原标题：科学家们如何能确认新冠病毒并非实验室产物？
从疫情爆发至今，虽然世界各地的科学家们都反复强调这种初次被发现的病毒来源于自然界，但是“新冠病毒是实验室产物”的阴谋论依然无休无止。
那么，科学家们到底是如何知道病毒并非来自实验室，而是起源于某种动物的呢？
威斯敏斯特大学一位寄生虫学与医学微生物学讲师，Polly Hayes，本周发表的一篇文章，引用多项研究对这个问题作出了解释。
The conspiracy theory that the novel coronavirus was created in a lab has been circulating since the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak， although scientists from different countries have refuted it over and again and stressed the natural origin of the virus。
So how exactly do scientists know the virus SARS-CoV-2 originated from an animal， most likely a bat， and was not lab-made？
Polly Hayes， a lecturer in Parasitology and Medical Microbiology at the University of Westminster， explained the question in an article published on British website The Conversation earlier this week， citing multiple studies。
基因物质里并没有人为操纵的迹象
No signs of manipulation in the genetic material of SARS-CoV-2
Hayes指出，如果病毒来自实验室里的基因工程，那么它的基因序列数据一定存在人为操纵的迹象。
但是，新冠病毒的基因序列已被全世界的科学家公开分享了数千次，而且从未发现过这样的证据。
Hayes pointed out that if the virus had been genetically engineered in a lab， there would be signs of manipulation in the genome data。
This would include evidence of an existing viral sequence as the backbone for the new virus， and obvious targeted inserted （or deleted） genetic elements。