評論
打印
Life Traces in Lava
熔巖中的生命足跡
Don: Can I ask you something, Yaël?
Y 我能問你一個事情嗎？
Yaël: Sure!
當然！
D: Do you ever stop to think about how all living things are ultimately related?
你有沒有停下來想過人類最初是怎么來的呢？
Y: Eh…Yeah, sure.
額…當然啦！
D: Bu...but I'm serious. Doesn't it amaze you to realize that we can trace life back millions and millions of years ago to single-celled organisms floating around in the ocean?
我認真的！當你意識到人類的起源可以追溯到數百萬年前漂浮在海洋里的單細胞生物時，難道你一點也不驚嘆于造物的神奇？
Y: Millions? Actually, it's billions and billions.
數百萬？實際上，應該是“數十億”吧！
D: Billions?
十億？
Y: Yes, billion! Scientists have discovered lava rock taken from the ocean floor that contains remnants of life that are billions of years old. Three point five billion years, to be precise.
恩，十億。科學家在海洋底部發現了含有數十億年前的生物殘余的熔巖。準確的說，是35億年前。
D: What do they find, fossils?
他們發現的是什么？化石？
Y: Sort of. At certain spots the ocean floor oozeslava, which cools and forms rock formations. Microorganisms set up shop on the surface of these rocks and thrive on their rich chemical content. The microbes leave traces of their presence in the rocks in the form of tiny tubes.
好像是。海底的某些地方會滲出巖漿，冷卻過后便形成了巖石。微生物便在這些巖石表面“安營扎寨”，靠著巖石中豐富的化學成分生長繁衍。這些微生物在巖石中呈微型管狀，留下了他們存在的“足跡”。
When researchers looked at three billion plus year old rocks and saw these kinds of tubes, they suspected that microbes once inhabited them. The most convincing piece of evidence was a type of carbon found in the tubes that's produced by living things. So far, this is one of the oldest traces of life ever found.
當研究人員對這些經歷了30多億年“磨煉”的巖石進行研究時，發現了這些微型的小管，便設想微生物曾經棲居于這些巖石之上。最有力的證據是科學家在這些管狀物中發現了一種碳，而這種碳物質僅由生物產生。這是迄今為止發現的最早的生命的“足跡”。
