时间:2019-02-16 作者:英语课 分类:英语语言学习


英语课
When I was growing up in Montana, I had two dreams. I wanted to be a paleontologist, a dinosaur 1 paleontologist, and I wanted to have a pet dinosaur. And so that's what I've been striving for all of my life. I was very fortunate early in my career. I was fortunate in finding things. I wasn't very good at reading things. In fact, I don't read much of anything. I am extremely dyslexic, and so reading is the hardest thing I do. But instead, I go out and I find things. Then I just pick things up. I basically practice for finding money on the street. (Laughter) And I wander about the hills. And I have found a few things.
 
And I have been fortunate enough to find things like the first eggs in the Western hemisphere and the first baby dinosaurs 2 in nests, the first dinosaur embryos 4 and massive accumulations of bones. And it happened to be at a time when people were just starting to begin to realize that dinosaurs weren't the big, stupid, green reptiles 5 that people had thought for so many years. People were starting to get an idea that dinosaurs were special.
 
And so, at that time, I was able to make some interesting hypotheses along with my colleagues. We were able to actually say that dinosaurs - based on the evidence we had - that dinosaurs built nests and lived in colonies and cared for their young, brought food to their babies and traveled in gigantic herds 6. So it was pretty interesting stuff. I have gone on to find more things and discover that dinosaurs really were very social. We have found a lot of evidence that dinosaurs changed from when they were juveniles 7 to when they were adults. The appearance of them would have been different - which it is in all social animals. In social groups of animals, the juveniles always look different than the adults. The adults can recognize the juveniles, the juveniles can recognize the adults. And so we're making a better picture of what a dinosaur looks like. And they didn't just all chase jeeps around.
(Laughter)
But it is that social thing that I guess attracted Michael Crichton. And in his book, he talked about the social animals. And then Steven Spielberg, of course, depicts 8 these dinosaurs as being very social creatures. The theme of this story is building a dinosaur, and so we come to that part of "Jurassic Park." Michael Crichton really was one of the first people to talk about bringing dinosaurs back to life. You all know the story, right. I mean, I assume everyone here has seen "Jurassic Park."
 
If you want to make a dinosaur, you go out, you find yourself a piece of petrified 9 tree sap - otherwise known as amber 10 - that has some blood-sucking insects in it, good ones, and you get your insect and you drill into it and you suck out some DNA 11, because obviously all insects that sucked blood in those days sucked dinosaur DNA out. And you take your DNA back to the laboratory and you clone it. And I guess you inject it into maybe an ostrich 12 egg, or something like that. And then you wait, and, lo and behold 13, out pops a little baby dinosaur. And everybody's happy about that. (Laughter) And they're happy over and over again. They keep doing it; they just keep making these things. And then, then, then, and then ... Then the dinosaurs, being social, act out their socialness. And they get together, and they conspire 14. And, of course, that's what makes Steven Spielberg's movie - conspiring 15 dinosaurs chasing people around.
 
So I assume everybody knows that if you actually had a piece of amber and it had an insect in it, and you drilled into it, and you got something out of that insect, and you cloned it, and you did it over and over and over again, you'd have a room full of mosquitoes. (Laughter) (Applause) And probably a whole bunch of trees as well.
 
Now if you want dinosaur DNA, I say go to the dinosaur. So that's what we've done. Back in 1993 when the movie came out, we actually had a grant from the National Science Foundation to attempt to extract DNA from a dinosaur. And we chose the dinosaur on the left, a Tyrannosaurus Rex, which was a very nice specimen 16. And one of my former doctoral students, Dr. Mary Schweitzer, actually had the background to do this sort of thing. And so she looked into the bone of this T. rex, one of the thigh 17 bones, and she actually found some very interesting structures in there. They found these red circular-looking objects. And they looked for all the world like red blood cells. And they're in what appear to be the blood channels that go through the bone. And so she thought, well, what the heck. So she sampled some material out of it. Now it wasn't DNA; she didn't find DNA. But she did find heme, which is the biological foundation of hemoglobin. And that was really cool. That was interesting. That was - here we have 65 million year-old heme. Well we tried and tried and we couldn't really get anything else out of it.
 
