TED演讲：细菌是怎样交流的(9)

 　　Amd of course, you've just heard and you already know that we're running out of antibiotics¹. 当然，你一定听说过，而且你早就知道了，我们快要没有有效的抗生素了。

　　Bacteria are incredibly multi-drug-resistant² right now, and that's because all of the antibiotics that we use kill bacteria. 现在的细菌都拥有不可思议的多重耐药性，而这都是因为这些抗生素的工作原理都是杀死细菌。

　　So they either pop the bacterial³ membrane⁴, they make the bacterium⁵ so it can't replicate⁶ its DNA⁷. 它们要么是使细菌的细胞膜破裂，要么就是不让细菌复制自己的DNA。

　　We kill bacteria with traditional antibiotics and that selects for resistant mutants. 当我们用传统抗生素来杀菌时，会同时培养筛选出有耐药性的突变菌株。

　　And so now of course we have this global problem in infectious diseases. 所以，我们有了全球性的感染病问题。

　　So we thought, well what if we could sort of do behavior modifications⁸, 我们想，如果我们可以稍微更改这些细菌的行为，

　　just make these bacteria so they can't talk, they can't count, and they don't know to launch virulence⁹. 只是让这些细菌无法交谈，无法计数，它们就不知何时发起毒性攻击了。

　　And so that's exactly what we've done, and we've sort of taken two strategies. 这就是我们已经完成的实验，我们使用了两种不同策略。

　　The first one is we've targeted the intraspecies communication system. 第一种，我们锁定菌种内通讯系统。

　　So we made molecules¹¹ that look kind of like the real molecules -- which you saw -- but they're a little bit different. 我们制造了一些看起来跟真的分子很像的分子，你们可以看到，它们间只有一点点的不同。

　　And so they lock into those receptors, and they jam recognition of the real thing. 因此，它们会锁住这些受体，并且干扰受体辨识真正的分子。

　　And so by targeting the red system, what we are able to do is to make species-specific, or disease-specific, anti-quorum sensing molecules. 既然锁定红色的系统，我们就可以制造针对菌种，或是针对疾病的“反聚量感应”分子。

　　We've also done the same thing with the pink system. 我们也对粉红色系统做了同样的事情。

　　We've taken that universal molecule¹⁰ and turned it around a little bit so that we've made antagonists¹² of the interspecies communication system. 我们使用那种通用分子，将之做了一些更改，我们做了一些拮抗剂，它们都是针对菌种间的通讯系统。

　　And The hope is that these will be used as broad-spectrum antibiotics that work against all bacteria. 我们希望这些分子可以用来作广谱抗生素，对所有细菌都有效。

1 antibiotics   

n.（用作复数）抗生素；（用作单数）抗生物质的研究；抗生素，抗菌素( antibiotic的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• the discovery of antibiotics in the 20th century 20世纪抗生素的发现
• The doctor gave me a prescription for antibiotics. 医生给我开了抗生素。

2 resistant   

adj.(to)抵抗的，有抵抗力的

参考例句：

• Many pests are resistant to the insecticide.许多害虫对这种杀虫剂有抵抗力。
• They imposed their government by force on the resistant population.他们以武力把自己的统治强加在持反抗态度的人民头上。

3 bacterial   

a.细菌的

参考例句：

• Bacterial reproduction is accelerated in weightless space. 在失重的空间，细菌繁殖加快了。
• Brain lesions can be caused by bacterial infections. 大脑损伤可能由细菌感染引起。

4 membrane   

n.薄膜，膜皮，羊皮纸

参考例句：

• A vibrating membrane in the ear helps to convey sounds to the brain.耳膜的振动帮助声音传送到大脑。
• A plastic membrane serves as selective diffusion barrier.一层塑料薄膜起着选择性渗透屏障的作用。

5 bacterium   

n.(pl.)bacteria 细菌

参考例句：

• The bacterium possibly goes in the human body by the mouth.细菌可能通过口进入人体。
• A bacterium is identified as the cause for his duodenal ulcer.一种细菌被断定为造成他十二指肠溃疡的根源。

6 replicate   

v.折叠，复制，模写；n.同样的样品；adj.转折的

参考例句：

• The DNA of chromatin must replicate before cell division.染色质DNA在细胞分裂之前必须复制。
• It is also easy to replicate,as the next subsection explains.就像下一个小节详细说明的那样，它还可以被轻易的复制。

7 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。

8 modifications   

n.缓和( modification的名词复数 )；限制；更改；改变

参考例句：

• The engine was pulled apart for modifications and then reassembled. 发动机被拆开改型，然后再组装起来。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The original plan had undergone fairly extensive modifications. 原计划已经作了相当大的修改。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 virulence   

n.毒力，毒性；病毒性；致病力

参考例句：

• The virulence of the café owner's anger had appalled her.咖啡店老板怒气冲天，充满敌意，把她吓坏了。
• Medical authorities were baffled,both as to its causes and its virulence.医疗当局对其病因及有多致命都还不甚了解。

10 molecule   

n.分子，克分子

参考例句：

• A molecule of water is made up of two atoms of hygrogen and one atom of oxygen.一个水分子是由P妈̬f婘̬ 妈̬成的。
• This gives us the structural formula of the molecule.这种方式给出了分子的结构式。

11 molecules   

分子( molecule的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The structure of molecules can be seen under an electron microscope. 分子的结构可在电子显微镜下观察到。
• Inside the reactor the large molecules are cracked into smaller molecules. 在反应堆里，大分子裂变为小分子。

12 antagonists   

对立[对抗] 者，对手，敌手( antagonist的名词复数 )； 对抗肌； 对抗药

参考例句：

• The cavalier defeated all the antagonists. 那位骑士打败了所有的敌手。
• The result was the entire reconstruction of the navies of both the antagonists. 双方的海军就从这场斗争里获得了根本的改造。