Viruses--The aliens among us

Viruses cause pandemics. They also shape the world

HUMANS THINK of themselves as the world’s apex predators. Hence the silence of sabre-tooth tigers, the absence of moas?from New Zealand and the long list of endangered megafauna. But SARS-CoV-2 shows how people can also?end up as prey.?Viruses have caused a litany of?modern pandemics, from covid-19, to HIV/AIDS to the influenza outbreak in 1918-20, which killed many more people than the first world war. Before that, the colonisation?of the Americas by Europeans was abetted—and perhaps made possible—by epidemics of smallpox, measles?and influenza brought unwittingly?by the invaders, which annihilated many of the original inhabitants.

apex ?n. ?/?e?peks/ 頂點；尖端? ??predator ?n /?pr?d?t?/ [動] 捕食者；[動] 食肉動物；掠奪者

apex predators: 頂端獵食者? ? sabre-tooth tiger：劍齒虎 ??

sabre n. ??/?se?b?(r)/（彎刃）軍刀，馬刀；（擊劍運動用的）佩劍

moa n. ?/?m???/ 恐鳥（曾發(fā)現于新西蘭，不能飛行，已滅絕）

fauna ?n. /?f??n?/動物群、動物系??Megafauna：mega-fauna 巨型動物

prey ???/pre?/n. 獵物；受害者，犧牲品；（情緒易受傷的）脆弱的人；掠奪品；v. 捕食；傷害；折磨，困擾???end up as prey：最終成為獵物

be/fall ?prey to sth：(1) ( of an animal 動物 ) to be killed and eaten by another animal or bird 被捕食；成為獵物； (2) ( of a person 人 ) to be harmed or affected by sth bad 受害；受壞影響

litany n. ?/?l?t?ni/ 冗長而枯燥的陳述；連禱???a litany of：一連串

Colonisation /,k?l?nai'zei??n/殖民地化；集群現象

abet v. /??bet/教唆；唆使；煽動；慫恿

Smallpox ?/?sm??lp?ks/?n 天花? ? ?Measles??n. /?mi?zlz/ 麻疹

unwittingly ?adv. /?n?w?t??li/?糊里糊涂地；茫然；無意地

annihilate /??na???le?t/vt. 殲滅；戰(zhàn)勝；廢止vi. 湮滅；湮沒

The influence of viruses on life on Earth, though, goes far beyond the past and present tragedies of a single species, however pressing they seem.Though the study of viruses began as an investigation into what appeared to be a strange subset?of pathogens, recent research puts them at the heart of an explanation of the strategies of genes, both selfish and otherwise.

Subset?： sub-set 分組；小組；子集? ? ?Pathogen??n. /?p?θ?d??n/ 病原體

The influence of viruses on life on Earth, though, goes far beyond the past and present tragedies of a single species, however pressing they seem. （然而，病毒對地球生命的影響遠超單個物種過去和現在的悲劇，無論他們（指物種悲劇）看起來多么不容忽視。）

Viruses are unimaginably varied and ubiquitous. And it is becoming clear just how much they have shaped the evolution of all organisms?since the very beginnings of life. In this, they demonstrate the blind, pitiless power of natural selection at its most dramatic. And—for one group of brainy?bipedal mammals that viruses helped create—they also present a heady?mix of threat and opportunity.

Ubiquitous: adj. /ju??b?kw?t?s/ 似乎無所不在的；十分普遍的? the ubiquitous bicycles of university towns 大學城里處處可見的自行車

Organism??/???ɡ?n?z?m/ 有機體；生物體；微生物? ?

bipedal ?adj. /?ba??pi?dl/ ?( 動物 ) 雙足行走的；兩腿行走的

mammal /?m?m?l/ 哺乳動物 ?bipedal mammals :兩足哺乳動物

Heady??adj. /?hedi/ ?

1. 強烈作用于感官的；使興奮的；使有信心的??the heady days of youth 令人陶醉的年輕時代??the heady scent of hot spices 辣味調料的刺鼻氣味??a heady mixture of desire and fear 既期待又害怕的復雜心情

2.[ not before noun ] ( of a person 人 ) excited in a way that makes you do things without worrying about the possible results 沖動；冒失??She felt heady with success. 成功使她得意忘形。

Viruses are best thought of as packages of genetic material that exploit another organism’s metabolism?in order to reproduce. They are parasites of the purest kind: they borrow everything from the host except the genetic code that makes them what they are. They strip down?life itself to the bare essentials of information and its replication.?If the?abundance of?viruses is anything to?go by, that is a very successful strategy indeed.

Metabolism???/m??t?b?l?z?m/ 新陳代謝? ? ?Parasite?/?p?r??sa?t/? 寄生蟲??

?strip down：剝開、脫去

They strip down life itself to the bare essentials of information and its replication.?Up主覺得這句話很有詩意，但是我翻譯不出來英文表達的氛圍--他們（指病毒）剝開生命的面紗露出赤裸的本質只有信息及其不斷地復制。

The world is teeming?with them. One analysis of seawater?found 200,000 different viral?species, and it was not setting out to be comprehensive. Other research suggests that a single litre of seawater may contain more than 100bn virus particles, and a kilo of dried soil ten times that number. Altogether, according to calculations on?the back of a very big envelope,?the world might contain 1031?of the things—that is ten followed by 30 zeros, far outnumbering all other forms of life on the planet.

Teeming??adj. /?ti?m??/ ?present in large numbers; full of people, animals, etc. that are moving around 大量的；充滿（移動著的人、動物等）的；擁擠的

viral adj. ??/?va?r?l/ ?like or caused by a virus 病毒的；病毒性的；病毒引起的? a viral infection 病毒性感染?? a viral email傳播病毒郵件

the back of a very big envelope：（指估計或者計劃）最粗略的一類

Push the envelope/the edge of the envelope: 接近或者達到極致

原文：經濟學人2020年9月刊