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.
這種外形奇怪的植物叫做緊密小鷹芹。 看起來像是岩石上長滿了苔蘚 其實是由成千上萬的 灌木叢的樹枝所組成的, 每個樹枝末端都有一簇小綠葉 非常緊密扎實的包覆在一起 你甚至可以站在上面。 這種植物生長在智利的阿塔卡馬沙漠, 已經有3000歲了。 它是歐芹的近親。
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.
過去五年來,我一直在做研究, 和生物學家一起工作 到世界各地 尋找存活至今2000年 或更老的古老生物。 這項研究既是藝術也是科學。 這其中也包括了環境因素。 同時我也試著創造一種方式 試著跳脫出我們慣性的時間觀 以一種更深刻的時間觀來思考。 之所以選擇2000年為底限 是因為我想從西元零年開始 往回追朔。
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.
您現在看到的這棵樹是繩文杉, 生長在人跡罕至的日本屋九島。 這項研究之所以開始有一部分就是因為這棵樹 當時我到日本去 除了拍照外沒有其它的計畫, 我聽說了這棵 2180歲的樹 心想我一定得去看一看。 後來,我回到紐約之後 這個研究計畫的想法才浮現腦海。 它在我的心裡慢慢持續的攪動。 我想這可以說是我多年以來的渴望 把我在藝術,科學及哲學上的 興趣結合在一起 讓我準備就緒 在靈光乍現時可以把握住機會。 我開始了研究工作,出乎我意料的是, 不論是藝術或科學領域 都沒有人做過相關的研究。 或許我很天真, 我很訝異的發現在任何的科學領域裡 竟然都沒有地球物種壽命 的相關研究。
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.
您現在看到的是 地圖衣屬地衣, 它已經有3000多歲了 生長在格陵蘭, 這真是一趟遙遠的旅程。 去格陵蘭好像是 回到古代的時空之旅 而不僅僅是旅行到北方極地而已。 這比起任何我曾去過的地方 都要來的原始,遙遠。 一些特别的經驗也為此行增色不少。 有一次我在一個 偏僻的峽灣下了船, 結果原本約好要碰頭的考古學家 卻不見人影。 又不能傳簡訊,還是發email, 我完全只能靠我带的裝備。 很幸運,我安然無恙。 覺得完全與世隔絕的經驗 讓我感到謙卑、渺小。 幾天後, 我們有機會去紮營附近 的冰川釣魚, 那裡魚好多好多 多到你只要把手伸進河裡 就可以徒手抓起一條一尺長的鱒魚。 這就好像回到 地球純真美好的年代。 當然,那時也有地衣。 這些地衣一百年 只長一公分。 我認為這真的賦予人類的生命周期 一個不同的觀點。
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.
您現在看到的是 俄勒岡州東部的空拍照片。 「尋找蜜環菌死亡圈」 聽起來很不吉利,而事實就是如此。 蜜環菌是一種掠食性真菌, 在森林裡掠殺某些樹種。 我們給了它一個好聽的名字 叫蜜環菌,或巨大菇 因為它是 全世界最大的生物之一。 在幾位研究蜜環菌的生物學家的幫助下, 我帶了幾張地圖,幾台全球衛星定位系統 租了一架飛機 開始尋找死亡圈, 一種因為菌類啃食 樹木而形成的圓形區域。 我不確定這張照片中是否有任何我所要找的死亡圈, 但是我知道蜜環菌就在這裡。 就在這片土地底下, 你可以看到蜜環菌正在侵蝕這棵樹。 您所看到在樹皮與樹 之間的白色的東西 就是蜜環菌的菌絲叢, 事實上它正在做的是 阻斷水和養分的運輸 慢慢的讓這棵樹窒息而死。 這種策略相當的成功。 蜜環菌已經存活了2400年了。 好,看完地底,再來看看水底。
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.
