Name: 新書搶先看！獨家試讀兩章內容！ (Two Chapters From Our New Book – Exclusive Preview!)
Uploaded: 2026-01-26T17:20:10.000Z
Duration: 25 min 56 s

We'll listen to the introduction and a chapter from the Kurzgesagt book A journey into the mysterious system that keeps you alive.

我們要來聽 Kurzgesagt 的書 A journey into the mysterious system that keeps you alive 的引言和其中一個章節。

Written by Kurzgesagt founder and head writer Philipp Detmer.

這本書是由 Kurzgesagt 的創辦人兼總編 Philipp Detmer 所寫。

It's about the epic story of the immune system, the most important thing you don't know enough about and will forever change how you think about your body.

內容講述的是免疫系統的史詩故事，這是你最該瞭解卻又瞭解不夠的重要事物，它將永遠改變你對身體的看法。

Immune will be released on November 2nd and you can pre order it right now.

Immune 將在 11 月 2 日上市，你現在就可以預購了。

Links in the Description so now get comfy for a rare audio only experience.

連結都在說明欄，所以現在就舒服地坐好，準備享受難得的純音頻體驗吧。

Introduction Imagine waking up tomorrow feeling a bit under the weather, an annoying pain in your throat, your nose is runny, you cough a bit.

引言 想像一下，你明天醒來覺得身體有點不適，喉嚨有點痛，流鼻涕，還會咳幾聲。

總之，並沒有嚴重到讓你無法去上班。

You think as you step into the shower, pretty annoyed about how hard your life is.

你走進淋浴間，心想著生活怎麼這麼苦。

While you are totally not being a whiny little baby, your immune system is not complaining.

雖然你並沒有在唉唉叫，但你的免疫系統可沒有抱怨。

It is busy keeping you alive so you can live to whine another day.

牠正忙著讓你活下去，這樣你才能繼續抱怨。

And so, while intruders roam your body, killing hundreds of thousands of your cells, your immune system is organizing complex defenses, communicating over vast distances, activating intricate defense networks and dishing out a swift death to millions if not billions of enemies, all while you are standing in the shower, mildly annoyed.

所以，當入侵者在你的體內肆虐，殺死了你數十萬個細胞時，你的免疫系統正在組織複雜的防禦，遠距離溝通，啟動精密的防禦網絡，並對數百萬甚至數十億敵人迅速處決，而你卻站在淋浴間裡，有點煩躁。

But this complexity is largely hidden, which is a real shame because there are not many things that have such a crucial impact on the quality of your life as your immune system.

但這種複雜性卻很大程度上被隱藏了起來，這真的很可惜，因為沒有多少東西能像你的免疫系統一樣，對你的生活品質產生如此關鍵的影響。

It is all embracing and all encompassing, protecting you from bothersome nuisances like the common cold, scratches and cuts, to life threatening stuff from cancer and pneumonia to deadly infections like COVID 19.

牠無所不包、無所不容，保護你免受普通感冒、刮傷和割傷等煩人的小毛病，到癌症、肺炎等危及生命的疾病，以及COVID 19等致命感染。

Your immune system is as indispensable as your heart or your lungs, and

你的免疫系統和你心臟或肺臟一樣不可或缺，而且

actually it is one of the largest and most widespread organ systems throughout your body.

事實上，牠是你體內最大、分佈最廣的器官系統之一。

Although we don't tend to think about it in these terms, for most of us the immune system is a vague and cloud like entity that follows strange and untransparent rules and which seems to sometimes work and sometimes not.

雖然我們不太會這樣想，但對我們大多數人來說，免疫系統是一個模糊不清、像雲一樣的實體，遵循著奇怪且不透明的規則，而且似乎時而有效、時而無效。

It is a bit like the weather, extremely hard to predict and subject to endless speculations and opinions resulting in actions that feel random to us.

牠有點像天氣，極難預測，並且受到無數猜測和意見的影響，導致我們感覺隨機的行動。

Unfortunately, many people speak about the immune system with confidence, but

不幸的是，許多人對免疫系統侃侃而談，但

without actually understanding it, it can be hard to know which information to trust and why.

實際上並不瞭解，你很難知道該相信哪些資訊以及為什麼。

But what even is the immune system and how does it actually work?

但免疫系統到底是什麼？它又是如何運作的呢？

Understanding the mechanisms that are keeping you alive as you read this is not just a nice exercise in intellectual curiosity, it is desperately needed knowledge.

