了解宇宙是如何运行的（2010）

How the Universe Works S09E04

Part 7 March 16, 2022, 8:55 a.m.

我不会这样做
the tiniest organisms
on the planet.
微观宇宙给了我们生命
The microcosmos gave us life.
而现在，它可以消灭我们
Now, it could wipe us out.
全球变暖正在释放
Global warming is releasing
潜在的致命细菌和病毒
potentially lethal bacteria
and viruses.
我们正面临微观世界的僵尸末日吗？
Are we facing a microcosmic
zombie apocalypse?
这是现在的西伯利亚
Siberia, present day.
不断上升的气温正在融化北极的永久冻土层
Rising temperatures are melting
the Arctic permafrost,
露出了被冰封了
revealing land sealed under
ice for tens
数万年的土地
of thousands of years.
达特内尔:随着气候变化
DARTNELL: As that permafrost
begins thawing out
永久冻土开始解冻和融化
and melting with climate change,
可能会释放出
maybe that will release
pathogens that have
被封存了数千年的病原体
been locked up for potentially
thousands of years.
2014年
In 2014,
研究人员调查了比美国面♥积♥更大的
researchers investigated
melting Siberian tundra,
西伯利亚冻土带的融化情况
a region larger than the USA.
我看过很多科幻电影，科学家们
I've seen a lot of science
fiction movies where scientists
在冰里挖洞，发现了很久以前的
are digging around in the ice
and find something bad
坏东西
from a long time ago.
科学家们将冻土带的土壤样本
Scientists took samples of
送到实验室，并检查了其中的成分
tundra soil to the lab
and examined the contents.
他们发现了一种冰冻的古代病毒
They found a frozen
ancient virus.
一种3万多年前锁在冰中的病毒
A virus locked in ice
from over 30,000 years ago.
所有恐怖电影的开头
Isn't this the start of,
不都是这样的吗？一个科学家发现了
like, every horror movie?
A scientist uncovers some deep
大自然的一些深层秘密
secret of nature and then just
然后把它打开，释放在这个世界上？
open it up and unleash it
on the world?
就像在B级电影中一样，研究小组
Just like in a B movie,
将病毒喂给一种
The team fed the virus to
被称为变形虫的单细胞生物
living single-celled creatures
called amoebas
以观察病毒在被冷冻数千年后
to see if the virus
still functioned
是否仍能发挥作用
after being frozen for
thousands of years.
病毒醒来，攻击变形虫，然后复♥制♥
The virus woke up, attacked
the amoebas, and replicated.
拜沃特斯:让这种古老的病毒起死回生
BYWATERS: Bringing this ancient
virus back to life
有点像唤醒亡灵
was sort of waking up
the undead.
科学家们不知道这种僵尸病毒会如何表现
Scientists had no idea how
this zombie virus would behave.
有些东西是非常非常不同的
Something about it was
very, very different.
与普通病毒相比，它是巨大的
It was huge compared
to normal viruses.
它比我们以前见过的
It was substantially
larger than any
任何病毒都要大
virus that we had seen before.
这是病毒中的巨人中的巨人
This is the Goliath of
Goliaths among viruses.
它看起来更像细菌而不是病毒
So large it looks more
like bacteria than a virus.
我们称这种巨型病毒为拟态病毒
We call these kinds of
giant viruses mimiviruses,
因为它们会模仿其他生物，比如细菌
because they mimic
other creatures, like bacteria.
病毒模仿细菌的一种方式是
One way the virus
mimics bacteria is
其遗传物质的数量
in the amount of
its genetic material.
它有900个基因，是普通病毒的8倍
It has 900 genes, eight times
as many as a regular virus.
萨特:病毒很简单
SUTTER: Viruses are very simple.
它们不需要很多基因来发挥作用
They don't require a lot of
genes to function,
但这种病毒的基因比所必须的要多
but this virus has more genes
than necessary.
这些额外的基因是怎么回事？
What is it doing with
all these extra genes?
我们现在发现了其他拟态病毒
We have now found
other mimiviruses.
20年前，我们甚至不知道
20 years ago, we had no idea
这种复杂类型的病毒的存在
that this complex type of
virus even existed.
我们仍然不知道这些额外的基因有什么作用
We still don't know what
all the extra genes do.
这种类型的病毒甚至可以
This type of virus might even
be able to generate
自己产生能量
its own energy,
使它比其他病毒更接近细菌
making it closer to bacteria
than other viruses.
因为它有很多额外的基因
Because it has
so many extra genes,
这是一种不像病毒的病毒
this is a virus that is not
acting like a virus.
我们不能确定
We can't be sure how
西伯利亚拟态病毒一旦被释放会如何表现
the Siberian mimivirus will
behave if released,
即使它只攻击变形虫，也可能
and even if it only attacks
amoebas, there could be
有其他大型复杂的病毒埋在冰中
other large, complex viruses
buried in the ice.
它们可能不那么安全
They may not be so safe.
我们知道，现在地球上
We know that there are large
regions of
有大♥片♥区域被冻结在冰中
the Earth that are locked
in ice right now.
可能有一些病毒生活在冰里
There could be viruses that
live inside that ice that if
如果地球变暖，它们就会重新活跃起来
the Earth gets too warm,
could reactivate.
这些病毒可能对我们构成潜在威胁
And these viruses could
potentially be a threat to us.
最近，其他危险的冰冻僵尸
Recently, other
dangerous frozen zombies
复活了，藏在死人里
have reanimated,
hidden in the dead.
我们倾向于认为过去死去的人
We tend to think of people
who died in
不会影响到我们所有人，对吧？
the past as not being able to
affect us all, right?
它们消失了，它们的细菌消失了
They're gone,
their germs are gone.
不幸的是，这并不完全正确
Unfortunately,
this isn't exactly true.
所以对于那些被埋在冻土带中的人来说
So for people who are buried
in tundra that's been frozen,
他们从来没有真正消失过
they never really disappeared.
而现在，不幸的是，随着气候变暖
And now, unfortunately,
as the climate warms,
这些冻土带环境正在释放冻僵的人和动物
these tundra environments are
releasing frozen people
这些动物死于数千年前
and animals who died thousands
of years ago.
但威胁我们的不是死去的
But it's not
the dead people and animals
人和动物……而是它们体内的微生物
that threaten us...
It's the microbes inside them.
2016年，当西伯利亚的
In 2016, that threat became real
另一个地区解冻时，这种威胁变成了现实
when another area of
Siberia thawed.
一名12岁的男孩死亡
A 12-year-old boy died,
同时有数十人需要治疗
and dozens of people
needed medical treatment.
还有2000头驯鹿死亡
2,000 reindeer also perished.
罪魁祸首是？融化的驯鹿体内
The culprit?
Reanimated bacteria called
复活的炭疽菌
anthrax inside
a melting reindeer.
炭疽是土壤中常见的微生物
Anthrax is a common microbe
found in soil.
在中世纪
In medieval times,
有时农民回来会发现整片土地上都是
sometimes farmers would come
back to find entire fields
死去的动物
of dead animals.
他们当时不明白发生了什么