Welcome to Life Noggin! Getting sick is the absolute worst, but it's just a part of being, well, alive.

歡迎來到 Life Noggin！ 生病絕對是最糟糕的事，但這只是活著的，呃...一部分。

On Earth, every living organism has at least one virus that can infect it, from plants and animals to bacteria and single-celled archaea. But what about non-living things?

在地球上，從動植物到細菌和單細胞古細胞，每種生物都至少可以被一種病毒感染。 那，那些非生物呢？

You've probably heard that viruses aren't technically alive, so can a virus catch another virus? Before we get into the nitty-gritty, I wanted to thank LastPass who sponsored this video.

你可能聽說過，病毒嚴格來說是沒有生命的，那麼病毒會感染另一種病毒嗎？ 在我們深入探討這個問題之前，我要感謝贊助這部影片的 LastPass。

LastPass eliminates the struggle of having to look for all your passwords, and relieves the anxiety around getting locked out of your accounts.

有了 LastPass，你就不必再為尋找你所有的密碼而苦惱，也不必再因帳號被鎖而焦慮。

Because LastPass is your own personal password manager and remembers everything for you, you'll no longer need to write or reset your password.

因為 LastPass 是你的個人密碼管理器，會為你記住一切，所以你不再需要填入或重置密碼了。

And don't worry, all your passwords are encrypted, so only you can see them. LastPass will even autofill passwords automatically when visiting Android or iOS apps and mobile sites.

別擔心，你的所有密碼都會經過加密，只有你自己才能看到。 在使用 Android 或 iOS 應用程序和網站時，LastPass 甚至會自動幫你填入密碼。

So logging in is seamless, and you can get to the things you love quicker.

所以有了登入無縫接軌的功能後，您可以更快的去處理自己喜歡做的事了。

Since downloading LastPass, I've had so much extra time to focus on the things that actually matter, like beating all my friends at trivia games.

自從下載了 LastPass，我就有更多的時間專注於真正重要的事情，比如在益智遊戲中打敗我所有的朋友。

LastPass lets you keep track of all your passwords easily, so you can stay stress-free.

LastPass 可讓你輕鬆追蹤所有密碼，讓你毫無壓力。

Put your passwords on autopilot with LastPass.

使用 LastPass來自動管理你的密碼。

Click the link below to find out more and try LastPass today.

點擊下面的連結瞭解更多資訊，現在就試試 LastPass吧！

And now, back to the episode. So, can a virus catch another virus?

現在，言歸正傳。所以病毒到底會感染另一種病毒嗎？

Well, until recently, the answer was no.

說實話，直到最近的答案還是「不會」。

Viruses are simple, submicroscopic parasites, a hundred times smaller than bacteria.

病毒是一種簡單的亞顯微寄生蟲，比細菌小一百倍。

Without a metabolism or proteins for transcription and replication, they're little more than zombies borrowing life from other creatures. So if viruses can't even keep themselves alive, how can they sustain another?

它們不會新陳代謝，也沒有能用於轉錄和複製的蛋白質，它們只不過是寄生在其他生物上的殭屍。那麼，如果病毒連自己都無法維持生命，又如何維持其他生物的生命呢？

Nature, it seems, is always surprising us.

大自然似乎總是給我們帶來驚喜。

In the early 2000s, scientists discovered an exceptional virus that altered our understanding of life itself.

在2000年初期，科學家發現了一種特殊的病毒，它改變了我們對病毒的認識。

At first, experts assumed it was bacteria.

起初，專家們以為它是一種細菌。

But what they actually found was a giant virus, so large that it could be glimpsed with a simple microscope. Inside, the virus had many more genes than normal, encoding for proteins, metabolic pathways, even replication machinery.

但實際上，他們發現的是一種巨大的病毒，其體積之大，用簡單的顯微鏡就能窺見一斑。 病毒內部的基因比正常的多得多，可以編碼蛋白質、代謝途徑，甚至能做出複製的行為。

Experts named it the mimivirus, short for mimicking microbe.

專家們將其命名為「擬菌病毒」，即「模仿細菌的病毒」之簡稱。

And soon, they began to find others just like it.

很快，他們開始發現其他類似的情況。

That's when things got really meta.

