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MichaelArcher_2013X-_我们怎么会让胃育蛙，塔斯马尼亚虎_
I do want to test this question we're all interested in: 我们只知道,野狗被引入澳洲后不久,
Does extinction have to be forever? 气候变迁已经影响这个世界很久了,
extinction:n.绝种;
I'm focused on two projects I want to tell you about. 我要告诉你们的是两个我所关注的项目,
One is the Thylacine Project. 其中一个是关于袋狼的;
Thylacine:n.袋狼;
The other one is the Lazarus Project, and that's focused on the gastric-brooding frog. 另一个叫“拉撒路”项目, 着重于胃育蛙。
And it would be a fair question to ask, why have we focused on these two animals? 大家有可能会问, 为什么我们选择把重点放在这两个动物上？
Well, point number one, each of them represents a unique family of its own. 首先,这两个物种
represents:v.代表;维护…的利益;相当于;(represent的第三人称单数) unique:adj.独特的,稀罕的;[数]唯一的;n.独一无二的人或物;
We've lost a whole family. 我们失去了整整一个科的生物,
That's a big chunk of the global genome gone. 也就是说全球基因组的一大块被丢掉了,
chunk:n.大块;矮胖的人或物; global:adj.全球的;总体的;球形的; genome:n.基因组;染色体组;
I'd like it back. 而我想把它找回来。
The second reason is that we killed these things. 第二个原因是因为,是我们,使这两个物种灭绝的。
In the case of the thylacine, regrettably , we shot every one that we saw. 以袋狼为例,令人遗憾的是
regrettably:adv.遗憾地;抱歉地;可悲地;
We slaughtered them.
slaughtered:v.屠宰;宰杀;屠杀;杀戮;使惨败;(slaughter的过去分词和过去式)
In the case of the gastric-brooding frog, we may have "fungicided" it to death. 而对于胃育蛙来说,
There's a dreadful fungus that's moving through the world that's called the chytrid fungus, and it's nailing frogs all over the world. 有一种可怕的真菌在全世界传播,
dreadful:adj.可怕的;糟透的,令人不快的; fungus:n.真菌,霉菌;菌类; chytrid:壶菌;
We think that's probably what got this frog, and humans are spreading this fungus. 我们认为这很可能是胃育蛙灭绝的原因, 而正是人类使这些真菌到处传播。
And this introduces a very important ethical point, and I think you will have heard this many times when this topic comes up. 这就引出了一个很重要的道德问题, 我想每当提起动物灭绝时, 大家可能就会听到这个问题了。
ethical:adj.伦理的;道德的;凭处方出售的;n.处方药;
What I think is important is that, if it's clear that we exterminated these species , then I think we not only have a moral obligation to see what we can do about it, but I think we've got a moral imperative to try to do something, if we can. 我认为重要的是, 那我觉得,我们不仅有道德上的义务 来看看我们能做点什么,而且我认为, 如果可能的话,我们有道德上的责任来尝试做点什么。
exterminated:vt.消灭;根除; species:n.[生物]物种;种类; moral:n.寓意;品行;教益;adj.道德的;道义上的;道德上的;品行端正的; obligation:n.义务;责任;职责;(已承诺的或法律等规定的)义务; imperative:adj.重要紧急的; n.重要紧急的事;
OK. Let me talk to you about the Lazarus Project. 好,我来跟你们说说“拉撒路”项目。
It's a frog. And you think, frog. 是关于一种青蛙的。你可能会想,青蛙？
Yeah, but this was not just any frog. 对,但这可不是一般的青蛙。
Unlike a normal frog, which lays its eggs in the water and goes away and wishes its froglets well, this frog swallowed its fertilized eggs, swallowed them into the stomach, where it should be having food, didn't digest the eggs, and turned its stomach into a uterus . 普通的青蛙,在水中产卵之后 就游走了,只是期盼幼蛙能活下来。 而胃育蛙会将受精卵吞下, 吞到本来应该装食物的胃里去, 却不会将卵消化掉,
swallowed:v.吞下;咽下;吞没;淹没;侵吞(swallow的过去分词和过去式) fertilized:v.使受精;使受粉;使受胎;使受孕;施肥于;(fertilize的过去分词和过去式) digest:n.摘要;文摘;概要;汇编;v.消化;领会;领悟;理解; uterus:n.[解剖]子宫;
In the stomach, the eggs went on to develop into tadpoles , and in the stomach, the tadpoles went on to develop into frogs, and they grew in the stomach until eventually the poor old frog was at risk of bursting apart. 在胃里,这些卵发育成蝌蚪, 蝌蚪也是在胃里长成青蛙, 它们在胃里一直长,
