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I found this passion not far from here, actually, when I was nine years old. My family was on a road trip and we were in the Grand Canyon.
事实上，我找到热情的地方离这儿并不远，那年我九岁，我们全家一起自驾游到美国大峡谷。
And I had never been a reader when I was young -- my dad had tried me with the Hardy Boys; I tried Nancy Drew; I tried all that -- and I just didn't like reading books.
在那之前我一直都不喜欢阅读，爸爸曾让我试着读一下哈迪男孩，我自己也试着读过南希·朱尔，我全都试过了，但我就是不喜欢读书。
And my mother bought this book when we were at the Grand Canyon called "The Hot Zone." It was all about the outbreak of the Ebola virus.
在大峡谷时我母亲买了一本书给我，叫做”高危地带“，讲的是埃博拉病毒的爆发。
And something about it just kind of drew me towards it. There was this big sort of bumpy-looking virus on the cover, and I just wanted to read it.
我被其中的某些部分吸引住了，书的封面是一张表面崎岖不平的病毒的图片，我突然有了阅读它的欲望，
I picked up that book, and as we drove from the edge of the Grand Canyon to Big Sur, and to, actually, here where we are today, in Monterey, I read that book,
我拿起了这本书，接下来的旅途中，从大峡谷边缘到大瑟尔，再到我们今天所在的蒙特雷，我一直在读这本书，
and from when I was reading that book, I knew that I wanted to have a life in medicine.
从那时起，我就知道我要把医学作为我一生的追求。
I wanted to be like the explorers I'd read about in the book, who went into the jungles of Africa, went into the research labs and just tried to figure out what this deadly virus was.
我想要像书中的探险家一样，深入非洲的丛林，走进实验室，试着搞清楚，这种致命的病毒到底是什么，
So from that moment on, I read every medical book I could get my hands on, and I just loved it so much. I was a passive observer of the medical world.
从那开始，我读遍了所有我可以找到的医学书籍，并且深深沉迷于此，在医学的世界里，我是个被动的学习者。
It wasn't until I entered high school that I thought, "Maybe now, you know -- being a big high school kid -- I can maybe become an active part of this big medical world."
一直到了高中，我才想到 ”我已经是高中生了，或许从现在开始，我可以动手做点儿什么了” 。
And I was 14, and I emailed professors at the local university to see if maybe I could go work in their lab. And hardly anyone responded.
那时我14岁，我给当地大学的教授发了很多封邮件，看看有没有可能在他们的实验室里工作，几乎没有人给我答复。
But I mean, why would they respond to a 14-year-old, anyway? And I got to go talk to one professor, Dr. Jacobs, who accepted me into the lab.
但是，他们也没有理由理会一个14岁的小丫头片子，对吧？然后我找到雅各布斯教授，跟他谈了谈，他同意我进实验室。
At that time, I was really interested in neuroscience and wanted to do a research project in neurology -- specifically looking at the effects of heavy metals on the developing nervous system.
那时，我对神经科学很有兴趣，希望能研究一项有关神经病学的课题，尤其是研究重金属对发育中的神经系统的影响。
So I started that, and worked in his lab for a year, and found the results that I guess you'd expect to find when you feed fruit flies heavy metals--
我花了一年的时间去研究，最后得到了大家都能想到的结果，如果给果蝇的食物中加入重金属——
that it really, really impaired the nervous system.
将会导致很严重的神经系统损伤。
The spinal cord had breaks. The neurons were crossing in every which way. And from then I wanted to look not at impairment, but at prevention of impairment.
脊髓会折断，神经元也会随意交叉，从那时起我就把重点转移到了该如何预防损伤上面。
