The Spider’s Bite 

蜘蛛咬傷軼事

 

When I was in middle school, a poisonous spider bit my right hand. I ran to my mom for help—but instead of taking me to a doctor, my mom set my hand on fire.

 在我上中學(xué)的時(shí)候，一只毒蜘蛛咬傷了我的右手。我跑去問我媽媽該怎么辦——媽媽并沒有帶我去看醫(yī)生，而是把我的手放火里燒。

After wrapping my hand with several layers of cotton, then soaking it in wine, she put a chopstick into my mouth, and ignited the cotton. Heat quickly penetrated the cotton and began to roast my hand. The searing pain made me want to scream, but the chopstick prevented it. All I could do was watch my hand burn – one minute, then two minutes –until mom put out the fire.

 她在我的手上包了好幾層棉花，然后泡上白酒，往我的嘴里塞一根筷子，接著打火點(diǎn)燃了棉花。灼熱很快透過棉花，開始炙烤著我的手。灼痛讓我忍不住想大叫起來，可嘴里的筷子卻讓我發(fā)不出來。我只能看著自己的手被火燒著，一分鐘，兩分鐘，直到媽媽撲滅火苗。

You see, the part of China I grew up in was a rural village, and at that time pre-industrial. When I was born, my village had no cars, no telephones, no electricity, not even running water. And we certainly didn’t have access to modern medical resources. There was no doctor my mother could bring me to see about the spider bite.

 你瞧，我成長(zhǎng)的中國(guó)地區(qū)是一個(gè)偏僻的農(nóng)村，在那時(shí)候，還沒工業(yè)化。在我出生的時(shí)候，村子里還沒有汽車，沒有電話，沒有電，甚至也沒有自來水。我們自然不能接觸到現(xiàn)代醫(yī)療資源。那個(gè)時(shí)候我媽媽找不到合適的醫(yī)生來幫我處理蜘蛛咬傷的傷口。

For those who study biology, you may have grasped the science behind my mom’s cure: heat deactivates proteins, and a spider’s venom is simply a form of protein. It’s cool how that folk remedy actually incorporates basic biochemistry, isn’t it? But I am a PhD student in biochemistry at Harvard, I now know that better, less painful and less risky treatments existed. So I can’t help but ask myself, why I didn’t receive one at the time?

 對(duì)于那些有生物背景的人，你們或許已經(jīng)理解到了我媽媽所使用的治療方法的基本原理：高熱可以讓蛋白質(zhì)變性，而蜘蛛的毒液也不過是一種蛋白質(zhì)。這樣一種土辦法實(shí)際上有它一定的理論依據(jù)，這挺有意思的，對(duì)吧？但是，作為哈佛大學(xué)生物化學(xué)的博士生，我現(xiàn)在知道在我受傷那個(gè)時(shí)候，已經(jīng)有更好的，疼痛更少、風(fēng)險(xiǎn)更低的治療方法了。于是我便忍不住會(huì)問自己，為什么我在當(dāng)時(shí)沒有能夠享用到其中一種更好的治療方法呢？

Fifteen years have passed since that incident. I am happy to report that my hand is fine. But this question lingers, and I continue to be troubled by the unequal distribution of scientific knowledge throughout the world. 

蜘蛛咬傷的事件已經(jīng)過去十五年了。我非常高興地向各位匯報(bào)一下，我的手并無大礙。但是，我那個(gè)問題一直在我的腦海中揮之不去，而我也一直為先進(jìn)科技知識(shí)在全世界不平等分布而困擾。

We have learned to edit the human genome and unlock many secrets of how cancer progresses. We can manipulate neuronal activity literally with the switch of a light. Each year brings more advances in biomedical research—exciting, transformative accomplishments. Yet, despite the knowledge we have amassed, we haven’t been so successful in deploying it to where it’s needed most.

現(xiàn)如今，我們?nèi)祟愐呀?jīng)學(xué)會(huì)怎么進(jìn)行人類基因編輯了，也解密了很多個(gè)癌癥發(fā)生發(fā)展的原因。我們甚至可以利用一束光來控制我們大腦內(nèi)神經(jīng)元的活動(dòng)。每年生物醫(yī)學(xué)的研究都會(huì)帶來更多進(jìn)步——其中有不少令人振奮，也極具革命顛覆性的成果。然而，盡管我們已經(jīng)在科研上有了無數(shù)的建樹，但在如何把這些成果帶到世界最有需要的地方這方面卻差強(qiáng)人意。

 According to the World Bank, twelve percent of the world’s population lives on less than $2 a day. Malnutrition kills more than 3 million children annually. Three hundred million people are afflicted by malaria globally. All over the world, we constantly see these problems of poverty, illness, and lack of resources impeding the flow of scientific information. Lifesaving knowledge we take for granted in our modern world is often unavailable in these underdeveloped regions.  And so in far too many places, people are still essentially trying to cure a spider bite with fire.

