万物简史 第530期:丰富多彩的生命(26)
We don't look in the right places. 我们没有找对地方。 In The Diversity of Life, Wilson describes how one botanist spent a few days tramping around ten hectares of jungle in Borneo 在《生命的多样性》一书中，威尔逊描述了一位
万物简史 第531期:丰富多彩的生命(27)
Even now nearly a quarter of all prescribed medicines are derived from just forty plants, with another 16 percent coming from animals or microbes, 即使现在，差不多四分之一的全都处方药来自仅仅40种植物，还有l6%来自动物或微
万物简史 第532期:丰富多彩的生命(28)
In this state, you can drop them into boiling water or freeze them almost to absolute zero, 在这种状态下，你可以把它们扔进沸水里或把它们冷冻到接近绝对零度， that is the level where even atoms give up and, when this tor
万物简史 第533期:丰富多彩的生命(29)
A lot of mycologists work in industry, making cheeses and yogurts and the like, 许多真菌学家效力于工业，制造奶酪、酸奶等等， so it is hard to say how many are actively involved in research, 因此很难说有多少人在积极从事
万物简史 第534期:丰富多彩的生命(30)
Some people think even greater surprises may await us. 有的人认为，更令人吃惊的事还在等着我们。 A leading British ethno-biologist, wrote the Economist in 1995, 一位著名的英国民族生物学家认为，《经济学家》杂志
万物简史 第535期:丰富多彩的生命(31)
They were living off the microbes in the surface scum of pools, which in turn were feeding on hydrogen sulfide from hot springs. 它们靠水塘浮渣里的微生物来维持生命，而那些微生物又以温泉里的硫化氢为食料。 Our insti
万物简史 第536期:丰富多彩的生命(32)
Only slightly less devoted, and certainly more unexpected, was Alfred C. Kinsey, 虽然没有那么潜心，但肯定是更加出人意料的是， who became famous for his studies of human sexuality in the 1940s and 1950s. 在20世纪40-50年代，艾
万物简史 第537期:令人惊叹的细胞(1)
24 Cells 第二十四章 令人惊叹的细胞 It starts with a single cell. 生命开始于一个细胞。 The first cell splits to become two and the two become four and so on. 第一个细胞一分为二，二又分为四，以此类推， After j
万物简史 第538期:令人惊叹的细胞(2)
But yeast cells are as nothing compared with human cells, which are not just more varied and complicated, 但是，与人体细胞比起来，无论其多样性还是其复杂性，酵母细胞简直不值一提。 but vastly more fascinating because
万物简史 第539期:令人惊叹的细胞(3)
Surprises at the cellular level turn up all the time. 细胞世界所发生的令人惊讶的事总是层出不穷。 In nature, nitric oxide is a formidable toxin and a common component of air pollution. 在大自然中，一氧化二氮是一种极为
万物简史 第540期:令人惊叹的细胞(4)
On average, however, a human cell is about twenty microns widethat is about two hundredths of a millimeter, 不过，一个人体细胞的平均宽度不过20微米左右也就是l毫米的大约2%， which is too small to be seen but roomy enough to
万物简史 第541期:令人惊叹的细胞(5)
The first person to describe a cell was Robert Hooke, 最先描述细胞的是罗伯特胡克，我们在前面提到过他。 whom we last encountered squabbling with Isaac Newton over credit for the invention of the inverse square law. 他为行星运
万物简史 第542期:令人惊叹的细胞(6)
The draper's name was Antoni van Leeuwenhoek. 这个亚麻布料商名叫安东尼范列文虎克。 Though he had little formal education and no background in science, he was a perceptive and dedicated observer and a technical genius. 尽管他几乎没
万物简史 第543期:令人惊叹的细胞(7)
He offered no interpretations, but simply the facts of what he had found, accompanied by exquisite drawings. 列文虎克罗列了他所发现的一些事实，并配以一些精美的绘图，却没有任何解释和说明。 He sent reports on almo
万物简史 第544期:令人惊叹的细胞(8)
Leeuwenhoek himself occasionally got carried away with his enthusiasms. 列文虎克自己偶尔也沉湎于个人兴趣。 In one of his least successful experiments he tried to study the explosive properties of gunpowder by observing a small blast
