未来食品或取自人体DNA

　　Reports said last week that researchers could be just six months away from producing the world’s first artificial meat, using thousands of stem cells bred in a laboratory. Yet there is an even more ghoulish prospect ahead: the idea of eating artificial food made from humans.

　　据英国《每日电讯报》9月6日报道，上周，有报道称，再过6个月，研究人员就可以利用从实验室里培育出的数以千计的干细胞来制造世界上第一块人造肉了。但是，眼前这项技术的发展更令人毛骨悚然，即食用来自人体的人造食品。

　　This may sound like science fiction, yet a new technique for making gelatin from human DNA is attracting increasing interest from research and industrial circles.

　　听起来或许像科幻小说中的场景，然而这项利用人体DNA中制造胶制品的新科技正吸引着越来越多研究界和工业界人士的关注。

　　According to a new study by scientists from the Beijing University of Chemical Technology，they have inserted human genes into a strain of yeast to “grow” large amounts of recombinant human gelatin.

　　由北京大学化学工艺学院的科学家进行的一项新研究显示，他们已经将人体基因导入一种酵母中，使其生产出大量重组的人类明胶。

　　Gelatin has a long history of use as a gelling agent by the food industry. It is said human-derived gelatin could become a substitute for some of the 300,000 tons of animal-based gelatin produced annually for desserts, marshmallows, candy and innumerable other products.

　　在食品工业中，明胶作为一种胶凝剂被使用已经有很多年了。据说，由人体制造出的明胶能够代替部分取自动物的、年产量为30万吨的明胶。这些动物胶用于制作甜品、棉花糖、糖果以及其他形形色色的产品。