This strange-looking plant is called the Llareta. What looks like moss covering rocks is actually a shrub comprised of thousands of branches, each containing clusters of tiny green leaves at the end and so densely packed together that you could actually stand on top of it. This individual lives in the Atacama Desert in Chile, and it happens to be 3,000 years old. It also happens to be a relative of parsley.
这种长得很奇怪的植物叫做紧密小鹰芹。 看起来像石头上长满了苔藓 但其实是一种灌木 由成千上万条枝干组成, 每条枝端都有一簇小绿叶 它们紧密地长在一起 你甚至可以站在整株植物上面 这种植物生活在智利的阿卡塔玛沙漠, 已有三千年的历史了。 它是欧芹的近亲。
For the past five years, I've been researching, working with biologists and traveling all over the world to find continuously living organisms that are 2,000 years old and older. The project is part art and part science. There's an environmental component. And I'm also trying to create a means in which to step outside our quotidian experience of time and to start to consider a deeper timescale. I selected 2,000 years as my minimum age because I wanted to start at what we consider to be year zero and work backward from there.
在过去这五年里,我一直做这方面的研究, 同生物学家一起 周游世界 寻找至今仍生存的古老生物 它们至少有两千年历史或者更加久远。 这个项目有一部分是艺术一部分是科学。 也有一定的环境因素在里面。 而且我还试图寻找一种方式 站在我们司空见惯的时间观之外 开始考虑一个更深一层的时间跨度。 我选择2000年为最低年限 因为我想从我们所认为的零年开始 然后从那时开始逆时间研究。
What you're looking at now is a tree called Jomon Sugi, living on the remote island of Yakushima. The tree was in part a catalyst for the project. I'd been traveling in Japan without an agenda other than to photograph, and then I heard about this tree that is 2,180 years old and knew that I had to go visit it. It wasn't until later, when I was actually back home in New York that I got the idea for the project. So it was the slow churn, if you will. I think it was my longstanding desire to bring together my interest in art, science and philosophy that allowed me to be ready when the proverbial light bulb went on. So I started researching, and to my surprise, this project had never been done before in the arts or the sciences. And -- perhaps naively -- I was surprised to find that there isn't even an area in the sciences that deals with this idea of global species longevity.
你们现在看见的这棵树叫做绳纹杉, 生活在日本偏僻的矢久岛 这棵树是我开始做这个项目的催化剂 那时我在日本旅行 除了拍些照片没有别的事情做 当我听说了这棵树 有2180年的历史了 我知道我必须去看看 之后不久,我回到纽约的家里 我想到了做这个项目的主意。 所以这个过程慢慢形成的 我想这一直都是我的愿望 把我的兴趣都综合到一起 艺术方面的,科学方面的,哲学方面的 这使得我做好了准备 当灵感来到时抓住了机会。 所以我开始做些背景研究,令我诧异的是 从未有人做过这个事情 无论是艺术界还是科学界。 而且,当然可能很天真, 我惊奇地发现在科学研究中竟然没有这样一个分支领域 研究有关 全球物种寿命的课题
So what you're looking at here is the rhizocarpon geographicum, or map lichen, and this is around 3,000 years old and lives in Greenland, which is a long way to go for some lichens. Visiting Greenland was more like traveling back in time than just traveling very far north. It was very primal and more remote than anything I'd ever experienced before. And this is heightened by a couple of particular experiences. One was when I had been dropped off by boat on a remote fjord, only to find that the archeologists I was supposed to meet were nowhere to be found. And it's not like you could send them a text or shoot them an e-mail, so I was literally left to my own devices. But luckily, it worked out obviously, but it was a humbling experience to feel so disconnected. And then a few days later, we had the opportunity to go fishing in a glacial stream near our campsite, where the fish were so abundant that you could literally reach into the stream and grab out a foot-long trout with your bare hands. It was like visiting a more innocent time on the planet. And then, of course, there's the lichens. These lichens grow only one centimeter every hundred years. I think that really puts human lifespans into a different perspective.
