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What you're looking at here is an aerial photo take over eastern Oregon.
大家现在看见的图片是航拍的东俄勒冈州的一幅照片。

And if the title "Searching for Armillaria Death Rings," sounds ominous, it is.
如果说“寻找重蜜环菌死亡圈”这样一个题目听起来很不祥的话，事实的确如此。

The Armillaria is actually a predatory fungus, killing certain species of trees in the forest.
重蜜环菌实际上是一种捕食性真菌，在森林中捕杀特定种类的树木。

It's also more benignly known as the honey mushroom or the "humongous fungus" because it happens to be one of the world's largest organisms as well.
人们也亲切地称之为蜜菇，或者“巨型菌”,因为它也是世界上最大的生物之一。

So with the help of some biologists studying the fungus,
在几位研究这种真菌的生物学家的帮助下，

I got some maps and some GPS coordinates and chartered a plane and started looking for the death rings,
我装上几张地图，几个GPS，包了架小飞机，开始寻找死亡圈，

the circular patterns in which the fungus kills the trees.
寻找一种圆圈它能杀死圈在其中的树木。

So I'm not sure if there are any in this photo, but I do know the fungus is down there.
虽然我不确定这张照片里面是否拍到了蜜环菌，但是我确定它就在树下面。

And then this back down on the ground and you can see that the fungus is actually invading this tree.
回到这后面的地表，大家可以看见真菌其实正在侵蚀这棵树。

So that white material that you see in between the bark and the wood is the mycelial felt of the fungus,
大家看见的这些在树擦破的皮与木头之间的部位的白色的东西就是这种菌的菌丝体，

and what it's doing -- it's actually slowly strangling the tree to death by preventing the flow of water and nutrients.
它怎样侵蚀树木呢……它实际上会使树木枯竭而死截止树木中水和养分的传输。

So this strategy has served it pretty well -- it's 2,400 years old.
而这一方式却使蜜环菌自身受益颇多，它已有2400年的历史了。

And then from underground to underwater.
接下来我们从地下转入水中来看看。

This is a Brain Coral living in Tobago that's around 2,000 years old.
这是生活在多巴哥海岸的脑珊瑚，大约2000多岁。

And I had to overcome my fear of deep water to find this one.
我不得不克服深水恐惧症去寻找它。

This is at about 60 feet or 18 meters, depth.
大概有60英尺深，大概18米吧。

And you'll see, there's some damage to the surface of the coral.
大家可以看见脑珊瑚表面有些破损。

That was actually caused by a school of parrot fish that had started eating it, though luckily, they lost interest before killing it.
这是由于一群小吻鹦嘴鱼吃了它一段时间，然而幸好，它们在彻底杀死这个脑珊瑚前失去了兴趣。

Luckily still, it seems to be out of harm's way of the recent oil spill.
更为幸运的是，它好像没有受到这次原油泄漏的伤害。

But that being said, we just as easily could have lost one of the oldest living things on the planet,
虽说如此，我们每时每刻都有可能失去地球上任何古老的生物，

and the full impact of that disaster is still yet to be seen.
而这一灾难对我们的影响仍未被我们察觉。

Now this is something that I think is one of the most quietly resilient things on the planet.
现在给大家看下我认为是世界上适应能力最强的生物之一。

This is clonal colony of Quaking Aspen trees, living in Utah, that is literally 80,000 years old.
它属于无性繁殖的菌落，寄生于生长在美国犹他州的一种杨树上，毫不夸张地说它已经有八万岁了。

What looks like a forest is actually only one tree.
看上去像是一片森林，而事实上只是一棵树。

Imagine that it's one giant root system and each tree is a stem coming up from that system.
可以把它想象成一个庞大的根系，每棵树都只是一个茎，从根系上长出来。

So what you have is one giant, interconnected, genetically identical individual that's been living for 80,000 years.
所以大家看到的就是一个巨大的，互相连接的，有着统一基因的个体植株，而它已经存活了八万年了。

It also happens to be male and, in theory immortal.
而且这是棵雄性植株，理论上说是不育的。

This is a clonal tree as well.
现在这棵也是无性繁殖树种。

This is the spruce Gran Picea, which at 9,550 years is a mere babe in the woods.
它叫格兰云杉，9550年前，它只是树林中的一株幼苗。