tadpoles:n.[脊椎]蝌蚪(tadpole的复数形式); eventually:adv.最后,终于; bursting:adj.充满的;渴望的;v.爆炸;猛然打开;突然开始(burst的现在分词);
It has a little cough and a hiccup , and out comes sprays of little frogs. 然后它咳嗽一下,打个嗝
hiccup:n.打嗝;vi.打嗝;vt.呃逆着(或间断地)说出; sprays:n.喷雾;[药]喷雾剂(spray的复数);v.喷;扫射(spray的三单形式);
Now, when biologists saw this, they were agog . 生物学家们看到这一现象的时候大吃一惊,
biologists:n.生物学家(biologist的复数); agog:adj.兴奋的;有强烈兴趣的;adv.热切地;渴望地;
They thought, this is incredible . 他们觉得这太不可思议了。
incredible:adj.难以置信的,惊人的;
No animal, let alone a frog, has been known to do this, to change one organ in the body into another. 没有任何已知的动物,更别说青蛙了, 会像这样将体内的一种器官变成另一种器官。
let alone:更不必说;听任;不打扰; organ:n.[生物]器官;机构;风琴;管风琴;嗓音;
And you can imagine the medical world went nuts over this as well. 可想而知医学界也为之疯狂。
If we could understand how that frog is managing the way its tummy works, is there information here that we need to understand or could usefully use to help ourselves? 如果我们能够弄清楚胃育蛙是怎么
tummy:肚子,胃 usefully:adv.有效地,有用地;
Now, I'm not suggesting we want to raise our babies in our stomach, but I am suggesting it's possible we might want to manage gastric secretion in the gut . 我可不是说要把我们的宝宝放在胃里养, 我的建议是我们或许可以 有办法来调整胃液的分泌。
gastric:adj.胃的;胃部的; secretion:n.分泌;分泌物;藏匿;隐藏; gut:n.勇气;肠道;内脏;v.损毁内部;取出…的内脏;adj.非理性的;本能的
And just as everybody got excited about it, bang ! 当大家都对此感到兴奋的时候,“砰”的一声,
bang:n.猛敲; v.猛敲; v.正好;
It was extinct. 这种蛙灭绝了。
I called up my friend, 我打了个电话给我的朋友,
Professor Mike Tyler in the University of Adelaide.
He was the last person who had this frog, a colony of these things, in his lab. 他是最后一个曾有过这种青蛙的人,
colony:n.殖民地;移民队;
And I said, "Mike, by any chance --" This was 30 or 40 years ago. 我说:“迈克,有没有可能,”
'"By any chance had you kept any frozen tissue of this frog?" “有没有可能你还留了一些这种青蛙的冷冻组织呢？”
tissue:n.纸巾,手巾纸;(人、动植物细胞的)组织;
And he thought about it, and he went to his deep freezer , minus 20 degrees centigrade , and he poured through everything in the freezer , and there in the bottom was a jar and it contained tissues of these frogs. 他想了想,然后就到他的深度冷冻柜里, 把所有东西都翻了一遍。
freezer:n.冰箱;冷冻库;制冷工; minus:prep.减,减去;n.负号,减号;不足;负数;adj.减的;负的; centigrade:adj.摄氏的;[仪]摄氏温度的;百分度的; poured:v.使(液体)连续流出;倾倒;倒出;喷发;(pour的过去分词和过去式) tissues:n.纸巾,手巾纸;(人、动植物细胞的)组织;(tissue的复数)
This was very exciting, but there was no reason why we should expect that this would work, because this tissue had not had any antifreeze put in it, cryoprotectants , to look after it when it was frozen. 这让我们很激动,不过我们也没有理由 因为这块组织中没有加过任何防冻剂, 也叫冰冻防护剂,来保护它不被冻坏。
antifreeze:n.[助剂]防冻剂; cryoprotectants:n.[生物]冷冻保护剂;[生物]低温防护剂;
And normally , when water freezes, as you know, it expands , and the same thing happens in a cell. 通常来说,水结冰的时候会膨胀, 在细胞里也是一样。
normally:adv.正常地;通常地,一般地; expands:v.展开; (expand的第三人称单数)
If you freeze tissues, the water expands, damages or bursts the cell walls. 当你将组织冷冻时,水会膨胀
bursts:[天]爆发;破裂(burst的第三人称单数);
Well, we looked at the tissue under the microscope . 我们把组织放到显微镜下观察时,
microscope:n.显微镜;
It actually didn't look bad. The cell walls looked intact . 发现看起来并不差,细胞膜还很完整。
intact:adj.完整的;原封不动的;未受损伤的;
So we thought, let's give it a go.
What we did is something called somatic cell nuclear transplantation .
