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ClaraSousaSilva_2021-_地球外的生命痕迹_
It's my job to find aliens, so as you might guess, 我的工作是寻找外星人。
I spent a lot of time thinking about them, imagining little green women meeting up with their friends, commuting to work. 我花很多时间思考他们, 想像小绿人, 和他们的朋友相聚,通勤工作。
And that gets me thinking about alien astronomers trying to find us in their night sky. 这使我想到了外星天文学家 是否也试图在夜空中寻找我们。
If these alien astronomers had looked in our direction in the last century, they would have been really excited to detect unequivocal signs of technology . 如果这些外星天文学家在上个世纪看向了我们这里, 他们会因为探测到一些 明确的科技迹象而非常兴奋。
commuting:n.乘公交车上下班;经常往来; astronomers:天文学家; detect:vt.察觉;发现;探测; unequivocal:adj.明确的;不含糊的; technology:n.技术;工艺;术语;
But what if they looked ten thousand years ago, before we showed signs of civilization ? 但是如果他们在几千年前, 在我们展示任何文明迹象之前, 就看向了我们这里会怎么样呢？
Would they shrug in disappointment and go look elsewhere for life? 他们会失望的耸耸肩, 然后去寻找别的地方的生命吗？
No, and neither should we. 他们不会,我们也不应该如此。
Instead, we can look for other signs of life. 相反,我们会寻找 其他预示着生命的迹象。
what if:如果…怎么办? civilization:n.文明;文明社会;文明世界;(特定时期和地区的)社会文明; shrug:n.耸肩(表示不知道或不在乎);带袖短披肩;v.耸肩(表示不知道或不在乎); elsewhere:adv.在别处;到别处;
For example, if those alien astronomers had looked our way 10,000 years ago, they might notice that even without signs of civilization, we still looked slightly unusual. 举个例子,如果外星天文学家 已经在一万年以前看向我们, 他们也许注意到 尽管没有任何文明的迹象, 我们仍然看起来有一点不寻常。
For one, we have a thick and temperate atmosphere , but more notably , we have suspiciously large amounts of oxygen in the atmosphere. 其一,我们有很厚的大气 和温和的气候, 但更值得注意的是, 我们的大气中有大量到可疑的氧气。
This would be a really encouraging sign of life for my alien colleagues because the composition of the Earth's atmosphere can only sustain itself through a biological cycle. 这将是一个对我的外星同事 非常鼓舞人心的生命迹象, 因为地球大气的组成 只能通过生物循环维持自身。
slightly:adv.些微地,轻微地;纤细地; temperate:adj.温和的;适度的;有节制的; atmosphere:n.大气;气氛;气压;风格; notably:adv.显著地;尤其; suspiciously:adv.怀疑地;猜疑地; colleagues:n.同事;同行(colleague的复数); composition:n.成分;作文;构成;创作; sustain:v.支持;支撑;遭受;证实; biological:adj.生物学的;生物的;与生命过程有关的;加酶的;n.[药]生物制品;
So can we do the same to them? 那么我能们对他们做同样探测吗？
I'm certainly trying. 我无疑在努力尝试。
I am a quantum astrochemist, which means I study the quantum interactions between molecules and light in space. 我是一名量子天文学家, 这意味着我研究 太空中分子与光相互作用。
We can't see these molecules or even the planets they're on. 我们看不到那些分子, 甚至看不到它们所在的星球。
But when life from a star goes through an alien atmosphere, each molecule within it leaves a unique fingerprint in the starlight that I can see from here. 但当生命穿过外星大气时, 上面的每一个分子 都会在星光中留下独特的痕迹, 所以在星光下,我们可以看到。
quantum:n.量子论;额;美国昆腾公司(世界领先的硬盘生产商); interactions:n.[计]交互,相互作用;相互交流;干扰;(interaction复数) molecules:n.[化学]分子,微粒;[化学]摩尔(molecule的复数); unique:adj.独特的,稀罕的;[数]唯一的;n.独一无二的人或物; fingerprint:n.指纹;手印;vt.采指纹; starlight:n.星光;adj.有星光的;星光照耀的;
And I look for the fingerprints of molecules that could be associated with life, or biosignatures, like complex pollutants or oxygen. 我寻找这些与生命相关的 存在于分子上的痕迹 或者是生物印记, 像是结构复杂的污染物或是氧气。