這是生存於多巴哥海岸的腦珊瑚 約有2000多歲了。 我必須克服對於深水的恐懼去尋找它。 它位於水深約60英呎, 18公尺的深度。 各位可以看見腦珊瑚表面有些損傷。 這因為一群鸚鵡魚 吃了它一段時間, 幸好,鸚鵡魚在殺死腦珊瑚之前就對它沒興趣了。 更幸運的是,最近的原油外漏汙染 好像没有沒有影響到它。 雖說如此,我們很可能失去 地球上任何古老的生物, 而此一災難的全面性影響為何 我們仍無法預料。
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.
這是我認為 在這個星球上擁有最佳適應力物種之一。 它是無性繁殖菌落 寄生在美國猶他州的白楊樹上, 事實上它已經存活了八萬年之久。 看起來像是一片森林 其實是同一棵樹。 可以把它想像成是一個龐大的根系統 而每一棵樹都是 從這個系統長出來的莖。 所以這一整片樹林是一個巨大無比, 彼此連結, 基因相同的一棵 已經有八萬歲的樹。 而且這棵樹是雄性植株, 從理論來說它可以長生不老。
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
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.
這棵樹也是無性繁殖的。 它是雲杉, 已經有9550歲了, 但是在樹林裡它只是個小baby。 為了保護這棵樹 它的位置我們不對外透露。 我和發現它的生物學家談過, 他說位於中間的細長的植株 極有可能是氣候變遷的產物。 隨著山頂氣溫升高, 植被帶也隨之改變。 我們不需和這些植物 有直接的接觸 就可以對它們產生實際的衝擊。
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.
這是福廷加爾紫杉。 不是啦,開個玩笑。 這才是福廷加爾紫杉。 (笑聲) 我放那張幻灯片是因為 常常有人問我這個研究裡有沒有動物。 答案是:除了珊瑚之外, 沒有。 有人知道最老的烏龜幾歲? 猜猜看? (聽眾:300歲。) 300歲?其實現存 最老的陸龜是175歲, 離兩千歲還差得很遠。 各位可能聽說 在冰島北部外海 發現了 405歲的巨蛤。 但是它在科學家在實驗室裡 鑑定它的年紀時死掉了。 我想,最有意思的新發現, 是被稱之為燈塔水母的動物, 在實驗室裡觀察到 它在達到完全成熟階段後 能够回復到水螅蟲的狀態。 雖然這麼說, 任何一種水母不太可能在自然環境下生存那麼久。 再回來看紫杉。 如您所見,它生長在一個教堂的院子裡。 在蘇格蘭。有圍牆保護著。 其實有許多古老的紫杉生長在 全英國各地的教堂的院子裡, 如果你推算一下,不難明白 這些古老的紫杉早在教堂建立之前,就已經生長在那裏了。
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.
現在來看看世界上另一個地方。 我有幸跟隨一位猴麵包樹的專家 去了南非的林波波省。 我們看到了很多猴麵包樹, 這一顆很有可能是最老的。 大約有2000歲了, 叫做Sagole猴麵包樹。(Sagole:南非北省) 我認為這所有的生物 具有多重的意義。 它們的內在蘊含了 千萬年的生命軌跡, 它們也記錄著大自然和人類的歷史事件。 尤其是猴麵包樹 更是極佳的例子。 這一顆樹的樹幹上 刻著許多名字在上面, 它同時也記錄著一些自然事件。 當猴麵包樹年歲漸長時, 樹幹中心會變成漿狀的汁液而最後變成空心的。 這麼一來它就成為 動物們極佳的天然棲身所了, 但是它們也被人類 拿來用在一些不太好的用途, 空心的樹幹被當作酒吧,監獄 甚至是廁所。
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.