somatic:adj.躯体的;肉体的;体壁的; nuclear:adj.原子能的;[细胞]细胞核的;中心的;原子核的; transplantation:n.移植;迁移;移民;
We took the eggs of a related species, a living frog, and we inactivated the nucleus of the egg. 我们从与胃育蛙有亲缘关系的一个物种,一只活青蛙中取了卵, 然后我们将卵子的细胞核灭活,
inactivated:灭活的; nucleus:n.核,核心;原子核;
We used ultraviolet radiation to do that. 这是用紫外线辐射来做到的。
ultraviolet:adj.紫外的;紫外线的;n.紫外线辐射,紫外光; radiation:n.辐射;放射线;放射疗法;
And then we took the dead nucleus from the dead tissue of the extinct frog and we inserted those nuclei into that egg. 然后我们从已经灭绝的青蛙的死组织中,提取出死了的细胞核,
nuclei:n.核心,核子;原子核(nucleus的复数形式);
Now, by rights, this is kind of like a cloning project, like what produced Dolly , but it's actually very different, because Dolly was live sheep into live sheep cells. 这看起来有点儿像克隆技术了,就是制造出多利羊的技术, 不过实际上很不一样的。 因为“多利”是从活羊身上取细胞再放到活羊卵中,
cloning:n.克隆;v.无性繁殖(clone的现在分词); Dolly:n.洋娃娃;手推车;移动式摄影车;洗衣搅棒;v.用移动车移动;移动摄影车;
That was a miracle , but it was workable . “多利”是一个奇迹,但是还是有可能做到的;
miracle:n.奇迹,奇迹般的人或物;惊人的事例; workable:adj.切实可行的;可经营的;能工作的;
What we're trying to do is take a dead nucleus from an extinct species and put it into a completely different species and expect that to work. 而我们试图做的是取出一个灭绝的物种的死细胞核, 然后放到一个完全不同的物种中,还期望能成功。
Well, we had no real reason to expect it would, and we tried hundreds and hundreds of these. 我们其实没有什么理由能希望它成功。 我们试了好几百次,
And just last February, the last time we did these trials, 然后就在二月份我们上一次试验的时候,
I saw a miracle starting to happen. 我看到奇迹开始发生了。
What we found was most of these eggs didn't work, but then suddenly, one of them began to divide. 但是我们突然发现有一个卵开始分裂了。
That was so exciting. 这真是太让我们激动了。然后这个卵子又分裂了一次,
And then the egg divided again. And then again.
And pretty soon, we had early-stage embryos with hundreds of cells forming those.
embryos:n.胚;胚胎;人类胚胎;(embryo的复数)
We even DNA-tested some of these cells, and the DNA of the extinct frog is in those cells. 我们甚至对一些细胞做了DNA测试, 而这些细胞的确含有胃育蛙的DNA。
So we're very excited. This is not a tadpole. It's not a frog. 所以我们非常兴奋。这还不是蝌蚪,
But it's a long way along the journey to producing, or bringing back, an extinct species. 已灭绝物种的征途中的一大步了。
journey:n.旅行;行程;vi.旅行;
And this is news. 这无疑是一个重大新闻,我们之前还没有公开过这一消息。
We haven't announced this publicly before.
We're excited.
We've got to get past this point.
We now want this ball of cells to start to gastrulate, to turn in so that it will produce the other tissues. 细胞向里移动,这样就能够开始形成其他的组织。
It'll go on and produce a tadpole and then a frog. 继续下去就能形成一只蝌蚪,然后是一只青蛙。
Watch this space. 看着这个地方,我认为我们会见到一只胃育蛙
I think we're going to have this frog hopping glad to be back in the world again.
hopping:adj.很活跃的;忙忙碌碌的;v.单脚跳行;齐足(或双足)跳行;(hop的现在分词)
(Applause)
Thank you.
(Applause)
We haven't done it yet, but keep the applause ready. 我们现在还没做到,但是希望各位准备好为我们鼓掌。
applause:n.欢呼,喝采;鼓掌欢迎;
The second project I want to talk to you about is the Thylacine Project. 我想在这儿讲的第二个项目,是袋狼项目。
The thylacine looks a bit, to most people, like a dog, or maybe like a tiger, because it has stripes . 对于大多数人来说,袋狼看起来有点像狗, 也有点像老虎,因为它身上有条纹。
stripes:n.条子布;条纹布(stripe复数形式);v.给…加条纹(stripe的三单形式);
But it's not related to any of those. It's a marsupial . 但是它与狗和老虎都没有关系。
marsupial:adj.[脊椎]有袋的;袋状的;n.有袋类动物;
It raised its young in a pouch , like a koala or a kangaroo would do, and it has a long history, a long, fascinating history, that goes back 25 million years. 袋狼这个物种的历史很久远, 可以追溯到2500万年前,
pouch:n.小袋;育儿袋;烟草袋;vi.成袋状;vt.使成袋状;把…装入袋中; kangaroo:袋鼠 fascinating:adj.极有吸引力的;迷人的;v.深深吸引;迷住;(fascinate的现在分词)
But it's also a tragic history. 不过也是一段很悲惨的历史。
tragic:adj.悲剧的;悲痛的,不幸的;
The first one that we see occurs in the ancient rain forests of Australia about 25 million years ago, and the National Geographic Society is helping us to explore these fossil deposits . 最早的袋狼出现在2500万年前 国家地理协会正帮助我们 勘探那儿的化石沉积物。这里是里弗斯利（澳大利亚著名化石点）,
occurs:v.重现(occur的第三人称单数); Geographic:adj.地理的;地理学的; explore:v.探索:探测:探险: fossil:n.化石;老人;老古董;adj.从地下发掘出来的;化石的;属于旧时代的;陈腐的; deposits:n.[金融]存款; v.[地质]沉积(deposit的单三形式);
This is Riversleigh.
