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But of course, life is more than just exotic chemistry.
但是當(dāng)然，生命不僅僅是奇異的化學(xué)物質(zhì)。
How do you stabilize those huge molecules that seem to be viable?
那是怎么穩(wěn)定那些大量的、似乎有存活的分子的呢？
Well, it's here that life introduces an entirely new trick.
這就是生命呈現(xiàn)的一個(gè)全新的竅訣。
You don't stabilize the individual; you stabilize the template, the thing that carries information, and you allow the template to copy itself.
不能穩(wěn)定個(gè)體；只能穩(wěn)定模板，那是攜帶信息的東西，讓模板復(fù)制自己。
And DNA, of course, is the beautiful molecule that contains that information.
當(dāng)然，DNA是美麗的分子，包含著信息。
You'll be familiar with the double helix of DNA. Each rung contains information.
你熟悉雙螺旋型的DNA。每個(gè)鏈都包含信息。
So, DNA contains information about how to make living organisms. And DNA also copies itself.
所以DNA就包含關(guān)于如何創(chuàng)造生命體的信息。同時(shí)DNA也能自我拷貝。
So, it copies itself and scatters the templates through the ocean. So the information spreads.
所以它自我拷貝，同時(shí)把模板擴(kuò)散到海洋中。因此信息也傳遞開了。
Notice that information has become part of our story. The real beauty of DNA though is in its imperfections.
值得注意的是，信息已經(jīng)成為我們故事中的一部分。DNA真正的魅力在于它的不完美。
As it copies itself, once in every billion rungs, there tends to be an error.
當(dāng)它自我拷貝的時(shí)候，在每十億個(gè)鏈中有一個(gè)鏈可能產(chǎn)生錯(cuò)誤。
And what that means is that DNA is, in effect, learning.
也就是說，實(shí)際上DNA在進(jìn)化。
It's accumulating new ways of making living organisms because some of those errors work.
它在積累創(chuàng)造生命體的新方法，因?yàn)橛行╁e(cuò)誤是可以運(yùn)作的。
So DNA's learning and it's building greater diversity and greater complexity.
所以DNA是在進(jìn)化，它在呈現(xiàn)豐富多樣性和大量的復(fù)雜性。
And we can see this happening over the last four billion years.
我們看到這進(jìn)化持續(xù)發(fā)生了四十多億年。
