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Emma Teeling, like many of her colleagues, came to bats "completely, utterly, and totally by chance."
艾瑪·提林跟許多同事一樣，都是“完完全全、徹徹底底出于意外”進入蝙蝠的研究領域。
Teeling is a co-founder of Bat1K, a project to sequence the genomes of all 1,400 or so species of bats, and one of the founding advisers of Paratus Sciences, a start-up devoted to mining bat biology for ways to fight human diseases.
提林是Bat1K的共同創辦人，Bat1K是一項為全部一千四百多種蝙蝠進行基因體定序的計劃；提林也是Paratu Sciences的創辦顧問之一，這家新創公司致力于探索蝙蝠生物學，以尋找對抗人類疾病的辦法。
"We believe," its website states, "that bats hold the key to a safer and healthier world."
這家公司的網站上寫道：“我們相信，蝙蝠是通往更安全、更健康的世界之鑰。”
After initially working with foxes and deer, Teeling quickly became fascinated by the weird biology of bats.
提林起初研究的是狐貍和鹿，后來她很快就著迷于古怪的蝙蝠生物學。
Live small, die young is the general rule for mammals. But bats the size of mice can survive for decades.
“體型小，死得早”是哺乳動物的普遍規則，但與小鼠體型相當的蝙蝠可以存活數十年。
"They live for a ridiculously long time," for their size, she said.
提林說，以蝙蝠的體型而言，“它們的壽命長得離譜”。
They rarely get cancers. "They can carry all these viruses without getting sick."
蝙蝠很少罹患癌癥。“它們可以攜帶各種病毒，卻不會生病。”
Teeling, now a professor at University College Dublin, had to know why.
提林（如今已是都柏林大學學院教授）決心要找出這些特征的原因。
The answer she has become more and more convinced of over the years is one that at first blush seems hard to comprehend: They fly.
經過了這些年，她越來越相信，答案是一個乍看似乎很難理解的答案，那就是：蝙蝠會飛。
Her hypothesis is that flight led bats to evolve unusual immune systems, which in turn led to longevity, even resistance to cancer.
她的假設是飛行使蝙蝠演化出特殊的免疫系統，進而讓蝙蝠很長壽，甚至能抵抗癌癥。
Bats need to burn a lot of fuel to catch bugs on the wing, to dive and pitch and roll like a scarf in the wind.
蝙蝠需要耗費巨大能量才能在飛行時捕捉昆蟲，像風中的圍巾一樣俯仰翻滾。
One study estimated the metabolic rates of flying bats to be three to five times those of similar size land mammals.
有一項研究估計，與相似體型的陸棲哺乳動物相比，蝙蝠飛行時的代謝率大約是三到五倍。
Cellular engines called mitochondria have to work overtime to produce energy for flight.
稱為粒線體的細胞發電機必須超時工作，才能制造出用于飛行的能量。
As a side effect, they also produce chemicals called free radicals that are known to harm DNA.
副作用之一是它們也會制造自由基，這是已知會傷害DNA的化學物質。
"We should see this high level of damage" to DNA in bats, Teeling said.
提林說:“我們應該會在蝙蝠的DNA里看到高度損傷。”
But in experiments, that is not what she and her colleagues have found. In fact, they discovered that as the bats they studied aged, their ability to repair their DNA increased.
但在實驗中，她和同事卻發現并非如此。不僅如此，他們還發現，隨著研究中的蝙蝠逐漸老化，它們修復DNA的能力也增強了。
Another side effect of energy production in flight is that the mitochondria break down, and the results can look to the immune system like foreign invaders.
飛行時制造能量的另一項副作用是粒線體分解，而免疫系統可能將它視為外來入侵者。
So flight could produce a surging immune response -- and inflammation. Bats would need to control that.
因此，飛行可能引發強烈的免疫反應及發炎。蝙蝠必須控制這些反應。
Studies have shown that they not only respond to viruses that infect them, but they also tamp down that response, avoiding a damaging overreaction.
研究顯示，它們不僅會對感染的病毒產生反應，也會減弱這些反應，避免反應過度造成破壞。
That could also have evolved as a result of flight.
這可能也是因飛行能力而演化出來的。
The connection is far from proven, and there are plenty of skeptics, Swartz among them.
這些特征與飛行能力之間的關聯尚未證實，而且有許多人持懷疑態度，史沃茲也是其中之一。
"I'd be more confident in that line of reasoning if we saw enhancements of immune function and longevity in other animals that have elevated metabolism, like birds or migratory mammals," said Swartz.
史沃茲說：“如果我們在其他高代謝率的動物身上也發現免疫功能增強和長壽特征，例如鳥類或遷徙型哺乳動物，這個推論就會變得比較可信。”
Teeling said that, actually, many birds do live longer than might be expected given their size.
提林稱，從體型來看，許多鳥類確實活得比預期壽命長。
She noted that in one survey of many species, the single best producer of long life was the ability to fly.
她指出，在一項囊括了許多物種的調查中，長壽的唯一最佳因素是飛行能力。
She recognized, however, that this kind of correlation is far from proof and that more investigation is needed -- the Bat1K project's genome sequencing, for instance.
但是她也承認，這種相關性稱不上是證據，仍然需要進行更多研究，例如Bat1K計劃的基因體定序工作。
By comparing the genomes of many bat species, scientists can see what they have in common, pinpoint which genes are active in DNA repair and immune activity, and calculate when those abilities might have evolved.
通過比較多種蝙蝠的基因體，科學家能夠找到不同蝙蝠的共通之處、確認哪些基因在DNA修復和免疫活動中發揮了作用，并且估算這些能力演化出來的可能時間點。
If they came with flight, that would be a strong indication that the two are linked.
如果這些能力是伴隨飛行能力出現的，那就強烈顯示兩者之間有關聯。
