经济学人02:物理学与生物学的碰撞 优质大米培植

 　　Science and technology.

　　科技。

　　Salt-tolerant rice.

　　耐盐大米。

　　Nuclear-powered crops.

　　核动力粮食。

　　Physics meets biology in a project to breed better strains of rice.

　　物理学与生物学的碰撞--优质大米培植。

　　THOSE who turn their noses up at "genetically¹ modified" food seldom seem to consider that all crops are genetically modified. The difference between a wild plant and one that serves some human end is a lot of selective breeding-the picking and combining over the years of mutations that result in bigger seeds, tastier fruit or whatever else is required.

　　对转基因食物不屑一顾的人似乎忽视了一个事实：所有粮食都属于转基因食物。野生植物与供人食用的植物之间的不同之处在于后者经过了层层筛选和培植，也就是经过多年的突变，将优良品相进行选择并组合，以培育出更大的种子，更甜的果实，或者人类需要的其他结果。

　　Nor, these days, are those mutations there by accident. They are, rather, deliberately² induced, usually by exposing seeds to radiation. And that is exactly what Tomoko Abe and her colleagues at the Riken Nishina Centre for Accelerator-Based Science in Saitama, outside Tokyo, are doing with rice. The difference is that Dr Abe is not using namby-pamby X-rays and gamma rays to mutate her crop, as is the way in most other countries. Instead she is sticking them in a particle accelerator and bombarding them with heavy ions-large atoms that have been stripped down to their nuclei³ by the removal of their electrons. This produces between ten and 100 times as many mutations as the traditional method, and thus increases the chances of blundering across some useful ones.

　　这些年的变异并非自然发生，而是常常通过将种子暴露于辐射下等方式引导发生的。阿部知子和她的同事就在进行这一工作以培育大米。他们的工作地点位于东京外部的埼玉县仁科加速器研究中心。不同之处在于他们没有像其他国家一样，利用纤弱的X射线和伽马射线来引发变异。他们将种子放入粒子加速器，并用重离子对种子进行轰击碰撞。重离子是大原子去掉电子后只剩原子核的状态。这一方法比辐射法的效果好十到一百倍，并且有用的种子不易被忽略掉。

　　Dr Abe's plan is to use these mutations to create salt-tolerant rice. She has tried to do that several times in the past, but the result did not taste very nice. Her latest effort was stimulated⁴ by the flooding with seawater of almost 24,000 hectares of farmland by the tsunami⁵ which followed an earthquake in March last year. Salt-tolerant rice would, though, be of much wider use than just restoring the paddies of Miyagi prefecture and its neighbours, the worst-affected part of the country, to full productivity. About a third of the world's rice paddies have salt problems, and yields in such briny⁶ fields may be half what they would be if the water in them were fresh.

　　阿部知子博士计划利用变异制造出耐盐的大米。她已经尝试了多次，但结果不尽如人意。最近的一次尝试是由于去年三月地震引起的海啸冲过了近两万四千公顷农田。耐盐大米的作用不仅仅是还原日本受伤害最大的宫城县内和附近的稻田。全球三分之一的稻田都受到盐的影响，此类稻田的收成仅为正常稻田的一半。

　　To induce the mutations, Dr Abe bombarded germinating⁷ seeds with carbon ions for 30 seconds. She then planted them in fields in Miyagi. Of 600 seeds that have undergone this treatment, 250 thrived and themselves produced healthy seeds.

　　为了引发变异，阿部知子博士用碳离子轰击发芽的种子30秒，然后将其种入宫城县稻田中。在进行了上述实验的600粒种子中，有250粒成活并产出了健康的种子。

　　The next stage of the project, to be carried out this month, is to take 50 grains from each of the successful plants and repeat the process with them. The resulting specimens⁸ will then be sorted and the best (ie, those that have flourished in the saline soils of Miyagi's paddies) selected for crossbreeding, in order to concentrate desirable mutations into reproducible lines of plants.

　　本周即将进行这一计划的下一步骤，用50粒成活的种子重复进行上述实验，再将产出的种子分类。为了使种子变异充分，并且适于种植生产，在宫城县盐地生长得最好的部分将再进行杂交培育。

　　The result, Dr Abe hopes, will be a viable⁹ salt-tolerant strain that is ready for market within four years. With luck, this time, it will be a tasty one as well.

　　阿部知子博士希望能在四年内培育出市场需要的耐盐大米，幸运的话这一次的大米将会香甜可口。

1 genetically   

adv.遗传上

参考例句：

• All the bees in the colony are genetically related. 同一群体的蜜蜂都有亲缘关系。
• Genetically modified foods have already arrived on American dinner tables. 经基因改造加工过的食物已端上了美国人的餐桌。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 基因与食物

2 deliberately   

adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地

参考例句：

• The girl gave the show away deliberately.女孩故意泄露秘密。
• They deliberately shifted off the argument.他们故意回避这个论点。

3 nuclei   

n.核

参考例句：

• To free electrons, something has to make them whirl fast enough to break away from their nuclei. 为了释放电子，必须使电子高速旋转而足以摆脱原子核的束缚。
• Energy is released by the fission of atomic nuclei. 能量是由原子核分裂释放出来的。

4 stimulated   

a.刺激的

参考例句：

• The exhibition has stimulated interest in her work. 展览增进了人们对她作品的兴趣。
• The award has stimulated her into working still harder. 奖金促使她更加努力地工作。

5 tsunami   

n.海啸

参考例句：

• Powerful quake sparks tsunami warning in Japan.大地震触发了日本的海啸预警。
• Coastlines all around the Indian Ocean inundated by a huge tsunami.大海啸把印度洋沿岸地区都淹没了。

6 briny   

adj.盐水的；很咸的；n.海洋

参考例句：

• The briny water is not good for the growth of the trees.海水不利于这种树木的生长。
• The briny air gave a foretaste of the nearby sea.咸空气是快近海的前兆。

7 germinating   

n.& adj.发芽（的）v.（使）发芽( germinate的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Glyoxysomes are particularly well known in germinating fatly seeds. 人们已经知道，萌发的含油种子中有乙醛酸循环体。 来自辞典例句
• Modern, industrial society, slowly germinating in the shadow of medievalism, burst the bonds of feudalism. 现代工业社会缓慢地在中世纪精神的阴影下孕育成长着，终于挣脱了封建制度的枷锁。 来自辞典例句

8 specimens   

n.样品( specimen的名词复数 )；范例；（化验的）抽样；某种类型的人

参考例句：

• Astronauts have brought back specimens of rock from the moon. 宇航员从月球带回了岩石标本。
• The traveler brought back some specimens of the rocks from the mountains. 那位旅行者从山上带回了一些岩石标本。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 viable   

adj.可行的，切实可行的，能活下去的

参考例句：

• The scheme is economically viable.这个计划从经济效益来看是可行的。
• The economy of the country is not viable.这个国家经济是难以维持的。