美国有线新闻 CNN 科学家计划复活长毛猛玛象（在线收听）

Which of these animals was the last to go extinct? Saber-tooth tiger; Wooly mammoth, Megalodon or Eurasian cave lion.

以下哪种动物是最后灭绝的？剑齿虎，长毛猛犸象，巨齿鲨还是欧亚洞穴狮？

Scientists believe certain wooly mammoths survived until 4,000 years ago, long after these other animals were thought to have gone extinct.

科学家认为，某些长毛猛犸象一直存活到4000年前，而上述其他动物被认为早已灭绝。

Can scientists use genetic engineering to bring back the wooly mammoth, and should they?

科学家能用基因工程让长毛猛玛象复活吗？他们应该这样做吗？

This sounds like something out of "Jurassic Park", but scientists can't directly clone a wooly mammoth.

这听起来像是《侏罗纪公园》里的场景，但科学家不能直接克隆长毛猛玛象。

The DNA they've gotten from these animal's remains has deteriorated too much,

他们从这些动物遗骸中提取的DNA已经严重退化，

what they are hoping to do is use genetic engineering to create a hybrid of an elephant and a mammoth that would look just like the extinct animal.

他们希望利用基因工程创造出一种大象-猛犸象杂交种，看起来和已经灭绝的猛犸象相似。

A biosciences and genetics company has raised $15 million to do this,

一家生物科学和遗传学公司为此筹集了1500万美元，

and it says it hopes to have calves walking around in four to six years, but there are still a lot of questions about how this would happen.

并表示希望在四到六年内让幼崽四处走动，但关于如何做到这一点还有很多问题。

For one thing, researchers say they'll have to make 50 changes to an elephant's genetic code so it's able to survive in the Arctic.

首先，研究人员表示，他们必须对大象的遗传密码进行50次修改，这样大象才能在北极生存。

And even then, critics say this won't create a mammoth, just a hairier, fatter elephant.

但批评人士表示，即便如此，这创造出的也不是猛玛象，而是一头多毛、肥胖的大象。

They're also concerned that the possibility of using elephant mothers to carry a genetically engineered baby could be unethical.

他们还担心，利用大象妈妈怀上转基因婴儿这种可能性可能是不道德的。

Supporters hope the project will create a lot of new interest in genetic science. It's just not known whether it will work or what the consequences would be.

支持者希望该项目能引起人们对基因科学的新兴趣。只是不知道这是否会起作用或者会产生什么后果。