 世界銀行的數(shù)據(jù)顯示，世界上大約有12%的人口每天的生活水平低于2美元。每年有三百萬兒童因營(yíng)養(yǎng)不良而死亡。全球有3億人口仍然受到瘧疾的困擾。在世界各地，我們經(jīng)?？吹截毟F、疾病和資源匱乏這樣的問題阻礙科學(xué)知識(shí)傳播?，F(xiàn)代社會(huì)里我們習(xí)以為常的救生常識(shí)經(jīng)常在這些欠發(fā)達(dá)地區(qū)得不到普及。因此，在世界上仍有太多地區(qū)，人們依然只能依賴于火療來處理蜘蛛咬傷的情況。

While studying at Harvard, I saw how scientific knowledge can help others in simple, yet profound ways. The bird flu pandemic in the 2000s looked to my village like a spell cast by demons. Our folk medicine didn’t even have half-measures to offer. What’s more, farmers didn’t know the difference between common cold and flu; they didn’t understand that the flu was much more lethal than the common cold. Most people were also unaware that the virus could transmit across different species.

 在哈佛讀書期間，我看到科技知識(shí)如何能夠以簡(jiǎn)單又深遠(yuǎn)的方式幫助他人。本世紀(jì)初的禽流感疫情在我家的村子看來就像惡魔的詛咒一樣。鄉(xiāng)村的土方法簡(jiǎn)直是無計(jì)可施。不光如此，農(nóng)民搞不懂普通感冒和流感的區(qū)別，他們并不知道流感比普通感冒更加致命。而且，大部分人對(duì)于流感病毒能夠跨不同物種傳播這一事實(shí)并不了解。

So when I realized that simple practices like separating different animal species could contain the spread of the disease, and that I could help make this knowledge available to my village, that was my first “Aha” moment as a budding scientist. But it was more than that: it was also a vital inflection point in my own ethical development, my own self-understanding as a member of the global community.

所以，在我意識(shí)到，簡(jiǎn)單的衛(wèi)生知識(shí)，例如將不同物種隔離開來，能減緩疾病傳播，以及我可以將這些知識(shí)傳遞到我的村莊時(shí)，我第一次有了一種作為未來科學(xué)家的頓悟。但這不僅僅停在知識(shí)層面，它也是我個(gè)人道德發(fā)展的重要轉(zhuǎn)折點(diǎn)，我作為國(guó)際社會(huì)一員的自我感悟。

Harvard dares us to dream big, to aspire to change the world. Here on this Commencement Day, we are probably thinking of grand destinations and big adventures that await us. As for me, I am also thinking of the farmers in my village. My experience here reminds me how important it is for researchers to communicate our knowledge to those who need it. Because by using the science we already have, we could probably bring my village and thousands like it into the world you and I take for granted every day. And that’s an impact every one of us can make!

 哈佛的教育教會(huì)我們敢于懷有遠(yuǎn)大的夢(mèng)想，勇于立志改變世界。在畢業(yè)典禮這樣一個(gè)特別的日子，我們?cè)谧漠厴I(yè)生都會(huì)暢想我們未來的偉大征程和冒險(xiǎn)。對(duì)我而言，我在此刻也想到家鄉(xiāng)的農(nóng)民。我在哈佛的經(jīng)歷教會(huì)了我，作為研究人員，將我們的知識(shí)傳遞給有需要的人是多么的重要。因?yàn)槔梦覀円延械目萍贾R(shí)，我們很可能可以將我的家鄉(xiāng)，還有千千萬萬這樣的村莊，變成我們每日習(xí)以為常的世界。而這樣一種影響，是我們每一個(gè)畢業(yè)生都能夠做到的。

But the question is, will we make the effort or not?

 但問題是，我們?cè)敢庾鲞@樣的努力嗎？

More than ever before, our society emphasizes science and innovation. But an equally important emphasis should be on distributing the knowledge we have to those who needed. Changing the world doesn’t mean everyone has to find the next big thing. It can be as simple as becoming better communicators, and finding more creative ways to pass on the knowledge we have to people like my mom and the farmers in their local community. Our society also needs to recognize that the equal distribution of knowledge is a pivotal step of human development, and will work to bring this into reality.

我們的社會(huì)比以往任何時(shí)候都更強(qiáng)調(diào)科學(xué)和創(chuàng)新。但我們社會(huì)同樣需要重視如何將知識(shí)傳遞那些真正需要的地方。改變世界并不意味著每個(gè)人都要做一個(gè)大突破。改變世界可以簡(jiǎn)單地成為更好的溝通者，并找出更多創(chuàng)造性的方法將知識(shí)傳遞給像我母親以及當(dāng)?shù)氐霓r(nóng)民那樣的人。同時(shí)，我們的社會(huì)需要認(rèn)識(shí)到科技知識(shí)的均衡分布，是人類社會(huì)發(fā)展的一個(gè)關(guān)鍵環(huán)節(jié)，而我們也能夠一起奮斗將此目標(biāo)變成現(xiàn)實(shí)。

And if we do that, then perhaps a teenager in rural China who is bitten by a spider will no longer have to burn his hand, but will know to seek a doctor instead.

 如果我們能夠做到這些，那么，或許有一天，一個(gè)被毒蜘蛛咬傷的中國(guó)農(nóng)村少年不再需要引火燒手，而是知道去尋求醫(yī)生的治療。