翻译资格考试

导航

2020年翻译资格考试(catti)一级笔译材料(3)

来源 :中华考试网 2020-02-07

Synthetic Biology: Redesigning Life

合成生物学:生命再设计(节选)

The promise and perils of synthetic biology

合成生物学的希望与风险

  The new biology calls all in doubt

  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 well. It is already being used to replace some products made from petrochemicals; in time it could replace some fuels, too. Burger King recently 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.

  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.

  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.

  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.

  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.

  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.

  点击查看讲义辅导资料及网校课程

  口译:翻译资格考试三级口译模拟题 翻译资格考试二级口译模拟题 翻译资格考试一级口译模拟题

  笔译:翻译资格考试三级笔译模拟题 翻译资格考试二级笔译模拟题 翻译资格考试一级笔译模拟题

  翻译资格资料来源中华考试网校乔宏轩老师主讲教材精讲班课程,完整讲义下载进入个人中心>>

    下载焚题库APP——翻译资格考试——题库——做题,包括章节练习、每日一练、模拟试卷、历年真题、易错题等,可随时随地刷题。【在线做题>>】【下载APP掌上刷题

  翻译资格考试复习有问题?不知道怎么高效备考?加入考试群760421514翻译资格考试和考生一起交流信息。

赶紧扫描下面二维码!!!

分享到

您可能感兴趣的文章