現在來看一個我最喜愛的— 因為它實在是太與眾不同了。 這個植物叫百歲蘭, 它只生長在納米比亞和安哥拉部分海岸地區, 它發展出獨特的功能 能夠從海上漂來的霧氣收集水分。 而且,它其實是一顆樹。 是一種原始的針葉樹。 你可以在底下中間看到它結了球果。 看起來像堆積成兩大落的葉子呢, 其實是兩片樹葉 因為沙漠嚴峻的氣候 經年累月把葉子切割成現在的樣子。 這些葉子從未脱落過, 所以百歲蘭的特徵就是 它的樹葉是 植物界中最長的。 我請教過開普敦的 康斯坦博西國家植物園 的生物學家 問他這令人驚艷的百歲蘭是從哪裡來的, 他的看法是, 如果你周遊納米比亞, 你會發現有一些石化林, 石化林的樹木— 全都是巨大的針葉樹, 但是没有任何跡象顯示它們的原生地是哪裡。 因此他認為 千萬年前 非洲北部的洪水帶著這些 針葉樹的種子流向南方, 造就了了不起的適應力 以存活在獨特的沙漠環境中。
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.
我認為這是這些最古老的生物最具詩意的部分。 這是被稱之為地下森林的植物。 我問過普利托里亞植物園的植物學家, 他告訴我一些樹種 已經適應了這個地區。 這裡是低矮灌木區, 很乾燥而且很容易發生火災, 所以這些樹演化出一些方法 就是,把這個想像成樹冠, 長在地面上, 再想像整棵樹, 一整棵樹, 都長在地面下, 您所看到的只是冒出地面的葉子。 這麼一來,當大火肆虐時, 就不過像是燒焦眉毛罷了。 樹本身可以很容易復原。 它們也是無性繁殖的, 最老的已經有13,000歲了。
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.
看看美國,有些植物也有一樣悠久的歷史。 這是無性繁殖的木餾叢, 大約有12,000歲了。 如果您去過美國西部, 您會知道在木餾叢西部十分普遍, 雖然如此,您可以看到它形成了 獨特的圓形的外觀。 其實木餾叢從原本的樣貌 慢慢的向外擴展。 又是一個彼此連結的根系統, 全部都是基因相同的一棵樹。 它有朋友住附近喔— 嗯,我認為它們是朋友。 這是無性繁殖的莫哈韋絲蘭,離木餾叢大概一英里遠, 它的年齡超過12,000歲。 您可以看到它也有類似的圓形的外觀。 還有一些年紀較輕的無性繁殖植物 稀稀落落的散布在這個區域。 這兩種植物,莫哈韋絲蘭和木餾叢, 都生長在國土管理局的土地上, 這和生長在受保護的國家公園中可是截然不同。 事實上,這片土地是規劃給 休閒的四輪驅動越野車使用。
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.
好,我現在要介紹的很有可能是 地球上現存最古老的生物。 就是西伯利亞放射菌, 它大約有40萬歲 到 60萬歲之間。 這種細菌幾年前才被 一群行星生物學家發現 他們研究地球上最嚴苛惡劣的環境中的生物 希望藉此發現其他行星生物的蹤跡。 他們針對永凍土進行研究,發現了 西伯利亞放射菌。 它的獨特之處就在於 在零度以下仍可以修復DNA。 這意味這它並非處於休眠狀態。 而是50萬年來一直存活著 並持續生長。 同時它也可能是現存古老生物 中最脆弱的, 因為,一旦永凍土融化了, 它將無法存活。
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.
在這張地圖上我標示出所有現存最古老的生物, 這樣各位能看到它們的分布;它們遍布世界各地。 藍色的旗子代表我已經拍過照片了, 紅色的旗子代表我要去的地方。 您可以看到,在南極洲也有旗子。 我計畫要去南極洲 找5,000歲的苔蘚, 它生長於南極半島。
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.
我還有大約兩年半的時間 來完成我的研究計畫— 以現階段而言, 五年過去了 我真的感受到這項任務的核心價值所在。 世界上現存最古老的生物 是對我們的過去的紀錄和歌頌, 是對於現況採取行動的召喚 也是我們未來的指標。 它們存活了上千年之久, 在沙漠裡,永凍土層中, 在群山之巔,在海洋深處。 它們無言的承受著 天災和人類的侵犯, 但此刻有一些正處於危機之中, 可是他們又不能站起來走開。 我的心願是,藉由尋找這些生物, 能幫助喚起大家的注意 去關注他們驚人的適應力 並擔起責任保護它們 在可見的未來繼續長命百歲。
Thank you.
謝謝。
(Applause)
(掌聲)