万物简史 第433期:小生物的世界(4)

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Bacteria share information. Any bacterium¹ can take pieces of genetic³ coding from any other. 细菌能共享信息，任何细菌都能从任何别的细菌那里接到几条遗传密码。

Essentially⁴, as Margulis and Sagan put it, all bacteria swim in a single gene² pool. 正如马古利斯和萨根所说，实际上，所有的细菌都在同一基因池里游泳。

Any adaptive change that occurs in one area of the bacterial⁵ universe can spread to any other. 在细菌的宇宙里，一个区域发生的适应性变化，很快会扩展到任何别的区域。

It's rather as if a human could go to an insect to get the necessary genetic coding to sprout⁶ wings or walk on ceilings. 这就好像人可以从昆虫那里获得长出翅膀或在天花板上行走所必需的遗传密码一样。

It means that from a genetic point of view bacteria have become a single superorganism—tiny, dispersed⁷, but invincible⁸. 从遗传角度来看，这意味着细菌已经成为一种超级生物——又小，又分散，但又不可战胜。

They will live and thrive on almost anything you spill, dribble⁹, or shake loose. 无论你吐出，滴下或泼出任何东西，细菌几乎都能在上面生活和繁殖。

Just give them a little moisture—as when you run a damp cloth over a counter—and they will bloom as if created from nothing. 你只要给它们一点儿水汽——比如用湿抹布擦一擦柜子——它们就能滋生，仿佛从无到有。

They will eat wood, the glue in wallpaper, the metals in hardened paint. 它们会浸蚀木头、墙纸里的胶水、干漆里的金属。

Scientists in Australia found microbes known as Thiobacillus concretivorans that lived in, 澳大利亚科学家发现，有一种名叫蚀固硫杆菌的细菌生活在浓度高得足以溶解金属的硫酸里，

indeed, could not live without—concentrations of sulfuric acid strong enough to dissolve metal. 实际上，它们离开了浓硫酸就活不成。

A species called Micrococcus radiophilus was found living happily in the waste tanks of nuclear reactors¹⁰, 据发现，有一种名叫嗜放射微球菌的细菌在核反应堆的废罐里过得怪舒服的，

gorging¹¹ itself on plutonium and whatever else was there. 吃着钚和别的残留物过日子。

Some bacteria break down chemical materials from which, as far as we can tell, they gain no benefit at all. 有的细菌分解化学物质，而据我们所知，它们从中捞不到一点儿好处。

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