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JackHorner_2011-_从鸡造恐龙_
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| When I was growing up in Montana , |
我在蒙太拿长大 |
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Montana:n.蒙大纳(美国州名);
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| I had two dreams. |
有两个梦想 |
| I wanted to be a paleontologist , a dinosaur paleontologist , and I wanted to have a pet dinosaur. |
一个是成为古生物学家 研究恐龙的古生物学家 一个是拥有一个小恐龙作为宠物 |
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paleontologist:n.古生物学家;古生物学者;
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| And so that's what I've been striving for all of my life. |
这是我整个生命中 工作的动力 |
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striving:n.努力;奋斗;v.努力;奋斗;力争;力求;(strive的现在分词)
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| I was very fortunate early in my career . |
我很幸运 在我职业生涯的早期 |
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fortunate:adj.幸运的;交好运的;吉利的; career:n.职业;事业;生涯;经历;
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| I was fortunate in finding things. |
我在发掘方面 很走运 |
| I wasn't very good at reading things. |
我不擅长于阅读 |
| In fact, I don't read much of anything. |
事实上,我并不读什么文献 |
| I am extremely dyslexic , and so reading is the hardest thing I do. |
我在阅读方面有障碍 阅读对我来说是最难的事 |
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extremely:adv.非常,极其;极端地; dyslexic:adj.诵读困难的;n.诵读困难者;
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| But instead, I go out and I find things. |
但是我走出去,发掘东西 |
| Then I just pick things up. |
我就能获得信息 |
| I basically practice for finding money on the street. |
基本上我是靠在街上捡钱来训练的 |
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basically:adv.主要地,基本上;
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| (Laughter) |
（笑声） |
| And I wander about the hills, and I have found a few things. |
我对山陵感兴趣 也发现了一些东西 |
| And I have been fortunate enough to find things like the first eggs in the Western hemisphere and the first baby dinosaurs in nests, the first dinosaur embryos and massive accumulations of bones. |
特别幸运的是 我发现了西半球上第一个恐龙蛋 第一个还在巢中的恐龙宝宝 第一个恐龙胚胎 还有数量巨大的恐龙骨头 |
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hemisphere:n.半球; embryos:n.胚;胚胎;人类胚胎;(embryo的复数) massive:adj.大量的;巨大的,厚重的;魁伟的; accumulations:n.积聚,累积;堆积物;
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| And it happened to be at a time when people were just starting to begin to realize that dinosaurs weren't the big, stupid, green reptiles that people had thought for so many years. |
那时刚好是 人们开始认识到 恐龙并不是笨重的爬虫的时期 人们从前这样想了很多年 |
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reptiles:n.爬行动物(reptile的复数);[脊椎]爬行类;爬虫类;
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| People were starting to get an idea that dinosaurs were special. |
那时大家开始觉得 恐龙其实挺特别的 |
| And so, at that time, |
所以那时候 |
| I was able to make some interesting hypotheses along with my colleagues . |
我有机会试验很多理论 当然还有我的同僚们 |
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hypotheses:n.假定;臆测(hypothesis的复数); colleagues:n.同事;同行(colleague的复数);
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| We were able to actually say that dinosaurs -- based on the evidence we had -- that dinosaurs built nests and lived in colonies and cared for their young, brought food to their babies and traveled in gigantic herds . |
我们能够证明 恐龙——从我们有的证据来看—— 恐龙能建巢 群居生活 能够照料幼小宝宝 捕食回巢给宝宝吃 迁移的时候是大群一起走的 |
