与摩根·弗里曼一起穿越虫洞（2010）

Through The Wormhole With Morgan Freeman S05E02

Part 4 April 19, 2021, 3:02 p.m.

但很有可能意外明天就会发生
but there is no guarantee you won't die tomorrow.
每过去一年，戴维死亡的风险就随之增加
With every passing year, David's risk of dying grows.
那么他如何生活
So how should he live his life,
才能知道自己不会出现意外而身亡？
knowing random chance could end it at any moment?
他应该像现在这样活着
Should he live for today,
还是把自己封闭起来防止任何潜在的危险？
or seal himself off from every possible danger?
戴维通过一种测量方式
David grapples with this problem
解决这一问题，即“微死亡”
using a measurement called the micromort --
字面意思就是“死亡的一个微小单位”
literally meaning "a small unit of death."
一个微死亡相当于
One micromort equals
一百万分之一的死亡率
a one-in-a-million chance of dying.
我的一生中
You know, over my lifetime,
被陨石砸死的几率是一个微死亡
is I've got about a micromort risk of an asteroid killing me.
但我们面对的是日常生活中的死亡风险
But it's about my daily quantity of risk, just from all causes --
比如从梯子上掉下来
You know, from falling off a ladder
或被车碾过去之类的
or getting run over or something like that.
戴维计算出
David calculates
你骑马死亡的概率
the chance of dying if you ride a horse
是半个微死亡
is half a micromort.
悬挂式滑翔运动有8个微死亡
Hang gliding is eight micromorts.
登上一座2万3千英尺的山峰
Climbing a mountain above 23,000 feet
是4万3千个微死亡
is 43,000 micromorts.
那么什么程度的风险是值得冒的？
So, at what point is it worth the risk?
这要看你年纪有多大
It may depend on how old you are.
平均18岁的人会有500个微死亡的概率
The average 18-year-old has a 500-micromort chance
在接下来的12个月中死亡
of dying in the next 12 months,
而戴维死亡的概率比这个要高上14倍
but David's odds of dying are 14 times higher,
他经受的风险更多
therefore he might as well take more risks.
无论你是自在生活
Whether you take wild chances
还是仔细算计
or carefully calculate your every move,
你总会撞上霉运
you are always at the mercy of bad luck.
仅是开车每年你就有40个微死亡的风险
Just driving puts you at a 40-micromort risk every year.
我们无法预测未来会发生什么，所以
We can't predict what's gonna happen, and so in a sense,
我们用可能性表示我们不知道的东西
we're open to chance, things that we just don't know.
我们无法逃避，只能试着与之共存
We can't escape it, but we can try to live with it.
实际上，我认为我们其实挺享受风险的
In fact, I think we quite enjoy it.
我们并不想知道
We don't want to know
未来到底会发生什么
exactly what's gonna happen in the future.
不然我们会很痛苦
That would be pretty miserable.
运气
Luck.
在我们的生命中扮演着非常重要的角色
It plays a crucial role in the course of our lives.
但我们可以更进一步说
But it can run deeper than we think.
我们的存在甚至就是运气
We may literally be made from it.
我们的DNA中就包含了运气
Perhaps luck is built into our DNA.
所有的生物
Every living thing
都由遵循遗传程序的细胞构成
is made of cells that follow genetic programs.
这些程序告诉细胞
Those programs tell cells
如何组装成树、胳膊、腿这样的东西
how to make things like trees, arms, legs.
这是生命的奇迹
This is the miracle of life.
从微小的DNA
From tiny bits of DNA
形成了优雅、有序而又美妙的自然界
emerges the elegance, order, and beauty of the natural world.
但在这些生命中，存在着混沌的基本元素
But inside of all living things, there is an element of chaos,
使生命成为可能的运气
a twist of luck that makes life itself possible.
迈克尔·埃罗威兹是一位教授，精通生物学、
Michael elowitz is a professor of biology,
生物工程及应用物理
bio-engineering, and applied physics
就职于加州理工学院
at the California Institute of Technology.
我们的身体由亿万个
So, our bodies are composed
单独的活细胞构成
of trillions of individual, living cells.
通常我们认为这些细胞就像机器
Normally, we think of those cells as little machines
它们感知周围的情况
that sense what's around them
并恰到好处的响应
and respond at the right way at the right time.
但如果细胞不这么工作呢？
But what if cells don't operate like that?
如果它们不像仪器设备那样
What if they're not like mechanical devices
以可预测的方式工作呢？
that always operate in a predictable way.