The location of this tree is actually kept secret for its own protection.
这棵树的实际位置是出于自我保护被隐藏起来了。

I spoke to the biologist who discovered this tree,
我咨询过发现这棵树的生物学家，

and he told me that that spindly growth you see there in the center is most likely a product of climate change.
他告诉我，我们看到位于中间部分细长的植株很有可能是气候变化的产物。

As it's gotten warmer on the top of the mountain, the vegetation zone is actually changing.
随着山顶气温的升高，植被带也相应变化。

So we don't even necessarily have to have direct contact with these organisms to have a very real impact on them.
所以我们并不是非要与这些植物直接接触就能对它们产生切实的影响。

This is the Fortingall Yew -- no, I'm just kidding -- this is the Fortingall Yew.
现在这个是紫杉——我只是开玩笑，这个才是紫杉。

But I put that slide in there because I'm often asked if there are any animals in the project.
我把这张幻灯片放在这里是因为经常有人问在我的这个项目中有没有动物。

And aside from coral, the answer is no.
除珊瑚以外，没有其他任何动物。

Does anybody know how old the oldest tortoise is -- any guesses?
在座有人知道年龄最大的龟几岁了么？有人想猜猜么？

(Audience: 300.) Rachel Sussman: 300?
(观众：300岁。)雷切尔·素斯曼：300岁么？

No, 175 is the oldest living tortoise, so nowhere near 2,000.
其实是175岁，这是年纪最大的龟了，所以离2000岁还差得远。

And then, you might have heard of this giant clam that was discovered off the coast of northern Iceland that reached 405 years old.
还有，大家可能听说过一只巨大的蛤蜊，发现于冰岛北部的海边，已经有405岁了。

However, it died in the lab as they were determining its age.
然而，当他们正在测定它的年龄时，它死在了实验室里。

The most interesting discovery of late, I think is the so-called immortal jellyfish,
我觉得近来最有趣的发现就是所谓的永生水母，

which has actually been observed in the lab to be able to be able to revert back to the polyp state after reaching full maturity.
在实验室中观察到它能够回复到水螅虫状态，在此之前历经了整个生命周期。

So that being said, it's highly unlikely that any jellyfish would survive that long in the wild.
正因如此，不太可能有哪种水母可以在自然环境下生存那么久。

And back to the yew here.
我们再回到紫杉这里。

So as you can see, it's in a churchyard; it's in Scotland.
大家能看到，她生长在一个教堂的院子里，在苏格兰。

It's behind a protective wall.
它在一堵保护墙后面。

And there are actually a number or ancient yews in churchyards around the U.K., but if you do the math,
还有些古杉树生长在英国一些教堂的院子里，但只要你算算，

you'll remember it's actually the yew trees that were there first, then the churches.
就会发现事实上是紫杉先生长在那些地方，然后人们才在附近盖了教堂。

And now down to another part of the world.
现在我们来看看另一个世界。

I had the opportunity to travel around the Limpopo Province in South Africa with an expert in Baobab trees.
我有幸有机会去了南非的林波波省，同行的是位猴面包树的专家。

And we saw a number of them, and this is most likely the oldest.
我们看到了很多猴面包树，这是其中最古老的了。

It's around 2,000, and it's called the Sagole Baobab.
它大约有2000棵，它被称为萨戈尔猴面包树。

And you know, I think of all of these organisms as palimpsests.
而且我认为所有这些生物都是生命史的缩写。

They contain thousands of years of their own histories within themselves, and they also contain records of natural and human events.
他们有千万年的历史就藏在它们体内，同时，他们也记录着自然和人类的历史。

And the Baobabs in particular are a great example of this.
猴面包树就是一个很好的例子。

You can see that this one has names carved into its trunk, but it also records some natural events.
大家可以看见这棵树的树干上刻有名字，也记载着一些自然事件。

So the Baobabs, as they get older, tend to get pulpy in their centers and hollow out.
所以当这种树逐渐成长并衰老时，树的中心部分也逐渐变得稀稠然后流出来。