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evidence:n.证据,证明;迹象;明显;v.证明; gigantic:adj.巨大的,庞大的; herds:n.畜群;大量(herd的复数);人群;v.聚在一起;结交(herd的三单形式);
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| So it was pretty interesting stuff . |
这些都很有趣 |
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stuff:n.东西:物品:基本特征:v.填满:装满:标本:
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| I have gone on to find more things and discover that dinosaurs really were very social. |
我还进一步发现 恐龙其实是非常社会性的动物 |
| We have found a lot of evidence that dinosaurs changed from when they were juveniles to when they were adults. |
我们有很多证据 说明恐龙在从少年到成年的期间 变化巨大 |
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juveniles:n.少年(juvenile的复数形式);稚气;
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| The appearance of them would have been different -- which it is in all social animals. |
它们的外表很不一样—— 这在社会性的动物中可见 |
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appearance:n.外貌;外观;外表;
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| In social groups of animals, the juveniles always look different than the adults. |
在动物的社会群体中 少年们总是和成年动物看起来不一样的 |
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different than:不同于;
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| The adults can recognize the juveniles; the juveniles can recognize the adults. |
这样成年动物就能认出少年动物 少年们也能认出成年动物 |
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recognize:v.认识;认出;辨别出;承认;意识到;
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| And so we're making a better picture of what a dinosaur looks like. |
我们这样就对恐龙是什么样的动物 有了一个宏观的看法 |
| And they didn't just all chase Jeeps around. |
它们并不是仅仅乱追吉普车的 |
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Jeeps:n.吉普车;
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| (Laughter) |
（笑声） |
| But it is that social thing that I guess attracted Michael Crichton. |
我想正是这社会性 引起了迈克尔·克赖顿的兴趣 |
| And in his book, he talked about the social animals. |
在他的书里,他讲到了这个社会性 |
| And then Steven Spielberg, of course, depicts these dinosaurs as being very social creatures . |
接着斯蒂文·斯皮尔伯格,当然了 把恐龙们描绘成 非常社会性的动物 |
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depicts:vt.描述;描画; creatures:n.生物;动物;(具有某种特征的)人(creature的复数)
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| The theme of this story is building a dinosaur, and so we come to that part of " Jurassic Park." |
他们故事的主题是重造恐龙 这样我们就有了“侏罗纪公园”的故事 |
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Jurassic:adj.侏罗系的;侏罗纪的;n.侏罗纪;
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| Michael Crichton really was one of the first people to talk about bringing dinosaurs back to life. |
迈克尔·克赖顿其实是第一批人 开始谈论怎么重新让恐龙复生的 |
| You all know the story, right. |
你们都知道这个故事吧 |
| I mean, I assume everyone here has seen "Jurassic Park." |
我指假设每个人都看过“侏罗纪公园” |
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assume:v.承担;假定;采取;呈现;
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| If you want to make a dinosaur, you go out, you find yourself a piece of petrified tree sap -- otherwise known as amber -- that has some blood-sucking insects in it, good ones, and you get your insect and you drill into it and you suck out some DNA, |
如果你想造出个恐龙 你出去找一块石化的天然树脂—— 也就是所谓的琥珀—— 找一个有吸血昆虫的 质量好的 这样你有了昆虫,就钻个洞进去 吸出一些DNA |
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petrified:adj.非常害怕; v.使吓呆; (petrify的过去分词和过去式) sap:n.[植]树液; vt.使衰竭,使伤元气; vi.挖坑道; amber:adj.琥珀色的;琥珀制的;n.琥珀;琥珀色;vt.使呈琥珀色; suck:v.吸吮;吸取;n.吮吸;
