評論
打印
Stromatolites, a kind of bacterial rock, filled the shallows in the foreground. It didn't look like a very promising place to create and nurture life. I asked her if the painting was accurate.
前景的陰影里塞滿了一種細菌寄生的巖石，名叫疊層石。它看上去不像是個很有希望產生和孕育生命的地方。我問她這幅畫是否畫得準確。
Well, one school of thought says it was actually cool then because the sun was much weaker. (I later learned that biologists, when they are feeling jocose, refer to this as the "Chinese restaurant problem"—because we had a dim sun.) "Without an atmosphere ultraviolet rays from the sun, even from a weak sun, would have tended to break apart any incipient bonds made by molecules. And yet right there"—she tapped the stromatolites—"you have organisms almost at the surface. It's a puzzle."
“哎呀，有個學派認為，當時其實很涼爽，因為太陽已經弱多了。（我后來獲悉，生物學家們開玩笑時把這種看法稱為“中國餐館”問題因為我們有個光線暗淡的太陽。）要是沒有大氣，即使太陽很弱，紫外線也會撕碎早期的任何分子鍵。然而，在那兒，”她輕輕地拍了拍那幾塊疊層石，“生命幾乎就在表面。這是個謎。”
So we don't know what the world was like back then?
“那么，我們其實不知道當時的世界是什么模樣的？”
Mmmm, she agreed thoughtfully.
“嗯。”她想了想表示贊同。
Either way it doesn't seem very conducive to life.
“無論如何，反正對生命似乎不大有利。”
She nodded amiably. "But there must have been something that suited life. Otherwise we wouldn't be here."
她和藹地點了點頭：“但是，肯定有適合于生命的東西，要不然我們不會來到這個世界上。”
It certainly wouldn't have suited us. If you were to step from a time machine into that ancient Archaean world, you would very swiftly scamper back inside, for there was no more oxygen to breathe on Earth back then than there is on Mars today. It was also full of noxious vapors from hydrochloric and sulfuric acids powerful enough to eat through clothing and blister skin. Nor would it have provided the clean and glowing vistas depicted in the poster in Victoria Bennett's office. The chemical stew that was the atmosphere then would have allowed little sunlight to reach the Earth's surface. What little you could see would be illumined only briefly by bright and frequent lightning flashes. In short, it was Earth, but an Earth we wouldn't recognize as our own.
那個環境肯定不適合于我們。要是你從一臺時間機器里出來，踏進那個古老的太古代世界，你會馬上縮回去，因為當時的地球上與今天的火星上一樣沒有供我們呼吸的空氣。而且，地球上還充滿從鹽酸和硫酸中散發出來的毒氣，強烈得足以腐蝕衣服和使皮膚起泡。地球上也不會維多利亞·貝內特辦公室里那幅宣傳畫上所描繪的那種干凈而又鮮艷的景色。當時的大氣里都是混濁的化學物質，陽光幾乎射不到地面。你只能借助經常掠過的明亮的閃電，在短時間里看見有限的東西。總之，這是地球，但我們不會認出那是我們自己的地球。