In those fossil rocks are some amazing animals. 在这些化石中保存了令人惊奇的动物。
We found marsupial lions. 我们看到了有袋的狮子,
We found carnivorous kangaroos . 还有肉食性的袋鼠,
carnivorous:adj.食肉的;肉食性的; kangaroos:袋鼠(kangaroo复数)
It's not what you usually think about as a kangaroo, but these are meat-eating kangaroos. 不是我们平常想象的那种袋鼠,
meat-eating:adj.食肉的;
We found the biggest bird in the world, bigger than that thing that was in Madagascar, and it too was a flesh eater . 比马达加斯加的那种鸟还大, 而且它也是食肉的,是一种巨大而怪异的鸭子。
flesh:n.肉;肉体;v.喂肉给…;发胖; eater:n.食者;
It was a giant , weird duck.
giant:n.巨人;伟人;巨兽;adj.巨大的;特大的 weird:adj.奇怪的;奇异的;离奇的;n.命运;宿命;命运女神;
And crocodiles were not behaving at that time either. 当时的鳄鱼的行为也和现在不一样。
crocodiles:n.鳄类,鳄鱼(crocodile的复数形式); behaving:v.表现:表现得体:有礼貌:(behave的现在分词)
You think of crocodiles as doing their ugly thing, sitting in a pool of water. 你可能会认为鳄鱼就是丑丑地 呆在水里。
ugly:adj.丑陋的;邪恶的;令人厌恶的;
These crocodiles were actually out on the land and they were even climbing trees and jumping on prey on the ground. 可这些鳄鱼是呆在陆地上的, 它们甚至爬到树上,
prey:n.猎物;受害者;受骗者;v.折磨;掠夺;捕食(on,upon);损害(on,upon);
We had, in Australia, drop crocs . They really do exist. 这种会跳下来的鳄鱼在澳大利亚确实存在过,
crocs:n.卡骆驰;(美国的鞋业公司)
(Laughter)
But what they were dropping on was not only other weird animals but also thylacines. 而被它们扑倒的动物,
There were five different kinds of thylacines in those ancient forests, and they ranged from great big ones to middle-sized ones to one that was about the size of a chihuahua . 在那片原始森林中有五种不同的袋狼, 它们的体型从大到中,
middle-sized:adj.中号的;中等大小的; chihuahua:n.吉娃娃(一种产于墨西哥的狗);奇瓦瓦(墨西哥北部的州及其首府名称);
Paris Hilton would have been able to carry one of these things around in a little handbag, until a drop croc landed on her. 帕丽斯?希尔顿（如果生活在那时候）就可以 在小手提包中装一只带着走,
At any rate , it was a fascinating place, but unfortunately , Australia didn't stay this way. 无论如何,那是个令人惊奇的地方。 但不幸的是,澳大利亚并没有能保持原样。
At any rate:无论如何,至少; unfortunately:adv.不幸地;
Climate change has affected the world for a long period of time, and gradually , the forests disappeared , the country began to dry out, and the number of kinds of thylacines began to decline , until by five million years ago, only one left. 气候变迁已经影响这个世界很久了, 渐渐地,森林消失了, 袋狼的种类也开始减少, 到五百万年前,就只剩下一种了。
gradually:adv.渐渐地;逐步地; disappeared:adj.消失的;消失了的;v.消失,失踪;(disappear的过去式和过去分词) decline:v.下降;衰退;减少;谢绝;n.下降;
By 10,000 years ago, they had disappeared from New Guinea , and unfortunately, by 4,000 years ago, somebodies , we don't know who this was, introduced dingoes -- this is a very archaic kind of a dog -- into Australia. 一万年前,它们从新几内亚
Guinea:n.几内亚;基尼(英国旧时金币名); somebodies:n.大人物;重要人物;pron.有人;某人; dingoes:n.澳洲野狗; v.退却; archaic:adj.古代的;陈旧的;古体的;古色古香的;
And as you can see , dingoes are very similar in their body form to thylacines. 你们看,这种野狗的体型
as you can see:正如你所看到的;你是知道的;
That similarity meant they probably competed . 这种相似性说明它们之间可能会相互竞争,
similarity:n.类似;相似点; competed:v.竞争,对抗(compete的过去分词);
They were eating the same kinds of foods. 它们可能会吃同样的食物。
It's even possible that aborigines were keeping some of these dingoes as pets, and therefore they may have had an advantage in the battle for survival . 它们在这场生存竞争中就占了优势。
aborigines:n.土著居民(aborigine的复数);土生动物群; advantage:n.有利条件:优势:优点: survival:n.幸存,残存;幸存者,残存物;
All we know is, soon after the dingoes were brought in, thylacines were extinct in the Australian mainland, and after that they only survived in Tasmania. 我们只知道,野狗被引入澳洲后不久, 袋狼就从澳洲大陆消失了, 之后仅存于塔斯马尼亚岛。
Then, unfortunately, the next sad part of the thylacine story is that Europeans arrived in 1788, and they brought with them the things they valued, and that included sheep. 这个袋狼故事的另一段惨剧,
Europeans:n.欧洲人(European的复数);
They took one look at the thylacine in Tasmania, and they thought, hang on, this is not going to work. .他们想,等等,这不行呀,
That guy is going to eat all our sheep. 这家伙会把我们的羊都吃了呀。
That was not what happened, actually. 事实并不是这样的。
Wild dogs did eat a few of the sheep, but the thylacine got a bad rap. 野外的狗吃了一些羊,但是袋狼却背了个恶名。
But immediately, the government said, that's it, let's get rid of them, and they paid people to slaughter every one that they saw. 但是政府立刻就说,我们受够了,
By the early 1930s, 3,000 to 4,000 thylacines had been murdered. 到三四十年代早期时,有三四千头袋狼
It was a disaster , and they were about to hit the wall.