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| because obviously all insects that sucked blood in those days sucked dinosaur DNA out. |
当然了,因为那时候所有的吸血昆虫 都吸的是恐龙的DNA |
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sucked:v.吸,吮;吸收;吞没;(suck的过去分词和过去式)
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| And you take your DNA back to the laboratory and you clone it. |
你把DNA拿回实验室 克隆一把 |
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laboratory:n.实验室,研究室; clone:v.克隆; n.克隆动物(或植物);
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| And I guess you inject it into maybe an ostrich egg, or something like that, and then you wait, and, lo and behold , out pops a little baby dinosaur. |
我猜是通过把DNA注射到一个鸵鸟蛋里 或者别的什么大蛋 你就等吧 运气好的话,小恐龙就破壳而出啦 |
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inject:v.注入;注射; ostrich:n.鸵鸟;鸵鸟般的人; behold:v.看;注视;把...视为;int.瞧;看呀;
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| And everybody's happy about that. |
皆大欢喜 |
| (Laughter) |
（笑声） |
| And they're happy over and over again . |
皆大欢喜一次又一次之后 |
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over and over again:adv.一再地;反复不断地;
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| They keep doing it; they just keep making these things. |
他们不断克隆,不断造恐龙 |
| And then, then, then, and then ... |
然后 |
| Then the dinosaurs, being social, act out their socialness, and they get together , and they conspire . |
这么多恐龙就社交起来啦 社会性十足 它们聚到一起 密谋策反 |
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get together:聚会 conspire:vi.共谋;协力;vt.[法]密谋策划;
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| And, of course, that's what makes Steven Spielberg's movie -- conspiring dinosaurs chasing people around. |
当然了,这就成就了斯蒂文·斯皮尔伯格的电影—— 造反的恐龙把人追得到处跑 |
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conspiring:v.密谋;图谋;阴谋;(conspire的现在分词)
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| So I assume everybody knows that if you actually had a piece of amber and it had an insect in it, and you drilled into it, and you got something out of that insect, |
我假定每个人都知道 如果你真的拿一块琥珀,有昆虫的 钻个洞 得到一些原料 |
| and you cloned it, and you did it over and over and over again, you'd have a room full of mosquitoes . |
克隆一把,重复做这件事 你只能得到一屋子的蚊子 |
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cloned:v.以无性繁殖技术复制;克隆;非法复制;(clone的过去分词和过去式) mosquitoes:n.蚊子(mosquito的复数);
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| (Laughter) |
（笑声） |
| (Applause) |
（掌声） |
| And probably a whole bunch of trees as well. |
可能还不济一些树木 |
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bunch:n.群;串;突出物;vi.隆起;打褶;形成一串;vt.使成一串;使打褶;
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| Now if you want dinosaur DNA, |
你想要恐龙的DNA |
| I say go to the dinosaur. |
就要在恐龙身上找 |
| So that's what we've done. |
这正是我们的策略 |
| Back in 1993 when the movie came out, we actually had a grant from the National Science Foundation to attempt to extract DNA from a dinosaur, and we chose the dinosaur on the left, a Tyrannosaurus rex, which was a very nice specimen . |
回溯到1993年,当这个电影开始放映时 我们其实已经拿了国家科学基金, 在试图从恐龙化石中提取DNA 我们选了图上左边的恐龙 是个暴龙化石,保存得很好的标本 |
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grant:v.授予;允许;承认;同意;n.拨款;[法]授予物; Foundation:n.基础;地基;基金会;根据;创立; attempt:n.企图,试图;攻击;v.企图,试图;尝试; extract:v.提取;取出;摘录;榨取;n.汁;摘录;榨出物;选粹; Tyrannosaurus:n.暴龙; specimen:n.标本;样品;样本;(尤指动植物的)单一实例;