你们现在看到的是 是地图地衣 它已经有三千来岁了 生活在格陵兰岛 我真是为了这些地衣跑很远的路去了趟格陵兰岛 探访格陵兰岛就像 进行时光倒流的旅行 而不仅仅是在极北处旅行。 那里非常原始也更为偏僻一些 远远超出我以前所经历的。 一些特别的经历也为此行增光不少 一次我乘船前往 一个偏僻的峡谷 发现本应该在那里见面的几个考古学家 根本不在那里 而我又不能给他们发短信或者发邮件 所以我真的只能靠我带的那些装备了。 但幸运的是,很显然,最后我成功了。 但那是一次惨痛的经历 有深深的隔离感 几天后 我们有个机会去条冰川形成的河里钓鱼 就在我们营地旁边 河里有好多鱼 你把手伸进水里 就能徒手抓到条一英尺长的鳟鱼。 那次经历就像是探访 地球上一个很原始的时期。 下面我们来说说这种地衣。 它每长一厘米 需要一百年时间。 我认为这使得人类的生命周期 以一种不同的角度展示在我们面前。
And what you're looking at here is an aerial photo take over eastern Oregon. And if the title "Searching for Armillaria Death Rings," sounds ominous, it is. The Armillaria is actually a predatory fungus, killing certain species of trees in the forest. 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. So with the help of some biologists studying the fungus, I got some maps and some GPS coordinates and chartered a plane and started looking for the death rings, the circular patterns in which the fungus kills the trees. So I'm not sure if there are any in this photo, but I do know the fungus is down there. And then this back down on the ground and you can see that the fungus is actually invading this tree. So that white material that you see in between the bark and the wood is the mycelial felt of the fungus, and what it's doing -- it's actually slowly strangling the tree to death by preventing the flow of water and nutrients. So this strategy has served it pretty well -- it's 2,400 years old. And then from underground to underwater.
大家现在看见的图片 是航拍的东俄勒冈州的一幅照片。 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。 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。 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。 在几位研究这种真菌的生物学家的帮助下, 我装上几张地图,几个GPS 包了架小飞机 开始寻找死亡圈, 寻找一种圆圈 它能杀死圈在其中的树木。 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。 以及这后面的地表, 大家可以看见真菌其实正在侵蚀这棵树。 大家看见的这些白色的东西 在树擦破的皮与木头之间的部位 就是这种菌的菌丝体, 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。 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。 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. And I had to overcome my fear of deep water to find this one. This is at about 60 feet or 18 meters, depth. And you'll see, there's some damage to the surface of the coral. That was actually caused by a school of parrot fish that had started eating it, though luckily, they lost interest before killing it. Luckily still, it seems to be out of harm's way of the recent oil spill. But that being said, we just as easily could have lost one of the oldest living things on the planet, and the full impact of that disaster is still yet to be seen.
这是生活在多巴哥海岸的脑珊瑚 大约2000多岁。 我不得不克服深水恐惧症去寻找它。 大概有60英尺深, 大概18米吧。 大家可以看见脑珊瑚表面有些破损。 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 更为幸运的是,它好像没有受到 这次原油泄漏的伤害。 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, 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. This is clonal colony of Quaking Aspen trees, living in Utah, that is literally 80,000 years old. What looks like a forest is actually only one tree. Imagine that it's one giant root system and each tree is a stem coming up from that system. So what you have is one giant, interconnected, genetically identical individual that's been living for 80,000 years. It also happens to be male and, in theory immortal.
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。 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。 看上去像是一片森林 而事实上只是一棵树。 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。 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。 而且这是棵雄性植株, 理论上说是不育的。
(Laughter)
(笑)
This is a clonal tree as well. This is the spruce Gran Picea, which at 9,550 years is a mere babe in the woods. The location of this tree is actually kept secret for its own protection. I spoke to the biologist who discovered this tree, and he told me that that spindly growth you see there in the center is most likely a product of climate change. As it's gotten warmer on the top of the mountain, the vegetation zone is actually changing. So we don't even necessarily have to have direct contact with these organisms to have a very real impact on them.
