原子调试:看人类如何返老还童

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还记得《天龙八部》里的天山童姥吗？年近百岁的她仍拥有女童般的样貌和外型。如果有朝一日你也能返老还童，那会是怎样的情形？其实返老还童并不是武侠小说人物的专利，你我每天都在经历着呢！人体内每年都有98%的原子被替换掉，因此每一年的你都是“新”的你！一起来体验这个奇妙之旅吧！

学习小提示：文章使用原声材料，其中有独白也有对话，对练习听力和发音很有帮助。我们平时所接触的科技类文章大多含有很多又长又难的专业术语，而本文却没有太多难词，说理浅显易懂，结构层层递进。

Maybe you’ve heard someone say, “I am not the person I was.” Well, that maybe more true than you know. Science 2)correspondent David Kestenbaum has this tale.

We All Lose Atoms

Okay, we all get haircuts. But have you ever thought that when we do, we lose atoms. That hair that was once part of us goes its own way.

David: So, um, at the end of the day, what happens to my hair on the floor here?

Hairdresser: Well, they will get swept up and put into the 3)trash.

David: Those are my atoms.

How much of me is really with me throughout my life? Mean, my skin 4)rubs off. I 5)trim my fingernails. Part of me is 6)eroding, and 7)presumably, being rebuilt. But how much? Is it 1%? Is it 10%? I called around to biologists and chemists, and no one seemed to know the answer.

Rejuvenation of the Body

McCarty: I’m Logan McCarty, I teach chemistry at Harvard University.

David: Had you ever thought about, to what extent, we’re just spare parts being replaced all the time?

McCarty: I guess, it never really occurred to me. You know, who I was is not...the atoms that I have now are not the same atoms that I had, you know, yesterday, or the week before.

McCarty did some research. And he found this article from a Smithsonian Institution Publication, from 1953. So, this is the beginning of the atomic age. And, the article described the six experiments, where researchers fed people 8)radioactive atoms, or they 9)injected them with radioactive atoms. And then using radiation detectors they could watch the atoms as they moved around. So, they watched them go up one arm into the heart, and down the other arm.

McCarty: You can follow it through their body. Does it get 10)excreted through urine, or is it excreted through their sweat, or through 11)feces or, you know, what happens to it? Does it end up in their fingernails or in their eyeballs or, you know… So, you can follow where these atoms go.

David: And where do they?

McCarty:And by doing that… Well, they end up in, in all of your 12)tissues.

A lot of the atoms get 13)incorporated into our bodies. The article says the atomic turnover is quite rapid and quite complete.

In a year, 98% of the atoms in us now will be replaced by other atoms that we take in, in our air, food and drink. So that means 98% of me is new every year.

David: So this is the very 14)profound rule of nature: you are what you eat.

McCarty: Yes, absolutely. If you eat a hamburger one day, then the atoms and 15)molecules in that hamburger will end up making up your cell walls, and different organs and tissues.

David: So my friend…I have a friend of friend who eats soup everyday for lunch. So he is mostly made up of soup or largely.

McCarty: He is mostly made up of soup, yes.

But don’t be sad. McCarty says this constant replacement of parts is actually what makes life so 16)robust and, so adaptable, so…so lively.

McCarty: Life is remarkable 17)in that it requires always a flow of energy and matter through the system. So

the...if the system isn’t constantly bringing in new

energy, and bringing in new matter, then it’s basically dead.

Am I Still Me?

Still, this means that, in a very real sense, we are not the people that we were a year ago, with this collection of atoms, that hang out together for a while, and they go on to do other things. Sort of a 18)momentary crowd of organization. So what is me? Am I still me, if my parts have been replaced?

Daniel: Well, of course, the, the question goes way back to ancient philosophy.

This is Daniel Dennett. He is a philosopher at Tufts University.

Remember, he says, the old joke about Abe Lincoln’s注 axe?

Daniel: There it is, in the glass case, and it says, “This is Abe Lincoln’s axe.” Somebody says, “That’s really his axe?” He says, “Oh, yes. But, of course, the head has been replaced twice, and the handle three times.”

There’s also a modern atomic version of this puzzle. That really gets to the heart of things.

Daniel: We imagine that if your rocketship is landed on Mars. You have to get back from Mars to earth by 19)teleporter.

Here is how the teleporter works. It 20)dismantles you atom by atom, you know. Records the precise location, every carbon, every 21)hydrogen, every 22)phosphors, and it sends that information to earth, where a receiving 23)transporter 24)reconstructs you, out of new atoms.

Daniel: And, you step out of the teleporter receiver on earth. Is that really you? I say, of course, it’s you.

Okay! That’s clear enough. But, now imagine, he says, instead - the teleporter on Mars doesn’t

take you apart, it doesn’t 25)disassemble you. It just scans your atoms, leaving you intact.

Daniel: So, now you are. There is a you that’s 26)stranded on Mars, and there is a you that’s back on Earth, Which is the really you?

David: Well, pretty clear to me. Then there is, then I have David One and David Two.

Daniel: Yeah, and, and, and does one of them have some sort of special 27)priority? Is one of them sort of realer, more you than the other?

David: Then what does my wife do?

Daniel: Exactly, yes.

David: I can tell you what my wife would do. My wife would 28)groan if two of me showed up.

I Am Still Me

It turns out there are some atoms, that are with us for our entire lives. This comes from a research in Sweden. And the atoms are actually in some

interesting places. They are deep in the DNA, of some cells in our brain and in our heart, and also some atoms in our teeth. So brain, heart and teeth! Don’t forget to brush.

