的食物和液體容器，最著名的例子莫過于塑料水瓶，人類每分鐘都要使用一百萬的塑料水瓶。我要做的事情，是迫使細菌以PET塑料為食，并且觀察是否有細菌能活下來，或者更進一步，繁榮生長。

04:23

See, this type of experiment would act as ascreen for bacteria that had adapted to their plastic-polluted environment andevolved the incredibly cool ability to eat PET plastic. And using this screen,I was able to find some bacteria that had done just that. These bacteria hadfigured out how to eat PET plastic.

這種實驗?zāi)芙o已經(jīng)適應(yīng)塑料污染場所環(huán)境的細菌提供庇護所，并且讓它們發(fā)展消耗 PET塑料的能力。利用這個場所，我發(fā)現(xiàn)了一些已經(jīng)具備這種能力的細菌。這些細菌進化出了以 PET塑料為食的能力。

04:48

So how do these bacteria do this? Well,it's actually pretty simple. Just as we humans digest carbon or food intochunks of sugar that we then use for energy, so too do my bacteria. Mybacteria, however, have figured out how to do this digestion process to big,tough, durable PET plastic.

那么它們具體是怎么做的呢？這其實很簡單。如同人類消化碳或食物，轉(zhuǎn)化為能量來源葡萄糖那樣，我的細菌也是這么做的。不同的是，我的細菌進化出了消化大型、牢固耐用的 PET塑料的方法。

05:12

Now, to do this, my bacteria use a specialversion of what's called an enzyme. Now, enzymes are simply compounds thatexist in all living things. There are many different types of enzymes, butbasically, they make processes go forward, such as the digestion of food intoenergy. For instance, we humans have an enzyme called an amylase that helps usdigest complex starches, such as bread, into small chunks of sugar that we canthen use for energy. Now, my bacteria have a special enzyme called a lipasethat binds to big, tough, durable PET plastic and helps break it into smallchunks of sugar that my bacteria can then use for energy. So basically, PETplastic goes from being a big, tough, long-lasting pollutant to a tasty mealfor my bacteria. Sounds pretty cool, right?

為了達成這點，我的細菌會利用一個特殊的物品，叫作酶。酶是一種簡單的化合物，存在于所有生命體中。酶有很多種類，但基本上，它們的功能是促進過程，例如將食物轉(zhuǎn)化為能量的過程。舉個例子，人體內(nèi)有一種叫作淀粉酶的東西，能夠幫助我們消化淀粉，如面包，并轉(zhuǎn)化為小分子葡萄糖，用以提供能量。我的細菌有一種特殊的酶，叫作脂肪酶，這種酶能附著在大型牢固耐用的PET塑料上，并且將它分解成小分子的葡萄糖，我的細菌就可以將其作為能量來源?；旧?，PET塑料從大型、牢固而持久的污染，變成了我的細菌口中的美餐。聽起來很棒，不是嗎？

06:10

And I think, given the current scope of ourplastic pollution problem, I think it sounds pretty useful. The statistics Ishared with you on just how much plastic waste has accumulated on our planetare daunting. They're scary. And I think they highlight that while reducing,reusing and recycling are important, they alone are not going to be enough tosolve this problem. And this is where I think bacteria might be able to help usout.

并且我認為，考慮到現(xiàn)在塑料污染的規(guī)模問題，我認為這聽起來非常實用。那些我分享給你們的關(guān)于我們星球上有多少塑料垃圾的數(shù)據(jù)駭人聽聞。它們讓人感到害怕。并且我認為它們還指出，盡管減少使用、再次利用和回收非常重要，但僅通過這些方法是不足以解決這個問題的。我認為細菌也許能夠幫助我們。

06:43

But I do understand why the concept ofbacterial help might make some people a little nervous. After all, if plasticis everywhere and these bacteria eat plastic, isn't there a risk of thesebacteria getting out in the environment and wreaking havoc? Well, the shortanswer is no, and I'll tell you why. These bacteria are already in theenvironment. The bacteria in my research are not genetically modifiedfrankenbugs. These are naturally occurring bacteria that have simply adapted totheir plastic-polluted environment and evolved the incredibly gnarly ability toeat PET plastic.

但我能理解為什么有些人聽到利用細菌會緊張。畢竟，如果塑料到處都是，而這些細菌會吃塑料，這些細菌會不會流入環(huán)境，造成破壞呢？答案是否定的，讓我來解釋給你聽。這些細菌本身就存在于環(huán)境中。我實驗中使用的細菌不是轉(zhuǎn)基因的人造蟲。它們是自然存在的細菌，只是它們適應(yīng)了塑料污染的環(huán)境，并且進化出了極端而不可思議的消化塑料的能力。

07:28

So the process of bacteria eating plasticis actually a natural one. But it's an incredibly slow process. And thereremains a lot of work to be done to figure out how to speed up this process toa useful pace. My research is currently looking at ways of doing this through aseries of UV, or ultraviolet, pretreatments, which basically means we blast PETplastic with sunlight. We do this because sunlight acts a bit like tenderizeron a steak, turning the big, tough, durable bonds in PET plastic a bit softerand a bit easier for my bacteria to chew on.

所以細菌消化塑料事實上是自然的過程。但這個過程非常緩慢。并且還需要投入大量工作，研究如何加快進程速度，讓它能夠發(fā)揮作用。我的研究現(xiàn)在正通過進行一系列紫外線預(yù)處理來尋找這樣的方法，這基本上意味著我們將 PET塑料置于陽光暴曬下，我們這么做，就像把肉弄嫩一樣，陽光會使得PET塑料中大塊、堅硬耐用的聯(lián)結(jié)軟化，方便我的細菌進食。

08:10

Ultimately, what my research hopes to do iscreate an industrial-scale contained carbon-free system, similar to a compostheap, where these bacteria can thrive in a contained system, where their solefood source is PET plastic waste. Imagine one day being able to dispose of allof your plastic waste in a bin at the curb that you knew was bound for adedicated bacteria-powered plastic waste facility. I think with some hard workthis is an achievable reality.

最終，我研究的目的，是為了創(chuàng)造出產(chǎn)業(yè)級別的獨立無碳系統(tǒng)，如同肥料堆那樣，在那里，細菌可以在獨立系統(tǒng)中繁榮發(fā)展，它們的唯一食物是PET塑料垃圾。想象有一天，你可以把你所有的塑料垃圾扔進馬路邊的一個垃圾桶，而你知道這個垃圾桶是專門的細菌消耗塑料垃圾裝置。我認為通過努力，我們可以實現(xiàn)這個目標。

08:47

Plastic-eating bacteria is not a cure-all.But given the current statistics, it's clear that we humans, we could use alittle help with this problem. Because people, we possess a pressing problem ofplastic pollution. And bacteria might be a really important part of thesolution.

以塑料為食的細菌并不能解決一切。但考慮到現(xiàn)實狀況，很明顯我們?nèi)祟愒谶@個問題上需要一些幫助。因為對于我們?nèi)祟惗?，塑料污染問題迫在眉睫。細菌也許能為解決問題做出很大貢獻。

09:07

Thank you.

謝謝你們。

09:09

(Applause)

（掌聲）