美国国家公共电台 NPR A Microbe Hunter Plies Her Trade In Space

 

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

A few years ago, an airplane touched down on a grass runway in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and out stepped microbiologist Kate Rubins.

KATE RUBINS: If you put your finger on a map in the middle of Africa, that's about where our field site was located.

MARTIN: Rubins and her colleagues were there to study an outbreak of monkeypox, which is a cousin of the deadly smallpox¹ virus. She didn't know it at the time, but that expedition was actually the beginning of a much bigger journey to outer space. NPR's Rae Ellen Bichell has the story of how Kate Rubins became a new kind of astronaut.

RAE ELLEN BICHELL, BYLINE²: When Rubins got back to Boston after studying deadly viruses in the Congo, a heap of less exciting work was waiting for her. She was a fellow at MIT. And she was writing grants for money to support the lab she just started. It was grueling work, says Rubins, enough so to prompt a colleague to suggest that they take a break and do something fun like apply to become astronauts.

RUBINS: So I found the application online. And I said, you know, why not? I'll take this chance. And maybe it'll be a good story someday about how I applied³ to be an astronaut.

BICHELL: A few months later, she got a call from Houston.

RUBINS: They said, well, we'd like you to come down to Houston for a job interview (laughter). You know, you feel like saying, well, is this a real job that people actually do?

BICHELL: Rubins doesn't fit the normal astronaut profile. Most tend to start out as Navy pilots or engineers, maybe doctors, not molecular⁴ biologists studying viruses. But as it turns out, Rubins was just the kind of person NASA needed at this moment in its history. See, space travel has never been sterile⁵.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

TOM STAFFORD: Oh, who did it?

JOHN YOUNG: Did what?

EUGENE CERNAN: What?

STAFFORD: Who did it? Get me a napkin quick. There's a turd floating through the air.

YOUNG: I didn't do it. It ain't one of mine.

BICHELL: This is archival tape from the Apollo 10 mission. And they're discussing exactly what you think they are - a loose turd floating through their spacecraft.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

CERNAN: I don't think it's one of mine.

STAFFORD: Mine was a little more sticky than that.

YOUNG: God almighty⁶.

BICHELL: Back then, astronauts were sealed in a small capsule for a few days. But now, there's the space station, a habitat the size of a six-bedroom house that circles the Earth 200 miles above our heads. The station may have started out pristine⁷, its astronaut crews - not so much.

SARAH CASTRO-WALLACE: We cannot send up a sterile crew.

BICHELL: That's Sarah Castro-Wallace, a microbiologist at NASA's Johnson Space Center. For 16 years straight, crew after crew has been sweating, pooping and puking up there on the station. The microbes they release tend to stick around because the station is sealed like an airplane that never gets opened. Today, it's teeming⁸ with non-human life.

CASTRO-WALLACE: Staphylococcus aureus we'll find once in a while, Staphylococcus epidermidis all the time, Staphylococcus hominis, Micrococcus luteus, Burkholderia, Sphingomonas, Penicillium, Aspergillus.

BICHELL: Recently, an entire wall panel turned green with mold.

CASTRO-WALLACE: I mean, imagine your shower curtain at its worst. It was a, you know, a panel, like a large section.

BICHELL: Castro-Wallace says it's becoming really clear that scientists need to know what else is living up there.

CASTRO-WALLACE: If we see something growing on the wall, what is it? If a crew member gets an infection, what is it?

BICHELL: And that's a big reason why NASA not only hired Kate Rubins, they sent her up.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

RUBINS: Five, four, three, two, one.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Engines at maximum thrust.

RUBINS: And liftoff.

BICHELL: Rubins had 115 days to help set up a molecular biology lab onboard the station. She drew on her experience working in remote places quickly and using minimal⁹ equipment.

RUBINS: There's actually an incredible amount of parallels between working in central Congo in a remote isolated¹⁰ village and doing research aboard the space station.

BICHELL: And while she was on the station last fall, I called her up.

Station, this is Rae Bichell with NPR. How do you hear me?

RUBINS: I've got you loud and clear. It's great to be talking to you today.

BICHELL: She'd just gotten the lab up and running and was really excited about it.