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| And one of my former doctoral students, |
我当时的一个博士生 |
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doctoral:adj.博士的;博士学位的;有博士学位的;n.博士论文;
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| Dr. Mary Schweitzer, actually had the background to do this sort of thing. |
现在是玛丽·施韦策博士了 有做类似研究的 基础 |
| And so she looked into the bone of this T. rex, one of the thigh bones, and she actually found some very interesting structures in there. |
所以她在这个暴龙的骨头里 一条大腿骨里 找到了 一些非常有趣的组织 |
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thigh:n.大腿;股;食用的鸡(等的)大腿; structures:n.结构; v.建造(structure的第三人称单数形式);
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| They found these red circular-looking objects, and they looked, for all the world , like red blood cells. |
他们发现了红色的,圆形的东西 特别像 红细胞 |
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for all the world:无论如何;
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| And they're in what appear to be the blood channels that go through the bone. |
它们正好在 血管里 在骨头中间 |
| And so she thought, well, what the heck . |
所以她就想,不如一试 |
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heck:n.(英口)同"hell",表示略微烦恼或吃惊;
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| So she sampled some material out of it. |
她提取了一些组织出来 |
| Now it wasn't DNA; she didn't find DNA. |
这些不是DNA,她没找到DNA |
| But she did find heme , which is the biological foundation of hemoglobin . |
但是她发现了原血红素 正是血红素 的基础 |
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heme:n.亚铁血红素; 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; hemoglobin:n.[生化]血红蛋白(等于haemoglobin);血红素;
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| And that was really cool. |
这是个大发现 |
| That was interesting. |
非常有趣 |
| That was -- here we have 65-million-year-old heme. |
这可是六千五百万年前的原血红素 |
| Well we tried and tried and we couldn't really get anything else out of it. |
我们试了很久 没得到任何结果 |
| So a few years went by, and then we started the Hell Creek Project. |
几年过去了 我们开始了地狱溪计划 |
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Creek:n.小溪;小湾;
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| And the Hell Creek Project was this massive undertaking to get as many dinosaurs as we could possibly find, and hopefully find some dinosaurs that had more material in them. |
这个地狱溪计划是一场大发掘 目的是挖出尽量多的恐龙化石 希望发现一些恐龙化石 是有更多的遗传物质的 |
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undertaking:n.事业;企业;保证;殡仪业;v.同意;担任;许诺;(undertake的现在分词)
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| And out in eastern Montana there's a lot of space, a lot of badlands , and not very many people, and so you can go out there and find a lot of stuff. |
在蒙太拿东部 那里有很多空地,很多不毛之地 没有什么居民 你可就出去找到很多东西 |
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eastern:adj.东方的;向东的;东部的;东方国家的;n.东方人;东正教信徒; badlands:n.荒地;崎岖不毛的地区;
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| And we did find a lot of stuff. |
我们也的确发现了很多东西 |
| We found a lot of Tyrannosaurs , but we found one special Tyrannosaur, and we called it B-rex. |
我们发现了很多暴龙化石 其中一种很特殊 叫做B型暴龙 |
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Tyrannosaurs:n.霸王龙(等于tyrannosaurus);
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| And B-rex was found under a thousand cubic yards of rock. |
B型暴龙是在 一片上千立方的岩石群下发现的 |
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cubic:adj.立方体的,立方的;
