WEBVTT

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From the time we are born, through our teens and until we are around 20 years old, the human body is steadily growing.
從我們出生開始，經過青少年時期，一直到二十歲左右，人體一直都在穩定成長。

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By the age of 20, hormones have triggered the growth plates to fuse shut, stopping our bones from growing.
到了二十歲，荷爾蒙會促使生長板接合關閉，造成骨骼不再成長。

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That keeps us from getting taller, keeps our feet and our hands from getting bigger.
這種機制讓我們不會持續長高，讓我們的雙腳與雙手不會繼續長大。

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Even the brain is fully developed well into our twenties.
就連大腦也會在我們二十幾歲的時候發展完全。

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We stop growing because certain cells stop growing.
我們停止成長是因為有些細胞停止了成長。

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So, what if you applied that same idea to the fight against cancer?
那麼，如果把這樣的概念用來對抗癌症呢？

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And, what if you were only 14 years old?
而且如果你才十四歲，那會怎麼樣呢？

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My name is Joshua Meier. I'm 18 years old, and my research shows how we can harness the aging process to treat diseases.
我的名字叫喬許亞．邁爾，我今年十八歲。我的研究顯示我們能夠藉著駕馭老化進程而治療疾病。

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Josh has accomplished more in the last four years than many people will in a lifetime.
喬許在過去四年間的成就，比許多人一輩子達到的還多。

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It began his freshman year with an assignment from one of his teachers.
這個成就始於他高一時一位老師所出的作業。

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One of the wonderful things about working with young people, with regard to science, is that they aren't programmed.
在科學方面和年輕人合作很棒的一點是，他們沒有被定型。

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So, when they come up with ideas, they're really, you know, sometimes completely idiotic and sometimes comically so. But, often they are profound.
所以，他們提出點子時，有時候聽起來很愚蠢，有時候還愚蠢得妙，不過，卻也常發人深省。

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And they are profound because you talk about thinking outside the box; they don't know there's a box.
他們的點子會發人深省是因為我們常說跳脫框架思考，但他們卻根本不曉得有框架。

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They not only don't see it; they have no idea that it's there.
他們不只沒看到框架，而是根本不知道框架的存在。

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Josh had an idea. It was outside the box, but he didn't know that.
喬許有個點子。這個點子跳脫了框架，但他不曉得這一點。

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Josh only saw possibility. He was just 14 years old.
喬許只是看見了一項可能性。當時他才十四歲。

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My father and sister are ob-gyns, and they're always talking about their work.
我的爸爸和姐姐都是婦產科醫師，他們總是在談論他們的工作。

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What they tried to get me excited with was cord blood stem cells, how you can take a cell and turn it into any other kind of cell.
他們試圖讓我感興趣的是臍帶血幹細胞，也就是如何把一個細胞變成各種其他種類的細胞。

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I thought that was fascinating. So, I went home and I said, "I'm going to do stem cell research."
我覺得那很吸引人。所以，我回家之後說：「我要做幹細胞研究。」

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So, I start googling them and I see, oh, [there're] problems.
於是我開始用 Google 搜尋引擎找幹細胞的資料，結果發現。喔，有一些問題。

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One of the problems was that they have rapid aging.
其中一個問題是幹細胞的老化速度很快。

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And I started to say, "Hey, why do they age? Why don't we just turn off the molecular properties that cause them to age?"
於是我開始問：「嘿，幹細胞為什麼會老化？我們何不關閉導致它們老化的分子特性就好了？」

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Well, it turns out nobody knows why they are aging.
結果原來沒有人知道幹細胞為什麼會老化。

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So, I'm like, "OK, let's try and understand. Let's try and look at different theories."
於是我心想：「好，我們來試著瞭解，試著看看各種不同理論。」

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He came up with the idea and Dr. P. said, "That's not gonna work."
他想出了這個點子，結果佩戈利基博士說：「那是行不通的。」

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And he did it anyway and he wrote out his hypothesis.
但他還是做了研究，寫了他的假設。

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And he did not get a good grade on the first trial but he pursued, because Josh is very adamant in pursuing everything that he wants to do.
他的第一次嘗試沒有得到好成績，但他還是繼續努力，因為喬許對於自己想做的事情是非常堅持的。

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At school, Josh was able to work in the lab on his research.
在學校，喬許得以在實驗室裡從事他的研究。

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His hypothesis about aging and stem cells was correct.
他對於老化與幹細胞所提出的假設是正確的。

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When an adult stem cell's created, it loses a third of its mitochondria.
成體幹細胞形成的時候，會喪失三分之一的粒線體，

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That's the part of a cell that converts food to energy. It also contains DNA.
細胞的這個部分能夠將食物轉化為能量，而且也含有 DNA。

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Losing the DNA weakens the stem cell and causes it to age rapidly.
喪失這種 DNA 會削弱幹細胞，導致幹細胞迅速老化。

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Josh focused on controlling the amount of DNA deletions in the cell and was able to slow or even stop the cells from aging.
喬許把焦點集中在控制細胞內 DNA 斷損的數量，結果得以減緩或甚至阻止細胞老化。

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And with it he had another idea -- if you could stop the aging of stem cells, could you force other types of cells to age, like cancer cells?
由此，他又想出另一個點子——如果能夠阻止幹細胞老化，那麼是不是也能夠強迫其他種類的細胞老化，例如癌細胞？

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While some people don't like aging, I started thinking about how we could use it for good reasons.
雖然有些人不喜歡老化，我卻開始思考我們如何能夠善用老化。

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So, for instance, cancer is a disease where cells keep growing and growing and growing.
所以，舉例來說，癌症是一種細胞不斷成長、增生、擴大的疾病。

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But, if we could age cancer and stop its growth, then that's a potential treatment.
可是我們如果能夠讓癌細胞老化，阻止其生長，那麼這就有可能是一種治療癌症的方法。

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Josh has successfully aged cancer cells in a petri dish. The next step will be testing his process in animals.
喬許成功在培養皿上促使癌細胞老化，下一步將是在動物身上試驗這種程序。

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His work has won him awards and accolades from around the world.
他的研究得了獎，也獲得來自世界各地的讚譽。

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It's hard work with long hours in the lab, not your typical high school experience.
這是長時間待在實驗室裡辛苦工作的成果，並不是一般典型的高中校園經驗。

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He's very involved in all these things and he's very happy in what he's doing. He's working very hard.
他非常投入這些事情，對於自己做的事也非常樂在其中。他很努力。

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He sleeps, like, two hours a night, but he never complains. And he's doing all these things, and that's what he enjoys.
他一晚差不多只睡兩個小時，也從不埋怨。他做著這一切，而且樂在其中。

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Science and medicine are both fun and useful.
科學與醫學都很有趣而且有用。

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It's really great just to go in and learn new things and to ask your own questions, and to learn things that nobody else knew about.
能夠進入這些領域學習新事物、提出你自己的問題實在是很棒，還有學習別人不知道的東西。

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But I always come home at night and [say] that it's not just that I had a good time with my friends, but that I also have produced something that can help people.
不過，我晚上回家之後總是說，我不只和朋友玩得很開心，而且還做出對人有益的東西。