Chapter 3

CHAPTER 3

第三章

LET'S LOOK FOR ALIENS! WITH PROFESSOR CRUELLA CRACKLESNAP

让我们一起寻找外星人吧！和克鲁拉教授一起

IT'S ALL GOING PRETTY WELL, DON'T YOU THINK? We've found THOUSANDS of exoplanets all across the Galaxy- and lots of them seem pretty nice for life! CAN WE START LOOKING FOR ALIENS ON THEM? Well, yes... but we need to settle something first.

一切都很顺利，你不觉得吗？ 我们已经在银河系中发现了成千上万的系外行星，其中很多似乎都很适合生命存在！我们能开始找外星人了吗？ 嗯,是的…但我们得先解决点事。

What do we actually mean when we say "'LIFE"? IT'S EASY TO THINK OF SOME LIVING THINGS (people, trees, and small angry gerbils are all forms of life). And IT'S EASY TO THINK OF SOME NON-LIVING THINGS (like a rock, or the planet Saturn, or your left shoe). But what actually makes a tree or a person ALIVE I, and a rock... I NOT ALIVE. WHAT ACTUALLY IS LIFE? It turns out, LIFE IS... COMPLICATED, and this question is actually pretty hard to answer.

当我们说“生命”的时候，我们到底是什么意思呢？ 很容易想到一些生物（人、树和生气的小沙鼠都是生命的形式）。 我们很容易想到一些非生命的东西（比如一块石头，或者土星，或者你的左鞋）。 但到底是什么让树或人活着，还有石头…… 我不是活着的。生命到底是什么？ 事实证明，生活就是……很复杂，这个问题实际上很难回答。

There's the easy answer you learn in school, and the hard, real-life answer that scientists have to deal with. I'll explain the easy option first, then tell you why it's wrong. THE EASY ANSWER YOU LEARN IN SCHOOL SAYS THAT THERE ARE SEVEN THINGS YOU NEED TO BE CONSIDERED ALIVE: MOVEMENT (THIS ONE'S OBVIOUS... YOU HAVE TO BE ABLE TO MOVE AROUND) RESPIRATION (A FANCY WORD FOR BREATHING) SENSITIVITY (AN EVEN FANCIER WORD MEANING YOU FEEL WHAT'S GOING ON IN THE WORLD AROUND YOU) GROWTH (YOU GET BIGGER OVER TIME)

一个是你在学校里学到的简单答案，另一个是科学家们在现实生活中不得不面对的困难答案。 我将首先解释简单的选项，然后告诉你为什么它是错误的。 你在学校学到的一个简单的答案是，有七件事你需要被认为是活着的：运动(这一点很明显…… 你必须能够移动呼吸（呼吸的一个花哨的词）敏感性（一个更花哨的词，意思是你能感觉到你周围的世界发生了什么）生长（随着时间的推移你变得更大）

REPRODUCTION (YOU CAN MAKE SMALL BABY VERSIONS OF YOURSELF) EXCRETION (YOU GET RID OF WASTE- THIS MEANS GOING TO THE TOILET, NOT THROWING OUT YOUR TRASH) NUTRITION (YOU NEED FOOD) (This is a weird mix of fancy and non-fancy words, mainly picked so they spell the name of an imaginary old lady called MRS. GREN, which makes the list easier to remember during tests.)

生殖（你可以制造自己的小婴儿版本）排泄（你清除废物-这意味着要去厕所，而不是扔垃圾）营养（你需要食物）(这是一个奇怪的花哨和不花哨的单词组合，主要是为了拼写一个想象中的老太太的名字，叫MRS。 绿色，这使得列表在测试中更容易记住。)