時(shí)差N小時(shí):治愈色盲的新希望

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唐：我覺得雄性松鼠猴很可憐。

Yale: What? Why?

雅艾爾：什么?為什么?

Don: Because they can't detect the colors red andgreen—they're red-green colorblind.

唐：因?yàn)樗麄兎植磺寮t色和綠色，它們是紅綠色盲。

Yale: Maybe, but scientists at the University ofWashington used gene therapy to make squirrelmonkeys produce proteins that allow them to seered and green.

雅艾爾：可能吧，不過(guò)華盛頓大學(xué)的科學(xué)家用基因療法讓松鼠猴長(zhǎng)出一種蛋白質(zhì)，使它們能看到紅色和綠色。

Don: Really? That's awesome!

唐：真的嗎?太了不起了!

Yale: It is, actually. Because most scientists assumed that it was impossible to create fullcolor vision in an animal that had never had it. The brain just isn't wired for it. Or so theythought. But, evidently, that's not the case. Very soon after the monkeys got the gene theyneeded to start making the protein for red-green vision, their brains worked to process thosecolors.

雅艾爾：確實(shí)是的。因?yàn)榇蠖鄶?shù)科學(xué)家都認(rèn)為讓從未有過(guò)全色覺的動(dòng)物看見全色是不可能的。大腦根本無(wú)法進(jìn)行鏈接。也許他們是這么想。但事實(shí)并非如此。猴子被植入紅綠視覺的蛋白質(zhì)基因后不久，它們的大腦便開始處理顏色了。

Don: So it's like their brains were ready and just waiting for the right components to click intoplace.

唐：就好像它們?cè)跁r(shí)刻準(zhǔn)備著，就等著將正確的元件放入正確的位置。

Yale: Something like that. But this doesn't mean that scientists can now fix color blindness inpeople.

雅艾爾：差不多吧。但這不表示現(xiàn)在科學(xué)家能夠醫(yī)治人類色盲。

Don: Why not?

唐：為什么不能?

Yale: Well,monkeys' brains are different from human brains, for one thing. And, it's notcertain what colors the monkeys are actually seeing. So it's impossible to tell how the sameprocedure would work in people, without actually trying it.

雅艾爾：嗯，首先猴子的大腦與人類的不一樣。其次，不能確定那些猴子真正看到了什么顏色。所以不先試試的話，就無(wú)法判斷同樣的方法在人類身上是否奏效。

Don: But in any case, I think that the experiment with the monkeys gives scientists someinsight into how color vision works, and how its evolved.

唐：但無(wú)論如何，我覺得猴子的實(shí)驗(yàn)為科學(xué)家提供了一些顏色視覺的產(chǎn)生和發(fā)展的深層次想法。

Yale: And you'd be right. And the more we learn, the better chance we'll have of addressingcolor blindness in people in the future.

雅艾爾：你可能是對(duì)的。了解得越多，未來(lái)我們就有更多的機(jī)會(huì)去解決人類色盲問題。