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When it came to surviving freezing weather, mammoths relied on more than their woolly coats: even their blood was specially adapted to let them thrive in chilly climes. Their hemoglobin functioned well over a larger range of temperatures than does the hemoglobin found in modern elephants—and in humans. That finding is in the journal Biochemistry. [Yue Yuan et al., "A Biochemical–Biophysical Study of Hemoglobins from Woolly Mammoth, Asian Elephant, and Humans"]
為了在冰凍的氣候下生存，猛犸更多地依賴于它們毛茸茸的外皮：甚至于它們體內的血液也為此作了特別的適應性改變。猛犸的血紅蛋白與現代的大象和人類相比，能夠在更大的溫度范圍下工作。這一發現發表在《生物化學》雜志上。（“猛犸象、亞洲象和人類血紅蛋白的生物物理研究”Yue Yuan等）
Mammoth veins have, of course, long run dry. But researchers from North America, the U.K. and Australia extracted fragments of nucleic acids from three mammoth specimens, creating hemoglobin based on its coding DNA sequence. The recovered mammoths died in Siberia between 25,000 and 43,000 years ago.
當然，經過漫長的歲月，現在我們能找到的猛犸標本的血管內是沒有血液的。然而，北美、英國和澳大利亞的研究人員從三個猛犸標本中提取出核酸片段，并給予其編碼的DNA序列重新構建了血紅蛋白。這三只用作標本的猛犸死于兩萬五千年之四萬三千年前的西伯利亞。
The reconstructed mammoth hemoglobin could deliver oxygen at colder temperatures than the human form of the protein could handle. With mammoth hemoglobin as a guide, scientists hope to engineer blood products that will oxygenate our bodies during those medical procedures—such as some heart and brain surgeries—that require the big chill known as induced hypothermia. Mammoths may be long dead, but the secrets of their blood could help keep some people alive.
重建的猛犸血紅蛋白與人類的血紅蛋白相比，能夠在耕地的溫度下運送氧氣。利用猛犸血紅蛋白，科學家們希望能夠生產出可以在某些醫療過程中（如一些心臟和腦科手術）為我們的機體提供氧氣的血液制品。在這些醫療過程中，需要被稱作為低溫誘導的極低溫。猛犸這種生物在地球上消失已久，但它們血液中的秘密也許可以幫助一些人活下去。
—Sophie Bushwick
n. 柄，把手
v. 買賣，處理，操作，駕馭
