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VOA慢速英语29014 业上的下一个大事件可能很"小"

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The Next Big Thing in Agriculture May Be Very Small

From VOA Learning English, this is Science in the News. 

I’m Anna Matteo.

And I’m Christopher Cruise.

Today we tell how some extremely small organisms may help meet our food needs in the future. Then, we report on an American project to save endangered orchids2. Finally, we tell about the discovery of what British scientists are calling the oldest human footprints found outside of Africa. 

Small Organisms May Help Meet Food Needs of the Future

Experts say farmers will need to produce about 70 percent more food by the middle of the century. They predict that nine billion people will need to be fed worldwide by 2050. 

The prediction means experts will need to develop more-effective farming methods that cause less harm to the environment. Experts say living things called “microbes” could help meet that need. A microbe is an organism so small it can be seen only with a microscope. 

Jeff Dangl is a biology professor at the University of North Carolina. He says researchers are finding extremely small organisms in the ground. 

“This soil was teeming3 with life.”

Jeff Dangl says one gram of soil contains between 100 million and one billion microbes. 

He says microbes are taking part in a healthy exchange with the plants that share the soil. Around plant roots, microbes change chemicals in the air and soil into food for the plants. The microbes include bacteria and material known as “fungi4.”  

Some microbes act as bodyguards5. They produce anti-bodies and other chemicals to fight harmful germs. 

Plants make sugar through a process called “photosynthesis.” This happens when a plant receiving light changes water and carbon dioxide into food.  

Professor Dangl says much of the sugar is pumped down through the roots. There, it is turned into sugar-based microbe food and released into the soil. He says that is done to get microbes to help the plants grow better. Some of the organisms turn chemicals in the air and soil into food that the plants can eat.

The microbes produce antibiotics6 and other chemicals to fight the harmful germs. Professor Dangl said bacterial7 and fungal parts of the plant organism must be considered to understand how plant organisms operate.

The biosciences company Novozymes already sells one kind of fungi that helps plants get phosphorous from the soil. 

Shawn Semones is the head of product research for the company. At an experimental greenhouse in Virginia, he is treating the roots of corn plants with a microscopic8 fungus9

He holds a small plastic cup which has a dead insect inside. The insect is developing a fine white coat of mold -- a substance that grows on living organisms. That mold killed the insect. The white covering is producing spores10 that will blow in the wind to infect another insect.  

Shawn Semones says the microbe develops naturally. He says Novozymes has found a way to produce it in very large amounts and offer it to farmers as a bio-pesticide. A bio-pesticide protects crops from animals, microbes, bacteria and fungi.

Novozymes recently signed a $300 million deal with Monsanto, a company best known for producing seeds and chemicals. The goal is to help bring discoveries about microbes to farmers’ fields.

You are listening to the VOA Learning English program Science in the News. With Christopher Cruise, I’m Anna Matteo in Washington.

Project to Save Endangered Orchids Growing in Florida

Our planet is home to 20,000 kinds of orchids. Orchids exist on almost every continent. But the beautiful and valuable flowers live mainly in warm, moist climates like that found in the southern part of Florida. 

America’s “sunshine state” has about 50 native species of orchid1. But many are in danger of dying out. This threat has led scientists to launch a five-year project to save them.                

Carl Lewis directs Miami’s Fairchild Tropical Botanical Garden. He says many orchid species native to Florida have become rare.

“Most of those orchids are very difficult to find now. They’ve, they’ve been hunted almost to extinction11 in the wild. So, really, we launched this project just as an effort to bring those orchids back.” 

The project to grow and plant one million orchid seedlings12 began two years ago. Orchids grow mostly on trees. But their seedlings are extremely small, delicate and weak. So they start their life in a laboratory.

The seeds grow in clean bottles with required nutrients13. After that, the young plants are moved to a warming device with LED lights. Next, they go to a nursery -- an area where plants are grown. Two years may pass before the plants are strong enough to be connected to -- or fixed14 onto -- trees.

Volunteers help Carl Lewis to transplant -- or move -- the orchid plants. He says it is important to transplant enough older orchids so they can continue to reproduce without that help. 

