【聽力】外星人可以通過(guò)聽力“現(xiàn)身”

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當(dāng)我們尋找地球以外的生命時(shí)，通常會(huì)搜索其化學(xué)特征。例如，最近在火星上發(fā)現(xiàn)的甲烷排放，就有可能是細(xì)菌生命的存在跡象。但生命探測(cè)的確還有另一種方式。看它是否會(huì)動(dòng)。

"Everything moves.[laughter] I'm looking for something that I know that should be alive and does not move, but up to now I have not seen anything like this." Giovanni Longo, a physicist at the École Polytechnique Fédérale in Lausanne, Switzerland. “It’s extremely interesting, because it gives us a possible new definition of life if you want. If it moves, then it's alive."

“所有生物都在動(dòng)。[笑聲]而我在尋找一種我知道它有生命但又不動(dòng)的生物，但目前為止我還沒(méi)有見過(guò)任何像這樣的生物。”瑞士洛桑市聯(lián)邦理工學(xué)院的物理學(xué)家喬凡尼·朗格說(shuō)。“這非常有趣，因?yàn)槿绻憬邮苓@個(gè)想法，那它就賦予生命一個(gè)可能的新定義。如果它會(huì)動(dòng)，那它就是有生命的。”

Longo and his colleagues studied the movements of bacteria, yeast, mouse, human and plant cells, using the nanosensor in an atomic force microscope. And they found that every living cell they studied vibrated in tune with the metabolic processes going on inside. When they altered bits of the cells' metabolism, the vibrations changed; when they killed the cells in the sample chamber--the vibrations stopped. The findings appear in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

朗格和他的同事們利用原子力顯微鏡的納米傳感器，研究了細(xì)菌、酵母、小鼠、人類以及植物細(xì)胞的運(yùn)動(dòng)。他們發(fā)現(xiàn)，被研究的每一個(gè)活細(xì)胞都隨著內(nèi)部的新陳代謝活動(dòng)協(xié)調(diào)地振動(dòng)著。當(dāng)他們對(duì)細(xì)胞的新陳代謝做出稍微調(diào)整時(shí)，振動(dòng)也隨之改變;當(dāng)他們殺死樣品庫(kù)的細(xì)胞時(shí)，振動(dòng)也隨之停止。該項(xiàng)研究成果發(fā)表于《美國(guó)國(guó)家科學(xué)院院刊》。

Using their nanosensor search technique, the researchers were able to detect the vibrations of life in soil and water samples, too. So why not do the same thing on Mars? An atomic force microscope has in fact already been sent there, on the Phoenix Lander, though it wasn't set up to do these types of analyses. "But it can be done, so next time they can just modify it a little bit." And in doing so - expand our suite of life-detecting tools.

利用納米傳感器搜索技術(shù)，研究人員還能夠在土壤樣本和水的樣本里檢測(cè)出生命的振動(dòng)。既然如此，為何不在火星上也這樣做呢?盡管并非為了進(jìn)行此類研究而設(shè)置，但確有一個(gè)原子力顯微鏡“乘坐”鳳凰號(hào)著陸器被送達(dá)火星。“但這是可以做到的，只要下次工作人員對(duì)它稍作修改就行。”并且這樣做還增加了生命探測(cè)工具的套件裝備。