TheSpider’sBite 我被蜘蛛咬伤的故事

The Spider’s Bite 我被蜘蛛咬伤的故事

作者：何江 黄文君

来源：《英语世界》2020年第02期

When I was in middle school， a poisonous spider bit my right hand. I ran to my mom for

help， but instead of taking me to a doctor， my mom set my hand on fire. After wrapping my hand

with several layers of cotton， then soaking in wine， she put a chopstick into my mouth and ignited

the cotton. Heat quickly penetrated the cotton and began to roast my hand. The searing pain made me

want to scream， but the chopstick prevented it. All I could do was watch my hand burn—one

minute， then two minutes—until my mom put out the fire.

You see， the part of China I grew up in was a rural village and at that time， pre-industrial.

When I was born， my village had no cars， no telephones， no electricity， not even running water.

And we certainly didn’t have access to modern medical resources. There was no doctor my mom

could bring me to see about the spider bite.

For those who study biology， you may have grasped the science behind my mom’s cure—heat

deactivates proteins and a spider’s venom is simply a form of protein. It’s cool how that folk remedy

actually incorporates basics about chemistry， isn’t it？ But I am a Ph.D. student in biochemistry at

Harvard. I now know that better， less painful and less risky treatments existed. So I can’t help but

ask myself why I didn’t receive one at the time.

Fifteen years have passed since that incident. I’m happy to report that my hand is fine. But this

question lingers and I continue to be troubled by the unequal distribution of scientific knowledge

throughout the world. We’ve learnt to edit the human genome and unlock many secrets of how cancer

progresses. We can manipulate neural activity literally with a switch of light. Each year brings more

advances in biomedical research—exciting transformative accomplishments. Yet， despite the

knowledge we’ve amassed， we haven’t been so successful in deploying it to where it is needed most.

According to the World Bank， 12 percent of the world population lives on less than $2 a day.

Malnutrition kills more than 3 million children annually. 300 million people are afflicted by malaria

globally. All over the world， we constantly see these problems of poverty， illness and a lack of

resources impeding the flow of scientific information. Life-saving knowledge we take for granted in

our modern world is often unavailable in these underdeveloped regions. And so， in far too many

places， people are still essentially trying to cure a spider bite with fire.

While studying at Harvard， I saw how scientific knowledge can help others in simple yet

profound ways. The bird flu pandemic in the 2000s looked to my village like spell cast by demons.

Our folk medicine didn’t even have half measures to offer. What’s more， famers didn’t know the

difference between common cold and flu. They didn’t understand that the flu was much more lethal

than common cold.