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| It wasn't a very complete T. rex, and it wasn't a very big T. rex, but it was a very special B-rex. |
这并不完全是暴龙 也不是特别大的暴龙 但是这是一种十分特殊的B型暴龙 |
| And I and my colleagues cut into it, and we were able to determine , by looking at lines of arrested growth, some lines in it, that B-rex had died at the age of 16. |
我和同事们把化石切开 我们能够确定 从看骨头里的生长线, 这个B型暴龙是十六岁时死的 |
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determine:v.决定;确定;测定;查明;形成;影响;裁决;安排;
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| We don't really know how long dinosaurs lived, because we haven't found the oldest one yet. |
我们并不知道恐龙一般活多久 因为我们还没找到最老的 |
| But this one died at the age of 16. |
但是这只恐龙在十六岁时死去 |
| We gave samples to Mary Schweitzer, and she was actually able to determine that B-rex was a female based on medullary tissue found on the inside of the bone. |
我们把样本给玛丽·施韦策 她能确定 这个B型暴龙是雌性 因为骨头里 的髓状组织的样子 |
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female:adj.女性的;雌性的;柔弱的,柔和的;n.女人;[动]雌性动物; medullary:adj.(解,植)髓(射)线;
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| Medullary tissue is the calcium build-up , the calcium storage basically, when an animal is pregnant , when a bird is pregnant. |
髓状组织全是积累的钙 也就是钙库 动物怀孕时会产生 鸟类怀孕时也会产生 |
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calcium:n.[化学]钙; build-up:n.组成;逐渐增加或积累;堆起;adj.内建的; pregnant:adj.怀孕的;富有意义的;
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| So here was the character that linked birds and dinosaurs. |
这是一个把鸟类 和恐龙连起来的特征 |
| But Mary went further. |
玛丽继续探索 |
| She took the bone, and she dumped it into acid. |
她把骨头放入酸中 |
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dumped:v.丢弃,扔掉;丢下;抛弃;倾销,抛售;(dump的过去分词和过去式)
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| Now we all know that bones are fossilized , and so if you dump it into acid, there shouldn't be anything left. |
我们知道骨头已经变成化石了 所以把化石放在酸里 应该会全溶解 |
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fossilized:adj.石化的;僵化的;老化的;v.石化(fossilize的过去式和过去分词);
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| But there was something left. |
但是这次有些东西不溶 |
| There were blood vessels left. |
它们就是血管 |
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vessels:n.血管(vessel的复数);船舶;容器;
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| There were flexible , clear blood vessels. |
这些是柔韧的,透明的血管 |
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flexible:adj.灵活的;柔韧的;易弯曲的;
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| And so here was the first soft tissue from a dinosaur. |
也是第一次在恐龙化石里发现软组织 |
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soft tissue:n.(皮肤、肌肉等)软组织;
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| It was extraordinary . |
这非常了不起 |
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extraordinary:adj.非凡的;特别的;离奇的;临时的;特派的;
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| But she also found osteocytes, which are the cells that laid down the bones. |
她还发现了骨细胞 也就是组成骨头的细胞 |
| And try and try, we could not find DNA, but she did find evidence of proteins . |
通过不断试验,我们还是没有发现DNA 但是她发现了蛋白质 |
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proteins:n.[生化]蛋白质(protein复数);
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| But we thought maybe -- well, we thought maybe that the material was breaking down after it was coming out of the ground. |
我们认为—— 仅仅是认为 在组织被发掘出来后,它们就很快降解了 |
| We thought maybe it was deteriorating very fast. |