So a few years went by, and then we started the Hell Creek 18 Project. And the Hell Creek Project was this massive undertaking 19 to get as many dinosaurs as we could possibly find, and hopefully find some dinosaurs that had more material in them. And out in Eastern Montana there's a lot of space, a lot of badlands, and not very many people. And so you can go out there and find a lot of stuff. And we did find a lot of stuff. We found a lot of Tyrannosaurs, but we found one special Tyrannosaur, and we called it B-rex. And B-rex was found under a thousand cubic yards of rock. It wasn't a very complete T. rex, and it wasn't a very big T. rex, but it was a very special B-rex. And I and my colleagues cut into it, and we were able to determine, by looking at lines of arrested growth, some lines in it, that B-rex had died at the age of 16. We don't really know how long dinosaurs lived, because we haven't found the oldest one yet. But this one died at the age of 16.
 
We gave samples to Mary Schweitzer, and she was actually able to determine that B-rex was a female based on medullary tissue found on the inside of the bone. Medullary tissue is the calcium 20 build-up, the calcium storage basically, when an animal is pregnant, when a bird is pregnant. So here was the character that linked birds and dinosaurs. But Mary went further. She took the bone, and she dumped it into acid. Now we all know that bones are fossilized, and so if you dump it into acid, there shouldn't be anything left. But there was something left. There were blood vessels 21 left. There were flexible, clear blood vessels. And so here was the first soft tissue from a dinosaur. It was extraordinary. But she also found osteocytes, which are the cells that laid down the bones. And try and try, we could not find DNA, but she did find evidence of proteins.
 
But we thought maybe - well, we thought maybe that the material was breaking down after it was coming out of the ground. We thought maybe it was deteriorating 22 very fast. And so we built a laboratory in the back of an 18-wheeler trailer, and actually took the laboratory to the field where we could get better samples. And we did. We got better material. The cells looked better. The vessels looked better. Then the collagen. I mean, it was wonderful stuff. But it's not dinosaur DNA. So we have discovered that dinosaur DNA, and all DNA, just breaks down too fast. We're just not going to be able to do what they did in "Jurassic Park." We're not going to be able to make a dinosaur based on a dinosaur.
But birds are dinosaurs. Birds are living dinosaurs. We actually classify them as dinosaurs. We now call them non-avian dinosaurs and avian dinosaurs. So the non-avian dinosaurs are the big clunky ones that went extinct. Avian dinosaurs are our modern birds. So we don't have to make a dinosaur; because we already have them.
(Laughter)
 
I know, you're as bad as the sixth-graders. (Laughter) The sixth-graders look at it and they say, "No." (Laughter) "You can call it a dinosaur, but look at the velociraptor: the velociraptor is cool." (Laughter) "The chicken is not." (Laughter) So this is our problem, as you can imagine. The chicken is a dinosaur. I mean it really is. You can't argue with it, because we're the classifiers and we've classified it that way. (Laughter) (Applause) But the sixth-graders demand it. "Fix the chicken." (Laughter) So that's what I'm here to tell you about: how we are going to fix a chicken.
 
So we have a number of ways that we actually can fix the chicken. Because evolution works, we actually have some evolutionary 23 tools. We'll call them biological modification 24 tools. We have selection. And we know selection works. We started out with a wolf-like creature and we ended up with a Maltese. I mean, that's - that's definitely genetic 26 modification. Or any of the other funny looking little dogs. We also have transgenesis. Transgenesis is really cool too. That's where you take a gene 25 out of one animal and stick it in another one. That's how people make GloFish. You take a glow gene out of a coral or a jellyfish and you stick it in a zebrafish, and, puff 28, they glow. And that's pretty cool. And they obviously make a lot of money off of them. And now they're making Glow rabbits and glow all sorts of things. I guess we could make a glow chicken. (Laughter) But I don't think that'll satisfy the sixth-graders either.
 
