美国国家公共电台 NPR Tiny Fossils Could Be Oldest Evidence Of Life On Earth

 

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

We have news this morning about the origin of life. The news is about just how hard it is to find that news. NPR's Rae Ellen Bichell reports.

RAE ELLEN BICHELL, BYLINE¹: Things get hairy when you go looking for the earliest forms of life on Earth. Life forms would have been tiny, embedded² in rocks that have been squished and cracked for billennia. But Matt Dodd, a bio geochemist at University College of London, thinks he's got it.

He and his colleagues write in the journal "Nature" that they've found tiny fossils in Canada wedged in rocks that are 3.7 billion years old. Some look like tubes, others like strings³ or spirals. Dodd says the shapes resemble bacteria alive today, like those that live on underwater vents⁴ near Hawaii. This life wouldn't have been much to look at.

MATT DODD: A spongy, kind of gloopy (ph) soup, if you like.

BICHELL: But if they really are fossils, the specimens⁵ could show that life got its start really early on.

DODD: The implications of this work have answers, not just to how life originated on Earth and when. But also, is there life elsewhere in the universe?

BICHELL: If life could start on Earth in those conditions, then why not in ancient oceans on Mars, too? But like other claims along these lines, the study has a lot of skeptics. Tanja Bosak, a geo biologist at MIT, isn't convinced. She says it's possible the shapes were just formed when minerals spewed out of hydrothermal vents.

TANJA BOSAK: The big problem is the understanding of what can create all sorts of very simple shapes in rocks.

BICHELL: Like similar fossils found in other parts of the world, these Canadian fossils are going to have to undergo the scrutiny⁶ of a lot of skeptical⁷ scientists. Rae Ellen Bichell, NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

1 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

2 embedded   

a.扎牢的

参考例句：

• an operation to remove glass that was embedded in his leg 取出扎入他腿部玻璃的手术
• He has embedded his name in the minds of millions of people. 他的名字铭刻在数百万人民心中。

3 strings   

n.弦

参考例句：

• He sat on the bed,idly plucking the strings of his guitar.他坐在床上，随意地拨着吉他的弦。
• She swept her fingers over the strings of the harp.她用手指划过竖琴的琴弦。

4 vents   

（气体、液体等进出的）孔、口( vent的名词复数 )； （鸟、鱼、爬行动物或小哺乳动物的）肛门； 大衣等的)衩口； 开衩

参考例句：

• He always vents his anger on the dog. 他总是拿狗出气。
• The Dandelion Patch is the least developed of the four active vents. “蒲公英区”在这四个活裂口中是发育最差的一个。

5 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》

6 scrutiny   

n.详细检查，仔细观察

参考例句：

• His work looks all right,but it will not bear scrutiny.他的工作似乎很好，但是经不起仔细检查。
• Few wives in their forties can weather such a scrutiny.很少年过四十的妻子经得起这么仔细的观察。

7 skeptical   

adj.怀疑的，多疑的

参考例句：

• Others here are more skeptical about the chances for justice being done.这里的其他人更为怀疑正义能否得到伸张。
• Her look was skeptical and resigned.她的表情是将信将疑而又无可奈何。