Urednik Sama Sebe

Šestog jutra, Chiara je napravila kavu za obje i sjela pokraj akvarija. Pasta je visjela naglavačke iz kuta stakla. Njeno tijelo nježno je pulsiralo. Ruke su joj lepršale oko nje poput spore cvjetne latice.

On the sixth morning, Chiara made coffee for both of them and sat down beside the tank. Pasta was hanging upside down from a corner of the glass. Her body bell pulsed gently. Her arms drifted around her like a slow flower.

"Postoji još nešto što ti želim reći," rekla je Chiara, "i želim to reći polako, jer je to najčudnija stvar o hobotnicama koju znam."

"There is one more thing I want to tell you," Chiara said, "and I want to tell it slowly, because it is the strangest thing about octopuses I know."

Polly je sjedila na rubu.

Polly perched on the rim.

"Hobotnice mogu uređivati svoj vlastiti RNA u stvarnom vremenu," rekla je Chiara. "Nijedna druga životinja to ne radi tako često kao one."

"Octopuses can edit their own RNA in real time," Chiara said. "No other animal does this at the rate they do."

DNA je dugoročni nacrt životinje. Ne mijenja se mnogo tijekom života. RNA je radna kopija. Stanica stvara RNA iz DNA kada treba izgraditi protein. Kod većine životinja, RNA točno odgovara DNA.

DNA is the long-term blueprint of an animal. It does not change much in a lifetime. RNA is the working copy. The cell makes RNA from DNA when it needs to build a protein. In most animals, the RNA matches the DNA exactly.

Kod hobotnica, RNA ne odgovara. Dok se RNA stvara, stanica prepisuje dijelove. Većina tih izmjena događa se u dijelovima koji grade živčani sustav.

In octopuses, the RNA does not match. As the RNA is being made, the cell rewrites parts of it. Most of these edits happen in the parts that build the nervous system.

"Zašto?" rekla je Chiara. "Uređivanje RNA je reverzibilno. Mutacija DNA nije. Hobotnica može prilagoditi svoj živčani sustav kao odgovor na temperaturu vode ili kemiju hrane. Podešava svoj vlastiti mozak. Cijena toga je da se vrsta sama nije mogla mnogo razvijati. Platili su kratkoročnu fleksibilnost dugoročnom stabilnošću."

"Why?" Chiara said. "RNA editing is reversible. DNA mutation is not. An octopus can adjust its nervous system in response to the temperature of the water or the chemistry of its food. It tunes its own brain. The cost is that the species itself has not been able to evolve much. They paid for short-term flexibility with long-term stability."

Pasta je plutala. Koža joj je blizu očiju treperila kroz nježne ružičaste i blijedo smeđe nijanse.

Pasta drifted. Her skin near the eyes flickered through soft pinks and pale browns.

"Svaka pojedinačna hobotnica," rekla je Chiara, "je malo drugačija životinja od svake druge, na način na koji ti i ja i drugi papagaji nismo. Ista DNA, ali radni mehanizam se gradi iznova, svaki život, za tu vodu i tu hranu."

"Each individual octopus," Chiara said, "is a slightly different animal from every other one, in a way that you and I and other parrots are not. The same DNA, but the working machinery is built fresh, every life, for that water and that food."

Polly je razmišljala o svom vlastitom mozgu. Bio je izgrađen jednom, na način na koji se većina mozgova gradi, i sada je jednostavno bio njen. Nije zavidjela Pasti na fleksibilnosti. Ali jako joj se svidjelo znati da životinje poput Paste postoje.

Polly thought about her own brain. It had been built once, the way most brains are built, and was now simply hers. She did not envy Pasta the flexibility. But she liked very much knowing that animals like Pasta existed.