But there's another thing. There's what we call atavism activation 29. And atavism activation is basically - an atavism is an ancestral characteristic. You heard that occasionally children are born with tails, and it's because it's an ancestral characteristic. And so there are a number of atavisms that can happen. Snakes are occasionally born with legs. And here's an example. This is a chicken with teeth. A fellow by the name of Matthew Harris at the University of Wisconsin in Madison actually figured out a way to stimulate 30 the gene for teeth, and so was able to actually turn the tooth gene on and produce teeth in chickens. Now that's a good characteristic. We can save that one. We know we can use that. We can make a chicken with teeth. That's getting closer. That's better than a glowing chicken.
(Laughter)
 
A friend of mine, a colleague of mine, Dr. Hans Larsson at McGill University, is actually looking at atavisms. And he's looking at them by looking at the embryo 3 genesis of birds and actually looking at how they develop. And he's interested in how birds actually lost their tail. He's also interested in the transformation 31 of the arm, the hand, to the wing. He's looking for those genes 27 as well. And I said, "Well, if you can find those, I can just reverse them and make what I need to make for the sixth-graders." And so he agreed. And so that's what we're looking into.
 
If you look at dinosaur hands, a velociraptor has that cool-looking hand with the claws on it. Archaeopteryx, which is a bird, a primitive 32 bird, still has that very primitive hand. But as you can see, the pigeon, or a chicken or anything else, another bird, has kind of a weird 33 looking hand, because the hand is a wing. But the cool thing is is that, if you look in the embryo, as the embryo is developing the hand actually looks pretty much like the archaeopteryx hand. It has the three fingers, the three digits 34. But a gene turns on that actually fuses those together. And so what we're looking for is that gene. We want to stop that gene from turning on, fusing those hands together, so we can get a chicken that hatches out with a three-fingered hand, like the archaeopteryx. And the same goes for the tails. Birds have basically rudimentary tails. And so we know that in embryo, as the animal is developing, it actually has a relatively 35 long tail. But a gene turns on and resorbs the tail, gets rid of it. So that's the other gene we're looking for. We want to stop that tail from resorbing.
 
So what we're trying to do really is take our chicken, modify it and make the chickenosaurus. (Laughter) It's a cooler looking chicken. But it's just the very basics. So that really is what we're doing. And people always say, "Why do that? Why make this thing? What good is it?" Well, that's a good question. Actually, I think it's a great way to teach kids about evolutionary biology and developmental biology and all sorts of things. And quite frankly 36, I think if Colonel Sanders was to be careful how he worded it, he could actually advertise an extra piece. (Laughter)
 
Anyway - When our dino-chicken hatches, it will be, obviously, the poster child, or what you might call a poster chick, for technology, entertainment and design.
Thank you.

