作者 Donella H. Meadows 03.20.00

　　當美國總統柯林頓與英國首相湯尼布萊爾，在上週要求生物科技公司公開他們有關人類基因的資料之後，生物科技股股價急落直下。

　　私人公司正進行瘋狂的競技，研究著「你之所以為你」與「我之所以為我」的基因密碼，並以這些拆解後的密碼申請專利。他們試圖打擊超越政府資助的實驗室，這些實驗室獲得經費的條件是必須發表他們所發現的基因序列。Celera Genomics是一家由製藥公司所贊助的生物科技公司，該公司與其投資人的協定是他們會比其他所有人都更早知道這些密碼。

　　如果私人投資者對那些坐落在你身體裡每個細胞的東西可以申請專利、保有秘密、並加以販賣讓你震驚，你就更該徹底地注意這種新興的、令人極度訝異的生物科技產業。我才剛剛花了幾週的時間，和我的學生們一同聽生物科技熱衷者、評論者，以及許多介於這兩者之間的人們的演說。我想告訴你們三個特別的時刻，通通令人瞠目結舌的寧靜片段。

　　第一個發生於我們聽一位來自美國農業部的生態學家演講時。這位生態學家是農業部審查小組的一員，負責基因工程作物的核准工作。在目前等候判定的71種作物中，有一種是嵌入了一個蠍毒基因。把這個基因接合到植物中，則從土撥鼠到昆蟲，所有啃植物葉片的東西通通會死掉。當然，食用這些植物的人也會死，所以還需要有一套基因來開關這個蝎毒基因　-　在根、葉與莖開啟這個基因，在花與果實處關閉。

　　學生們問道，當根與葉在土讓中分解時，這些毒素會怎樣呢?如果這個關閉的基因並沒有正確地作用時，會發生什麼事呢?難道我們必須檢查每顆果實或穀粒是否含有蠍毒嗎?

　　「不知道」，生物學家說。

　　眾人一片沉默。

　　第二個沉默時刻發生在一位基因學家描述一種新的稻米品種時。這種稻米被嵌入一個能使植物生產並儲存貝塔胡蘿蔔素的基因，貝塔胡蘿蔔素是一種黃色色素，能使我們的身體產生維他命A。亞州地區有數千名貧窮的兒童，除了米以外幾乎沒有其他的東西可吃，他們會因缺乏維他命A而失明或死亡。這種「黃金稻米」可望能解決這個問題。

　　一隻手舉了起來，有個學生問道，「為何不直接把貝塔 - 胡蘿蔔素基因轉殖到兒童的身體裡呢?」

　　一片寂靜。最後，另一位來訪的專家終於說話了，「五年之內就有可能。栓緊你的安全帶。」

　　眾人更沉默了。我猜想每個人的心都和我一樣急速地跳。我正在想像金黃色的兒童會是什麼樣子。然後我想到，為何我們不把葉綠素基因轉殖到人的體內，並把孩子們送到陽光底下，讓他們自己行光合作用來製造午餐呢?黃金-綠色的兒童。

　　第三個沉默時刻發生在我為學生們播放一部名為「三位一體後的隔天」的紀錄片時。這部片子說的是原子彈發明人歐本海默（J. Robert Oppenheimer）的故事，透過與一些曾在第二次世界大戰期間和他在洛郡共事的優秀科學家們的訪談，來敘述他的事蹟。

　　發明原子彈的動機相當具有說服力　-　阻止希特勒。這個技術令人毛骨悚然，研究成果很驚人。當希特勒在1945年的五月投降時，原子彈幾近完成。

　　希特勒的投降並沒有減緩洛郡研究工作的腳步，有太多刺激興奮的事了。時日已接近七月16日在新墨西哥州的Alamagordo舉行代號「三位一體」（Trinity）的第一次試爆，這些科學家們說，那一天，當他們看到歷史上的第一顆原子彈爆炸時，他們很雀躍。「它真的有用!」

　　一位科學家說，不到一個月之後，當另一顆類似的原子彈在廣島把十萬人炸成灰燼時，他最初那一瞬間的想法是，「感謝上帝，它不是未爆彈。」然而，他接下來想到的卻是，「喔!上帝!我們造了什麼孽?」

　　這部影片以歐本海默在二十年後在華盛頓的作證作為結束。當他被一位參議員問到如何阻止軍備競賽時，歐本海默說，「已經遲了二十年了，我們應該在三位一體的隔天就懸崖勒馬。」

　　我打開燈。學生們只是坐在那兒，動也不動，一句話都說不出來。而我也是。

　　遺傳學家已複製羊、乳牛、老鼠與豬，他們能從所有的生物中揀出牠們獨有的特色，並把它轉貼到另一種生物裡去，且即將能任意使這個基因表現或隱藏。我們已種植了數千萬公頃的基因轉殖植物，我們可以從商品目錄中訂購基因。在短短數年內，我們甚至連自己的基因都將能夠讀取，伸到裡面去並對它們修修補補。駭客的出現只是時間早晚的問題，他們只會想到修來改去很好玩，就如同現在的電腦駭客一樣，他們創造並釋放自己的病毒。