我们认为这些组织降解的很快 |
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deteriorating:v.退化,恶化(deteriorate的ing形式);
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| And so we built a laboratory in the back of an 18-wheeler trailer, and actually took the laboratory to the field where we could get better samples. |
所以我们就在一个十八轮的大方车里 造了个实验室 把实验室带到野外 我们发掘样本的地方 |
| And we did. We got better material. |
我们这样做了,也得到了更好的样本 |
| The cells looked better. |
细胞看起来更好 |
| The vessels looked better. |
血管看起来更好 |
| Found the protein collagen . |
胶原蛋白更好 |
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collagen:n.[生化]胶原,胶原质;
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| I mean, it was wonderful stuff. |
这都很完美 |
| But it's not dinosaur DNA. |
但是还是找不到恐龙的DNA |
| So we have discovered that dinosaur DNA, and all DNA, just breaks down too fast. |
我们已经知道 恐龙的DNA,或者说所有的DNA 实在是降解的太快了 |
| We're just not going to be able to do what they did in "Jurassic Park." |
我们就是不能够 像电影“侏罗纪公园”里一样得到DNA |
| We're not going to be able to make a dinosaur based on a dinosaur. |
我们不能用恐龙 来重造恐龙 |
| But birds are dinosaurs. |
但是还在鸟类就是恐龙 |
| Birds are living dinosaurs. |
鸟类是活恐龙 |
| We actually classify them as dinosaurs. |
我们其实把鸟类 归为和恐龙一类 |
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classify:vt.分类;分等;
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| We now call them non-avian dinosaurs and avian dinosaurs. |
我们现在管恐龙叫非鸟类恐龙 管鸟类叫鸟类恐龙 |
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avian:adj.鸟的;鸟类的;n.鸟;
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| So the non-avian dinosaurs are the big clunky ones that went extinct . |
所以这些非鸟类恐龙 就是那些已经灭绝了的大家伙 |
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clunky:adj.沉重的;影响不好的; extinct:adj.灭绝的,绝种的;熄灭的;vt.使熄灭;
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| Avian dinosaurs are our modern birds. |
鸟类恐龙就是我们现代的鸟类 |
| So we don't have to make a dinosaur because we already have them. |
我们不需要造什么恐龙 我们已经有啦 |
| (Laughter) |
（笑声） |
| I know, you're as bad as the sixth-graders. |
你们简直就像一帮六年级学生 |
| (Laughter) |
（笑声） |
| The sixth-graders look at it and they say, "No." |
六年级学生看看我说:“这行不通。” |
| (Laughter) |
（笑声） |
| '"You can call it a dinosaur, but look at the velociraptor : the velociraptor is cool." |
“你尽管叫这个为鸟类恐龙 但是看看真的迅猛龙,那才叫恐龙。” |
|
velociraptor:n.迅猛龙;
|
| (Laughter) |
（笑声） |
| '"The chicken is not." |
“鸡可不那么酷。” |
| (Laughter) |
（笑声） |
| So this is our problem, as you can imagine. |
这正是我们的问题 你可以想象 |
| The chicken is a dinosaur. |
鸡就是恐龙 |
| I mean it really is. |
我是说,它真的是 |
| You can't argue with it because we're the classifiers and we've classified it that way. |
你辩不过我 因为我们是专管分类的人,我们就爱这么分 |
|
classifiers:n.(汉语等中的)量词;分级机;分类者;分粒器; classified:adj.机密的; v.将…分类; (classify的过去分词和过去式)
|
| (Laughter) |
（笑声） |
| (Applause) |
（掌声） |
| But the sixth-graders demand it. |
但是六年级学生还是不认输 |
| '"Fix the chicken." |
“你得改造鸡。” |
| (Laughter) |
（笑声） |
| So that's what I'm here to tell you about: how we are going to fix a chicken. |
这就是我想告诉你们的 我们是怎么改造鸡的 |
| So we have a number of ways that we actually can fix the chicken. |
我们有几种方法 可以把鸡改造成恐龙 |
| Because evolution works, we actually have some evolutionary tools. |
因为有进化 我们可以用进化的方法 |
|
evolutionary:adj.进化的;发展的;渐进的;
|
| We'll call them biological modification tools. |
我们管它叫生物改良法 |
|
modification:n.修改;改进;改变;
|
| We have selection . |
我们可以选择 |
|
selection:n.选择;选拔;挑选;被挑选的人(或物);
|
