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Quantum biology is looking for and studying quantum phenomena, quantum effects inside living cells.
量子生物学正在寻找和研究量子现象，活细胞内的量子效应。
On the one hand, physicists don't like applying their laws of physics and quantum mechanics inside living systems because biology's hard, it's complicated, it's messy.
一方面，物理学家不喜欢把物理和量子力学定律应用在生命系统中，因为生物学很难，很复杂，很混乱。
It's hard enough trying to find quantum effects in a sterile physics lab.
在一个无菌的物理实验室里寻找量子效应已经够难的了。
How does that sort of quantum behavior survive inside the noisy, messy, complex environment of a living system?
这种量子行为是如何在嘈杂、混乱、复杂的生命系统环境中生存下来的？
So physicists think, "No, that's too complicated for us."
物理学家会觉得，“不，这对我们来说太复杂了。”
Biologists don't want to think about quantum mechanics because, by and large, they don't understand the mathematics of quantum mechanics,
生物学家不想考虑量子力学，因为总的来说，他们不了解量子力学的数学，
and to be fair, molecular biology and genetics have progressed very well thank you very much, without any help from quantum mechanics.
而且说句公道话，分子生物学和遗传学在没有任何量子力学帮助的情况下，取得了非常好的进展。
In the middle between the physicists and the biologists, are the chemists who say, "Well, of course, once you get down to the level of molecules, you're going to hit the quantum realm at some point.
介于物理学家和生物学家之间的是化学家，他们认为：“当然，一旦你深入到分子水平，就会在某一刻接触到量子领域。
So you shouldn't be surprised that there must be some quantum effects.
所以，即便真的有一些量子效应，也没什么好惊讶的。
Don't go inventing new fields of science just to make it sound sexy somehow."
不要为了让它听起来很诱人，就去发明新的科学领域。”
There may be quantum effects going on, but that doesn't play a functional role.
量子效应可能是存在的，但它并没有起到作用。
You don't need that to explain how an enzyme catalyzes a particular chemical reaction or how bacteria photosynthesizes light and turns it into chemical energy; that's all biochemistry and it's all understood.
你不需要用它去解释酶是如何催化特定的化学反应的，或者细菌是如何让光进行光合作用并将其转化为化学能的；这些都属于生物化学，也都是众所周知的。
My counterargument to that is that it may well be that there are quantum effects, for example, quantum tunneling, when a particle can jump from A to B in a way that's forbidden in our everyday world, but which is very familiar to us in physics and chemistry; that may well play a very fundamental role in certain biochemical processes.
我的反驳是，如果一个粒子能以我们在日常生活中无法做到的方式，从A跳到B，但这种方式在物理和化学中又很常见，那么很可能是存在量子效应的，比如量子隧道效应；这很可能在某些生化过程中发挥着非常重要的作用。
For example, whether mutations can take place in DNA because a single proton, a hydrogen atom, has jumped from one strand of DNA to the other in a way that it wouldn't do if we didn't use the rules of quantum mechanics.
例如，如果一个质子，一个氢原子以一种如果我们不使用量子力学规则就不会发生的方式，从DNA的一条链跳到另一条链上，DNA是否会发生突变。
Now, this could happen if it's given enough energy by, say, the surrounding water molecules that can nudge it over.
如果周围的水分子给了它足够的能量，这种情况就可能发生，这些水分子会促使它这么做。
But it can also quantum tunnel across, which means it can jump even though it doesn't have enough energy to get over the energy barrier.
但它也可以通过量子隧道穿越，也就是说即使它没有足够的能量去越过能量屏障，它也可以跳跃。
They can quantum tunnel through the hill, like a phantom walking through a brick wall.
他们可以通过量子隧道穿过山丘，就像幽灵穿过砖墙一样。
Now, mutations are necessary for life, otherwise there will be no change.
突变对生命而言是必需的，否则一切都会一成不变。
Given the current progress we're making in genetics, gene editing, in being able to manipulate the building blocks of life down at the molecular scale, if quantum tunneling plays an important part, might it be possible to inhibit certain mutations by inhibiting the ability of particles to quantum tunnel?
鉴于我们目前在遗传学、基因编辑、在分子的层面操纵生命的基石方面取得的进展，如果量子隧道发挥重要作用，那我们是否有可能通过抑制粒子的量子隧道能力来抑制某些突变呢？
That would suggest that quantum mechanics plays a role in the entire evolution of life on this planet.
这将说明量子力学在这个星球上所有的生命进化中都起到了作用。
And that might have huge implications for our health.
而这可能对我们的健康产生巨大的影响。
