演讲MP3+双语文稿:这种细菌可以吃塑料

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听力课堂TED音频栏目主要包括TED演讲的音频MP3及中英双语文稿，供各位英语爱好者学习使用。本文主要内容为演讲MP3+双语文稿:这种细菌可以吃塑料，希望你会喜欢！

【演讲人及介绍】Morgan Vague

资深研究员助理Morgan Vague，研究虫子和细菌。

【演讲主题】这种细菌可以吃塑料

【演讲文稿-中英文】

翻译者 Buyun Ping 校对 psjmz mz

00:13

Plastics: you know about them, you may notlove them, but chances are you use them every single day. By 2050, researchersestimate that there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish.

塑料——你们了解塑料，你们也许不喜欢塑料，但事实是你们每天都要用到它。据研究人员估计，到2050年，海洋中塑料的数量将超过鱼类。

00:29

Despite our best efforts, only nine percentof all plastic we use winds up being recycled. And even worse, plastic isincredibly tough and durable and researchers estimate that it can take anywherefrom 500 to 5,000 years to fully break down. It leaches harmful chemicalcontaminants into our oceans, our soil, our food, our water, and into us.

尽管我们非常努力，我们用过的塑料中仅有9%被回收利用。更糟糕的是，塑料十分牢固，经久耐用，据研究人员估计，可能需要500到5000年，这些塑料才会分解。它释放有毒化学成分进入海洋、土壤，进入我们的食物、我们的水源，最终被我们吸收。

01:00

So how did we wind up with so much plasticwaste? Well, it's simple. Plastic is cheap, durable, adaptable, and it'severywhere. But the good news is there's something else that's cheap, durable,adaptable and everywhere. And my research shows it may even be able to help uswith our plastic pollution problem.

那么我们是如何制造出这么多塑料垃圾的呢？很简单。塑料廉价耐用，用处广，而且到处都是。好消息是，还有一样东西，同样廉价耐用，用处广，而且到处都是。我的研究表明，它也许可以帮助我们解决塑料污染问题。

01:25

I'm talking about bacteria. Bacteria aremicroscopic living beings invisible to the naked eye that live everywhere, inall sorts of diverse and extreme environments, from the human gut, to soil, toskin, to vents in the ocean floor, reaching temperatures of 700 degreesFahrenheit. Bacteria live everywhere, in all sorts of diverse and extremeenvironments. And as such, they have to get pretty creative with their foodsources. There's also a lot of them. Researchers estimate that there areroughly five million trillion trillion -- that's a five with 30 zeros after it-- bacteria on the planet. Now, considering that we humans produce 300 milliontons of new plastic each year, I'd say that our plastic numbers are lookingpretty comparable to bacteria's.

我要说的是细菌。细菌是肉眼不可见的微生物，它到处都是，存在于多样和极端的环境中，存在于人类肠道、土壤和皮肤，存在于温度高达700 华氏度的海底火山口。细菌无处不在，存在于多样和极端的环境中。正因如此，它们的食物来源同样丰富多彩。它们的种类也很丰富。研究人员估计在地球上有5百万兆兆—— 5后面有30个零——的细菌存在。考虑到我们人类每年都会生产3亿吨塑料，我想说我们生产的塑料数量和细菌数量有的一拼。

02:25

So, after noticing this and after learningabout all of the creative ways that bacteria find food, I started to think:could bacteria in plastic-polluted environments have figured out how to useplastic for food? Well, this is the question that I decided to pursue a coupleof years ago. Now, fortunately for me, I'm from one of the most polluted citiesin America, Houston, Texas.

所以，意识到这点，以及学习了细菌的所有食物来源后，我开始想：生活在塑料污染环境下的细菌，是否进化出了吃塑料的能力呢？几年前我决定仔细研究这个问题。幸运的是，我出身于美国污染最严重的城市之一，德州休斯顿。

02:54

(Laughs)

（笑声）

02:55

In my hometown alone, there are sevenEPA-designated Superfund sites. These are sites that are so polluted, that thegovernment has deemed their cleanup a national priority. So I decided to trekaround to these sites and collect soil samples teeming with bacteria. I startedtoying with a protocol, which is fancy science talk for a recipe. And what Iwas trying to cook up was a carbon-free media, or a food-free environment. Anenvironment without the usual carbons, or food, that bacteria, like us humans,need to live.