| And we know selection works. |
我们也知道选择是可行的 |
| We started out with a wolf-like creature and we ended up with a Maltese. |
我们从一只狼一样的动物开始 最后得到一个马耳他人 |
| I mean, that's -- that's definitely genetic modification. |
我是说,这真的—— 真的是基因改良工程 |
|
definitely:adv.清楚地,当然;明确地,肯定地; genetic:adj.基因的;遗传学的;
|
| Or any of the other funny-looking little dogs. |
或者任何其它有趣的好看的小狗 |
|
funny-looking:可笑的;
|
| We also have transgenesis. |
我们还有转基因技术 |
| Transgenesis is really cool too. |
转基因也是很有用的工具 |
| That's where you take a gene out of one animal and stick it in another one. |
你把一个动物的基因拿出来,放在另一个动物里 |
| That's how people make GloFish. |
这就是怎么做荧光鱼的 |
| You take a glow gene out of a coral or a jellyfish and you stick it in a zebrafish , and, puff , they glow. |
你拿一个荧光的基因 从珊瑚或者水母中来 放在斑马鱼体内 它们就能发荧光 |
|
glow:n.喜悦; v.发热; coral:n.珊瑚;珊瑚虫;adj.珊瑚的;珊瑚色的; jellyfish:n.水母;[无脊椎]海蜇;软弱无能的人; zebrafish:n.斑马鱼; puff:v.喷出,张开; n.粉扑;
|
| And that's pretty cool. |
很奇妙吧 |
| And they obviously make a lot of money off of them. |
人们用这个赚大钱 |
| And now they're making Glow-rabbits and Glow-all-sorts-of-things. |
现在他们在做荧光兔 荧光很多东西 |
| I guess we could make a glow chicken. |
我就想我们可以做个荧光鸡 |
| (Laughter) |
（笑声） |
| But I don't think that'll satisfy the sixth-graders either. |
但是我不认为这能够说服六年级学生 |
|
satisfy:vt.满足(要求,需要等):使满意:使确信:
|
| But there's another thing. |
还有一个武器 |
| There's what we call atavism activation . |
叫做返祖激活 |
|
activation:n.[电子][物]激活;活化作用;
|
| And atavism activation is basically -- an atavism is an ancestral characteristic . |
返祖激活 其实就是—— 返祖现象就是重现祖先的特征 |
|
ancestral:adj.祖先的;祖传的; characteristic:n.特征;特点;品质;adj.典型的;独特的;特有的;
|
| You heard that occasionally children are born with tails, and it's because it's an ancestral characteristic. |
你听过 有些孩子出生时有小尾巴 这就是返祖现象 |
|
occasionally:adv.偶尔;有时候;偶然;
|
| And so there are a number of atavisms that can happen. |
有些返祖现象 常常发生 |
| Snakes are occasionally born with legs. |
蛇有时有腿 |
| And here's an example. |
这就是个例子 |
| This is a chicken with teeth. |
这是个生下来有牙齿的鸡 |
| A fellow by the name of Matthew Harris at the University of Wisconsin in Madison actually figured out a way to stimulate the gene for teeth, and so was able to actually turn the tooth gene on and produce teeth in chickens. |
一个叫马修·海瑞斯的人 在威斯康辛麦迪逊大学工作 发现了如何刺激 牙齿基因的生长 所以他能够让牙齿基因生长 在鸡身上长牙齿 |
|
by the name of:名叫;以…的名义; Wisconsin:n.威斯康星州(美国州名); stimulate:v.刺激;激发;促进;激励;
|
| Now that's a good characteristic. |
这是个好的特征 |
| We can save that one. |
我们能保留这个科技 |
| We know we can use that. |
我们能用这个 |
| We can make a chicken with teeth. |
我们可以让鸡生牙齿 |
| That's getting closer. |
这离恐龙就近了一步 |
| That's better than a glowing chicken. |
比荧光鸡要有用 |
|
glowing:adj.灼热的;热情洋溢的;鲜艳的;v.发光;容光焕发;发热;(glow的现在分词)
|
| (Laughter) |
（笑声） |
| A friend of mine, a colleague of mine, |
我有个朋友,一个同事 |
| Dr. Hans Larsson at McGill University, is actually looking at atavisms. |
在麦克吉尔大学的汉斯·拉尔森博士 在研究返祖现象 |
| And he's looking at them by looking at the embryo genesis of birds and actually looking at how they develop, and he's interested in how birds actually lost their tail. |
他研究返祖 是通过研究鸟的胚胎发育 看它们是怎么发育的 他对鸟类的尾巴是怎么消失的感兴趣 |
|
genesis:n.发生;起源;
|
| He's also interested in the transformation of the arm, the hand, to the wing. |
他同时也对前肢,爪子,和翅膀 的变化感兴趣 |
|
transformation:n.转变;(用于南非)民主改革;
|
| He's looking for those genes as well. |
他也研究有关的基因 |
| And I said, "Well, if you can find those, |
我说:“如果你能找到这些基因, |
| I can just reverse them and make what I need to make for the sixth-graders." |
