科学美国人60秒:Extreme Life-Forms Could Complicate Carbon Sequestration

The first life on Earth appeared about four billion years ago. One place these pioneering organisms may have emerged is at hydrothermal vents, deep underwater. Where unusual chemistry provided energy for primitive life-forms to survive. Life-forms like the methane-belching microbes found at the vents today.
大约在40亿年前，地球上首次出现了生命，其中有一个地方首当其冲,那就是热水排放的地方,在深水里。那里不平常的化学现象给与原始的生命提供 生存能量。 像是如今就在这种地方发现可以喷出甲烷的微生物这种生命体。

Now, for the first time, researchers have found evidence of methane-producing life in similarly extreme conditions, but at the surface of the Earth—at a spring in northern California, called The Cedars. The water there is extremely basic—with a pH of 11.6. And it contains no oxygen. Not an easy place to survive.
现在, 科研人员们首次,发现了类似的极端条件中可以制造 . 甲烷的生命存在的迹象, 但是位置是在地球的表面——在加州北部的一个名叫Cedar的温泉。那里的水是极碱性..的——PH值达到11.6。而且还不含 氧。这可不容易生活啊。

Researchers tested water and sediment at the Cedars. Some samples got dosed with mercuric chloride to kill any life present. Those dosed samples produced no methane. But the samples in which microbes were allowed to survive did put out methane. Confirming that at least some of the methane at the springs is indeed biological in origin. The findings appear in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences.
研究人员们监测了Cedars那里的水和沉积物。有些样本里添加了mercuric chloride，去除可能存在的生物。这种样本里没有任何的甲烷产生。生存的样本中，确实产生出甲烷了。这就确认了，至少温泉里的有些甲烷气体确实是生物制造。该研究结果已发表在《地球物理学研究：生物地理科学》杂志上。

The finding has implications for climate change alleviation. A geologically similar spring in Oman has been proposed as a site for carbon storage—pumping CO2 underground, where it gets incorporated in stone. But the extremophiles at The Cedars can use CO2 to make methane—an even more potent greenhouse gas. "So imagine pumping CO2 into the ground and having it come back up as methane." Penny Morrill, a biogeochemist at Memorial University of Newfoundland. "This will not necessarily happen, but it is something to be tested for before fully implementing a carbon capture and storage technology at one of these types of sites."
该研究提示我们可以缓和气候变化。在Oman发现的一个与上述地区地理条件极其相似的温泉也被提出是一个储存碳元素的位点——从地下泵出二氧化碳，原来都是被整合在该地区的矿石中。但是Cedars地区的嗜极菌可以利用二氧化碳制造甲烷——这是一种更 潜在的温室气体。所以可以设想一下向地泵入二氧化碳，之后返回大气的是甲烷。这是Penny Morrill, 纽芬兰纪念大学的一位生物地球化学专家。这并不一定会发生，但是在这类地区完全应用碳捕获以及储藏技术之前，还是先要检测一下这种现象的。

Morrill says the study's also a reminder that life is tenacious. "We should not let our biases prevent us from looking for evidence of life in what we would otherwise consider an unexpected place." Including other planets and moons.
Penny Morrill表示，这项研究还提醒我们生命是顽强的。我们不应该让我们的偏见阻挡住我们在特殊的地方考察生命的迹象。这其中包括其他行星和月球。