Our lives depend upon these creatures.  我们的生命依赖于这些生物。

To take an example close to home: there are over 500 species of bacteria now known  举一个身边的例子：已知有500多种的细菌,

friendly bacteria-living symbiotically in your mouth and throat probably necessary to your health for holding off pathogenic bacteria.  友好的细菌—正生活在你的口腔里也许它们正在为你抵抗来自致病细菌的进攻。

At this point I think we have a little impressionistic film that was made especially for this occasion. 说到这里，我想给大家放一个片子就是为了这次演讲而准备的。

And I'd like to show it.  现在请看屏幕。

Assisted in this by Billie Holiday.  我们得到了Billie Holiday的帮助。

And that may be just the beginning!  这也许还只是开始！

The viruses, those quasi-organisms among which are the prophages,  病毒，也就是那些带有有机体特性的“准”生物，prophasias 就是其中一种，

the gene weavers that promote the continued evolution in the lives of the bacteria,  它是基因编织师，正是它使得细菌的持续进化成为可能，

are a virtually unknown frontier of modern biology, a world unto themselves.  这一世界是现代生物学的一个待开垦的处女地，也是一个自我—的世界。

What constitutes a viral species is still unresolved,  是什么构成了病毒还尚无定论，

although they're obviously of enormous importance to us.  虽然这对人类而言意义重大。

But this much we can say: the variety of genes on the planet in viruses exceeds, or is likely to exceed, that in all of the rest of life combined.  但是有一点可以肯定，病毒世界的基因多样性远远大于所有其他生物的基因多样性之总和—至少科学家是这么认为的。

Nowadays, in addressing microbial biodiversity,  今天，那些研究微生物多样性的科学家，

scientists are like explorers in a rowboat launched onto the Pacific Ocean.  就如乘着木船驶进太平洋的探索者。

But that is changing rapidly with the aid of new genomic technology.  但是，随着新的基因组技术的发展，这一境况正得到改善。

Already it is possible to sequence the entire genetic code of a bacterium in under four hours.  现在，我们已经可以用四个小时的时间完成对一个细菌进行基因测序。