disaster:n.灾难,灾祸;不幸; were about to:眼看就要;即将;正要;行将;
Have a look at this bit of film footage . 来看看这一段电影片段,
Have a look at:看一看,看一眼; footage:n.英尺长度;连续镜头;以尺计算长度;
It makes me very sad because, while it's a fascinating animal, and it's amazing to think that we had the technology to film it before it actually plunged off that cliff of extinction, we didn't, unfortunately, at this same time, have a molecule of concern about the welfare for this species. 这段电影让我很难过,因为这是一头很稀奇的动物, 而且想想我们竟然在它们掉下灭绝的悬崖之前, 已有了给它们录影的技术,真的是很奇特。 不幸的是,当时我们对 这种动物的安危一丁点都不关心。
technology:n.技术;工艺;术语; plunged:投入;跳进;使陷入;使投入(plunge的过去式和过去分词); cliff:n.悬崖;绝壁; molecule:n.[化学]分子;微小颗粒,微粒; concern:v.涉及,关系到;使担心;n.关系;关心;关心的事; welfare:n.福祉;(政府给予的)福利;
These are photos of the last surviving thylacine, Benjamin, who was in the Beaumaris Zoo in Hobart. 这里拍的是世界上最后一头袋狼,叫本杰明, 它当时在候巴特的布马里斯动物园。
To add insult to injury , having swept this species nearly off the table, this animal, when it died of neglect -- 如同在伤口上撒了一把盐,当我们把这一物种搞得
add insult to injury:雪上加霜;伤害之外又加侮辱; swept:v.扫除(sweep的过去式和过去分词);adj.扫频的; neglect:v.忽视;忽略;疏忽;疏于照顾;n.忽视;忽略;未被重视;
The keepers didn't let it into the hutch on a cold night in Hobart. 一个寒冷的晚上,
hutch:n.笼;小屋;贮藏箱;矿车;v.把…装箱;
It died of exposure , and in the morning, when they found the body of Benjamin, they still cared so little for this animal that they threw the body in the dump . 还是对它一点都不关心,
exposure:n.暴露;显露;揭露;面临; dump:v.倾倒;抛售;抛弃;转存;n.垃圾场;转储;转存;废物堆;
Does it have to stay this way? 一直都只能是这样了吗？
In 1990, I was in the Australian Museum. 1990年我在澳大利亚博物馆工作,
I was fascinated by thylacines. 对袋狼很着迷。我一直都对这种动物感兴趣。
I've always been obsessed with these animals.
obsessed:v.使痴迷;使迷恋;使着迷;(obsess的过去式和过去分词)
And I was studying skulls , trying to figure out their relationships to other sorts of animals, and I saw this jar, and here, in the jar, was a little girl thylacine pup , perhaps six months old. 当时我正在研究头骨,试图研究 在那儿我看到一个罐子,
skulls:n.头骨(skull的复数);v.击中…的头颅(skull的第三人称单数); pup:n.幼小动物;v.(母狗)生(小狗)
The guy who had found it and killed the mother had pickled the pup, and they pickled it in alcohol . 发现它的那个人杀了它的母亲, 然后把这只幼崽腌了起来,腌在了酒精里。
pickled:adj.腌渍的;醉醺醺的;v.腌渍;(pickle的过去分词和过去式) alcohol:n.酒精;乙醇;含酒精饮料;
I'm a paleontologist , but I still knew alcohol was a DNA preservative . 我虽然是个古生物学家,但我也知道酒精可以保存DNA。
paleontologist:n.古生物学家;古生物学者; preservative:n.防腐剂;预防法;防护层;adj.防腐的;有保存力的;有保护性的;
But this was 1990, and I asked my geneticist friends, couldn't we think about going into this pup and extracting DNA, if it's there, and then somewhere down the line in the future, we'll use this DNA to bring the thylacine back? 那还是1990年,我就问我的遗传学家朋友们, 我们可不可以想办法从这只幼崽身上 提取DNA,如果能提出来的话, 在将来某个时候, 可不可以用这些DNA来复活袋狼呢？
geneticist:n.遗传学者; extracting:n.提取;萃取;撷取;adj.拔出的(extract进行式);
The geneticists laughed. But this was six years before Dolly.
geneticists:n.遗传学者;
Cloning was science fiction . 克隆技术还没出现,还被认为是科学幻想。
science fiction:科幻小说;
It had not happened.