In the context of Earth, oxygen is a wonderful biosignature, but oxygen is not that hard to make. 在地球,氧气是一个完美的生物印记, 但是氧气并不难制造。
So, for example, if our sun had different levels of radiation or if our oceans were evaporating from a runaway greenhouse effect , then large amounts of oxygen could accumulate in our atmosphere without biology , and then oxygen would be a false positive for life. 几个例子,如果我们的太阳 有不同的辐射值 或者我们的海洋 因为失控的温室效应而蒸发, 大量的氧气能够在我们没有生物的 大气中聚集, 那样的话,氧气就是一个 这里有生命存在的误报。
fingerprints:n.[法][特医]指纹(fingerprint的复数); v.取…的指印(fingerprint的三单形式); associated:adj.有关联的; v.联想; (associate的过去分词和过去式) complex:adj.复杂的;合成的;n.复合体;综合设施; pollutants:n.[环境]污染物(pollutant的复数); context:n.环境;上下文;来龙去脉; radiation:n.辐射;放射线;放射疗法; evaporating:adj.蒸发作用的;v.蒸发(evaporate的ing形式); runaway:adj.逃亡的;逃走的;n.逃跑;逃走的人; greenhouse effect:n.温室效应; accumulate:vi.累积;积聚;vt.积攒; biology:n.(一个地区全部的)生物;生物学; positive:adj.积极的;[数]正的,[医][化学]阳性的;确定的;n.正数;[摄]正片;
So maybe oxygen won't be the solution to finding life beyond Earth, but then what is? 所以或许氧气不是判断 地球外是否有生命的一个有效方法。 那什么才是呢？
Well, my specialty is to look for unusual molecules that have fewer false positives for life because they're so difficult to make that they're rarely made spontaneously . 我的专长是寻找不寻常的分子, 视它们为生命迹象罕为误报, 因为它们很难产生,很难自发产生。
solution:n.解决方案;溶液;溶解;解答; specialty:n.专业,专长;特产;特性;招牌菜;adj.特色的;专门的;独立的; positives:n.实在的事物;阳极板(positive的复数); rarely:adv.很少地;难得;罕有地; spontaneously:adv.自发地;自然地;不由自主地;
And my favorite of those unusual molecules is phosphine . 我最喜欢的不寻常分子是膦。
When I first started working on phosphine about a decade ago, people had a hard time thinking of it as a biosignature at all. 大约十年前我第一次研究膦时, 人们很难把它视为生物标记物。
Instead, it was known for being this horrific , foul-smelling molecule that messes with life's ability to use oxygen, making it a really effective killer. 而是视它为 众所周知可怕又无比难闻的分子, 会扰乱生命使用氧气的能力, 使其成为真正有效的致死物。
phosphine:n.磷化氢;三氢化磷; horrific:adj.可怕的;令人毛骨悚然的; messes:v.弄糟;弄乱;妨碍(mess的第三人称单数);n.杂乱,脏乱(mess的名词复数); effective:adj.有效的,起作用的;实际的,实在的;给人深刻印象;
Because of this fatal interaction with oxygen metabolism , phosphine is used widely as a pesticide and sadly for the same reason it was used many times in chemical warfare . 有着这种与氧气相互作用的致命反应, 膦被广泛用于杀虫剂。 不幸的是,也正是因为这个原因 它被多次用于化学武器。
Phosphine can be made in the lab, and it's also produced in the extreme environments found inside gas giants like Jupiter and Saturn . 膦可以在实验室制作出来, 同时也能够在极端环境下产生。 在木星和土星这些 大型的气体行星中找得到。
But on rocky planets like the Earth, it is rarely created accidentally . 像地球这样多岩石的星球 就很难意外地产生。
fatal:adj.致命的;灾难性的;毁灭性的;导致失败的; metabolism:n.[生理]新陈代谢; pesticide:n.杀虫剂; chemical warfare:n.化学战; extreme:adj.极端的;极度的;偏激的;尽头的;n.极端;末端;最大程度;极端的事物; giants:n.巨人;大汉;巨兽;巨树;(giant的复数) Jupiter:n.[天]木星;朱庇特(罗马神话中的宙斯神); Saturn:n.[天]土星;农业之神(罗马神话中的一个形象); rocky:adj.岩石的;多岩石的;困难的;难以维持的; accidentally:adv.意外地:偶然,偶然地;
So we don't really expect to find phosphine on Earth at all. 所以我们其实完全不期待 在地球上找到膦。
And yet we do. 然而我们发现了。
We find it in small amounts throughout the globe, and in some places in strangely large quantities , places like swamps and rice fields and lake beds and the excrements and guts of most animals. 我们在全球范围内 找到了少量的膦, 而在有些地方,数量惊人。 比如在沼泽地、稻田和湖床, 还存在于大多数动物的 排泄物和内脏里。
