美国国家公共电台 NPR Is The Pentagon Modifying Viruses To Save Crops — Or To Wage Biological Warfare?

 

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

The Pentagon is funding some new research on insects and plant viruses. It says the goal is to protect agricultural crops. Some critics say it looks more like an attempt to make biological weapons. Here's NPR's Dan Charles.

DAN CHARLES, BYLINE¹: Jane Polston and I are walking over to some greenhouses at the University of Florida, where she teaches. She wants to show me how viruses infect plants, which she's been studying ever since she first learned about plant viruses back in college.

JANE POLSTON: I just fell in love.

CHARLES: With viruses.

POLSTON: Yeah. Isn't that weird²?

CHARLES: We step inside the greenhouse. There's a smaller chamber³ here with walls of netting, and there's six tomato plants inside. They don't look too healthy. The leaves are wilted⁴.

POLSTON: This is our tomato yellow leaf curl virus colony.

CHARLES: The tomato leaves look like they're covered with dandruff. But when Polston reaches in and moves a plant, the white particles come alive. They're tiny flies - whiteflies. They're also infected.

POLSTON: Because they're reared on these infected plants, I think probably all of them will have virus in them.

CHARLES: One of Polston's colleagues scoops⁵ up some of the flies and puts them in a cage with a healthy, uninfected tomato plant.

POLSTON: If you look carefully, you can see some of the whiteflies landing on the leaves.

CHARLES: And as soon as they start feeding on that plant, they're going to infect this plant with the virus.

POLSTON: Yeah, within about 15 minutes.

CHARLES: Polston spent years studying this triangle of insect, virus and plant, so she could figure out ways to disrupt it and stop the viruses from harming crops. But now she's getting ready to carry out a very different kind of experiment, in a different greenhouse, a super-secure one that they wouldn't let me go see. What's going on in that greenhouse is the brainchild of Blake Bextine, a program manager at the Defense⁶ Advanced Research Projects Agency, DARPA. He thinks there's a way to use this infectious triangle for good.

BLAKE BEXTINE: I thought, you know, this is a beautifully elegant system that puts genes⁷ into plants that causes negative effects. Why can't we turn the system upside down and use it to deliver positive traits into plants?

CHARLES: Bextine is giving money to Polston and several other groups of university researchers. Each one's using a different combination of insect and virus. The viruses will be genetically⁸ modified, so they can carry a new package of DNA⁹ - genes that can help the plant, maybe help corn survive a drought.

BEXTINE: If a drought is coming, we could actually use the insects to deliver viruses that carry with them the payload - that drought tolerance¹⁰ capability¹¹.

CHARLES: And the insects are supposed to be genetically altered, too, to make sure they all die off after they accomplish their mission. But all this talk of genetically modified insects delivering payloads sounds disturbing to Silja Voeneky, a law professor at the University of Freiburg in Germany.

SILJA VOENEKY: We asked whether the peaceful purposes of the program are sufficiently¹² clear and plausible¹³.

CHARLES: The stated purposes don't make a lot of sense, she says. If you're trying to protect your crops, just spray them. Why resort to genetically modified insects and viruses?

VOENEKY: It seems much easier to harm a plant with a technology than to make it more resilient.

CHARLES: You could imagine using insects and viruses to destroy somebody's crop, she says. And that is prohibited under the Biological Weapons Convention, which the U.S. and most other countries have signed. Blake Bextine from DARPA says those suspicions are not justified¹⁴.

BEXTINE: We are not developing biological warfare¹⁵ agents. This is for the benefit of crops and the stability of our food supply.

CHARLES: The virus-loving scientist in Florida, Jane Polston, says, no, we're not making weapons. But new technology can be used in lots of ways which you often can't predict. Dan Charles, NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF EMANCIPATOR'S "MINOR CAUSE (ELIOT LIPP REMIX)")

1 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。

2 weird   

adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的

参考例句：

• From his weird behaviour,he seems a bit of an oddity.从他不寻常的行为看来，他好像有点怪。
• His weird clothes really gas me.他的怪衣裳简直笑死人。

3 chamber   

n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所

参考例句：

• For many,the dentist's surgery remains a torture chamber.对许多人来说，牙医的治疗室一直是间受刑室。
• The chamber was ablaze with light.会议厅里灯火辉煌。

4 wilted   

（使）凋谢，枯萎( wilt的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The flowers wilted in the hot sun. 花在烈日下枯萎了。
• The romance blossomed for six or seven months, and then wilted. 那罗曼史持续六七个月之后就告吹了。

5 scoops   

n.小铲( scoop的名词复数 )；小勺；一勺[铲]之量；（抢先刊载、播出的）独家新闻v.抢先报道( scoop的第三人称单数 )；（敏捷地）抱起；抢先获得；用铲[勺]等挖（洞等）

参考例句：

• two scoops of mashed potato 两勺土豆泥
• I used three scoops of flour and one(scoop)of sugar. 我用了三杓面粉和一杓糖。 来自辞典例句

6 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

7 genes   

n.基因( gene的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• You have good genes from your parents, so you should live a long time. 你从父母那儿获得优良的基因，所以能够活得很长。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Differences will help to reveal the functions of the genes. 它们间的差异将会帮助我们揭开基因多种功能。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 生物技术的世纪

8 genetically   

adv.遗传上

参考例句：

• All the bees in the colony are genetically related. 同一群体的蜜蜂都有亲缘关系。
• Genetically modified foods have already arrived on American dinner tables. 经基因改造加工过的食物已端上了美国人的餐桌。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 基因与食物

9 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。

10 tolerance   

n.宽容；容忍，忍受；耐药力；公差

参考例句：

• Tolerance is one of his strengths.宽容是他的一个优点。
• Human beings have limited tolerance of noise.人类对噪音的忍耐力有限。

11 capability   

n.能力；才能；(pl)可发展的能力或特性等

参考例句：

• She has the capability to become a very fine actress.她有潜力成为杰出演员。
• Organizing a whole department is beyond his capability.组织整个部门是他能力以外的事。

12 sufficiently   

adv.足够地，充分地

参考例句：

• It turned out he had not insured the house sufficiently.原来他没有给房屋投足保险。
• The new policy was sufficiently elastic to accommodate both views.新政策充分灵活地适用两种观点。

13 plausible   

adj.似真实的，似乎有理的，似乎可信的

参考例句：

• His story sounded plausible.他说的那番话似乎是真实的。
• Her story sounded perfectly plausible.她的说辞听起来言之有理。

14 justified   

a.正当的，有理的

参考例句：

• She felt fully justified in asking for her money back. 她认为有充分的理由要求退款。
• The prisoner has certainly justified his claims by his actions. 那个囚犯确实已用自己的行动表明他的要求是正当的。

15 warfare   

n.战争(状态)；斗争；冲突

参考例句：

• He addressed the audience on the subject of atomic warfare.他向听众演讲有关原子战争的问题。
• Their struggle consists mainly in peasant guerrilla warfare.他们的斗争主要是农民游击战。