Name: 如果你的 DNA 突然消失，你能活多久？腹痛、免疫崩潰，可能在幾天內死亡？！(How long would you survive with no DNA?)
Uploaded: 2026-01-24T21:01:20.000Z
Duration: 3 min 16 s

關係子句

"If someone's DNA suddenly vanished, how long would that person last?"

「如果一個人的 DNA 突然消失，那個人能活多久？」

Well, they would instantly be about a third of a pound lighter.

嗯，他的體重會瞬間少大約三分之一磅。

Unfortunately, the consequences wouldn't stop there.

不幸的是，後續影響不會就此結束。

If your DNA disappeared, it's possible you'd feel something—

如果你的 DNA 消失了，你可能會感覺到一些東西——

like a tiny, uniform shockwave as every cell contracted slightly, or as your muscles adjusted to the slightly different load.

像是一個微小、均勻的衝擊波，因為每個細胞稍微收縮，或你的肌肉適應略微不同的負荷。

After that, you'd probably feel pretty normal for a while.

之後你可能會感覺正常一段時間。

so we can't say for sure what the precise sequence of medical consequences would be.

所以我們無法確定醫療後果的精確順序會是什麼。

But mushroom poisoning, chemotherapy, and radiation poisoning can give us a rough idea.

但蘑菇中毒、化療與輻射中毒可以給我們一個大致的概念。

Amanita bisporigera is a species of mushroom found in eastern North America,

Amanita bisporigera 是一種生長在北美東部的蘑菇，

known by the common name Destroying Angel.

Destroying Angel is a small, white, innocuous-looking mushroom.

毀滅天使是一種小巧、白色、看起來無害的蘑菇。

If you're like me, you were told to never eat mushrooms you found in the woods.

如果你像我一樣，你會被告知不要吃在森林裡撿到的蘑菇。

If you eat a Destroying Angel, for the rest of the day you'll feel fine.

如果你吃了一朵毀滅天使，當天剩下的時間你會覺得沒事。

Later that night, or the next morning, you'll suffer from vomiting, abdominal pain, and severe diarrhea.

但到了當晚或隔天早上，你會出現嘔吐、腹痛與嚴重腹瀉。

Then you'll start to feel better, at which point the damage is probably irreversible.

然後你會開始覺得好轉，而此時傷害很可能已經不可逆。

Amanita mushrooms contain amatoxin, which interferes with an enzyme used to read DNA,

Amanita 蘑菇含有毒傘肽，會干擾用來讀取 DNA 的酶，

interrupting the process by which cells follow DNA's instructions

中斷細胞依照 DNA 指令運作的過程，

and causing irreversible damage to whatever cells it collects in.

並對毒素累積到的細胞造成不可逆的傷害。

Since most of your body is made of cells, this is bad for you.

由於你身體的大部分是由細胞組成，所以這對你很不利。

Death is generally caused by liver or kidney failure, since those are the first sensitive organs in which the toxin accumulates.

死亡通常由肝或腎衰竭引起，因為這些是毒素最先累積的敏感器官。

Sometimes intensive care and a liver transplant can be enough to save a patient.

有時重症照護與肝臟移植足以挽救患者。

The really frightening thing about Amanita poisoning is the "walking ghost" phase—

Amanita 中毒最可怕的地方是「行屍走肉期」——

the period where you seem to be getting better,

but your cells continue to accumulate irreversible and lethal damage.

但你的細胞仍在累積不可逆且致命的損傷。

這種模式是 DNA 受損的典型表現，

and we'd likely see something like it in someone who lost their DNA.

我們很可能在失去 DNA 的人身上看到類似現象。

The picture is even more vividly illustrated by two other examples of DNA damage—chemotherapy and radiation.

而化療與輻射這兩個例子，能更生動地說明 DNA 受損的情況。

Doxorubicin, one of the most common and potent chemotherapy drugs,

多柔比星（doxorubicin）是最常見且最強效的化療藥之一，

interrupts cell division by linking and tangling random sections of DNA together.

它通過連結並糾纏 DNA 的隨機片段來中斷細胞分裂。

The reason doxorubicin selectively kills cancer cells is that cancer cells are dividing all the time,

多柔比星之所以能選擇性殺死癌細胞，是因為癌細胞一直在分裂，

whereas most normal cells only divide occasionally.

而大多數正常細胞只偶爾分裂。

Some human cells do divide nearly constantly,

like those found in hair follicles, bone marrow (which produces blood, including white blood cells), and stomach lining.

例如毛囊、骨髓（產生血液，包括白血球）與胃黏膜。

Chemotherapy messes with the DNA of such constantly dividing cells and hampers cell division,

化療會破壞這些持續分裂細胞的 DNA，並阻礙細胞分裂，

causing hair loss, vulnerability to infections, and most immediately, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea.

導致掉髮、感染風險增加，最立即的症狀則是噁心、嘔吐與腹瀉。

Gamma radiation also harms you by damaging your DNA.

伽瑪輻射也會通過破壞 DNA 來傷害你。

And because your whole body can be exposed to radiation at once,

而且因為全身可能同時暴露於輻射，

it's probably the kind of real-life injury that most resembles Nina's scenario of losing all your DNA.

這可能是最接近 Nina 所描述「失去所有 DNA」的真實傷害類型。

Radiation poisoning also has a walking ghost phase, where the body is still working

輻射中毒同樣有行屍走肉期，此時身體仍在運作，

but no new proteins can be synthesized and the immune system is collapsing.

但無法合成新的蛋白質，免疫系統正在崩潰。

In cases of severe radiation poisoning, immune system collapse is often the primary cause of death.

在嚴重輻射中毒的案例中，免疫系統崩潰通常是主要死亡原因。

Without a supply of white blood cells, the body can't fight off infections,

沒有白血球供應，身體無法對抗感染，

and ordinary bacteria in the body run wild.

In short, losing your DNA would most likely result in abdominal pain, nausea, dizziness,

簡而言之，失去 DNA 最可能造成腹痛、噁心、頭暈，

rapid immune system collapse, and death within days or hours,

免疫系統快速崩潰，以及在數天或數小時內死亡，

from either rapid systemic infection or system-wide organ failure.

原因可能是快速的全身性感染或全身器官衰竭。

On the other hand, there would be at least one silver lining.

If we ever end up in a dystopian future where an Orwellian, Gattaca-style police state collects our genetic information and uses it to track and control us, you'd be invisible.

如果我們終究進入反烏托邦的未來，一個奧威爾式、類似《基因決定論》風格的警察國家收集我們的基因資訊並用來追蹤控制我們，你就會變得「無法被追蹤」。