也许你听人说过，“我已经不是过去的我了”。你可知道，这句话可能比你想的还要真实。现在由科学记者大卫・克斯坦伯恩为你讲述这个故事。

原子：轻轻地我走了

好的，我们都理过发。但你是否想过，我们在理发的时候会丢失原子。曾经是我们身体一部分的头发，自顾自走开了。

大卫：那么，嗯，到最后，你们怎么处理我那些落在地板上的头发？

理发师：呃，它们会被扫掉，倒进垃圾桶。

大卫：那些可是我的原子。

在我的身体上，有多少东西真正跟随我一辈子呢？你看，我的皮肤会脱落。我会剪掉指甲。我身体某部分正在腐化，可能也正在重建。但这个比例有多少？百分之一？百分之十？我到处拜访生物学家和化学家，可是似乎谁也不知道答案。

看我七十二变返老还童术

麦卡蒂：我是洛根・麦卡蒂，在哈佛大学教

化学。

大卫：你可曾想过，在多大程度上，我们只是一些备用的组件，不断被替换？

麦卡蒂：我想，我并没有真正想过这个问题。你知道，过去的我不是……我身上的原子不是昨天的原子，也不是一周前的原子。

麦卡蒂做过一些研究。他在史密森学会出版社1953年的出版物上发现了这篇文章。这可以算是原子时代的开端。这篇文章描述了六个实验。在这些实验里，研究者让人们摄入放射性原子，或是把放射性原子植入人们体内。这样他们就能够用放射探测器观测原子的移动。他们观察到它们沿着手臂上移进入心脏，然后沿着另一条手臂下移。

麦卡蒂：你能看到原子在他们身体移动。它们是通过尿液排出体外去，还是通过汗水？又或者通过粪便排出？原子发生了什么变化？它们是不是最终停留在他们的指甲或眼球里等等。总之，你能够跟踪这些原子的去向。

大卫：那它们去了哪里？

麦卡蒂：通过这样……呃，它们最终停留在你所有的组织里。

许多原子融入了我们的身体。那篇文章说，原子更换周期相当短，也相当彻底。

一年里，我们体内有98%的原子会被我们从空气、食物和饮料摄入的原子所替换。那意味着每年有98%的我是全新的。

大卫：这就是那条很深奥的自然法则了：你吃什么，就是什么。

麦卡蒂：是的，没错。如果有一天你吃了个汉堡，这个汉堡里的原子和分子最终会构成你的细胞壁、各种器官和组织。

大卫：我的一个朋友……我朋友的朋友，他每天的午饭就是汤，那么他身体的绝大部分或大部分都是由汤组成的了。

麦卡蒂：是的。他绝大部分是由汤组成的。

但无需难过。麦卡蒂指出，正因为身体组成部分不断替换，我们的生命才能这么精力充沛，适应性这么强，这么活跃。

麦卡蒂：生命的不平凡正在于它需要一股能量和一些物质在整个系统里不断流动。如果这个系统不再持续吸收新能量或摄入新物质，它基本上就已经是死的了。

真我PK非我

话虽如此，但这还是很真实地意味着我们已经不是一年前的自己了。这些原子在我们体内聚集，停留一段时间后便各奔东西。有点类似于暂时聚集在一起的乌合之众。那么我是什么？如果我的组成部分被替换掉了，我还是我吗？

丹尼尔：你当然还是你。这个问题可以回溯到古代哲学上去。

这是丹尼尔・德奈特。他是塔芙茨大学的哲学家。

他问我，还记得那个有关亚伯拉罕・林肯的斧头的老笑话吗？

丹尼尔：看，斧子在那玻璃箱里，上面写着：这是亚伯拉罕・林肯的斧子。有人问：“那真的是他的斧子吗？”他回答说：“啊，是的。但是，当然，斧子的头已经换了两次，柄换了三次。”

这个迷题还有一个现代的原子版本，的确一语中的。

丹尼尔：现在我们假设你乘坐的火箭在火星着陆。你只能通过远程传输器回到地球。

那个远程传输器是这样运作的：它先是把你分解成一个个原子，记录下每一个碳原子、氢原子、磷原子的准确位置，然后把那些信息传送到地球。接着地球上的远程传输接收器就会用新的原子把你重新制造

出来。

丹尼尔：然后，你就从地球上的那台远程传输接收器里面走出来了。那真的是你吗？我说―那当然是你了。

好的！这就够明白了。但是，他又说，现在假设火星上的传输器没有把你分开，没有分解你。它只是扫描你的原子，你依然完整无缺。

丹尼尔：现在情况变成了这样，有一个你被困在火星上，还有一个你回到了地球。那么哪个才是真正的你？

大卫：哦，我明白了。那样我就成了两个，大卫一号和大卫二号。

丹尼尔：是的。而且，他们中间会有哪一个比另一个更重要，更真实，更像你吗？

大卫：那我的妻子该怎么办？

丹尼尔：没错，就是这样。

大卫：我可以告诉你我妻子会怎么做。如果有两个我同时出现，我妻子会怨气冲天的。

我还是我

原来我们体内还有一些原子会陪伴我们一辈子。这个结论来自瑞典的一项研究。而那些原子停留在一些有趣的地方。它们深埋在大脑和心脏一些细胞的DNA里，也有部分原子留在牙齿里了。所以大脑、心脏和牙齿很重要！别忘了刷牙哦！