Chronobiology
时间生物学
Time and chance
时间与机遇 （陈继龙 译）
Mar 15th 2007
From The Economist print edition
How well you can think at night may be determined by your genes
夜间清醒程度可能是由基因决定的
（1）THE idea that people might be chosen or rejected for jobs on the basis of their genes disturbs many. Such discrimination may, however, be a step closer, thanks to work just published in Current Biology by Derk-Jan Dijk and his colleagues at the University of Surrey, in England.
一个人能否找到工作可能决定于其基因，这一观点让很多人不胜其烦。不过，英格兰萨里大学（University of Surrey）的Derk-Jan Dijk及其同事最近发表在《当代生物学》（Current Biology）上的一篇报告却表明，这种“歧视”可能并不离谱。
Dr Dijk studies the biology of time-keeping—in particular of the part of the internal body-clock that sends people to sleep and wakes them up. One of the genes involved in regulating this clock is known as PER3 and comes in two forms. Dr Dijk's work suggests that one of these forms is more conducive[1] to night-shift work than the other.
Dijk研究的是计时（time-keeping）生物学，主攻方向是人体内部使人入睡和醒来的生物钟。PER3是已知与调节生物钟有关的基因之一，包括两种形式。Dijk的研究表明，其中一种PER3对夜班工作更为有益。
The two forms of PER3 translate into two slightly different proteins, one of which is longer than the other. （2）Previous work by this group showed that people with two short versions of the gene (one from each parent) are more likely to be “owls”, preferring to get up late and go to bed late. “Larks[2]”—in other words, early risers, have two long versions.
由这两种PER3转译而成的两种蛋白差异微小，只是其中一种蛋白较长。该研究小组此前的研究显示，拥有两种可转译为短蛋白的基因（分别来自父亲和母亲）的人较可能成为“夜猫子”（即喜欢晚睡晚起），而“百灵鸟”之类的人（即早起的人）则有两种可转译为长蛋白的基因。
Pursuing this line of enquiry, Dr Dijk and his team have been studying how such people respond to sleep deprivation. Two dozen volunteers, some genetic owls and some genetic larks, were forced to stay awake for two days.
按照这一思路，Dijk和他的研究小组对这类人在睡眠缺失时的反应进行了研究。24名志愿者中，在基因上有的属于夜猫子型，有的则属于百灵鸟型，所有人连续两天都不得睡觉。
（3）The genetic larks reacted to this worse than the owls did. In particular, larks given memory tests and puzzles to solve between the hours of four and eight in the morning turned in far worse performances than did owls. Their brain waves, as measured by electroencephalography, also suggested that when they were eventually allowed to sleep, they slept more deeply than owls. (Deep sleep is associated with slow brain waves, and larks spent 50% more time in such slow-wave sleep than owls did.)
结果百灵鸟型的人反应要比夜猫子型的差，特别是在早晨4点至8点间接受记忆和智力测试时，百灵鸟型的表现要远远逊色于夜猫子型。脑电图检测到的脑电波也显示，最后得到允许可以睡觉时，百灵鸟型比夜猫子型睡得更沉。（深度睡眠与慢波有关，百灵鸟型处于慢波睡眠的时间要比夜猫子型多50％以上。）
What implications that may have for employers is not fully clear. As the researchers point out, this was a laboratory study, not one that involved handling the problems of the real world. Nevertheless, it is intriguing. （4）There may yet come a time when employers running night shifts will want a blood sample from prospective employees—if only to protect themselves against negligence suits should someone have an accident.
这对雇主而言有何指导意义尚不完全清楚。研究人员指出，这只是一个实验性研究，并非针对实际生活中的问题。尽管如此，这还是令人感到很好奇。也许有一天，实行夜班制的雇主希望其看中的雇员能够提供一份血液样本——要是有人发生事故，这样就可以保护自己免于因过失而遭起诉。
[QUIZ]
英译汉（请将划线部分英文翻译成中文）：
[NOTES](OXFORD)
1. conducive adj. [pred 作表语] ~ to sth allowing or helping sth to happen 容许或有助於某事物发生; 有益: These noisy conditions aren't really conducive to concentrated work. 这嘈杂的环境实在不利於专心工作.
2. lark n. 1 any of several small songbirds, esp the skylark 百灵科鸣禽; （尤指）云雀. 2 (idm 习语) be/get ,up with the `lark get up early in the morning 早起.
