美研发活体细胞 为移居火星做准备

A mission to Mars may seem like a distant dream to cash-strapped Nasa, but a controversial scientist says we are on the verge of a breakthrough that would enable humans to settle there.

登陆火星的计划对于现在还囊中羞涩的美国国家航空航天局来说，似乎还是一个遥远的梦想，不过一位备受争议的科学家声称，我们即将经历一次突破性的进展，这使得人类可以定居在火星上。

U.S. scientist Craig Venter stunned the scientific community last year when he revealed that he had created the world's first synthetic organism.

美国科学家Craig Venter在去年的行为让学术界倍感震惊，他宣布他已经成功合成了首个拥有人造基因组的活体“生命”。

Now his team are working on engineering the cells to grow by consuming carbon dioxide - and he thinks we can harness this to set up camp on the Red Planet.

现在他的小组正在研究如何让细胞靠着消耗二氧化碳而生长，他认为如此一来我们便可以安全的在那颗红色的星球上安营扎寨了。

Engineered organisms would have huge implications for Earth, where it could potentially be used to stem climate change and help feed a population that will soon top seven billion.

生物工程将对地球产生巨大的影响，它可以用来阻止气候变化，并且有助于解决即将达到70亿的世界人口的吃饭问题。

He said the technology could also be used to build a new civilisation on Mars, as its thin atmosphere is 95 per cent carbon dioxide, according to Space.com.

他说这种技术可以被用来床在火星上创造全新的文明，在哪里稀薄的大气层中95%的物质都是二氧化碳。

The maverick biologist and billionaire entrepreneur, who made his money founding profitable research companies, created the lifeform by synthesising a DNA code and injecting it into a single bacteria cell.

这位特立独行的生物学家兼亿万富翁企业家将自己的资金用来成了有利可图的研究公司，他们将人工合成的DNA片段植入另一种已经被清空染色体物质的相似细菌体内，由此创造出了“生命体”。

The cell containing the man-made DNA then grew and divided, creating a hitherto unseen lifeform that was nicknamed 'Synthia.'

这个含有人造DNA的细胞之后生长和分裂，形成了这种前所未见的生命形式，并被称为Synthia。

This could lead to bacterial 'factories' that would manufacture artificial organisms designed for specific tasks.

这可能导致细菌“工厂”的出现，以及为特定人物而制造的人工生物的诞生。