But then suddenly cloning did happen. 但是突然之间克隆技术出现了,
And I thought, when I became director of the Australian Museum, 我就想,等我当上
I'm going to give this a go.
I put a team together. 我组织了一队人马,
We went into that pup to see what was in it, and we did find thylacine DNA. 看看我们能从这只幼崽身上弄出什么来。 我们的确提取出了袋狼DNA,那真是一个鼓舞人心的时刻,
It was a eureka moment. We were very excited.
eureka:int.有了！;找到了！;
Unfortunately, we also found a lot of human DNA. 不幸的是,我们也提出了很多人类的DNA。
Every old curator who'd been in that museum had seen this wonderful specimen , put their hand in the jar, pulled it out and thought, "Wow, look at that," plop , dropped it back in the jar, contaminating this specimen. 那座博物馆的每一位老馆长, 都看到了这个奇妙的标本, 他们把手伸进罐子里,把它拽出来,心想:
curator:n.馆长;监护人;管理者; specimen:n.标本;样品;样本;(尤指动植物的)单一实例; plop:n.扑通声; v.把…沉重地放下; v.扑通一声地; contaminating:v.污染;弄脏;玷污,毒害,腐蚀(人的思想或品德);(contaminate的现在分词)
And that was a worry. 这有点令人担心。如果我们的目标是提出DNA来,
If the goal here was to get the DNA out and use the DNA down the track to try to bring a thylacine back, what we didn't want happening when the information was shoved into the machine 以后再用这个DNA来试着把袋狼复活, 那我们可不希望当我们把这些遗传信息
track:n.小道;足迹;车辙;轨道;v.追踪;跟踪; shoved:v.猛推;乱挤;推撞;乱放;(shove的过去分词和过去式)
and the wheel turned around and the lights flashed , was to have a wizened old horrible curator pop out the other end of the machine. 灯光一闪,然后从机器的另一头 出来个干瘪吓人的老馆长。(笑声)
wheel:车轮,转动 flashed:n.闪光;v.闪烁(flash的过去分词); wizened:adj.干瘪的;枯萎的;消瘦的;v.枯萎(wizen的过去式和过去分词); horrible:可怕的,极讨厌的,
It would've kept the curator very happy, but it wasn't going to keep us happy. 老馆长会很高兴,
So we went back to these specimens and we started digging around, and particularly , we looked into the teeth of skulls, hard parts where humans had not been able to get their fingers, and we found much better quality DNA. 所以我们又回去仔细研究这个样本, 特别是头骨中的牙齿部分, 这些坚硬的部分没有人用手碰过。 这回我们提出了更高质量的DNA,
specimens:n.[试验]试样,[图情]样本(specimen的复数); particularly:adv.特别地,独特地;详细地,具体地;明确地,细致地;
We found nuclear mitochondrial genes . 细胞核基因,线粒体基因,都在。
mitochondrial:adj.线粒体的; genes:n.基因;(gene的复数)
It's there. So we got it. 我们得到了袋狼DNA。
OK. What could we do with this stuff ? 那现在我们能做什么呢？
stuff:n.东西:物品:基本特征:v.填满:装满:标本:
Well, George Church, in his book, "Regenesis," 乔治?丘奇在《重生》那本书里,
has mentioned many of the techniques that are rapidly advancing to work with fragmented DNA. 提到了很多正在迅猛发展的技术, 专门用于这类DNA片段。
techniques:n.技巧;技艺;工艺;技术;(technique的复数) fragmented:v.(使)碎裂,破裂,分裂;(fragment的过去分词和过去式)
We would hope that we'll be able to get that DNA back into a viable form, and then, much like we've done with the Lazarus Project, get that stuff into an egg of a host species. 我们希望能把这些DNA连接成类似于从活体中提的DNA,
viable:adj.可行的;能养活的;能生育的;
It has to be a different species. What could it be? 必须得是一个不同的物种,
Why couldn't it be a Tasmanian devil ?