瞭解正在維持你生命運作的機制，不只是一個滿足好奇心的練習，而是極度需要的知識。

If you know how the immune system works, you can understand and appreciate vaccines and how they can save your life or the lives of your children and approach disease and sickness with a very different mindset and far less fear.

如果你瞭解免疫系統的運作方式，就能理解和重視疫苗，以及它們如何拯救你或你孩子的生命，並以截然不同的心態、減少恐懼來面對疾病。

You become less susceptible to snakehole salesmen who offer wonder drugs that are entirely devoid of logic.

你比較不容易被那些提供毫無邏輯的奇效藥的騙人的推銷員所騙。

You get a better grasp on the kinds of medication that might actually help you when you are sick.

你會更清楚生病時哪些藥物可能真的有幫助。

You get to know what you can do to boost your immune system.

你會知道如何增強你的免疫系統。

You can protect your kids from dangerous microbes while also not being too stressed out if they get dirty playing outside.

你可以保護孩子免受危險微生物的侵害，同時也不會因為他們在外面玩得髒兮兮而過度擔心。

And in the very unlikely case of, say, a global pandemic, knowing what a virus does to you and how your body fights it might help you understand what the public health experts say.

而在極不可能發生的全球大流行病情況下，瞭解病毒對你做了什麼，以及你的身體如何對抗它，可能會幫助你理解公共衛生專家的說法。

Besides all these practical and useful things, the immune system is also simply beautiful, a wonder of nature like no other.

除了這些實用又貼心的好處之外，免疫系統本身也超級美麗，是獨一無二的自然奇蹟。

The immune system is not a mere tool to make your cough go away.

免疫系統不只是讓你咳嗽消失的工具。

It is inextricably tied into almost all other processes in your body.

它和身體裡幾乎所有的其他生理過程都密不可分。

And while it is centrally important to keeping you alive, it is likely that it may also be the part of your body that causes your untimely death, either by failing or by being too active.

雖然它對維持你的生命至關重要，但它也很有可能是會讓你提早死亡的身體部分，無論是失靈還是過於活躍。

I have been fascinated and obsessed by the incredible complexity of the human immune system for the better part of a decade now.

我對人類免疫系統令人難以置信的複雜性著迷了好幾年。

It began in university, where I was studying information design and was looking for a semester project, and

一切都始於大學時期，當時我正在學習資訊設計，正在尋找一個學期的專案，

the immune system seemed like a good idea.

然後免疫系統看起來是個不錯的主意。

So I got a large pile of books about immunology and began digging in.

於是我找來了一大堆關於免疫學的書，開始深入研究。

But no matter how much I read, things just did not get less complicated.

但不管我讀了多少，事情似乎都沒有變得比較簡單。

The more I learned, the more impossible it seemed to simplify the immune system, as every layer revealed more mechanisms, more exceptions, more complexity.

我學得越多，免疫系統似乎就越難簡化，因為每一層都揭示了更多的機制、更多的例外、更多的複雜性。

And so a project that was supposed to last the spring took the summer, and

於是，一個原本應該在春天結束的專案，一路延續到夏天，

The interactions of the parts of the immune system were too elegant, and

免疫系統各個部分的交互作用太精妙了，

the dance they danced was too beautiful to stop learning about them.

牠們跳的舞太美了，讓我停不下來學習。

This progress fundamentally changed how I experienced and felt about my body.

這個進展從根本上改變了我體驗和感受身體的方式。

When I got the flu, I could no longer just complain, but

當我得了流感時，我再也不能只是抱怨，而是

had to look at my body, touch my swollen lymph nodes, and

必須看看我的身體，摸摸我腫脹的淋巴結，

visualize what my immune cells were doing right then, which part of the network was activated and how T cells killed millions of intruders to protect me.

並想像我的免疫細胞當時正在做什麼，網路的哪個部分被啟動，以及T細胞是如何殺死數百萬的入侵者來保護我的。

When I cut myself while being careless in the forest, I felt gratitude for my macrophages, large immune cells hunting scared bact ripping them into pieces to protect the open wound from infection.

當我在森林裡不小心割傷自己時，我對我的巨噬細胞感到感激，這些大型免疫細胞會追捕受驚的細菌，將牠們撕成碎片，以保護開放的傷口免受感染。

After taking a bite of the wrong granola bar and suffering an allergic shock while being rushed to the hospital, I thought about mast cells and IgE antibodies and how they had almost killed me in a misguided attempt to protect me from scary foodstuffs.