现在这棵也是无性繁殖树种。 它叫格兰云杉 9550年前, 它只是树林中的一株幼苗。 这棵树的实际位置 是出于自我保护被隐藏起来了。 我咨询过发现这棵树的生物学家, 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。 随着山顶气温的升高, 植被带也相应变化。 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. (Laughter) But I put that slide in there because I'm often asked if there are any animals in the project. And aside from coral, the answer is no. Does anybody know how old the oldest tortoise is -- any guesses? (Audience: 300.) Rachel Sussman: 300? No, 175 is the oldest living tortoise, so nowhere near 2,000. And then, you might have heard of this giant clam that was discovered off the coast of northern Iceland that reached 405 years old. However, it died in the lab as they were determining its age. The most interesting discovery of late, I think is the so-called immortal jellyfish, 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. So that being said, it's highly unlikely that any jellyfish would survive that long in the wild. And back to the yew here. So as you can see, it's in a churchyard; it's in Scotland. It's behind a protective wall. And there are actually a number or ancient yews in churchyards around the U.K., but if you do the math, you'll remember it's actually the yew trees that were there first, then the churches.
现在这个是紫杉。 我只是开玩笑。 这个才是紫杉。 (笑) 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。 除珊瑚以外, 没有其他任何动物。 在座有人知道年龄最大的龟几岁了么? 有人想猜猜么? (听众:300岁。) 雷切尔素斯曼:300岁么?其实是,175岁。 这是年纪最大的龟了, 而且远远不足2000岁。 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。 但是,它在实验室里死掉了 正是在我们鉴定它年龄的时候。 我觉得近来最有趣的发现 就是所谓的永生水母, 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。 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。 我们再回到紫杉这里。 大家能看到,她生长在一个教堂的院子里。 是在苏格兰。在一堵保护墙后面。 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,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. I had the opportunity to travel around the Limpopo Province in South Africa with an expert in Baobab trees. And we saw a number of them, and this is most likely the oldest. It's around 2,000, and it's called the Sagole Baobab. And you know, I think of all of these organisms as palimpsests. They contain thousands of years of their own histories within themselves, and they also contain records of natural and human events. And the Baobabs in particular are a great example of this. You can see that this one has names carved into its trunk, but it also records some natural events. So the Baobabs, as they get older, tend to get pulpy in their centers and hollow out. And this can create great natural shelters for animals, but they've also been appropriated for some rather dubious human uses, including a bar, a prison and even a toilet inside of a tree.
现在我们来看看另一个世界。 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。 我们看到了很多猴面包树, 这是其中最古老的了。 大概2000岁。 名叫萨格尔猴面包树。 而且我认为所有这些生物 都是生命史的缩写。 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。 猴面包树 就是一个很好的例子。 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。 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。 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,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. This plant is called the Welwitschia, and it lives only in parts of coastal Namibia and Angola, where it's uniquely adapted to collect moisture from mist coming off the sea. And what's more, it's actually a tree. It's a primitive conifer. You'll notice that it's bearing cones down the center. 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. And it actually never sheds those leaves, so it also bears the distinction of having the longest leaves in the plant kingdom. I spoke to a biologist at the Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden in Capetown to ask him where he thought this remarkable plant came from, and his thought was that if you travel around Namibia, you see that there are a number of petrified forests, 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. So his thought was that flooding in the north of Africa actually brought those coniferous trees down tens of thousands of years ago, and what resulted was this remarkable adaptation to this unique desert environment.