　　股市對此抱著投機的態度。國家領導人們委婉地要求生物科技公司將他們的知識公諸於世，但我們需要的遠甚於此，遠遠超過只是栓緊我們的安全帶後策馬奔馳。我們必須放慢腳步，並對這種科技正往哪裡去?誰該擁有它?誰該做決定?來集思廣義。

　　對於基因學家而言，這仍然是三位一體後的隔天。我們不想也不需要無助地問，「喔!上帝，我們造了什麼孽?」

　　Donella H.Meadows是永續發展研究所的所長，也是達特茅斯學院環境研究的副教授。

全文與圖片詳見: http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/
citizen/citizen032000.stm

版權歸屬　Environment News Service (ENS)，環境信託協會 (謝洵怡　譯，李欣哲審校)

中英對照全文詳見：http://news.ngo.org.tw/reviewer/
donella/re-donella20000320.htm

by Donella H. Meadows 
03.20.00

Biotech stocks plummeted last week as President Clinton and British Prime Minister Tony Blair requested that companies make their data on the human genome public.

Private firms are racing madly to read and patent the genetic code that makes you you and me me. They are trying to beat publicly funded labs, which are required as a condition of their grants to publish the gene sequences they unravel. One company, Celera Genomics, is funded by drug companies with the understanding that the funders will see the code before anyone else does.

If it strikes you as alarming that private investors can patent, keep secret, and sell something that sits within every cell of your body, you ought to pay much closer attention to the new, jaw-dropping biotech industry. I have just spent several weeks with my students listening to biotech enthusiasts, critics, and a lot of folks in between. There were three particular moments I'd like to tell you about, all of them moments of stunned silence.

The first came when we heard from an ecologist who sits on a USDA panel that approves the release of genetically engineered crop plants. Of the 71 applications currently pending, one is for the implantation of the gene by which scorpions make their toxin. Splice that gene into a plant, and anything that nibbles on a leaf, from woodchucks to bugs, falls down dead. Of course people who eat the plant fall down dead too, so there must also be a package of genes to turn the scorpion gene on and off. Turn it on in the roots and leaves and stems, turn it off in the flower and fruit.

But what happens to the poison, the students asked, when roots or leaves decompose in the soil? What happens if the turn-off gene doesn't work infallibly? Would we have to check every fruit or grain for traces of scorpion poison?

"Don't know," said the ecologist.

Silence.

The second moment came when a geneticist described a new rice with a pasted-in gene that allows the plant to make and store beta-carotene, the yellow pigment from which our bodies make vitamin A. Thousands of poor children in Asia, who eat little but rice, go blind or die for lack of vitamin A. The "golden rice" could solve that problem.

A hand went up, and one of the students asked, "Why not just splice the beta-carotene gene into the child?"

Silence. Finally another visiting expert said, "Within five years that could be possible. Fasten your seat belts."

More silence. I guess everyone's mind was racing as mine was. I was picturing golden children. Then I thought, why not splice in the gene for chlorophyll while we're at it, and just send the kids out in the sun to photosynthesize their lunch? Gold-green children.

Moment number three came when I showed the students a documentary called The Day After Trinity. It's the story of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the developer of the atomic bomb, told through interviews with some of the great physicists who worked with him at Los Alamos during the Second World War.

The cause was compelling: to stop Hitler. The science was thrilling. The effort was tremendous. The bomb was nearing completion when Hitler surrendered in May, 1945.

That surrender did not cause any slowdown in the work at Los Alamos. There was too much excitement. It was nearly time for the first test, called Trinity, which took place at Alamagordo, N.M., on July 16. The scientists said that on that day, as they watched the first atom bomb explosion in history, their reaction was joyous. "It worked!"

Less than a month later, when a similar bomb incinerated 100,000 people at Hiroshima, one scientist said his first thought was, "Thank goodness it wasn't a dud." His second thought was, "Oh my God, what have we done?"

The film ends with Oppenheimer testifying in Washington two decades later. When asked by a senator how to contain the nuclear arms race, Oppenheimer answered, "It's 20 years too late. We should have done it the day after Trinity."

I turned on the lights. The students just sat there. Didn't move. Didn't say a word. I couldn't either.

Geneticists are already cloning sheep and cows and mice and pigs. They can pick out a trait from almost any creature and paste it into any other, and they are on the verge of being able to turn a gene on or off at will. We already plant gene-spliced crops on tens of millions of acres. We can order genes from catalogs. Within a few years we will be able to read the code for our very selves and reach in and tinker with it. It is only a matter of time before hackers appear who think it might be fun, as computer hackers do, to create and release their own viruses.

The stock market is speculating on this stuff. National leaders ask companies, politely, to make their knowledge available to all. We need to do much more than that, more than just fasten our seatbelts and go along for the ride. We need to slow down and think together about where this technology is going and who should own it and who should make these decisions.

For genomics it is still the day after Trinity. We don't want or need to have to ask, helplessly, "Oh my God, what have we done?"

Donella H. Meadows is director of the Sustainability Institute and an adjunct professor of environmental studies at Dartmouth College.