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BBC纪录片 | 20世纪最伟大科学家之一 屠呦呦

外语教研 2022-04-24
BBC纪录片《面孔:20世纪传奇人物》请来人类社会各个主要领域的专家,制定了一份候选人名单,并介绍了他们的成就、影响和留给后人的遗产。其中,诺贝尔生理医学奖获得者屠呦呦被誉为20世纪最伟大的科学家之一。

科学家
阿尔伯特·爱因斯坦 Albert Einstein, 
玛丽·居里 Marie Curie, 
图灵Alan Turing, 
屠呦呦Tu Youyou


运动员
穆罕默德·阿里 Muhammad Ali, 
比利·简·金 Billie Jean King, 
贝利 Pelé, 
坦妮·格雷·汤普森Tanni Grey Thompson


社会活动家
莫罕达斯·卡拉姆昌德·甘地 Mahatma Gandhi, 
马丁·路德·金 Martin Luther King, 
海伦·凯勒 Helen Keller, 
埃米琳·潘克赫斯特Emmeline Pankhurst


领袖
富兰克林·德拉诺·罗斯福 Franklin D. Roosevelt, 
温斯顿·丘吉尔 Winston Churchill, 
玛格丽特·撒切尔 Margaret Thatcher, 
纳尔逊·曼德拉 Nelson Mandela


作家/艺术家
安迪·沃霍尔 Andy Warhol, 
巴勃罗·毕加索 Pablo Picasso, 
弗吉尼亚·伍尔芙 Virginia Woolf,
阿尔弗雷德·希区柯克 Alfred Hitchcock,
珍妮·古道尔 Jane Goodall


明星
查理·卓别林 Charles Chaplin,
比莉·荷莉戴BillieHoliday,
玛丽莲·梦露Marilyn Monroe,
大卫·鲍威David Bowie

今天的主角是屠呦呦——第一位获得诺贝尔生理医学奖的华人科学家。
屠呦呦,女,1930年12月30日生,药学家,中国中医研究院终身研究员兼首席研究员,青蒿素研究开发中心主任。屠呦呦是第一位获得诺贝尔科学奖项的中国本土科学家、第一位获得诺贝尔生理医学奖的华人科学家。BBC曾经出过名为《20世纪最伟大的科学家》系列记录短片,其中一集是关于屠呦呦发现青蒿素的故事,里面收录了许多珍贵的影像资料。
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英文全文(斜体字原文为中文)
The envelop was stuffed full of original documents connected to the discover of artemisinin(青蒿素), and one name stood out from the rest- Tu Youyou.
Finally, I can piece the whole story together.
As they scoured the documents, Louis and Su uncovered an incredible story, the story of an exceptional scientist, willing to risk her own life to find a cure for malaria(疟疾) and bring it to the world—the story of Tu Youyou.
Tu’s quest didn’t begin in China but in the jungles of Vietnam(越南)…,where soldiers on both sides of the war found themselves fighting a third enemy—mosquitoes. Tens of thousands were leftincapacitated after being bitten by the malaria-carrying insects. In one US army unit, a third of soldiers contracted the disease.
Now, we have no way of estimating how many soldiers died in the North Vietnamese army, but we know the losses were colossal, because the Communist Party Chairman, Ho Chi Minh(胡志明), reached out in desperation to his allies in China, asking for help to find a cure.
Chairman Mao Zedong declared the search for a drug a top priority, and in May 1967, officially launched Project 523(523项目是指代号为“523”的疟疾防治药物研究项目,缘于越战的需要,发起的一场大规模合作项目。). At Beijing’s Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences(中国中医科学院), 39-year-old researcher Tu Youyou, decided to scour hundreds of old manuscripts in search of ancient wisdom, a traditional herbal remedy that might form the basis of a cure. With over 2000 preparations to choose from, this was a daunting task. Professor Ni Muyun(倪慕云教授) worked closely with Tu on the project.
Tu Youyou was very self-disciplined. She set an example for the rest of us…, leading the discussions…, and inspiring everyone else. At that time, we were all young…, so it was a happy team. Our task was very clear. We had to complete the task. Then, with her husband away and her research growing more demanding, Tu was forced to place her children into care.
At that time we had to overcome the difficulties ourselves. It really was not easy for her. The children were away for so long, it placed a barrier between them.
Tu only saw her daughters once in the next three years, and when they finally reunited, the older girl refused to acknowledge the fact that she was her mother and the younger one didn’t even recognize her.
Despite the hardship, Tu never gave up hope that a cure was just around the corner. By this stage, she had tested almost 200 compounds with nothing to show for it. She continued to scour the ancient text. Then, in a book written in the fourth century by Chinese scholar Ge Hong(葛洪,东晋道教学者、著名炼丹家、医药学家), she found a preparation that claimed to cure a malaria-like fever.
Take a handful of Artemisia annua, soak in two liters of water.
Extrude juice and take it all.
Artemisia was a plant Tu had tested before without success. Then she had an epiphany(顿悟). By heating the plant to extract the compound, she might have been damaging the drug in the process. Instead, she decided to try extracting it at a lower temperature, mimicking the original formula. She tested it on a cluster of malaria cells. Every single one was destroyed. But when the team tested the drug on animals, the results were alarming. While some of them were cured, others were poisoned. Nobody could say whether the drug could be safe in humans.
What happened next was a little unconventional, scientifically. You see, Tu was so convinced that the extract would work that she volunteered to test it on herself. Knowing what was at stake, Tu went into hospital, and over several days, doctors gradually increased the dose. She took the extract, she felt fine, but more importantly, they were monitoring her major organs, her heart, her liver, her kidneys, and they were fine too. The test had worked!
Few people are brave enough to risk their own lives in the hope of saving others. Further proof that Tu is worthy of your vote. Like any new drug, it would take many years of refinement by Tu and her team before artemisinin could be rolled out worldwide. The first tablets were approved in 1986, and in 1999, the World Health Organization(世界卫生组织) added artemisinin to their list of essential medicines. Since then, the number of deaths due to malaria have fallen by almost 50%, with several countries eradicating the disease altogether. Tu dedicated her life to perfecting the drug but continued to work in the shadows. Then 40 years after the discovery, Tu was herself discovered by Louis and Su in Washington. They wrote about her story in the journal Cell(《细胞》杂志). And at the age of 84, she was awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine(诺贝尔医学奖), the first Chinese person ever to win the award.
I’m deeply grateful to my family for their understanding and support. This is not only an honor for myself, but recognition and encouragement for all scientists in China.
Tu still lives in Beijing, but prefers to stay out of the spotlight.
If you measure greatness in terms of the number of human lives saved, then there is no doubt at all that Tu Youyou is one of the greatest scientists of all time. The drugs saved millions of people’s lives. People in some of the poorest communities on the planet, millions of children. When it comes to science icons, there’s no doubt at all Tu Youyou is right up there!
So, four people who may have seemed outsiders. A female Polish immigrant(居里夫人), a Jewish refugee(爱因斯坦), a gay mathematician(图灵), and a Chinese woman working almost anonymously, ended up making some of the biggest contributions to the 20th century. But despite their differences, they all shared the intellectual courage to think outside the box, and the personal courage to stand firm in the face of adversity. (来源自网络)

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