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The idea that there are five senses goes back at least as far as Aristotle. But it is not quite true.
人有五種感官的想法至少可以追溯到亞里士多德。但這樣說也并不完全準確。
Four of the senses are obvious, if only because each is associated with a particular organ: sight with the eyes, hearing with the ears, taste with the tongue and smell with the nose.
有四種感官是顯而易見的，因為每一種感官都與特定的器官相關：用眼睛看，用耳朵聽，用舌頭嘗，用鼻子聞。
But the fifth classical sense, touch, is distributed over the whole surface of the body, albeit that it is concentrated in the fingertips.
但是第五種經典感覺，觸覺，分布在整個身體表面，集中在指尖。
Touch, moreover, is only one such distributed sense. Others perceived consciously include pain, heat and cold.
此外，觸覺只是一種分布式感覺。其他有意識的感覺還包括疼痛、熱和冷。
And modern science has shown there are also unconsciously perceived senses, known collectively as proprioception. These keep track of the position and movement of the body and its parts.
現代科學表明，還有一些無意識的感知器官，統稱為本體感覺。這些器官跟蹤身體及各部分的位置和運動。
This year’s Nobel prize for physiology or medicine went to the discoverers of the molecular mechanisms of two of these distributed senses—temperature and mechanical stimulation.
今年的諾貝爾生理學或醫學獎授予了溫度和機械刺激這兩種分布式感官的分子機制的發現者。
The winners were David Julius of the University of California, San Francisco and Ardem Patapoutian of Scripps Research, a biomedical institute in San Diego.
獲獎者是加州大學舊金山分校的戴維·朱利葉斯（David Julius）和圣地亞哥斯克里普斯生物醫學研究所的阿代姆·帕塔博蒂安（Ardem Patapoutian）。
Dr Julius did the pioneering work on temperature. He and Dr Patapoutian, acting independently, then advanced this work. After that, Dr Patapoutian moved on to look at mechanical stimulation.
朱利葉斯博士在溫度方面做了開創性的工作。他和帕塔博蒂安博士各自獨立地推進了這項工作。 在那之后，帕塔博蒂安博士繼續研究機械刺激方面的內容。
Dr Julius’s chosen tool for his investigation, which he began in the late 1990s, was capsaicin. This is the active ingredient of chilli peppers.
朱利葉斯博士20世紀90年代末開始了他的研究，他選擇的工具是辣椒素，是辣椒的一種活性成分。
By a chemical coincidence (as was then assumed and is now known) capsaicin reacts with, and thus stimulates, one of the body’s heat-receptor proteins.
由于化學上的巧合（當時是假設，現在已經知道了），辣椒素與人體的一種熱感受器蛋白發生反應，從而刺激人體。
Dr Julius set out to discover what this protein was. To do so he made millions of fragments of genetic material for proteins known to be active in heat-receptor cells.
朱利葉斯博士開始著手研究這種蛋白質是什么。為了做到這一點，他制造了數以百萬計的遺傳物質片段，用于已知的熱感受器細胞中活躍的蛋白質。
He then introduced these fragments into other cells, to encourage them to manufacture the relevant protein fragments. That done, he tested the modified cells for sensitivity to capsaicin.
然后，他將這些片段引入其他細胞，以刺激它們制造相關的蛋白質片段。完成后，他測試了轉基因細胞對辣椒素的敏感性。
The fragments which induced capsaicin sensitivity turned out to be parts of a protein now called TRPV1. This belongs to a class of proteins called ion channels, which do many jobs in the body.
引起辣椒素敏感性的片段原來是一種叫做TRPV1的蛋白質的一部分。這屬于一種叫做離子通道的蛋白質，它在體內有很多作用。
As predicted, TRPV1 turned out to be heat sensitive. When the temperature rises above 43°C, the channel through it opens, permitting ions of calcium and sodium to pass.
正如預測的那樣，TRPV1是熱敏的。當溫度上升到43°C以上時，通道打開，允許鈣離子和鈉離子通過。
That chemical signal stimulates a nerve impulse which tells the brain about the temperature change.
這種化學信號會刺激神經沖動，從而告訴大腦溫度的變化。
TRPV1 turned out to be one of several temperature-sensitive ion channels, some of which register heat, and some cold. It was one of the cold-sensitive varieties, TRPM8, which was discovered simultaneously by Dr Julius and Dr Patapoutian.
TRPV1是幾種對溫度敏感的離子通道之一，其中一些記錄熱量，一些記錄寒冷。它是一種對冷敏感的變種，由TRPM8變化得來的，這些是由朱利葉斯和帕塔博蒂安博士同時發現的。
Dr Patapoutian then went on to look at the sensation of touch.
帕塔博蒂安博士接著研究了觸覺。
Molecular biology having advanced in the interim, he was able to work with whole proteins—or, rather, the genes for whole proteins.
在此期間，分子生物學取得了進展，他能夠研究全蛋白，或者更確切地說，全蛋白基因。
He identified 72 proteins, expressed in a mechanically sensitive cell line, that looked like potential touch-sensitive ion channels.
他鑒定了72種蛋白質在機械敏感的細胞系中表達，看起來像潛在的接觸敏感離子通道。
He tested them one at a time, by silencing the genes that encode them and poking the resulting cells. The first 71 silencings had no effect. But the 72nd proved to be of the protein he was looking for. He called that protein PIEZO1.
他通過沉默編碼它們的基因并戳出產生的細胞，一次測試一個。前71次沉默沒有任何效果。 但第72顆被證明是他在尋找的蛋白質。他稱這種蛋白質為PIEZO1蛋白。
In nature, PIEZO1 is found not in sensory neurons, but rather in organs like the bladder where pressure sensitivity is important. But Dr Patapoutian discovered a similar channel, PIEZO2, which is, indeed, found in nerve endings. It is this that is responsible for touch and proprioception.
在自然界中，PIEZO1并不存在于感覺神經元中，而是存在于像膀胱這樣的重要器官中。但帕塔博蒂安博士發現了一個類似的通道，PIEZO2，它確實存在于神經末梢。這就是觸覺和本體感覺的來源。
Fascinating work, then. And important. It is through the senses, and the senses alone, that people are able to perceive the world. But to some the award came as a surprise.
有趣的工作和重要的事，通過感官，而且只能通過感官，人們才能感知世界。 但對一些人來說，這個獎項是出乎意料的。
In a year of covid, they had been expecting the honours to go elsewhere—perhaps to the inventors of mRNA-vaccine technology.
在新冠肺炎爆發的一年，他們一直期待著這個榮譽會落到其他地方——也許會落到mRNA疫苗技術的發明者身上。
Like God, however, the various Nobel-prize committees work in mysterious ways their wonders to perform.
然而，就像上帝一樣，各個諾貝爾獎委員會以神秘的方式創造了他們的奇跡。
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