疾病叙事阅读:“小人国”里的“大发现”——链霉素的故事

Illness Narrative Reading:The Tale of the Discovery of Streptomycin in A Kingdom of Tiny Microorganisms

介绍了链霉素在发现进程中两位重要贡献者的艰辛探索与恩怨纠缠。被称为“白色瘟疫”的结核杆菌对人类的笼罩一直持续到20世纪40年代,直到瓦克斯曼与他的学生萨兹成功从亿万微生物“小人国”里分离出“大发现”链霉素,这场浩劫得以控制。瓦克斯曼实验室通过十年的“大海捞针”开发出一系列分离测试方法,学生萨兹历经一年多在“幽闭地下室”日复一日反复分离获取产生抗生素的菌株,终于发现了具有灭杀结核杆菌的“灰色链霉菌”并成功提炼出链霉素,自此链霉素投产获得巨大成功,而之后师徒之间的诺贝尔奖纠葛也随之产生,科研之路漫漫,不仅需要科学家们的坚忍与创新,也需要寻求合作与共赢。

This paper introduces the arduous exploration and enmity of two important contributors in the process of discovery of streptomycin.The"white plague"of tuberculosis continued plaguing humans until 1940s,when Waksman and his student Saze successfully isolated the"great discovery"streptomycin from billions of microbes known as"Lilliputians".Waksman's lab developed a series of isolation tests over a decade of needle-in-a-haystack work,and student Saze spent more than a year in a pent-up basement day after day,isolating strains of antibiotics,after the discovery of Streptomyces Griseus,a bacterium that kills tuberculosis,and the successful extraction of Streptomycin.Unfortunately,the Nobel Prize dispute between master and apprentice was born after the great discovery.The long road of scientific research requires not only the perseverance and innovation of scientists,but also cooperation and win-win.