万物简史 第603期:生命的物质(29)（在线收听）

It can all begin to seem impossibly complicated, and in some ways itis impossibly complicated. But there is an underlying simplicity in all this, too, owing to an equally elemental underlying unity in the way life works. All the tiny, deft chemical processes that animate cells — the cooperative efforts of nucleotides, the transcription of DNA into RNA — evolved just once and have stayed pretty well fixed ever since across the whole of nature. As the late French geneticist Jacques Monod put it, only half in jest: "Anything that is true of E. coli must be true of elephants, except more so."

一切可能从一开始就似乎难以想像的复杂，一切在某种程度上也确实难以想像的复杂，但是，所有这一切又都有一条简单的底线，因为生命的运作方式说到底都是一样的。所有赋予细胞生命的细微而灵巧的化学过程——核苷酸的协调一致：从DNA到RNA的信息传递——在整个自然界只演变过一次，而且至今保持得十分完好。正如已故的法国遗传学家雅奎斯·莫诺半开玩笑地所指出的那样：“大肠杆菌如此，大象也是如此，只是更加如此。”

Every living thing is an elaboration on a single original plan. As humans we are mere increments — each of us a musty archive of adjustments, adaptations, modifications, and providential tinkerings stretching back 3.8 billion years. Remarkably, we are even quite closely related to fruit and vegetables. About half the chemical functions that take place in a banana are fundamentally the same as the chemical functions that take place in you.

一切生物都是从原先同一蓝图发展起来的产物。作为人类我们不过是发展得更加充分而已——我们每一个人都是一本保存38亿年之久的发霉记录本，涵盖了反反复复的调整、改造、变更和修补。令人惊讶的是，我们甚至与水果、蔬菜十分接近。发生在一根香蕉里的化学反应，和发生在你身上的化学反应约有50%在本质上是一样的。

It cannot be said too often: all life is one. That is, and I suspect will forever prove to be, the most profound true statement there is.

这句话怎么多说也不会过分：所有生命都是一家。这句话现在是，恐怕将来也将永远证明是世间最为深邃的真情告白。