devil:n.魔鬼;撒旦;家伙;恶棍;淘气鬼;冒失鬼;v.虐待,折磨;扯碎;做助手;
They're related, distantly , to thylacines. 它们是袋狼的远亲,
distantly:adv.远离地;疏远地;冷淡地;
And then the Tasmanian devil is going to pop a thylacine out the south end. 这样袋獾就会生出
Critics of this project say, hang on. 这个项目的批评家们说,等等
Critics:n.评论家;批评者;吹毛求疵的人(critic的复数);
Thylacine, Tasmanian devil? That's going to hurt. 袋狼,袋獾？生的时候会疼啊。
No, it's not. These are marsupials . 其实不会的,它们都是有袋类,
marsupials:n.[脊椎]有袋类;有袋目的哺乳动物(marsupial的复数);
They give birth to babies that are the size of a jelly bean . 它们生的宝宝只有果冻豆那么大。
give birth to:产生,造成;生孩子; jelly bean:n.软心豆粒糖;
That Tasmanian devil's not even going to know it gave birth. 袋獾都不会知道它生了什么,
It is, shortly, going to think it's got the ugliest Tasmanian devil baby in the world, so maybe it'll need some help to keep it going. 不过它很快就会觉得它生下了 所以它可能需要我们帮它一下来留下这个宝宝。
ugliest:adj.最丑的(ugly的最高级);
Andrew Pask and his colleagues have demonstrated this might not be a waste of time. 安德鲁?帕斯克和他的同事们已经证明了 这并非是纯粹浪费时间。
colleagues:n.同事;同行(colleague的复数); demonstrated:v.证明;证实;论证;说明;表达;(demonstrate的过去分词和过去式)
And it's sort of in the future, we haven't got there yet, but it's the kind of thing we want to think about. 这还是以后的事,我们还没到那一步呢,
They took some of this same pickled thylacine DNA and they spliced it into a mouse genome, but they put a tag on it so that anything that this thylacine DNA produced would appear blue-green in the mouse baby. 然后把它接到老鼠的基因组中, 不过他们在上面加了个标记, 都会在这只老鼠宝宝身上发出蓝绿色的光。
spliced:adj.加固的;叠接的;v.叠接;使结合;使结婚(splice的过去式和过去分词); blue-green:n.蓝绿色;
In other words, if thylacine tissues were being produced by the thylacine DNA, it would be able to be recognized . 换句话说,如果由袋狼DNA产生出了
recognized:v.认识;认出;辨别出;承认;意识到;(recognize的过去分词和过去式)
When the baby popped up, it was filled with blue-green tissues. 这只老鼠宝宝生出来的时候,全身到处都有蓝绿色的组织。
And that tells us if we can get that genome back together, get it into a live cell, it's going to produce thylacine stuff. 这就说明如果我们能把袋狼的基因组拼接成功, 放到个活细胞里,是能产生出袋狼的东西的。
Is this a risk? 有没有危险呢？
You've taken the bits of one animal and you've mixed them into the cell of a different kind of an animal. 你弄来一种动物的碎片, 把它们混起来放到另外一种动物的细胞里,
Are we going to get a Frankenstein ? Some kind of weird hybrid chimera ?
Frankenstein:n.毁灭创造者自己之物;作法自毙的人; hybrid:n.杂种,混血儿;混合物;adj.混合的;杂种的; chimera:n.[遗]嵌合体;虚构的怪物;妄想;
And the answer is no. 答案是不会的。
If the only nuclear DNA that goes into this hybrid cell is thylacine DNA, that's the only thing that can pop out the other end of the devil. 如果放到那个杂交细胞中的唯一的细胞核DNA
OK, if we can do this, could we put it back? 好,如果我们能做到这一步,我们能把它们放回（大自然）去吗？
This is a key question for everybody. 这是人人都关心的一个关键问题。
Does it have to stay in a laboratory , or could we put it back where it belongs? 它只能呆在实验室里,
laboratory:n.实验室,研究室;
Could we put it back in the throne of the king of beasts in Tasmania, restore that ecosystem ? 我们能不能把它们放回塔斯马尼亚
throne:n.王座;君主;王权;v.登上王座; restore:v.恢复;修复;恢复(某种情况或感受);使复原; ecosystem:n.生态系统;
Or has Tasmania changed so much that that's no longer possible? 还是说塔斯马尼亚岛已经改变了太多,
I've been to Tasmania. 我去过塔斯马尼亚,我去过那里很多
I've been to many of the areas where the thylacines were common.
I've even spoken to people, like Peter Carter here, who when I spoke to him, was 90 years old, but in 1926, this man and his father and his brother caught thylacines. 我和他谈话时他都90岁了, 不过1926年的时候,他和他的父亲还有兄弟 抓过袋狼。他们给袋狼下过套。
They trapped them.
trapped:adj.受困的;受限制的;v.使落入险境;使陷入困境;(trap的过去分词和过去式)
And when I spoke to this man, I was looking in his eyes and thinking, "Behind those eyes is a brain that has memories of what thylacines feel like, what they smelled like, what they sounded like." 当我和他说话时, 这双眼睛后面的大脑里, 它们发出什么味道,什么声音。
He led them around on a rope. 他曾经用根绳子牵引着它们。
He has personal experiences that I would give my left leg to have in my head. 他的亲身经历, 我宁愿割下我的左腿来把它换成我脑子里的记忆。
personal:adj.个人的;身体的;亲自的;n.人事消息栏;人称代名词;
We'd all love to have this sort of thing happen. 我们都希望这种事情能够成真。
Anyway, I asked Peter, by any chance, could he take us back to where he caught those thylacines. 我问彼得,他能不能 带我们回到他曾经抓袋狼的地方。
My interest was in whether the environment had changed. 我想知道的是当地的环境变了没有。
He thought hard. It was nearly 80 years before this that he'd been at this hut.