And what all of these ecosystems have in common is that they all host organisms that are not reliant on oxygen, so phosphine can't hurt them. 这些生态系统的共同点是 它们都是不依赖氧气的宿主, 所以膦不能伤害它们分毫。
Indeed, phosphine seems to be safely and enthusiastically produced in all of these oxygen-poor ecosystems. 确实,看似膦在这些 氧气稀薄的生态环境中 安稳且肆无忌惮地被制造出来。
throughout:adv.自始至终,到处;全部;prep.贯穿,遍及; strangely:adv.奇怪地;奇妙地;不可思议地; quantities:n.数量;数目;大量;大宗;(quantity的复数) swamps:n.[地理]沼泽; vt.使陷入沼泽; vi.陷入沼泽; guts:n.勇气;肠道;内脏;v.损毁内部;取出…的内脏;(gut的第三人称单数和复数) ecosystems:n.生态系统(ecosystem的复数); organisms:n.[生物]生物体(organism的复数);[生物]有机体; reliant:adj.依赖的;可靠的;信赖的; enthusiastically:adv.热心地;满腔热情地; oxygen-poor:adj.缺氧的;
So I figured, maybe other planets with life less reliant on oxygen than ours could also have phosphine, but as a really popular biosignature. 所以我想,也许其他行星有生命 对氧气的依赖程度比我们的低 也会有膦,可当作普及的生物印记。
And here's the best thing about phosphine. 这是关于膦最好的地方。
Because it's so hard to make on rocky planets like the Earth, it has almost no false positives for life. 因为它很难产生于地球 这种多岩石的星球, 它几乎不可能误报为有生命迹象。
So I started considering what telescopes we would need to detect phosphine on planets in our galactic neighborhood . 所以我开始考虑 我们需要用什么样的望远镜 檢测我们银河系附近行星上的膦。
Because if we did, I predicted it could only mean life. 因为一旦探测到了, 我预测它就意味着生命迹象。
I was imagining a distant planet, a oxygen-poor tropical paradise with a phosphine-rich biosphere that we might one day be able to detect. 我想像着某个远方的星球, 它是氧气稀薄的热带天堂, 有着富含膦的生物圈 有朝一日会被发现。
telescopes:n.望远镜; v.套叠; (telescope的第三人称单数) galactic:adj.银河的;乳汁的; neighborhood:n.附近;地区;街坊;adj.附近的; predicted:v.预言;预告;预报;(predict的过去分词和过去式) distant:adj.遥远的;远处的;久远的; tropical:adj.热带的;热情的;酷热的; paradise:n.天堂;至福境地; biosphere:n.生物圈;
But turns out phosphine was a little more exciting than I had initially envisaged because a few months after I finished this work an astronomer, Jane Greaves , reached out to me asking for help with interpreting a telescope signal seen here in white. 结果膦比我最初设想的更令人兴奋。 就在我结束这项工作几个月之后, 天文学家简·格里夫斯向我寻求幫助 解读这些以望远镜看到的 用白色显示的信号。
Then months later, another signal, seen here in orange, that seemed to indicate that phosphine might be present not on a distant planet, but right next door, on the clouds of Venus . 几个月后,解读另一个信号, 在这里以橙色显示, 似乎意味着膦可能就出现在 离我们不远的星球, 就在我们隔壁,金星的云层上。
initially:adv.最初,首先;开头; envisaged:v.设想(envisage的过去分词);面对,正视; Greaves:n.油渣;脂渣; interpreting:n.解释;口译;v.解释;[语][计]翻译(interpret的现在分词); indicate:v.表明;显示;象征;暗示; Venus:n.[天]金星;维纳斯(爱与美的女神);
So did we do it? 那么,我们成功了吗？
Did we find life beyond Earth? We don't know. 我们在地球之外找到生命了吗？ 我们还不知道。
These Venus observations were noisy and preliminary , so we still need to confirm, without a doubt, that the signal is real, and if it is, we need to make sure it's not another molecule mimicking phosphine's fingerprint. 这些对于金星的观察 是初步的、有干扰的, 所以我们仍然需要再去确认, 但无庸置疑的是, 信号是真实的。 如果它是真的,我们需要确保 那不是其它分子 在模仿膦留下的痕迹。