“This is supposed to be an infusion15, just to get so many out there that they start to reproduce on their own.” 

After these plants are moved to areas where other orchids grow, scientists hope insects and tiny organisms will find the orchids.

The campaign to save native orchids also depends on help from local students. They have been asked to watch the transplanted orchids in their neighborhoods. A number of plants will also be given away to try to reduce the chance that people will steal them off the trees.

The Center for Plant Conservation guides the conservation and study of threatened plants across the United States. The center is based in the city of St. Louis, Missouri.

Britain’s Oldest Human Footprints Found on Coastline 

Finally, British scientists have found what they believe are the oldest human footprints ever discovered outside of Africa. The footprints of what appears to be ancient humans were found in the seaside community of Norfolk, in eastern Britain. The scientists estimate the markings are between 800,000 and almost one million years old. They may be about 500,000 years older than the earliest footprints ever found in the country. If so, that could provide the oldest evidence of human beings in northern Europe.

Images and a model of one of the footprints were recently shown to reporters at the British Museum in London. A team of scientists found the footprints in May, 2013. The scientists work for the British Museum, Britain’s Natural History Museum, and Queen Mary University of London. The researchers say ocean water from incoming tidal waves made it impossible to remove the prints from the coast.

The area appears to have 50 footprints of both adults and children. They were found near the village of Happisburg. The British Museum says the Happisburg area has what it calls a “remarkable concentration” of early Stone Age archeological sites. All were found since 2000.

Archeologist Nick Ashton described how he felt when he recognized the footprints came from prehistoric16 humans. At the time, he was looking at e-mails on his computer.

“It was only when the, this overhead views e-mailed through to me back in my office I suddenly looked at it and opened up the file and I thought, ‘This is absolutely amazing, you know -- there, there is no doubt this is really is human footprints.” 

He says the discovery will change the understanding of early human history in Europe.

The researchers estimate the height of the early humans at between about .93 and 1.73 meters. The difference in the heights suggests a group of mixed ages. 

Isabelle de Groote is with Liverpool John Moores University in the city of Liverpool. She examined the footprints. She says the markings help to tell about the humans who may have made them.

“The spread of the footprint size gives us an indication that we have children, a number of children and then probably some adults there with at least one, you know with probably one, male.”

One footprint appears to show the mark of toes.

Scientists say Britain was joined to continental17 Europe about a million years ago. It is not known how the early humans survived in the cold climate of northern Europe. Scientists believe the creatures who left the footprints were related to Pioneer Man, an ancestor of Homo sapiens. Pioneer Man was known to have lived in a warmer climate. 

Researchers continue looking for human fossil remains18 in the Happisburg area. A report on the footprint discovery and its meaning was published in the journal PLOS ONE. 

This Science in the News was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was based on stories from VOA reporters Steve Baragona and George Putic. Christopher Cruise produced the program.

I’m Anna Matteo.


