尖端技术恐落入黑手
It sounds like science fiction: A research program funded by the U.S. government plans to create virus-carrying insects that, released in vast numbers, could help crops fight threats such as pests, drought, or pollution.
这听起来有点像科幻小说：一个由美国政府资助的研究项目计划要创建出携带病毒的昆虫，当它们被大量投放猴，可以帮助作物战胜很多威胁，例如虫害，旱灾还有污染。
“Insect Allies,” as the $45 million, 4-year program is called, was launched in 2016 with little fanfare.
这个价值四千五百万美元，长达四年的项目被叫作“昆虫盟友”，于2016年的时候低调开启了。
But in a policy forum in this week’s issue of Science, five European researchers paint a far bleaker scenario.
但在本周出版的《科学》(Science)杂志上的一个政策论坛上，五名欧洲研究人员描绘出了一个更为黯淡的场景。
If successful, the technique could be used by malicious actors to help spread diseases to almost any crop species and devastate harvests, they say.
如果成功的话，这项技术可以被反派们用来把疾病传播到几乎每一种作物上，然后使之颗粒无收，他们说。
The research may be a breach of the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC), the piece argues.
这篇文章认为，这项研究可能违反了《生物武器公约》(BWC)。
The paper is likely to touch off another round in the long-running debate about “dual-use research of concern,” scientific work that may have benefits but could also be used for nefarious means.
这篇论文很可能引发另一场关于“双重用途研究”的长期争论。“双重用途研究”是指一项科学工作，可能有好处，但也可能被用于邪恶的手段。
Other recent examples of such science include the creation of a flu mutant better able to spread in mammals and the synthetic creation of the extinct horsepox virus, a cousin of the virus that causes smallpox.
这种科学研究最近的其他例子包括创造出一种更能在哺乳动物中传播的流感突变体，以及合成出一种已灭绝的马痘病毒，这种病毒是导致天花的病毒的近亲。
Funded by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in Arlington, Virginia, Insect Allies aims to use insects such as aphids or whiteflies to infect crops with tailormade viruses that can deliver certain genes to mature plants; it’s essentially gene therapy for crops.
由位于弗吉尼亚州阿灵顿的美国国防高级研究计划局(DARPA)资助，昆虫联盟的目标是利用昆虫，比如蚜虫或者白蝇，带上量身定制的病毒来感染作物，这项病毒可以将特定的基因传送给成熟的植物；基本上说，它算是作物的基因治疗。
The goal, DARPA says, is to find a new way to protect plants growing in the field from emerging threats.
DARPA称，目标是为了找到一种新方法来保护田地中生长的作物免受灾情威胁。
The approach would be faster and more flexible than developing new crop varieties in the laboratory, which can take years, says Blake Bextine, who manages the project at DARPA.
这种方法比在实验室中研制新的作物变种要更快捷，更灵活，研制新作物要花费多年时间，布雷克.贝克斯顿说道，他在DARPA是这个项目的负责人。
The research is carried out by groups at Pennsylvania State University (Penn State) in University Park, The Ohio State University in Columbus, the University of Texas in Austin, and the Boyce Thompson Institute in Ithaca, New York.
这个项目由宾夕法尼亚州立大学(Penn State University)、俄亥俄州立大学(Ohio State University)、德克萨斯大学(University of Texas)和纽约伊萨卡(Ithaca)的博伊斯·汤普森学院(Boyce Thompson Institute)的研究小组联合进行研究。
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