如果细胞真正在做的
What if what cells are really doing
是高效的孤注一掷来找出
is effectively rolling the dice to figure out
它们应该如何对特定环境响应呢？
how they're gonna respond to any particular situation?
细胞中有基因
Cells contain genes,
基因控制着蛋白质的产生
and genes regulate the production of proteins.
蛋白质才使细胞工作
Proteins are what make cells function
让细胞具有多种行为
and behave in different ways.
直到最近人们才可以看到
Only recently has anyone been able to see
这项进程是如何进行的
how this process works.
这要多亏了一种水母
For that, we can thank a jellyfish.
这种水母含有荧光蛋白基因
Jellyfish contain fluorescent protein genes --
可以发光的基因
Genes that light up.
迈克尔和他的团队从水母中
Michael and his team have been taking
提取了这些荧光基因
these fluorescent genes out of jellyfish
并转入实验室的其他细胞中
and putting them into other cells in the lab.
现在他就能看到基因的激活与沉默情况了
Now he can watch the genes turn on and off.
这个显微镜正在四处观察
What this microscope does is it goes from place to place
并对这些细胞拍照
and it takes pictures of these cells,
分别在不同地方拍下蓝色蛋白、
and it takes a picture of the blue protein, the red protein,
红色蛋白和绿色蛋白
and the green protein at each place.
我们就持续对每一个细胞的生长的分♥裂♥
And what we do is we keep taking these images over and over again
进行拍照跟踪，直到它形成小的细胞集落
as each cell grows and divides, forming little micro-colonies.
最后我们把所有的图片
We take all these images, at the end,
变成一部延时拍摄的影片
and we stitch them together into time-lapse movies.
在这些影片中
And in those movies,
我们就能知道哪些基因
we can follow when each of these genes
被打开或关闭，再打开再关闭
is being turned on and off and on and off,
这么一直重复下去
again and again and again.
迈克尔的这些细胞都是一个细胞的克隆
The cells Michael creates are clones.
它们的行为
They should all behave
应该完全一致
in exactly the same way at the same time.
所以，这些细胞应该共同改变颜色
So, these cells should all change color in unison.
但实际上并没有
But they don't.
迈克尔和他的团队
Michael and his team
做了上百个实验想要找出原因
are conducting hundreds of experiments to find out why.
它们正在研究多种不同类型细胞的
They are studying the inner workings
内部运作方式
of many different types of cells.
我们构建了一株含有两种颜色的大肠杆菌
We built a strain of E. Coli that had two colors in it.
两种荧光蛋白
Both of these colored proteins
都以非常相似的方式表达
are expressed in very similar genes --
细胞并不能加以区分
The cell can't really tell the difference.
如果一个细胞的荧光蛋白激活
If it's gonna turn one on,
那另一个细胞也应该激活
it ought to turn the other one on, as well.
这些图片中你能看到
Here's a picture where you can see
两种蛋白中的哪一种表达了
how much of one of those two proteins was expressed,
这个图里表现出了
and here's a picture showing you
另一种蛋白质是如何表达的
how much of the other protein was expressed.
令人震惊的是
What was really striking is that
如果你前放或倒放这些图片
if you flip back and forth between these pictures,
你能看到一些细胞的
you can see that some cells are making
蛋白质表达量比其他细胞多
a lot more of one protein than the other.
当红色和绿色通道合并后
When the red and green channels are combined,
你看到的是——随机性
you get this -- randomness.
尽管绿色荧光基因和红色荧光基因
Even though the green and red genes
是完全以同一种方式调控的
are controlled the exact same way,
它们还是随时间随机表达的
they express themselves at different times randomly.
迈克尔发现细胞的内部工作方式
Michael discovered the inner workings of cells
并非像机器一样有序而又精确
are not orderly, precise, and machine-like.
事实上，这就关乎了运气
In fact, it's a matter of luck.
当一个细胞激活一个基因
These proteins don't trickle out at a constant rate
其蛋白表达量并不是恒定的
when the cell turns on a gene.
它们会时不时的爆发
They come out in big bursts.
你会瞬间得到大量的蛋白质
You get tons of proteins being produced at once,
然后又会沉默很长时间
and then nothing silence for a long time.
这些爆发是随机的
These bursts are random.
它们的出现不可预测
They come out at unpredictable times.