动画如何帮助科学家检验研究理论？

It's a process by which a molecule can get from the outside of the cell to the inside by getting captured in a bubble or a vesicle that then gets internalized by the cell.

该过程是指一个分子可以从细胞外转运入细胞内，转入的方式是通过先被捕捉进小泡或囊中，随后被细胞内在化。

There's a problem with this drawing, though, and it's mainly in what it doesn't show.

但这幅图有一个问题，这个问题主要是这幅图所没有表现的东西。

From lots of experiments, from lots of different scientists, we know a lot about what these molecules look like, how they move around in the cell, and that this is all taking place in an incredibly dynamic environment.

从大量的实验中，从大量不同的科学家身上，我们对这些分子的样子，它们是如何在细胞内移动的了解很多，这些都发生在一个不可思议的动态的环境中。

So in collaboration with a clathrin expert Tomas Kirchhausen, we decided to create a new kind of model figure that showed all of that.

因此，在与网格蛋白专家托马斯·科切豪斯合作中，我们决定创造一个新的模型图片，它可以展示所有的细节。

So we start outside of the cell. Now we're looking inside.

于是我们从细胞外开始。现在，我们看到的是内部。

Clathrin are these three-legged molecules that can self-assemble into soccer-ball-like shapes.

网格蛋白就是那些三条腿的分子，它们可以自己组合成足球的形状。

Through connections with a membrane, clathrin is able to deform the membrane and form this sort of a cup that forms this sort of a bubble, or a vesicle, that's now capturing some of the proteins that were outside of the cell.

通过膜的相互连接，网格蛋白可以使膜发生变形，然后形成这种像杯子一样的形状，接着形成这种像小泡或小囊样的形状，现在它正在捕捉一些细胞外的蛋白质。

Proteins are coming in now that basically pinch off this vesicle, making it separate from the rest of the membrane, and now clathrin is basically done with its job, and so proteins are coming in now we've covered them yellow and orange -- that are responsible for taking apart this clathrin cage.

蛋白质正在进入，基本上掐断了小囊，使得它从膜上分离开来，现在，网格蛋白基本上已经完成了它的使命，于是，蛋白质就进来了，我们用黄色和橙色来标记它们，它们负责将网格蛋白形成的笼子拆开。

And so all of these proteins can get basically recycled and used all over again.

于是所有这些蛋白质基本上都可以循环，重新加以利用。

These processes are too small to be seen directly, even with the best microscopes, so animations like this provide a really powerful way of visualizing a hypothesis.

这些过程太小了以至于无法看到，即使是用最好的显微镜，因此，像这样的动画就提供了一个强大的工具把一个假说可视化。

Here's another illustration, and this is a drawing of how a researcher might think that the HIV virus gets into and out of cells.

这是另一个例子，这幅图展示了研究人员是如何猜想艾滋病毒进入与离开细胞的。

And again, this is a vast oversimplification and doesn't begin to show what we actually know about these processes.

同样，这是一个极大的简化，而且还没开始显示，我们对这些过程实际的了解。

You might be surprised to know that these simple drawings are the only way that most biologists visualize their molecular hypotheses.

你可能会惊奇的发现，这些简单的图画就是绝大多数生物学家可视化他们分子假说的唯一途径。

Why? Because creating movies of processes as we think they actually occur is really hard.

为什么？因为将我们认为实际上发生的过程用电影的形式创作出来是非常困难的。

I spent months in Hollywood learning 3D animation software, and I spend months on each animation,

我在好莱坞花了数个月学习三维动画软件，每一个动画我都花了数月来制作。

and that's just time that most researchers can't afford.

这些时间对大多数研究员来说太长了。

The payoffs can be huge, though.

但是，回报也是巨大的。

Molecular animations are unparalleled in their ability to convey a great deal of information to broad audiences with extreme accuracy.

分子动画是前所未有的，它们能向广大的观众传达大量精准的信息。

And I'm working on a new project now called "The Science of HIV" where I'll be animating the entire life cycle of the HIV virus as accurately as possible and all in molecular detail.

我现在正从事一个新的项目，它的名字叫“艾滋病病毒的科学”，在这个项目中，我会尽可能准确地将HIV病毒的整个生命周期用动画描绘出来，所有的这些都会细致到分子级别。

The animation will feature data from thousands of researchers collected over decades, data on what this virus looks like, how it's able to infect cells in our body, and how therapeutics are helping to combat infection.

动画会取材于数千名科学家在近几十年来收集的数据，这些数据告诉我们这种病毒的形态，它如何感染我们身体中的细胞，以及如何对感染进行治疗。

Over the years, I found that animations aren't just useful for communicating an idea, but they're also really useful for exploring a hypothesis.

多年以来，我发现动画不仅仅便于交流思想，它们同样在探索假说上发挥作用。

Biologists for the most part are still using a paper and pencil to visualize the processes they study, and with the data we have now, that's just not good enough anymore.

许多生物学家仍使用笔和纸来将他们研究的过程可视化，使用的也是我们目前已有的数据，但这远远不够。

The process of creating an animation can act as a catalyst that allows researchers to crystalize and refine their own ideas.

创作动画的过程可以像催化剂一样，让研究人员把想法清晰化，使之完善。

One researcher I worked with who works on the molecular mechanisms of neurodegenerative diseases came up with experiments that were related directly to the animation that she and I worked on together, and in this way, animation can feed back into the research process.

我与一位研究员合作过，她的研究方向是神经变性疾病的分子机理，她提出一些与动画有直接相关的实验，于是我和她齐心协力，这样，动画就能反馈到研究过程中。

I believe that animation can change biology.

我相信动画能够改变生物学。

It can change the way that we communicate with one another, how we explore our data and how we teach our students.

它可以改变我们与他人的交流方式，我们如何分析数据以及我们如何教育学生。

But for that change to happen, we need more researchers creating animations, and toward that end, I brought together a team of biologists, animators and programmers to create a new, free, open-source software we call it Molecular Flipbook -- that's created just for biologists just to create molecular animations.

但要想这些改变发生，我们需要更多的研究人员创作动画，为实现这一目标，我召集了一支由生物学家、动画师和程序员组成的团队，开发了一款全新的、免费的、开源的软件，我们称它为“分子原始动画”，它为生物学家而生，专门用来创作分子动画。

From our testing, we've found that it only takes 15 minutes for a biologist who has never touched animation software before to create her first molecular animation of her own hypothesis.

测试显示，仅需要15分钟，一个从未接触动画软件的生物学家，就可以将她的假说猜想创作成她的第一个分子动画。

We're also building an online database where anyone can view, download and contribute their own animations.

我们同时也建立了一个在线数据库，任何人都可以查看、下载以及上传他们自己的动画。

We're really excited to announce that the beta version of the molecular animation software toolkit will be available for download today.

我们非常激动地宣布这款分子动画制作软件的测试版今天就可以下载了。

We are really excited to see what biologists will create with it and what new insights they're able to gain from finally being able to animate their own model figures. Thank you.

看到生物学家用它来创作东西以及他们从自己创作的动画中得到的启示，我们为此感到激动不已。谢谢。

来源：TED演讲

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