在吃了錯誤的燕麥棒後，在被緊急送往醫院時出現了過敏性休克，我開始思考肥大細胞和IgE抗體，以及牠們是如何試圖保護我免受可怕食物的侵害，差點殺死我。

When I was diagnosed with cancer at the age of 32 and had to undergo a couple of operations and then chemotherapy, My obsession with immunology became even more intense.

當我在 32 歲被診斷出罹患癌症，必須動幾次手術然後接受化療時，我對免疫學的著迷程度更是與日俱增。

One of the jobs of my immune system is to kill cancer.

我的免疫系統其中一項工作就是殺死癌細胞。

But I somehow could not be angry or too upset, as I had learned how hard of a job this was for my immune cells and how hard cancer had to work to keep them in check.

但我 somehow 無法生氣或太難過，因為我已經學到我的免疫細胞的工作有多麼艱難，以及癌細胞為了控制牠們必須付出多少努力。

And as the chemo melted the cancer, my thoughts again went to my immune cells, invading the dying tumors and eating them up, one cell after another.

隨著化療摧毀癌細胞，我的思緒再次回到我的免疫細胞，牠們入侵垂死的腫瘤並將其一一吞噬。

Disease and sickness are scary and unsettling, and I've had plenty of that in my life.

生病和疾病令人害怕又不安，我的人生中經歷了不少。

But knowing how my cells, my immune system, this integral and personal part of myself, defended the entity that is me, how it fought and died and healed and restored this body I inhabit always gave me a lot of comfort.

但知道我的細胞、我的免疫系統，這個我自身不可或缺且個人化的部分，如何捍衛身為「我」的這個整體，牠們如何戰鬥、死亡、癒合並修復我所居住的這個身體，總是給我很大的安慰。

Learning about the immune system made my life better and more interesting, and

學習免疫系統讓我的生活變得更好、更有趣，而且

it alleviated a lot of the anxiety that comes with being sick.

它減輕了生病時伴隨而來的許多焦慮。

Knowing about the immune system always put things in perspective.

瞭解免疫系統總是能讓我對事物有更宏觀的看法。

just because of the fun of learning and reading about the immune system, it became an ongoing hobby as I eventually became a science communicator and explaining complex things became my purpose in life.

光是學習和閱讀免疫系統的樂趣，就成了我的長期興趣，最後我成為了一名科學傳播者，解釋複雜的事物成了我的人生目標。

About eight years ago, I started Kurzgesagt in a nutshell, a YouTube channel dedicated to making information easy to understand and beautiful while trying to be as true to the science as possible.

大約八年前，我創立了 Kurzgesagt in a nutshell，一個 YouTube 頻道，致力於讓資訊易於理解又美觀，同時盡可能忠於科學。

In early 2021, the Kurzgesagt team has grown to over 40 people working on this vision, while the channel has attracted over 14 million subscribers and reaches about 30 million viewers each month.

到了 2021 年初，Kurzgesagt 的團隊已成長到 40 多人，共同為這個願景努力，而這個頻道吸引了超過 1400 萬訂閱者，每月觸及約 3000 萬觀眾。

So if this large platform exists, why go through the horrible process of writing this book?

所以既然有這麼大的平臺，為什麼還要經歷寫這本書的艱辛過程呢？

Well, while some of our most successful videos have been about the immune system, it has always bugged me that I could not explore this wonderful topic in the depth it deserves.

嗯，雖然我們一些最成功的影片都關於免疫系統，但我一直覺得很不甘心，因為我無法深入探討這個精彩的主題。

A 10 minute video is simply not the right medium for that.

一部 10 分鐘的影片根本不是適合的媒介。

So this book is a way to turn my decade long love affair with the immune system into something tangible that will hopefully be a helpful and entertaining way to learn about the stunning and beautiful complexity that makes it possible for you to survive each day.

所以這本書將我對免疫系統長達十年的熱愛，轉化為有形的事物，希望能以一種有益又有趣的方式，讓你學習它令人驚嘆又美麗的複雜性，讓你得以每天生存下去。

Unfortunately, the immune system is very complicated.

不幸的是，免疫系統非常複雜。

Although that is not strong enough a word.

The immune system is complicated in the sense that climbing Mount Everest is a nice stroll through nature.

免疫系統的複雜程度，大概就像爬聖母峰對你來說只是悠閒的散步一樣。

It is intuitive, like reading the Chinese translation of the tax code of Germany is a fun Sunday afternoon the immune system is the most complex biological system known to humanity other than the human brain.

