Well, the plant from which maize derives, the teosinte, is wonderfully adaptable.

其实那种玉米进化而来的植物大刍草具有很奇妙的适应性。

Which, in the case of teosinte's transformation into corn, was a major makeover.

比如大刍草转化为玉米，这就是一个重大的改造。

An ear of teosinte originally yielded somewhere between 5 and 12 small kernels, each with a hard shell called a pericarp.

每一个墨西哥野玉米能产出 5 至 12 颗玉米粒，每一颗玉米粒都有一个硬壳，称为“果皮”。

All the corn eaten today is derived from a tall grass called teosinte, which Indigenous people in what is now southern Mexico began selectively breeding about 9,000 years ago.

如今我们吃的所有玉米都源自一种名为“墨西哥野玉米”的高大草本，现今墨西哥南部的土著人大约在 9000 年前就已经开始选择性培育这种植物了。

We know early Americans first started farming and breeding teosinte about 9000 years ago, but that's not that long ago considering how different today's butter-drenched sugar missiles are from their ancestor.

我们知道早期的美国人大约在9000年前开始种植、培育蜀黍，但想到今天涂满黄油的玉米，它们之间如此迥异，又觉得用这么长时间是合理的。

Over the last millennia, our ancestors have pursued this in basic ways, for instance, by improving milk production from cows and making a wild grass called teosinte into edible corn.

在过去的几千年里， 我们的祖先一直在以基本的方式追求这一点，例如，通过提高奶牛的产奶量， 以及将一种叫做类蜀黍的野草制成可食用的玉米。

Modern experiments on wild teosinte turned up some surprises: As few as 5 genetic changes, in the right places, might have been enough to invent corn, or at least something that looks like corn.

只要在适当的地方进行5次基因改变，就足以发明出玉米，或者至少看起来像玉米的东西。

If turning aurochs into cattle, wolves into dogs or teosinte into maize sounds like a sideshow compared with transforming the composition of the atmosphere, looting the oceans or destroying the rainforests, consider a few facts.

如果说，与改变大气成分、掠夺海洋或破坏雨林相比，把古代野牛变成家牛、把狼变成狗或者把墨西哥类蜀黍变成玉米这种事听起来无关紧要，请仔细思考几个事实。