仅仅在我家乡，就有7所环境保护局指定的超级基金污染场址。这些场所的污染之严重，政府甚至将对它们的清洁工作列为全国优先项目。我决定到这些场所去，收集一些富含细菌的土壤样本。我开始摆弄一个原型机，它就等同于科学界的食谱。我想“烹饪”出的是无碳媒介，或是没有食物的环境。一个没有常见的碳，也没有食物的环境，而细菌，像人类一样，也需要生存下去。

03:36

Now, in this environment, I would providemy bacteria with a sole carbon, or food, source. I would feed my bacteriapolyethylene terephthalate, or PET plastic. PET plastic is the most widelyproduced plastic in the world. It's used in all sorts of food and drinkcontainers, with the most notorious example being plastic water bottles, ofwhich we humans currently go through at a rate of one million per minute. So,what I would be doing, is essentially putting my bacteria on a forced diet ofPET plastic and seeing which, if any, might survive or, hopefully, thrive.

在这个环境中，我将为细菌提供唯一的碳，或者可以说食物、资源。我将为它们提供聚对苯二甲酸乙二酯，也就是俗称的PET塑料。PET塑料是世界上产量最大的塑料。它被用于制作所有的食物和液体容器，最著名的例子莫过于塑料水瓶，人类每分钟都要使用一百万的塑料水瓶。我要做的事情，是迫使细菌以PET塑料为食，并且观察是否有细菌能活下来，或者更进一步，繁荣生长。

04:23

See, this type of experiment would act as ascreen for bacteria that had adapted to their plastic-polluted environment andevolved the incredibly cool ability to eat PET plastic. And using this screen,I was able to find some bacteria that had done just that. These bacteria hadfigured out how to eat PET plastic.

这种实验能给已经适应塑料污染场所环境的细菌提供庇护所，并且让它们发展消耗 PET塑料的能力。利用这个场所，我发现了一些已经具备这种能力的细菌。这些细菌进化出了以 PET塑料为食的能力。

04:48

So how do these bacteria do this? Well,it's actually pretty simple. Just as we humans digest carbon or food intochunks of sugar that we then use for energy, so too do my bacteria. Mybacteria, however, have figured out how to do this digestion process to big,tough, durable PET plastic.

那么它们具体是怎么做的呢？这其实很简单。如同人类消化碳或食物，转化为能量来源葡萄糖那样，我的细菌也是这么做的。不同的是，我的细菌进化出了消化大型、牢固耐用的 PET塑料的方法。

05:12

Now, to do this, my bacteria use a specialversion of what's called an enzyme. Now, enzymes are simply compounds thatexist in all living things. There are many different types of enzymes, butbasically, they make processes go forward, such as the digestion of food intoenergy. For instance, we humans have an enzyme called an amylase that helps usdigest complex starches, such as bread, into small chunks of sugar that we canthen use for energy. Now, my bacteria have a special enzyme called a lipasethat binds to big, tough, durable PET plastic and helps break it into smallchunks of sugar that my bacteria can then use for energy. So basically, PETplastic goes from being a big, tough, long-lasting pollutant to a tasty mealfor my bacteria. Sounds pretty cool, right?

为了达成这点，我的细菌会利用一个特殊的物品，叫作酶。酶是一种简单的化合物，存在于所有生命体中。酶有很多种类，但基本上，它们的功能是促进过程，例如将食物转化为能量的过程。举个例子，人体内有一种叫作淀粉酶的东西，能够帮助我们消化淀粉，如面包，并转化为小分子葡萄糖，用以提供能量。我的细菌有一种特殊的酶，叫作脂肪酶，这种酶能附着在大型牢固耐用的PET塑料上，并且将它分解成小分子的葡萄糖，我的细菌就可以将其作为能量来源。基本上，PET塑料从大型、牢固而持久的污染，变成了我的细菌口中的美餐。听起来很棒，不是吗？

06:10

And I think, given the current scope of ourplastic pollution problem, I think it sounds pretty useful. The statistics Ishared with you on just how much plastic waste has accumulated on our planetare daunting. They're scary. And I think they highlight that while reducing,reusing and recycling are important, they alone are not going to be enough tosolve this problem. And this is where I think bacteria might be able to help usout.