免疫系統就像在閱讀德國稅法中文翻譯一樣直觀，是個有趣的週日下午，免疫系統是除了人腦之外，人類已知最複雜的生物系統。

The bigger the immunology textbook you read, the more layers of detail start piling on.

你讀的免疫學教科書越大本，就會發現細節一層一層地堆疊上去。

The more exceptions to rules appear, the more intricate the system becomes, the the more specific it seems to be for every possible eventuality.

規則的例外越多，系統就越錯綜複雜，似乎針對各種可能的情況都有專門的應對方式。

Every single one of its many parts has multiple jobs and functions and areas of expertise that overlap and influence each other.

它眾多零件中的每一個，都有多重工作、功能和專業領域，彼此重疊並相互影響。

Even if you make it past these challenges and still want to understand the immune system, you will encounter another problem.

即使你克服了這些挑戰，仍然想了解免疫系統，你還會遇到另一個問題。

Scientists have laid the foundation for the amazing modern world we get to enjoy today through hard work and endless curiosity.

科學家們透過辛勤工作和無盡的好奇心，為我們今天所享受的美好現代世界奠定了基礎。

And we owe them a great deal of gratitude.

Unfortunately, though, many scientists are really bad at choosing good names and coming up with accessible language for the things they discover.

不幸的是，許多科學家在為他們發現的事物選擇好名字和想出易於理解的語言方面，真的很不行。

The science of immunology is one of the worst culprits of any scientific discipline in this regard.

在這方面，免疫學這門科學可以說是所有科學領域中最糟糕的罪魁禍首之一。

An already breathtakingly complex field is spiked with words like major histocompatibility, complex, class 1 and 2, gamma delta, t cells, interferon, alpha, beta, gamma and kappa, and

這個本來就已經夠複雜的領域，還充斥著像主要組織相容性、複合體、第一類和第二類、伽瑪德爾塔、T細胞、幹擾素、阿爾法、貝塔、伽瑪和卡帕，

the complement system with actors named C4B2A 3B comple.

以及補體系統，裡面的角色還叫做 C4B2A 3B comple。

None of this makes it a pleasure to pick up a textbook and learn about the immune system on your own.

這些都讓你想自己拿起課本學習免疫系統，變得一點都不愉快。

But even without this barrier, the complex relationships of the many different actors of the immune system, with countless exceptions and unintuitive rules, are a challenge all by themselves.

但即使沒有這個障礙，免疫系統中眾多不同角色之間複雜的關係，加上無數的例外和違反直覺的規則，本身就是一大挑戰。

Immunology is hard, even for the people working in public health, even for the people studying immunology, even for the foremost experts in the field.

免疫學很難，即使是對從事公共衛生的人，即使是對研究免疫學的人，即使是對這個領域的頂尖專家來說也是如此。

All of this makes the immune system horrible to explain.

這一切都讓免疫系統變得非常難解釋。

If you venture too far into simplification, you deprive the learner of the beauty and wonder that lie in the evolutionary genius of the sheer endless complexity that deals with the most crucial problems of living beings.

如果你過度簡化，你就會剝奪學習者在面對生命體最關鍵問題時，那種演化天才所展現的、令人驚嘆的無盡複雜性之美與奇妙。

But if you include too much detail, it quickly becomes mind numbingly hard to keep up with.

但如果你加入太多細節，很快就會變得讓人頭昏腦脹、難以跟上。

Listing everything, every part of the immune system is just too much.

列出所有東西，免疫系統的每一個部分，都太多了。

It would be like telling someone your whole life story on the first date.

這就像第一次約會就跟對方講述你的人生故事一樣。

Overwhelming and very likely to make them less interested in dating you.

會讓人不知所措，而且很可能會讓對方對跟你約會沒什麼興趣。

So my aim for this book is to try to carefully dance around all these problems.

所以我寫這本書的目標，是試著小心地避開所有這些問題。

It will use human language and use complicated words only when necessary.

它會用日常語言，只在必要時使用複雜的詞彙。

Processes and interactions will be simplified while staying as true to the science as possible.

過程和互動會被簡化，同時盡可能貼近科學。

Complexity between chapters will go up and down.

So after you are fed a lot of information, there will be more chill parts to relax a bit, and

所以在你接收了很多資訊後，會有比較輕鬆的部分讓你稍微放鬆，

we will summarize what we learned in regular intervals.

我們也會定期總結我們學到的東西。

I want this book to make it possible for everybody to understand their own immune system and have a bit of fun doing so.

我希望這本書能讓每個人都瞭解自己的免疫系統，並且在過程中獲得一些樂趣。