万物简史 第531期:丰富多彩的生命(27)（在线收听） |
Even now nearly a quarter of all prescribed medicines are derived from just forty plants, with another 16 percent coming from animals or microbes, 即使现在，差不多四分之一的全都处方药来自仅仅40种植物，还有l6%来自动物或微生物， so there is a serious risk with every hectare of forest felled of losing medically vital possibilities. 因此每砍伐l0万平方米森林，失去重要的药用发展前途的风险就增加一分。
Using a method called combinatorial chemistry, 化学家们使用一种名叫组合化学的方法，
chemists can generate forty thousand compounds at a time in labs, but these products are random and not uncommonly useless, 在实验室里一次可以产生出4万种化合物，但这些产品是规格不一的，没有多大用处，
whereas any natural molecule will have already passed what the Economist calls 而自然界的每个分子都已经经过《经济学家》杂志所说的
"the ultimate screening programme: over three and a half billion years of evolution." “最终的审查过程：35亿多年的进化”。
Looking for the unknown isn't simply a matter of traveling to remote or distant places, however. 然而，寻找未知的东西不完全是一件要去偏僻或遥远地方的事情。
In his book Life: An Unauthorised Biography, 在《生命：一部未经授权的传记》一书中，
Richard Fortey notes how one ancient bacterium was found on the wall of a country pub "where men had urinated for generations", 理查德·福泰指出，有一种古老的细菌是在一家乡村酒店的墙上发现的，“世世代代的男人都在那儿撒尿”，
a discovery that would seem to involve rare amounts of luckand devotion and possibly some other quality not specified. 这一发现似乎包含几个因素：罕见的运气和专心，可能再加上某种别的没有明确的因素。
There aren't enough specialists. 专门人才不足。
The stock of things to be found, examined, and recorded very much outruns the supply of scientists available to do it. 需要发现、研究和记录的东西实在太多，干这活儿的科学家供不应求。
Take the hardy and little-known organisms known as bdelloid rotifers. 以名叫吸螨的那种生命力很强而又鲜为人知的微生物为例，
These are microscopic animals that can survive almost anything. 那种微生物几乎可以在任何环境里生存。
When conditions are tough, they curl up into a compact shape, switch off their metabolism, and wait for better times. 条件恶劣的时候，它们就缩成一团，关闭新陈代谢系统，等待好的年景。
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