And this can create great natural shelters for animals, but they've also been appropriated for some rather dubious human uses, including a bar,
这就形成了动物们很好的栖身之所，但是他们也被用在一些不太体面的地方，比如在酒吧里，

a prison and even a toilet inside of a tree.
监狱里，甚至用作树中的厕所。

And this brings me to another favorite of mine -- I think, because it is just so unusual.
现在我们来看看另一个我最喜欢的作品——我想，因为它太不寻常了。

This plant is called the Welwitschia, and it lives only in parts of coastal Namibia and Angola,
这种植物叫做千岁兰，它只生活在纳米比亚和安哥拉的部分临海区域，

where it's uniquely adapted to collect moisture from mist coming off the sea.
在那里，它养成了独特的收集海上雾气中水分的机能。

And what's more, it's actually a tree.
还有，它其实是棵树。

It's a primitive conifer.
这是一种原始的针叶树。

You'll notice that it's bearing cones down the center.
大家会注意到它位于中下部的球果。

And what looks like two big heaps of leaves, is actually two single leaves that get shredded up by the harsh desert conditions over time.
而看起来像两大堆叶子的部分，实际上是两片叶子，只是被切割成现在这样，这是长时间严酷的沙漠环境造成的。

And it actually never sheds those leaves, so it also bears the distinction of having the longest leaves in the plant kingdom.
这些叶子从未脱落过，所以千岁兰还有一个特质，就是有着最长的叶子，也就是植物界最长的叶子。

I spoke to a biologist at the Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden in Capetown to ask him where he thought this remarkable plant came from,
我在开普敦的克斯顿波士植物园咨询过相关生物学家，问他他觉得这一神奇的植物是从何而来的，

and his thought was that if you travel around Namibia, you see that there are a number of petrified forests,
他认为如果周游纳米比亚，你会发现有一些化石化的丛林，

and the logs are all -- the logs are all giant coniferous trees, and yet there's no sign of where they might have come from.
那些树木都是都是巨大的针叶树，但是却没有任何迹象表明它们是从哪来的。

So his thought was that flooding in the north of Africa actually brought those coniferous trees down tens of thousands of years ago,
所以他认为非洲北部的洪水千万年前携带这些针叶树种南下，

and what resulted was this remarkable adaptation to this unique desert environment.
造成了现在这种神奇的物种群适应这一独特的沙漠气候条件。

This is what I think is the most poetic of the oldest living things.
我认为这就是这些最古老的现存生物最具有诗意的部分。

This is something called an underground forest.
这是被称作地下森林的植物。

So, I spoke to a botanist at the Pretoria Botanical Garden, who explained that certain species of trees have adapted to this region.
我咨询过比勒陀利亚植物园的植物学家，他解释说一些特定种质的树木已经适应了这一地区的气候。

It's bushfelt region, which is dry and prone to a lot of fires, as so what these trees have done is,
那一地区的低矮灌木区，非常干燥而且容易受到火的侵袭，所以这些树木所采取的办法就是，

if you can imagine that this is the crown of the tree, and that this is ground level, imagine that the whole thing, that whole bulk of the tree,
大家可以把这个想像成整个树冠，而且这也是地表，大家想象整棵树，树的整个枝干，

migrated underground, and you just have those leaves peeping up above the surface.
都藏于地下，而我们能看到的只是探出地面的树叶。

That way, when a fire roars through, it's the equivalent of getting your eyebrows singed.
这样的话，当大火肆虐之时，就相当于只是烧焦了你的睫毛。

The tree can easily recover.
树本身可以轻易的恢复。

These also tend to grow clonally, the oldest of which is 13,000 years old.
这种树木也趋向于无性繁殖，其中最古老的有一万三千岁了。

Back in the U.S., there's a couple plants of similar age.
回到美国，也有些同等年纪的植物。

This is the clonal Creosote bush, which is around 12,000 years old.
这是无性繁殖的石灰酸灌木，大概活了一万两千年了。

If you've been in the American West, you know the Creosote bush is pretty ubiquitous, but that being said, you see that this has this unique, circular form.
如果在美国西部，大家都知道石灰酸灌木比较常见，虽说如此，大家可以看到这个呈现出它自己独特的圆形。

And what's happening is it's expanding slowly outwards from that original shape.
事实情况是它始于最初的一个型态缓慢地向外扩张生长。

And it's one -- again, that interconnected root system, making it one genetically identical individual.
而且还是一个，又一个，互相联系的根系，这就说明它是一个有着相同基因的个体。

