TED演讲:我们如何研究生活在肠道中的微生物(1)

 　　If I asked you to name a microbe that's living in your gut¹, many of you would probably say E. coli. 如果请你举例说出一个生活在你肠道里的微生物，很多人可能会说大肠杆菌。

　　A lot of people say this. It's the best-known of the gut microbes. 确实很多人都这么说。大肠杆菌是最有名的肠道微生物。

　　But it turns out that E. coli is outnumbered in your gut about a thousand to one by other species, 但事实证明，大肠杆菌只占你肠道中细菌数量的1‰，

　　many of which you probably haven't heard of. 很多细菌你可能听都没听过。

　　These are Bacteroides; Prevotella is another example. 像类杆菌属的细菌；另一个例子是普氏菌。

　　Those are the two that dominate the modern human gut. 在现代人的肠道菌群中，这两种细菌占主导地位。

　　There are about a hundred trillion microbes living inside you. 人体内生活着约100万亿的微生物。

　　We call this your microbiome, so it's like a little world living inside you -- actually more like a universe. 我们称之为微生物群，它们就像生活在你体内的一个小世界--实际更像一个宇宙。

　　A hundred trillion means if you took a blade of grass and planted it for every microbe living in your gut, 100万亿的数量概念是这样的，如果一根草代表一个生活在你肠道内的微生物，

　　that could fill a million football fields. So it's incredibly complex. 那么就可以种满100万个足球场。因此这是一个难以置信的复杂系统。

　　But interestingly, as our bodies have been adapting to life in modern society, 但有趣的是，随着我们的身体逐渐适应现代生活，

　　we're losing some of our normal microbes, and at the same time, 我们正在失去一些正常的微生物，与此同时，

　　there are quite a few diseases related to the gut that are skyrocketing in developed nations all around the world. 在世界发达国家，很多与肠道有关的疾病正在飙升。

　　And many of you probably know someone who suffers from obesity², diabetes³, 许多在座的各位可能就认识一些饱受肥胖症、糖尿病、

　　Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis, allergies⁴ and asthma⁵. 节段性回肠炎或溃疡性结肠炎、过敏和哮喘疾病之苦的患者。

　　Every one of these diseases and many others related to metabolism⁶ and autoimmunity are linked to a loss of healthy diversity in the gut. 和许多与新陈代谢及自身免疫相关的病症一样，这些疾病都与肠道（菌群）缺少健康多样性有关。

1 gut   

n.[pl.]胆量；内脏；adj.本能的；vt.取出内脏

参考例句：

• It is not always necessary to gut the fish prior to freezing.冷冻鱼之前并不总是需要先把内脏掏空。
• My immediate gut feeling was to refuse.我本能的直接反应是拒绝。

2 obesity   

n.肥胖，肥大

参考例句：

• One effect of overeating may be obesity.吃得过多能导致肥胖。
• Sugar and fat can more easily lead to obesity than some other foods.糖和脂肪比其他食物更容易导致肥胖。

3 diabetes   

n.糖尿病

参考例句：

• In case of diabetes, physicians advise against the use of sugar.对于糖尿病患者，医生告诫他们不要吃糖。
• Diabetes is caused by a fault in the insulin production of the body.糖尿病是由体內胰岛素分泌失调引起的。

4 allergies   

n.[医]过敏症；[口]厌恶，反感；（对食物、花粉、虫咬等的）过敏症( allergy的名词复数 )；变态反应，变应性

参考例句：

• Food allergies can result in an enormous variety of different symptoms. 食物过敏会引发很多不同的症状。 来自辞典例句
• Let us, however, examine one of the most common allergies; hayfever. 现在让我们来看看最常见的变态反应的一种--枯草热。 来自辞典例句

5 asthma   

n.气喘病，哮喘病

参考例句：

• I think he's having an asthma attack.我想他现在是哮喘病发作了。
• Its presence in allergic asthma is well known.它在过敏性气喘中的存在是大家很熟悉的。

6 metabolism   

n.新陈代谢

参考例句：

• After years of dieting,Carol's metabolism was completely out of whack.经过数年的节食，卡罗尔的新陈代谢完全紊乱了。
• All living matter undergoes a process of metabolism.生物都有新陈代谢。