這時候，事情才變得真正神奇了起來。

Because while the mimivirus was a surprise, the discovery of its relative, the so-called mamavirus, was a bombshell.

雖然擬菌病毒的發現是個驚喜，但它的近親--所謂的媽媽病毒的發現卻是一個重磅炸彈。

Slightly larger than the mimi, the mamavirus turned out to be hiding an itsy-bitsy virus of its own. With just 21 genes, this little fella named Sputnik is the first example of a virus infecting a virus infecting an amoeba.

比擬菌病毒稍大一點的媽媽病毒原來隱藏著一個自己的小病毒。 這個名叫 ｢斯普特尼克」的小傢伙只有 21 個基因，是第一個病毒感染了變形蟲的例子。

Since then, dozens of other virophages have been found.

此後，又發現了幾十種其他的病毒體。

And while there's still a lot we don't know about this madness, the basics are familiar.

雖然我們對這種瘋狂的病毒還有很多不瞭解的地方，但本質還是有些類似的。

After infecting its first host, Sputnik releases its DNA into the amoeba.

在感染第一個宿主後，斯普特尼克病毒將其 DNA 釋放到變形蟲體內。

Unable to reproduce on its own, it then attaches to an already-present mamavirus, injecting its genetic material into that second host, too.

由於無法獨立繁殖，它隨後會附著在存在的媽媽病毒上，將其遺傳物質也注入第二個宿主體內。

Once inside, this foreign DNA hijacks the host's viral factory so it can begin to replicate, ultimately making it harder for the mamavirus to do the same.

一旦進入宿主體內，這些外來 DNA 就會劫持宿主製造病毒的工廠，從而開始複製，最終使媽媽病毒更難複製了。

It's David and Goliath on a minuscule scale. Today, we know virophages can infect both mama and mimiviruses, as well as plenty of others.

這是迷你版的《大衛王》。 如今我們已經知道病毒體可以感染媽媽病毒和擬態病毒等。

As such, some consider them viral parasites, representing a whole new class of virus, while others think that they are too basic to be called even that.

有些人認為它們是病毒寄生蟲，代表了一種全新的病毒類別，而另一些人則認為它們並不足以用這個名字稱呼。

Whatever they are, they're probably important, and we keep learning more and more about virophages and giant viruses. In fact, just last year, a paper was published stating that some giant viruses, called pandoraviruses, are so large they can encode thousands of proteins, 90% of which are not seen anywhere else on Earth.

不管它們是什麼，它們都可能很重要，我們對病毒體和巨型病毒的瞭解也越來越多。 事實上，就在去年，有一篇論文指出，一些被稱為潘多拉病毒的巨型病毒體型龐大，可以編碼數千種蛋白質，其中 90% 的蛋白質在地球上其他任何地方都看不到。

Plus, not only do giant viruses appear to create genes, they also appear to steal them.

此外，巨型病毒不僅能創造基因，還能竊取基因。

Sputnik and other virophages have remarkably similar genes to their hosts, which has experts wondering if these giant viruses are defending themselves by stealing genetic material from their viral parasites. All that is still up for debate, but the idea that viruses can create and transfer genes does fit well with another theory.

斯普特尼克病毒和其他病毒噬菌體的基因與其宿主極為相似，這讓專家們懷疑這些巨型病毒是否在通過竊取病毒寄生蟲的遺傳物質來保護自己。 所有這些都還有待商榷，但病毒可以創造和轉移基因的觀點確實與另一種理論不謀而合。

More than a billion years ago, a giant DNA-based virus is thought to have infected a budding eukaryotic cell, somehow creating the first cell nucleus.

十多億年前，一種巨大的 DNA 病毒被認為感染了一個萌芽中的真核細胞，以某種方式創造了第一個細胞核。

Like I said, nature is full of surprises.

正如我所說，大自然充滿驚喜。

Sometimes they're scary surprises, but still. So are there any questions about the body that you have for us?

有時它們是可怕的驚喜，但仍然如此。 你有什麼關於身體的疑問想要我們為你解答嗎？

Let me know now in the comment section below and your question could become a future video! As always, my name is Blocko, this has been Life Noggin, don't forget to keep on thinking!

現在就在下面的留言區告訴我，你的問題可能會成為未來影片的主題！老樣子，我的名字叫 Blocko，這裡是 Life Noggin，別忘記繼續思考！