RUBINS: So I'm in the U.S. laboratory. And as you can tell, it's absolutely a working laboratory. We have experiments all over the place.

BICHELL: Rubins had just sequenced DNA¹¹ for the first time in space, showing that in the near future it would be possible to, for example, swab a moldy¹² wall and figure out right then and there what fungus¹³ was responsible. While she was floating on the station, she also grew stem cells into heart cells, and peering through a microscope that she set up, watched them beat in unison¹⁴.

RUBINS: Now really the world of sequencing and molecular biology has opened up to us on a space station.

BICHELL: She's proven it's possible to do molecular biology a couple hundred miles from Earth, and by doing so, that it's also possible a couple million miles away. And that's really important if astronauts are going to Mars because any Mars habitat will be at least as gross as the space station. Rae Ellen Bichell, NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF BLUE SKY BLACK DEATH'S "ONLY PROMISES")

1 smallpox   

n.天花

参考例句：

• In 1742 he suffered a fatal attack of smallpox.1742年，他染上了致命的天花。
• Were you vaccinated against smallpox as a child?你小时候打过天花疫苗吗？

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 applied   

adj.应用的；v.应用，适用

参考例句：

• She plans to take a course in applied linguistics.她打算学习应用语言学课程。
• This cream is best applied to the face at night.这种乳霜最好晚上擦脸用。

4 molecular   

adj.分子的；克分子的

参考例句：

• The research will provide direct insight into molecular mechanisms.这项研究将使人能够直接地了解分子的机理。
• For the pressure to become zero, molecular bombardment must cease.当压强趋近于零时，分子的碰撞就停止了。

5 sterile   

adj.不毛的，不孕的，无菌的，枯燥的，贫瘠的

参考例句：

• This top fits over the bottle and keeps the teat sterile.这个盖子严实地盖在奶瓶上，保持奶嘴无菌。
• The farmers turned the sterile land into high fields.农民们把不毛之地变成了高产田。

6 almighty   

adj.全能的，万能的；很大的，很强的

参考例句：

• Those rebels did not really challenge Gods almighty power.这些叛徒没有对上帝的全能力量表示怀疑。
• It's almighty cold outside.外面冷得要命。

7 pristine   

adj.原来的，古时的，原始的，纯净的，无垢的

参考例句：

• He wiped his fingers on his pristine handkerchief.他用他那块洁净的手帕擦手指。
• He wasn't about to blemish that pristine record.他本不想去玷污那清白的过去。

8 teeming   

adj.丰富的v.充满( teem的现在分词 )；到处都是；（指水、雨等）暴降；倾注

参考例句：

• The rain was teeming down. 大雨倾盆而下。
• the teeming streets of the city 熙熙攘攘的城市街道

9 minimal   

adj.尽可能少的，最小的

参考例句：

• They referred to this kind of art as minimal art.他们把这种艺术叫微型艺术。
• I stayed with friends, so my expenses were minimal.我住在朋友家，所以我的花费很小。

10 isolated   

adj.与世隔绝的

参考例句：

• His bad behaviour was just an isolated incident. 他的不良行为只是个别事件。
• Patients with the disease should be isolated. 这种病的患者应予以隔离。

11 DNA   

(缩)deoxyribonucleic acid 脱氧核糖核酸

参考例句：

• DNA is stored in the nucleus of a cell.脱氧核糖核酸储存于细胞的细胞核里。
• Gene mutations are alterations in the DNA code.基因突变是指DNA密码的改变。

12 moldy   

adj.发霉的

参考例句：

• She chucked the moldy potatoes in the dustbin.她把发霉的土豆扔进垃圾箱。
• Oranges can be kept for a long time without going moldy.橙子可以存放很长时间而不腐烂。

13 fungus   

n.真菌，真菌类植物

参考例句：

• Mushrooms are a type of fungus.蘑菇是一种真菌。
• This fungus can just be detected by the unaided eye.这种真菌只用肉眼就能检查出。

14 unison   

n.步调一致，行动一致

参考例句：

• The governments acted in unison to combat terrorism.这些国家的政府一致行动对付恐怖主义。
• My feelings are in unison with yours.我的感情与你的感情是一致的。