It also has a friend nearby -- well, I think they're friends.
在它附近还有个朋友——嗯，我想它们是朋友。

This is the clonal Mojave yucca, it's about a mile away, and it's a little bit older than 12,000 years.
这是一株无性繁殖的莫哈韦丝兰，离开大概一英里远，它略大于一万两千岁。

And you see it has that similar circular form.
大家可以看见它也有着相似的圆圈形状。

And there's some younger clones dotting the landscape behind it.
还有些年轻点的无性繁殖体，星星点点分布在后面。

And both of these, the yucca and the Creosote bush, live on Bureau of Land Management land,
而它们两个，丝兰和石灰酸灌木，都生活在国土管理局的土地上，

and that's very different from being protected in a national park.
这与生长在受保护的国家公园中有很大的不同。

In fact, this land is designated for recreational all-terrain vehicle use.
事实上，这片土地是供娱乐性的山地越野车使用的。

So, now I want to show what very well might be the oldest living thing on the planet.
现在我想展示给大家看很有可能是地球上最古老的现存生物。

This is Siberian Actinobacteria, which is between 400,000 and 600,000 years old.
这就是西伯利亚放线菌，大约在40万岁到60万岁之间。

This bacteria was discovered several years ago by a team of planetary biologists hoping to find clues to life on other planets by looking at one of the harshest conditions on ours.
这种细菌仅在几年前才被人发现，是一组行星生物学家发现的，他们希望借此发现其他行星上生物的踪迹，研究了我们地球上最严酷的环境下的生物。

And what they found, by doing research into the permafrost, was this bacteria.
他们针对永久冻土层进行了研究，发现了这种细菌。

But what's unique about it is that it's doing DNA repair below freezing.
而它的特别之处就在于它在零度以下仍进行DNA修补。

And what that means is that it's not dormant -- it's actually been living and growing for half a million years.
这就意味着它并未休眠，而是一直存活并生长着持续50万年。

It's also probably one the most vulnerable of the oldest living things, because if the permafrost melts, it won't survive.
它可能也是最脆弱的生物，是所有这些最古老的存活生物中最脆弱的，因为如果永久冻土层融化，它将不能存活。

This is a map that I've put together of the oldest living things, so you can get a sense of where they are; you see they're all over the world.
这是一张我把所有最古老的现存生物放到一起来看的地图，这样大家就能看到它们的分布，可见是遍布世界各地。

The blue flags represent things that I've already photographed, and the reds are places that I'm still trying to get to.
蓝色的旗子代表我已经拍了照片的生物，红色旗代表我要去的地方。

You'll see also, there's a flag on Antarctica.
如大家所见，在南极洲也有面旗。

I'm trying to travel there to find 5,000 year-old moss, which lives on the Antarctic Peninsula.
我正准备去那里寻找五千年的苔藓，它生活在南极半岛上。

So, I probably have about two more years left on this project -- on this phase of the project, but after five years,
所以，我大概还剩下两年的时间留给这个项目或者说这个项目的这一阶段，但是经历了五年时间，

I really feel like I know what's at the heart of this work.
我真的感到我理解了这项工作的核心。

The oldest living things in the world are a record and celebration of our past, a call to action in the present and a barometer of our future.
世界上最古老的现存生物是对我们过去的记录，是庆祝，是对现在行动起来的号召，也是我们将来的晴雨表。

They've survived for millennia in desert, in the permafrost, at the tops of mountains and at the bottom of the ocean.
它们存活了上千年在沙漠中，永久冻土层中，在群山之巅或是汪洋之底。

They've withstood untold natural perils and human encroachments, but now some of them are in jeopardy,
它们战胜了难言的自然灾害和人类的侵害，但是现在它们中的一些处于危机之中，

and they can't just get up and get out of the way.
而它们不能简单地站起来，逃出去。

It's my hope that, by going to find these organisms,
我希望，通过去寻找这些生物，

that I can help draw attention to their remarkable resilience and help play a part in insuring their continued longevity into the foreseeable future.
我可以吸引大家对他们的注意，关注它们非凡的适应能力，尽自己所能地确保它们在我们可预见的将来继续长命百岁。

Thank you.
谢谢。