At any rate, he led us down this bush track, and there, right where he remembered, was the hut, and tears came into his eyes. 他领着我们走过这条灌木丛间的小路, 然后,就在他记得的那个地方,立着这个小屋, 他不禁流下了热泪。
bush:n.灌木; v.以灌木装饰; adj.如灌木般长得低矮的;
He looked at the hut. We went inside. 他看了看小屋,我们走了进去,
There were the wooden boards on the sides of the hut where he and his father and his brother had slept at night. 小屋的墙边放着木板,
wooden:adj.木制的;木头的;木头似的;死板的
And he told me, as it all was flooding back in memories.
He said, "I remember the thylacines going around the hut wondering what was inside," 想知道里面是什么”,
and he said they made sounds like "Yip! Yip! Yip!"
All of these are parts of his life and what he remembers. 这些都是他生活的一部分,是他记得的。
And the key question for me was to ask Peter, has it changed?
And he said no.
The southern beech forests surrounded his hut just like it was when he was there in 1926. 围绕他的小屋的南方山毛榉森林 还和他1926年来的时候一模一样,
beech:n.山毛榉;adj.山毛榉木材的;
The grasslands were sweeping away. 到处都是草地,
grasslands:n.[畜牧]草原;大草原(grassland的复数形式); sweeping:n.扫除; adj.影响广泛的; v.打扫; (sweep的现在分词)
That's classic thylacine habitat . 这是典型的袋狼居住地。
classic:n.名著;优秀的典范;adj.最优秀的;第一流的;有代表性的;典型的; habitat:n.[生态]栖息地,产地;
And the animals in those areas were the same that were there when the thylacine was around. 而且那些地方的动物也还和
So could we put it back? Yes.
Is that all we would do? And this is an interesting question. 我们仅仅要做这些吗？这个问题就有点意思了。
Sometimes you might be able to put it back, but is that the safest way to make sure it never goes extinct again? 但是这是不是最安全的办法,能保证它们
And I don't think so.
I think gradually, as we see species all around the world, it's kind of a mantra that wildlife is increasingly not safe in the wild. 我觉得渐渐地,当我们观察全世界的各种物种时会发现,
mantra:n.咒语(尤指四吠陀经典内作为咒文或祷告唱念的);颂歌; increasingly:adv.越来越多地;渐增地;
We'd love to think it is, but we know it isn't. 我们希望是安全的,但我们知道不是的。
We need other parallel strategies coming online. 我们还需要别的可以同时进行的计划。
parallel:adj.平行的; v.与…相似; n.极其相似的人(或情况、事件等); strategies:n.策略;行动计划;部署;战略;(strategy的复数)
And this one interests me. 我看上的是这个:
Some of the thylacines that were being turned in to zoos, sanctuaries , even at the museums, had collar marks on the neck. 有些袋狼被交到动物园, 庇护所,甚至是博物馆里时, 它们脖子上有带过项圈的痕迹,
sanctuaries:n.圣殿(sanctuary的复数); collar:n.衣领;领子;箍;(动物,尤指狗的)颈圈;v.抓住;捉住;揪住;逮住;
They were being kept as pets, and we know a lot of bush tales and memories of people who had them as pets, and they say they were wonderful, friendly. 说明它们曾被养做宠物。 我们知道很多传说和回忆中, 就有人把袋狼当成宠物养, 而且他们说袋狼很好,很友善。
This particular one came in out of the forest to lick this boy and curled up around the fireplace to go to sleep. 这头袋狼从森林中跑出来,
lick:v.舔;舔吃;舔着喝;掠过;轻松战胜;n.舔;一点儿(涂料); curled:adj.卷曲的;鬈发的;v.[纸]卷曲;环绕(curl的过去分词); fireplace:n.壁炉;
A wild animal.
And I'd like to ask the question. We need to think about this. 我想问一个
If it had not been illegal to keep these thylacines as pets then, would the thylacine be extinct now? 如果养袋狼做宠物不曾是非法的话,
illegal:adj.不合法的;非法的;n.非法移民;非法劳工;
And I'm positive it wouldn't. 我敢肯定是不会的。
positive:adj.积极的;[数]正的,[医][化学]阳性的;确定的;n.正数;[摄]正片;
We need to think about this in today's world. 我们必须想一想在当今的世界里,
Could it be that getting animals close to us so that we value them, maybe they won't go extinct? 如果我们把动物养在身边,
And this is such a critical issue for us because if we don't do that, we're going to watch more of these animals plunge off the precipice . 这是一个至关重要的问题, 因为如果我们不这么做,我们就会看到
critical:adj.鉴定的;[核]临界的;批评的,爱挑剔的;危险的;决定性的;评论的; precipice:n.悬崖;绝壁;险境;
As far as I'm concerned , this is why we're trying to do these kinds of de-extinction projects. 对我来说,这就是
As far as:至于…; concerned:adj.有关的;关心的;v.关心;与…有关;(concern的过去时和过去分词)
We are trying to restore that balance of nature that we have upset . 我们想要恢复被我们打乱了的 大自然的平衡。
upset:adj.沮丧; v.打乱; n.苦恼; (意外的)混乱;
Thank you. 谢谢。
(Applause) （掌声）