我就能靠让它们倒行逆施, 得到六年级学生要求的恐龙鸡” |
|
reverse:n.反面; v.颠倒; adj.相反的;
|
| And so he agreed. |
他同意了 |
| And so that's what we're looking into. |
这就是我们研究的东西 |
| If you look at dinosaur hands, a velociraptor has that cool-looking hand with the claws on it. |
如果你注意恐龙的爪子 迅猛龙 有特殊的手掌,末端有爪子 |
|
claws:n.(动物或禽类的)爪,脚爪; v.(用爪子或手指甲)抓,撕,挠(claw的第三人称单数和复数)
|
| Archaeopteryx , which is a bird, a primitive bird, still has that very primitive hand. |
始祖鸟,其实是鸟,一个鸟类的先祖 还有着先祖的手掌 |
|
Archaeopteryx:n.始祖鸟; primitive:adj.原始的,远古的;简单的,粗糙的;n.原始人;
|
| But as you can see , the pigeon , or a chicken or anything else , another bird, has kind of a weird-looking hand, because the hand is a wing. |
但是你可以看到,鸽子 或者鸡,或者其它任何一个鸟类 都有这样怪怪的手掌 因为手变成了翅膀 |
|
as you can see:正如你所看到的;你是知道的; pigeon:n.[鸟]鸽子;(非正式)易受骗的人;(非正式)责任; or anything else:或什么别的;或任何东西其他;
|
| But the cool thing is that, if you look in the embryo, as the embryo is developing the hand actually looks pretty much like the archaeopteryx hand. |
但是有趣的是 如果你看它们的胚胎 在胚胎发育的时候 州长其实看起来像是 始祖鸟的手掌 |
| It has the three fingers, the three digits. |
三个手指,三个脚趾 |
| But a gene turns on that actually fuses those together. |
但是后来一个基因开始运作,使得手指脚趾都混合在一起了 |
|
fuses:n.[电]保险丝; v.熔化;
|
| And so what we're looking for is that gene. |
我们就在找这个基因 |
| We want to stop that gene from turning on, fusing those hands together, so we can get a chicken that hatches out with a three-fingered hand, like the archaeopteryx. |
我们希望防止这个基因运作 不让手掌混合在一起 我们就能得到三个手指的鸡 就像始祖鸟一样 |
|
fusing:n.熔断,熔化; v.熔化; hatches:n.孵化;[船][航]舱口(hatches的复数形式);v.孵出(hatch的第三人称单数);
|
| And the same goes for the tails. |
对尾巴也一样 |
| Birds have basically rudimentary tails. |
鸟类其实 有没发育完的尾巴 |
|
rudimentary:adj.基本的;初步的;退化的;残遗的;未发展的;
|
| And so we know that in embryo, as the animal is developing, it actually has a relatively long tail. |
我们知道 在胚胎中 当动物发育时 有个其实很长的尾巴 |
|
relatively:adv.相当程度上;相当地;相对地;
|
| But a gene turns on and resorbs the tail, gets rid of it. |
但是一个基因开始运作 消融了尾巴,它就消失了 |
| So that's the other gene we're looking for. |
这就是我们在找的另一个基因 |
| We want to stop that tail from resorbing. |
我们希望防止尾巴被消融 |
| So what we're trying to do really is take our chicken, modify it and make the chickenosaurus. |
所以我们试图做的 是拿一只鸡 改造它 并造出鸡恐龙 |
|
modify:vt.修改,修饰;更改;vi.修改;
|
| (Laughter) |
（笑声） |
| It's a cooler-looking chicken. |
这鸡看起来就酷多了 |
| But it's just the very basics. |
但是这只是非常基本的改造 |
| So that really is what we're doing. |
这就是我们在做的东西 |
| And people always say, "Why do that? |
人们总是问:“为什么做这个？ |
| Why make this thing? |
为什么造那个？ |
| What good is it?" |
有什么好处？” |
| Well, that's a good question. |
这是个好问题 |
| Actually, I think it's a great way to teach kids about evolutionary biology and developmental biology and all sorts of things. |
事实上,我想这是教孩子 进化论和发育生物学 和其它很多东西 的最好方法 |
|
biology:n.(一个地区全部的)生物;生物学; developmental:adj.发展的;启发的;
|
| And quite frankly, I think if Colonel Sanders was to be careful how he worded it, he could actually advertise an extra piece. |
坦白说我认为 如果肯德基山德士上校 当年想得开阔一些,他的措辞留心一下 说不定也能为鸡恐龙作上额外广告 |
|
Colonel:n.(陆军、海军陆战队或美国空军)上校; Sanders:n.打磨机;(sander的复数) advertise:v.做广告;登广告;(在报纸、公共场所公告牌、互联网等上)公布;展现;
|
| (Laughter) |
（笑声） |
| Anyway -- |
总之—— |
| When our dino-chicken hatches, it will be, obviously, the poster child , or what you might call a poster chick, for technology , entertainment and design. |
当我们的恐龙鸡孵化时 会变成海报明星宝宝 或者你可以称它海报明星鸡宝宝 代言科技,娱乐和设计 |
|
poster child:n.(为慈善等目的)出现在海报上的儿童;代表人物;典型; technology:n.技术;工艺;术语;
|
| Thank you. |
谢谢大家 |
| (Applause) |
（掌声） |