And if it is unambiguously phosphine, we still need to figure out what or who is making it, because maybe it's true that life is the best explanation for the presence of phosphine on a planet like Venus. 如果它毫无疑问是膦, 我们还需要弄清楚 是什么或是谁制造了它。 因为可能真是如此, 有生命存在是膦出现于 金星之类的星球是最好的解释。
observations:n.观察,观察值;观察结果;(observation的复数形式); preliminary:n.准备;预赛;初步措施;adj.初步的;开始的;预备的; mimicking:v.模仿人的言行举止;做滑稽模仿;像,似;(mimic的现在分词) unambiguously:adv.不含糊地;明白地;单意义地; presence:n.存在;出席;参加;风度;仪态;
But maybe that's wrong and there's an exotic but not biological way of making phosphine that no one has thought of yet. 也可能是错的, 还有一种前人未曾想过的、 不寻常的、非生物的产生途径。
Either way, as much as I love phosphine, 不管怎样,尽管我这么喜欢膦,
I don't think that's how we'll find life. 我不认为这样就可以找到外太空生命。
The detection of life will likely not come from a single molecule. 探测到生命不会仅凭一种分子。
No matter how special it is. 无论它多么特殊。[06:16]
exotic:adj.异国的;外来的;异国情调的; detection:n.侦查,探测;发觉,发现;察觉;
We'll have to detect a whole biosphere producing a complex network of gases 我们必须探测整个生物圈产生的 复杂气体网络,
As the Venus story shows, the detection of life will likely be uncertain , but Venus is the perfect lab for us to test our theories of biospheres and how to interpret them. 正如金星所显现的那样, 探测生命迹象有可能是不确定的, 但金星是个完美的实验室, 用来测试我们的生物圈理论 以及如何解释它们。
If we learn to understand the atmosphere of Venus and the message it contains, then we can find out if we got it right by going there and checking. 如果我们掌握和理解金星的大气环境 和其中蕴含的信息, 之后就可以去那里实地勘察 我们的判断是否正确。
And we'll do that at the end of the decade. 我们将在十年后办得到。
uncertain:adj.无常的;含糊的;靠不住的;迟疑不决的;
But this will not be the last time that we have the discovery of a biosignature on a potentially habitable planet, and next time we won't be able to just go there and check. 这绝不会是我们最后一次 在一个潜在宜居的星球上 发现生命印记, 下次我们将无法去那里檢查。
So my biggest concern is not that we will fail to find a habitable planet in our lifetimes. 所以我最担心的 并不是我们在有生之年 找不到宜居的星球,
My biggest concern is that we'll point our very expensive telescopes directly at an inhabited planet and just not know we did it. 而是担心我们用造价不菲的望远镜 对准了一颗宜居的星球, 却浑然不知。
potentially:adv.可能地,潜在地; habitable:adj.可居住的;适于居住的; concern:v.涉及,关系到;使担心;n.关系;关心;关心的事; directly:adv.直接地;立即;马上;正好地;坦率地;conj.一…就; inhabited:adj.有人居住的;v.占据(inhabit的过去分词);居住于;
But I am determined to not miss life. 但我决心不错过任何可以找到的生命。
So, yes, I will look for the unambiguous but quite unlikely signs of technology like complex pollutants. 所以,没错,我会继续寻找 明确但不太可能的技术迹象, 像是结构复杂的污染物。
And I'll look for the pleasant and familiar but potentially misleading signs of life, like oxygen. 我会继续寻找让人愉快又熟悉, 但可能被误解的生物信号,像是氧气。
determined:adj.决定了的:v.决定;(determine的过去分词和过去式) unlikely:adj.不大可能发生的;非心目中的;非想象的;难以相信的; familiar:adj.熟悉的;常见的;亲近的;n.常客;密友; misleading:adj.误导的;引入歧途的;v.误导;引入歧途;使误信;(mislead的现在分词)
And of course, I'll keep looking for the strange and scary biosignatures like phosphine. 当然,我还会继续寻找 像膦一样奇怪又可怕的生物印记。
But crucially , I will look for all the molecules that can together paint a holistic picture of a biosphere. 此外至关重要的是, 我会继续寻找所有可以 一起描绘出生物圈整体风貌的分子。
All of this so that one day we'll know life when we see it. 所有这一切都是为了有一天 当我们看到生命时,就知道是它。
Thank you. 谢谢。
crucially:adv.关键地;至关重要地; holistic:adj.整体的;全盘的;