評論
打印
Soon we will be in a position to go forth in the field with sequencers on our backs to hunt bacteria in tiny crevices of the habitat's surface,in the way you go watching for birds with binoculars.
不久的將來，我們還將可以通過便攜式的測序機完成這樣的操作,直接尋找到那些隱藏在細小的縫隙里的細菌,就像你用雙筒望遠鏡來觀鳥一樣。
What will we find as we map the living world, as, finally, we get this underway seriously?
那么，假如我們真的去對現實世界中的生物進行測序，將會帶來什么？
As we move past the relatively gigantic mammals, birds, frogs and plants to the more elusive insects and other small invertebrates and then beyond,to the countless millions of organisms in the invisible living world,enveloped and living within humanity?
從大型哺乳動物到鳥類到青蛙到植物一直到昆蟲以及其他非脊椎動物，再到無數的肉眼不可見的生物，它們就在人體內發展、生存？
Already what were thought to be bacteria for generations have been found to compose, instead, two great domains of microorganisms:
過去科學家曾認定是細菌的生物現在的發現則顯示，它們實際上是由兩種微生物組成的:
true bacteria and one-celled organisms the archaea,which are closer than other bacteria to the eukaryota, the group that we belong to.
即真細菌和單細胞的古細菌，它比其他的細菌更接近真核生物，人也是真核生物。
Some serious biologists, and I count myself among them,have begun to wonder that among the enormous and still unknown diversity of microorganisms,one might just might find aliens among them.
一些嚴肅的科學家，包括我，就開始懷疑，在多元與未知的微生物世界中，也許還能找到外星生物的存在。
True aliens, stocks that arrived from outer space.
我說的是真正的外星生物，來自外太空的生物。
They've had billions of years to do it,but especially during the earliest period of biological evolution on this planet.
它們有數十億年時間到達地球，特別是地球上出現生物進化的原始階段。
We do know that some bacterial species that have earthly origin are capable of almost unimaginable extremes of temperature and other harsh changes in environment,including hard radiation strong enough and maintained long enough to crack the Pyrex vessels around the growing population of bacteria.
我們知道，有些發源自地球的細菌竟然可以在極端的溫度下生存,也能適應非常惡劣的環境變化，包括經受足以穿透Pyrex玻璃箱的強輻射的作用,這個在細菌的家族里很常見。
There may be a temptation to treat the biosphere holistically and the species that compose it as a great flux of entities hardly worth distinguishing one from the other.
也許有些人會走捷徑，用一種整體的視角來看待整個生物圈,將其中的物種看成是個體的流動,無須區分出它們之間的細微差別。
But each of these species, even the tiniest Prochlorococci,are masterpieces of evolution.
但是每一個這樣的物種，即使是最細小的原綠球菌，都是進化之杰作。
Each has persisted for thousands to millions of years.
它們都在地球上存活了千百萬年。
Each is exquisitely adapted to the environment in which it lives,interlocked with other species to form ecosystems upon which our own lives depend in ways we have not begun even to imagine.
都能很好的融入到其生活環境當中，并且與其他的物種相互作用，構成我們賴以生存的生態系統,而這些我們十年前還未曾想象得到。
We will destroy these ecosystems and the species composing them at the peril of our own existence and unfortunately we are destroying them with ingenuity and ceaseless energy.
假如我們破壞這些生態系統以及生活于其間的物種,我們終將自食其果,可悲的是，我們罔若無知，肆無忌憚的繼續這樣的行為。
My own epiphany as a conservationist came in 1953, while a Harvard graduate student,searching for rare ants found in the mountain forests of Cuba,ants that shine in the sunlight metallic green or metallic blue, according to species, and one species, I discovered, metallic gold.
我的靈光一現出現在1953年，那時我是哈佛大學的一位研究生，我去古巴的大山和森林里尋找罕見的螞蟻種類，這些螞蟻在陽光照射之下會發光,金屬綠、金屬藍，甚至是黃金的顏色。
I found my magical ants, but only after a tough climb into the mountains where the last of the native Cuban forests hung on,and were then and still are being cut back.
經過一段艱難的山地跋涉，我終于找到了我的神奇螞蟻，那里也是古巴僅存的一塊原始森林地帶，但后來，直到現在，那片森林不斷遭受砍伐。
I realized then that these species and a large part of the other unique, marvelous animals and plants on that island and this is true of practically every part of the world,which took millions of years to evolve, are in the process of disappearing forever.
我意識到像這些螞蟻以及那個島上生活的其他獨特且多姿的動植物，這對于世界任何一個地方都是一樣的,經過數百萬年的進化，才有今天，但它們一旦消失，就有可能永遠不會再次出現了。