n.恐龙
  • Are you trying to tell me that David was attacked by a dinosaur?你是想要告诉我大卫被一支恐龙所攻击?
  • He stared at the faithful miniature of the dinosaur.他凝视著精确的恐龙缩小模型。
n.恐龙( dinosaur的名词复数 );守旧落伍的人,过时落后的东西
  • The brontosaurus was one of the largest of all dinosaurs. 雷龙是所有恐龙中最大的一种。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • Dinosaurs have been extinct for millions of years. 恐龙绝种已有几百万年了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
n.胚胎,萌芽的事物
  • They are engaging in an embryo research.他们正在进行一项胚胎研究。
  • The project was barely in embryo.该计划只是个雏形。
n.晶胚;胚,胚胎( embryo的名词复数 )
  • Somatic cells of angiosperms enter a regenerative phase and behave like embryos. 被子植物体细胞进入一个生殖阶段,而且其行为象胚。 来自辞典例句
  • Evolution can explain why human embryos look like gilled fishes. 进化论能够解释为什么人类的胚胎看起来象除去了内脏的鱼一样。 来自辞典例句
n.爬行动物,爬虫( reptile的名词复数 )
  • Snakes and crocodiles are both reptiles. 蛇和鳄鱼都是爬行动物。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • Birds, reptiles and insects come from eggs. 鸟类、爬虫及昆虫是卵生的。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
兽群( herd的名词复数 ); 牧群; 人群; 群众
  • Regularly at daybreak they drive their herds to the pasture. 每天天一亮他们就把牲畜赶到草场上去。
  • There we saw herds of cows grazing on the pasture. 我们在那里看到一群群的牛在草地上吃草。
n.青少年( juvenile的名词复数 );扮演少年角色的演员;未成年人
  • Do you think that punishment for violent crimes should be the same for juveniles and adults? 你对暴力犯罪的惩罚对于青少年和成人应一样吗? 来自生活英语口语25天快训
  • Juveniles Should we not exactly in need of such strength and conviction? 少年的我们难道不正是需要这种力量和信念吗? 来自互联网
描绘,描画( depict的第三人称单数 ); 描述
  • The book vividly depicts French society of the 1930s. 这本书生动地描绘了20 世纪30 年代的法国社会。
  • He depicts the sordid and vulgar sides of life exclusively. 他只描写人生肮脏和庸俗的一面。
adj.惊呆的;目瞪口呆的v.使吓呆,使惊呆;变僵硬;使石化(petrify的过去式和过去分词)
  • I'm petrified of snakes. 我特别怕蛇。
  • The poor child was petrified with fear. 这可怜的孩子被吓呆了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
n.琥珀;琥珀色;adj.琥珀制的
  • Would you like an amber necklace for your birthday?你过生日想要一条琥珀项链吗?
  • This is a piece of little amber stones.这是一块小小的琥珀化石。
(缩)deoxyribonucleic acid 脱氧核糖核酸
  • DNA is stored in the nucleus of a cell.脱氧核糖核酸储存于细胞的细胞核里。
  • Gene mutations are alterations in the DNA code.基因突变是指DNA密码的改变。
n.鸵鸟
  • Ostrich is the fastest animal on two legs.驼鸟是双腿跑得最快的动物。
  • The ostrich indeed inhabits continents.鸵鸟确实是生活在大陆上的。
v.看,注视,看到
  • The industry of these little ants is wonderful to behold.这些小蚂蚁辛勤劳动的样子看上去真令人惊叹。
  • The sunrise at the seaside was quite a sight to behold.海滨日出真是个奇景。
v.密谋,(事件等)巧合,共同导致
  • They'd conspired to overthrow the government.他们曾经密谋推翻政府。
  • History and geography have conspired to bring Greece to a moment of decision.历史和地理因素共同将希腊推至作出抉择的紧要关头。
密谋( conspire的现在分词 ); 搞阴谋; (事件等)巧合; 共同导致
  • They were accused of conspiring against the king. 他们被指控阴谋反对国王。
  • John Brown and his associates were tried for conspiring to overthrow the slave states. 约翰·布朗和他的合伙者们由于密谋推翻实行奴隶制度的美国各州而被审讯。
n.样本,标本
  • You'll need tweezers to hold up the specimen.你要用镊子来夹这标本。
  • This specimen is richly variegated in colour.这件标本上有很多颜色。
n.大腿;股骨
  • He is suffering from a strained thigh muscle.他的大腿肌肉拉伤了,疼得很。
  • The thigh bone is connected to the hip bone.股骨连着髋骨。
n.小溪,小河,小湾
  • He sprang through the creek.他跳过小河。
  • People sunbathe in the nude on the rocks above the creek.人们在露出小溪的岩石上裸体晒日光浴。
n.保证,许诺,事业
  • He gave her an undertaking that he would pay the money back with in a year.他向她做了一年内还钱的保证。
  • He is too timid to venture upon an undertaking.他太胆小,不敢从事任何事业。
n.钙(化学符号Ca)
  • We need calcium to make bones.我们需要钙来壮骨。
  • Calcium is found most abundantly in milk.奶含钙最丰富。
n.血管( vessel的名词复数 );船;容器;(具有特殊品质或接受特殊品质的)人
  • The river is navigable by vessels of up to 90 tons. 90 吨以下的船只可以从这条河通过。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • All modern vessels of any size are fitted with radar installations. 所有现代化船只都有雷达装置。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
恶化,变坏( deteriorate的现在分词 )
  • The weather conditions are deteriorating. 天气变得越来越糟。
  • I was well aware of the bad morale and the deteriorating factories. 我很清楚,大家情绪低落,各个工厂越搞越坏。
adj.进化的;演化的,演变的;[生]进化论的