现在我们来看看另一个我最喜欢的作品 我认为是的,因为它太不同寻常了。 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, 在那里,它养成了独特的 收集海上雾气中水分的机能。 还有,它其实是棵树。 是一种原始的针叶树。 大家会注意到它位于中下部的球果。 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 是长时间严酷的沙漠环境造成的。 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。 我咨询过相关生物学家 是在开普敦的克斯顿波士植物园 问他 他觉得这一神奇的植物是从何而来的, 他认为 如果周游纳米比亚, 你会发现有一些化石化的丛林, 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。 所以他认为 非洲北部的洪水 携带这些针叶树种南下 千万年前, 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. This is something called an underground forest. So, I spoke to a botanist at the Pretoria Botanical Garden, who explained that certain species of trees have adapted to this region. It's bushfelt region, which is dry and prone to a lot of fires, as so what these trees have done is, 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, migrated underground, and you just have those leaves peeping up above the surface. That way, when a fire roars through, it's the equivalent of getting your eyebrows singed. The tree can easily recover. These also tend to grow clonally, the oldest of which is 13,000 years old.
我认为这就是这些最古老的现存生物最具有诗意的部分。 这是被称作地下森林的植物。 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。 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,大家可以把这个想像成整个树冠, 而且这也是地表, 大家想像整棵树 树的整个枝干, 都藏于地下, 而我们能看到的只是探出地面的树叶。 这样的话,当大火肆虐之时, 就相当于只是烧焦了你的睫毛。 树本身可以轻易的恢复。 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. This is the clonal Creosote bush, which is around 12,000 years old. 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. And what's happening is it's expanding slowly outwards from that original shape. And it's one -- again, that interconnected root system, making it one genetically identical individual. It also has a friend nearby -- well, I think they're friends. This is the clonal Mojave yucca, it's about a mile away, and it's a little bit older than 12,000 years. And you see it has that similar circular form. And there's some younger clones dotting the landscape behind it. And both of these, the yucca and the Creosote bush, live on Bureau of Land Management land, and that's very different from being protected in a national park. In fact, this land is designated for recreational all-terrain vehicle use.
回到美国,也有些同等年纪的植物。 这是无性繁殖的石灰酸灌木, 大概活了一万两千年了。 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。 事实情况是它缓慢地向外扩张生长 始于最初的一个型态。 而且还是一个,又是一个,互相联系的根系, 这就说明它是一个有着相同基因的个体。 在它附近还有个朋友 我觉得他们是朋友。 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。 大家可以看见它也有着相似的圆圈形状。 还有些年轻点的无性繁殖体 星星点点分布在后面. 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, 这与生长在受保护的国家公园中有很大的不同。 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. This is Siberian Actinobacteria, which is between 400,000 and 600,000 years old. 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. And what they found, by doing research into the permafrost, was this bacteria. But what's unique about it is that it's doing DNA repair below freezing. And what that means is that it's not dormant -- it's actually been living and growing for half a million years. It's also probably one the most vulnerable of the oldest living things, because if the permafrost melts, it won't survive.
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。 就是西伯利亚放线菌, 大约在40万岁 到60万岁之间。 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。 他们针对永久冻土层进行了研究,发现了 这种细菌。 而它的特别之处就在于 它在零度以下仍进行DNA修补。 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。 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. The blue flags represent things that I've already photographed, and the reds are places that I'm still trying to get to. You'll see also, there's a flag on Antarctica. I'm trying to travel there to find 5,000 year-old moss, which lives on the Antarctic Peninsula.
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。 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。 如大家所见,在南极洲也有面旗。 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, I really feel like I know what's at the heart of this work. 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. They've survived for millennia in desert, in the permafrost, at the tops of mountains and at the bottom of the ocean. They've withstood untold natural perils and human encroachments, but now some of them are in jeopardy, and they can't just get up and get out of the way. It's my hope that, by going to find these organisms, that I can help draw attention to their remarkable resilience and help play a part in insuring their continued longevity into the foreseeable future.
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, 我真的感到我理解了这项工作的核心。 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。 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。 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, 而它们不能简单地站起来,逃出去。 我希望,通过去寻找这些生物, 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.
谢谢大家。
(Applause)
(掌声)