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1 orchid b02yP     
n.兰花,淡紫色
参考例句:
  • The orchid is a class of plant which I have never tried to grow.兰花这类植物我从来没种过。
  • There are over 35 000 species of orchid distributed throughout the world.有35,000多种兰花分布在世界各地。
2 orchids 8f804ec07c1f943ef9230929314bd063     
n.兰花( orchid的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • Wild flowers such as orchids and primroses are becoming rare. 兰花和报春花这类野花越来越稀少了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • She breeds orchids in her greenhouse. 她在温室里培育兰花。 来自《简明英汉词典》
3 teeming 855ef2b5bd20950d32245ec965891e4a     
adj.丰富的v.充满( teem的现在分词 );到处都是;(指水、雨等)暴降;倾注
参考例句:
  • The rain was teeming down. 大雨倾盆而下。
  • the teeming streets of the city 熙熙攘攘的城市街道
4 fungi 6hRx6     
n.真菌,霉菌
参考例句:
  • Students practice to apply the study of genetics to multicellular plants and fungi.学生们练习把基因学应用到多细胞植物和真菌中。
  • The lawn was covered with fungi.草地上到处都是蘑菇。
5 bodyguards 3821fc3f6fca49a9cdaf6dca498d42dc     
n.保镖,卫士,警卫员( bodyguard的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • Brooks came to Jim's office accompanied—like always—by his two bodyguards. 和往常一样,在两名保镖的陪同下,布鲁克斯去吉姆的办公室。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • Three of his bodyguards were injured in the attack. 在这次袭击事件中,他有3名保镖受了伤。 来自辞典例句
6 antibiotics LzgzQT     
n.(用作复数)抗生素;(用作单数)抗生物质的研究;抗生素,抗菌素( antibiotic的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • the discovery of antibiotics in the 20th century 20世纪抗生素的发现
  • The doctor gave me a prescription for antibiotics. 医生给我开了抗生素。
7 bacterial dy5z8q     
a.细菌的
参考例句:
  • Bacterial reproduction is accelerated in weightless space. 在失重的空间,细菌繁殖加快了。
  • Brain lesions can be caused by bacterial infections. 大脑损伤可能由细菌感染引起。
8 microscopic nDrxq     
adj.微小的,细微的,极小的,显微的
参考例句:
  • It's impossible to read his microscopic handwriting.不可能看清他那极小的书写字迹。
  • A plant's lungs are the microscopic pores in its leaves.植物的肺就是其叶片上微细的气孔。
9 fungus gzRyI     
n.真菌,真菌类植物
参考例句:
  • Mushrooms are a type of fungus.蘑菇是一种真菌。
  • This fungus can just be detected by the unaided eye.这种真菌只用肉眼就能检查出。
10 spores c0cc8819fa73268b5ec019dbe33b798c     
n.(细菌、苔藓、蕨类植物)孢子( spore的名词复数 )v.(细菌、苔藓、蕨类植物)孢子( spore的第三人称单数 )
参考例句:
  • Ferns, mosses and fungi spread by means of spores. 蕨类植物、苔藓和真菌通过孢子传播蔓生。
  • Spores form a lipid membrane during the process of reproducing. 孢于在生殖过程中形成类脂膜。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 预防生物武器
11 extinction sPwzP     
n.熄灭,消亡,消灭,灭绝,绝种
参考例句:
  • The plant is now in danger of extinction.这种植物现在有绝种的危险。
  • The island's way of life is doomed to extinction.这个岛上的生活方式注定要消失。
12 seedlings b277b580afbd0e829dcc6bdb776b4a06     
n.刚出芽的幼苗( seedling的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • Ninety-five per cent of the new seedlings have survived. 新栽的树苗95%都已成活。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
  • In such wet weather we must prevent the seedlings from rotting. 这样的阴雨天要防止烂秧。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
13 nutrients 6a1e1ed248a3ac49744c39cc962fb607     
n.(食品或化学品)营养物,营养品( nutrient的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • a lack of essential nutrients 基本营养的缺乏
  • Nutrients are absorbed into the bloodstream. 营养素被吸收进血液。 来自《简明英汉词典》
14 fixed JsKzzj     
adj.固定的,不变的,准备好的;(计算机)固定的
参考例句:
  • Have you two fixed on a date for the wedding yet?你们俩选定婚期了吗?
  • Once the aim is fixed,we should not change it arbitrarily.目标一旦确定,我们就不应该随意改变。
15 infusion CbAz1     
n.灌输
参考例句:
  • Old families need an infusion of new blood from time to time.古老的家族需要不时地注入新鲜血液。
  • Careful observation of the infusion site is necessary.必须仔细观察输液部位。
16 prehistoric sPVxQ     
adj.(有记载的)历史以前的,史前的,古老的
参考例句:
  • They have found prehistoric remains.他们发现了史前遗迹。
  • It was rather like an exhibition of prehistoric electronic equipment.这儿倒像是在展览古老的电子设备。
17 continental Zazyk     
adj.大陆的,大陆性的,欧洲大陆的
参考例句:
  • A continental climate is different from an insular one.大陆性气候不同于岛屿气候。
  • The most ancient parts of the continental crust are 4000 million years old.大陆地壳最古老的部分有40亿年历史。
18 remains 1kMzTy     
n.剩余物,残留物;遗体,遗迹
参考例句:
  • He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
  • The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

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