  • Life has its own evolutionary process.生命有其自身的进化过程。
  • These are fascinating questions to be resolved by the evolutionary studies of plants.这些十分吸引人的问题将在研究植物进化过程中得以解决。
n.修改,改进,缓和,减轻
  • The law,in its present form,is unjust;it needs modification.现行的法律是不公正的,它需要修改。
  • The design requires considerable modification.这个设计需要作大的修改。
n.遗传因子,基因
  • A single gene may have many effects.单一基因可能具有很多种效应。
  • The targeting of gene therapy has been paid close attention.其中基因治疗的靶向性是值得密切关注的问题之一。
adj.遗传的,遗传学的
  • It's very difficult to treat genetic diseases.遗传性疾病治疗起来很困难。
  • Each daughter cell can receive a full complement of the genetic information.每个子细胞可以收到遗传信息的一个完全补偿物。
n.基因( gene的名词复数 )
  • You have good genes from your parents, so you should live a long time. 你从父母那儿获得优良的基因,所以能够活得很长。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • Differences will help to reveal the functions of the genes. 它们间的差异将会帮助我们揭开基因多种功能。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 生物技术的世纪
n.一口(气);一阵(风);v.喷气,喘气
  • He took a puff at his cigarette.他吸了一口香烟。
  • They tried their best to puff the book they published.他们尽力吹捧他们出版的书。
n. 激活,催化作用
  • A computer controls the activation of an air bag.电脑控制着气囊的启动。
vt.刺激,使兴奋;激励,使…振奋
  • Your encouragement will stimulate me to further efforts.你的鼓励会激发我进一步努力。
  • Success will stimulate the people for fresh efforts.成功能鼓舞人们去作新的努力。
n.变化;改造;转变
  • Going to college brought about a dramatic transformation in her outlook.上大学使她的观念发生了巨大的变化。
  • He was struggling to make the transformation from single man to responsible husband.他正在努力使自己由单身汉变为可靠的丈夫。
adj.原始的;简单的;n.原(始)人,原始事物
  • It is a primitive instinct to flee a place of danger.逃离危险的地方是一种原始本能。
  • His book describes the march of the civilization of a primitive society.他的著作描述了一个原始社会的开化过程。
adj.古怪的,离奇的;怪诞的,神秘而可怕的
  • From his weird behaviour,he seems a bit of an oddity.从他不寻常的行为看来,他好像有点怪。
  • His weird clothes really gas me.他的怪衣裳简直笑死人。
n.数字( digit的名词复数 );手指,足趾
  • The number 1000 contains four digits. 1000是四位数。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • The number 410 contains three digits. 数字 410 中包括三个数目字。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
adv.比较...地,相对地
  • The rabbit is a relatively recent introduction in Australia.兔子是相对较新引入澳大利亚的物种。
  • The operation was relatively painless.手术相对来说不痛。
adv.坦白地,直率地;坦率地说
  • To speak frankly, I don't like the idea at all.老实说,我一点也不赞成这个主意。
  • Frankly speaking, I'm not opposed to reform.坦率地说,我不反对改革。
学英语单词
active trimming
activity restart cycle
Advertisement Regulation Act
Andaman Islands, Andamans
average-weight
beamtherapy
binomial distribution probability
Boselaphus
break release
break-even price
Bretton Woods Monetary Agreement
Briterlich variable radius technique
Changsando
channel address half word table
choga
cigar wrapping
Cinnopropazone
cluster spring
coal storage yard
contractual forum
coriandrol
Cremanthodium angustifolium
cross software
crownhills
crucilly
diagnoser
docuhistory
Donghai
double venturi tube
driving motion
ease someone out
epigenetic mineral
every two years
fate of particles
functional density
GDP dissociation inhibitor
general inquiry
General of the Army
grays in silicon
h. h. munroes
Hanke-Koessler's tests
heldover
heteromorphous combination
hormonagoga
HTML
image-motion compensator
instantaneous error of rotation
Itapicuru
kemmons
kertzmen
kroeng
lanagan
lasta
letter stock
Lord High Chancellor
lubricating oil starting pump
mark of the beast
Mitreola
morphoanatomically
negative viscosity
noninterlocked area
only the good die young
options tariff
oral bundle
parenchyma strand
pecornut
Pedicularis siphonantha
pennorth, pennorth
phosphor laser
placodes
plant colo(u)ring matters
plug-ins
Pyrularia sinensis
reacton turbine
receiving-departure yard
reindustrialising
remote readout
rosies
rotary cultivator
s phenomenon Bordet
schmoozer
scumbered
sideelevation
sight feed siphon lubricator
single-chip
solar satellite
solvd
spot trading
Strait of Hormuz
superior phrenic arteries
tensile
tubular resistance
tyre building
ultraphysical
under-the-counters
uniform divergence
uraeotyphlids
wood-hen
Working Tax Credit
X car
xylariopsis uenoi