WEBVTT

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Well this week and next, we are taking you on a journey to Earth's frontiers.
這個禮拜和下個禮拜我們將帶你到世界邊境旅行。

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Today, it's Madagascar where scientists have set themselves quite a challenge.
現在，科學家在馬達加斯加為自己設立了一個嚴峻的挑戰。

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Their objective is to document marine life and their sample size is the entire ocean.
他們的目標是要記錄海洋生物，而他們的樣本量是整個海洋。

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Becky Anderson has the story.
貝琪‧安德森帶來以下的報導。

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Our oceans contain some of the oldest life on our planet and some of the most endangered.
我們的海洋蘊藏了地球上一些最古老和瀕臨絕種的生物。

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With species disappearing every day, a group of scientists from opposite corners of the globe
鑑於地球上每天都有物種消失，一群來自地球另一端的科學家

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have set themselves the task of cataloguing the DNA of every form of life in the ocean before it's too late.
在事情還有轉圜之前，肩負起編目海洋生物DNA的使命。

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From Southern Madagascar, a cold region of fierce promontories, open bays and extensive algal belts,
從馬達加斯加嚴寒南方惡劣的海岬、開闊的海灣和廣闊的藻類帶到英國的北海，

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to England's North Sea, their common goal is to better understand the abundance of life in our oceans --
他們的共同的目標是要更加深入了解海洋中生物的多樣性，

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past, present and future -- and use its DNA to create a bar code of life.
不論是過去、現在或未來，並且利用DNA創建生物條碼。

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Professor Philippe Bouchet leads a team of scientists from around the world who have gathered here in Madagascar.
菲利普‧布歇教授主導一個從世界各地聚集至馬達加斯加的科學團隊。

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He's dedicated his life to discovering unknown species. On this day, he thinks he's made an important discovery.
他將自己的生命奉獻在發現未知物種上。這天，他認為他有了重大的發現。

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The catch of the day, not immediately identifiable with one of the known species.
今日所捕獲的並無法立即辨別為已知物種。

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Hmmm. I don't know. Maybe it's still something different.
我不知道。這可能是不同的物種。

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Philippe and his team have already cataloged more than three and a half thousand specimens.
菲利普和他的團隊已經編目了超過三千五百種樣本。

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Around one and a half thousand new marine species entered into literature every year.
每年將近會有一千五百種新的海洋物種編進文獻中。

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At this rate, the process of discovering, verifying and naming all remaining unknown marine species would take more than five centuries.
照這樣的速度，發現、證實和命名所有尚存的未知海洋物種的過程將會歷時超過五個世紀。

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On the other side of the globe, Professor David Rawson is involved in a similar project,
在地球的另外一邊，大衛‧羅森教授參與了一項類似的計畫，

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to collect material from endangered fish species in Britain using a pioneering technique called cryopreservation
在英國利用首創的超低溫冷凍法技術，從瀕臨絕種的魚類身上蒐集相關資料，

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to create a so-called frozen ark.
用以創建所謂的冷凍方舟。

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This is to culture cells from the fin,
這是從魚鰭上培養細胞。

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and we can take it back to the lab and we can get cells to grow up from the fin clippings we're about to take.
我們將把它帶回實驗室，接著再從這些我們將帶回的剪鰭條中培養細胞。

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His research will enable future scientists to compare what once lived in the oceans with what lives there now and what will live there in the future.
他的研究讓未來的科學家能夠比較海洋中曾經存在的、現存的和未來將會出現的物種。

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The big concern is that certain groups are particularly vulnerable to extinction and fish probably most of all, of all the vertebrate groups.
目前最大的擔憂是某些物種特別容易滅絕，而魚類在所有的脊椎動物中又最有可能面臨這項考驗。

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Something like 30 percent of them are considered entirely vulnerable.
大約百分之三十的魚類被認為十分脆弱。

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Frozen ark is a way of preserving material in a more useful way than we did in the past.
冷凍方舟是以一種比過去更有效的方式保存生物資料的方法。

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So it's a form of banking in --
所以，這是保存細胞的一種方式，

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banking cells in a state where they can be held for hundreds or thousands of years at very, very low temperatures,
他們可以在非常低溫的狀態下被保存數百年，甚至數千年之久。

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particularly because liquid nitrogen, which is minus 196 degrees Centigrade,
尤其是攝氏零下一百九十六度的液態氮，

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so extremely cold temperatures where, in effect, all life activity does...is in suspended animation.
在這樣極度低溫的狀態下，所有的生命活動事實上都暫時停止了。

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It is estimated that most species that become extinct have never been documented by scientists.
大部份絕種的物種估計都未曾被科學家記錄。

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Philippe and David know that they are in a race against time.
菲利普和大衛都知道他們在和時間賽跑。

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I think many nations now recognize that their fauna and flora are as valuable to them as their mineral reserves and their land.
我想許多國家現在意識到他們礦物和陸地所蘊含的動物群和植物群都是非常珍貴的。

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It's an enormous task to capture everything.
雖然要記錄下每個物種是非常龐大的工作，但是我們已經跨出了第一步。

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But a start has been made. And I think it's making us recognize the value of our biology that's around us.
我認為這讓我們正視周遭生物的價值。

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And when I was a student, my dream was to discover one new species.
當我還是學生時，我的夢想便是發現一個新的物種。

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And, well, that dream has been fulfilled, I mean, thousands of times. In fact, nearly everywhere in the world,
而那個夢想早已被實現數千次。事實上，世界上的每個地方，

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you...especially in the tropics, there are [is] still plenty to discover.
你……特別是在熱帶地區，仍有許多物種尚待發現。

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And my experience with the tropical islands in the Pacific --
依我在太平洋熱島嶼的經驗，

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and I have seen places early in my career, 20 years later, these habitats were gone.
早期我因工作所到的某些地方，二十年後當我再度回到當地時，這些棲息地都已經消失了。

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So, yes, there is a race against time.
所以，是的，這是場和時間的競賽。