并且我认为，考虑到现在塑料污染的规模问题，我认为这听起来非常实用。那些我分享给你们的关于我们星球上有多少塑料垃圾的数据骇人听闻。它们让人感到害怕。并且我认为它们还指出，尽管减少使用、再次利用和回收非常重要，但仅通过这些方法是不足以解决这个问题的。我认为细菌也许能够帮助我们。

06:43

But I do understand why the concept ofbacterial help might make some people a little nervous. After all, if plasticis everywhere and these bacteria eat plastic, isn't there a risk of thesebacteria getting out in the environment and wreaking havoc? Well, the shortanswer is no, and I'll tell you why. These bacteria are already in theenvironment. The bacteria in my research are not genetically modifiedfrankenbugs. These are naturally occurring bacteria that have simply adapted totheir plastic-polluted environment and evolved the incredibly gnarly ability toeat PET plastic.

但我能理解为什么有些人听到利用细菌会紧张。毕竟，如果塑料到处都是，而这些细菌会吃塑料，这些细菌会不会流入环境，造成破坏呢？答案是否定的，让我来解释给你听。这些细菌本身就存在于环境中。我实验中使用的细菌不是转基因的人造虫。它们是自然存在的细菌，只是它们适应了塑料污染的环境，并且进化出了极端而不可思议的消化塑料的能力。

07:28

So the process of bacteria eating plasticis actually a natural one. But it's an incredibly slow process. And thereremains a lot of work to be done to figure out how to speed up this process toa useful pace. My research is currently looking at ways of doing this through aseries of UV, or ultraviolet, pretreatments, which basically means we blast PETplastic with sunlight. We do this because sunlight acts a bit like tenderizeron a steak, turning the big, tough, durable bonds in PET plastic a bit softerand a bit easier for my bacteria to chew on.

所以细菌消化塑料事实上是自然的过程。但这个过程非常缓慢。并且还需要投入大量工作，研究如何加快进程速度，让它能够发挥作用。我的研究现在正通过进行一系列紫外线预处理来寻找这样的方法，这基本上意味着我们将 PET塑料置于阳光暴晒下，我们这么做，就像把肉弄嫩一样，阳光会使得PET塑料中大块、坚硬耐用的联结软化，方便我的细菌进食。

08:10

Ultimately, what my research hopes to do iscreate an industrial-scale contained carbon-free system, similar to a compostheap, where these bacteria can thrive in a contained system, where their solefood source is PET plastic waste. Imagine one day being able to dispose of allof your plastic waste in a bin at the curb that you knew was bound for adedicated bacteria-powered plastic waste facility. I think with some hard workthis is an achievable reality.

最终，我研究的目的，是为了创造出产业级别的独立无碳系统，如同肥料堆那样，在那里，细菌可以在独立系统中繁荣发展，它们的唯一食物是PET塑料垃圾。想象有一天，你可以把你所有的塑料垃圾扔进马路边的一个垃圾桶，而你知道这个垃圾桶是专门的细菌消耗塑料垃圾装置。我认为通过努力，我们可以实现这个目标。

08:47

Plastic-eating bacteria is not a cure-all.But given the current statistics, it's clear that we humans, we could use alittle help with this problem. Because people, we possess a pressing problem ofplastic pollution. And bacteria might be a really important part of thesolution.

以塑料为食的细菌并不能解决一切。但考虑到现实状况，很明显我们人类在这个问题上需要一些帮助。因为对于我们人类而言，塑料污染问题迫在眉睫。细菌也许能为解决问题做出很大贡献。

09:07

Thank you.

谢谢你们。

09:09

(Applause)

（掌声）