2023年02月06日 VOA慢速英语：美国公司旨在带回渡渡鸟

 

More investors are supporting a biotechnology company working on ways to bring back animals that have died off.
越来越多的投资者正在支持一家生物技术公司，该公司致力于研究如何让已经死亡的动物复活。
 
Some scientists, however, are doubtful such research efforts are possible — or even a good idea.
然而，一些科学家怀疑这样的研究工作是否可行——甚至不是一个好主意。
 
Colossal Biosciences first announced its plan to bring back a hairy ancestor of today's elephants, known as the woolly mammoth, two years ago. Recently, the company said it wanted to bring back the dodo bird: a large, flightless bird.
两年前，Colossal Biosciences 首次宣布其计划复活当今大象的毛茸茸的祖先，即猛犸象。最近，该公司表示要带回渡渡鸟：一种不会飞的大鸟。
 
"The dodo is a symbol of man-made extinction," said Ben Lamm of Colossal Biosciences. The company has formed a special group that works on bird-related genetic technologies.
“渡渡鸟是人为灭绝的象征，”Colossal Biosciences 的 Ben Lamm 说。该公司成立了一个专门研究鸟类相关遗传技术的小组。
 
The last dodo was killed in 1681 on the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius.
最后一只渡渡鸟于 1681 年在印度洋的毛里求斯岛被捕杀。
 
Colossal Biosciences is based in the city of Dallas, Texas. It started operations in 2021. Recently, the company announced it had raised an additional $150 million in financing. To date, it has raised $225 million from many investors that include United States Innovative Technology Fund, Breyer Capital and In-Q-Tel, an organization supporting national security agencies.
Colossal Biosciences 总部位于德克萨斯州达拉斯市。它于 2021 年开始运营。最近，该公司宣布追加融资 1.5 亿美元。迄今为止，它已经从包括美国创新技术基金、布雷耶资本和支持国家安全机构的组织 In-Q-Tel 在内的许多投资者那里筹集了 2.25 亿美元。
 
The possibility of bringing the dodo back is not expected to directly make money, said Lamm. But the genetic tools and equipment that the company develops to try to do it may have other uses, including for human health care, he said.
将渡渡鸟带回来的可能性预计不会直接赚钱，拉姆说。但他说，该公司为此开发的基因工具和设备可能还有其他用途，包括用于人类保健。
 
For example, Colossal Biosciences is now testing tools to change several parts of the genome at the same time. It is also working on technologies for what is sometimes called an "artificial womb," he said.
例如，Colossal Biosciences 现在正在测试同时改变基因组多个部分的工具。他说，它还在研究有时被称为“人造子宫”的技术。
 
The dodo's closest living relative is the Nicobar pigeon, said Beth Shapiro, a scientific advisor with the bioscience company.
生物科学公司的科学顾问贝丝·夏皮罗 (Beth Shapiro) 说，渡渡鸟现存的近亲是尼科巴鸽。
 
She has been studying the dodo for 20 years. She is a professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz and receives financial support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI). The organization also supports The Associated Press' Health and Science Department.
她研究渡渡鸟已有 20 年。她是加州大学圣克鲁兹分校的教授，并获得霍华德休斯医学研究所 (HHMI) 的财政支持。该组织还支持美联社的健康与科学部。
 
Shapiro's team plans to study DNA differences between the Nicobar pigeon and the dodo to understand "what are the genes that really make a dodo a dodo," she said.
夏皮罗的团队计划研究尼科巴鸽和渡渡鸟之间的 DNA 差异，以了解“真正使渡渡鸟成为渡渡鸟的基因是什么，”她说。
 
The team may then attempt to change Nicobar pigeon cells to make them seem like dodo cells. It may be possible to put the changed cells into developing eggs of other birds, such as pigeons or chickens. Then the birds might create young that could naturally produce dodo eggs, said Shapiro. The idea is not yet fully developed.
然后该团队可能会尝试改变 Nicobar 鸽子细胞，使它们看起来像渡渡鸟细胞。将改变的细胞放入其他鸟类（如鸽子或鸡）正在发育的卵中是可能的。夏皮罗说，然后这些鸟可能会产下可以自然产渡渡鸟蛋的幼鸟。这个想法还没有完全发展。
 
Shapiro said animals are a product of both their genetics and their environment — which has changed a lot since the 1600s. She added, "it's not possible to recreate a 100% identical copy of something that's gone."
夏皮罗说，动物是它们的遗传和环境的产物——自 1600 年代以来，环境发生了很大变化。她补充说，“不可能为已经消失的东西重新创建 100% 相同的副本。”
 
Other scientists wonder if it is even a good idea to attempt to recreate species that have died off. They question whether such efforts take attention and money away from attempts to save living species.
其他科学家怀疑尝试重建已经灭绝的物种是否是个好主意。他们质疑这样的努力是否会从拯救生物物种的尝试中夺走注意力和金钱。
 
There is a real risk "in saying that if we destroy nature, we can just put it back together again — because we can't," said Duke University's Stuart Pimm, who has no connection with the company.
杜克大学的斯图尔特·皮姆 (Stuart Pimm) 与该公司没有任何关系，他说，“说如果我们破坏自然，我们可以将其重新组合起来——因为我们做不到”，这确实存在风险。
 
"And where on Earth would you put a woolly mammoth, other than in a cage?" Pimm said. He also said that the environment where mammoths lived disappeared long ago.
“除了笼子，你会把猛犸象放在地球上的什么地方？” 皮姆说。他还说，猛犸象栖息的环境早就消失了。
 
Biologists who know about captive breeding programs say that it can be difficult for zoo-bred animals to live in the wild.
了解圈养繁殖计划的生物学家表示，动物园饲养的动物可能很难在野外生活。
 
Boris Worm is a biologist with the University of Dalhousie in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He is also not linked to Colossal Biosciences.
鲍里斯·沃姆 (Boris Worm) 是位于新斯科舍省哈利法克斯的达尔豪西大学的生物学家。他也与 Colossal Biosciences 没有联系。
 
He said animals need to learn from other wild animals of their kind — something that dodos and mammoths would not be able to do.
他说动物需要向同类的其他野生动物学习——这是渡渡鸟和猛犸象做不到的。
 
"Preventing species from going extinct in the first place should be our priority, and in most cases, it's a lot cheaper," he said.
“首先防止物种灭绝应该是我们的首要任务，而且在大多数情况下，它要便宜得多，”他说。