Verb Master 動詞達人

Exoplanets Make Life Conversation Livelier
太陽系外行星讓外星生命論壇更生動
By Steve Mirsky on March 25, 2017

影音說明檔：https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B-Bg0auB-gcoT1pPZGwyV0RidXM

Astronomers have catalogued more than 3,500 exoplanets(太陽系以外的行星) since the first one was found in 1988.
“Part of the revelation and the revolution that’s going on is that actually planets are incredibly abundant and that means that potential incubators for life are everywhere in the universe.”
自從1988年以來，天文學家已經列冊(have catalogued )超過三千五百個太陽系以外的行星(exoplanets)。
「從部分公開的真相和(天文學)革命知道，實際上的行星多得不得了，這表示宇宙間到處有有孕育生命的保溫箱(incubators 孵蛋器、育嬰箱)」

Columbia University astronomer and Scientific American blogger Caleb Scharf. He was part of a conversation about life in the universe at NYU on March 22nd. At which he was asked what our new understanding of the abundance of exoplanets out there does to the odds of finding life.
哥倫比亞大學天文學家和科學美國人的部落客(blogger)Caleb Scharf參與一場在三月二十二日紐約大學的對話，在那兒(at which)他被問及，我們對太陽系以外行星的新認知，對找到生命的機率(the odds of )有什麼幫助(does to sth)

“What it definitely does is increase the odds of us finding an answer. I think. I think that we can say with some confidence. Because we didn’t know that there was so many planets around other stars 20 years ago… and that also means that plenty of them are pretty nearby to us. So what it definitely alters are the odds on us getting some answers.
「我個人認為，絕對會增加的是我們找到答案的機率，我們講這句話有某種程度上的自信，因為二十年前我們還不知道有這麼多的行星繞著其它的太陽，這也意味著他們距離我們很近，所以說真正的變動到(alters)的是我們找到某些答案的機率

“Because suppose planets were actually very rare. Suppose the solar system was sitting here and then you had to go a thousand light years to the next planetary system. That would be difficult for us if we wanted to study those planets because they’re a long way away. So I’m doing the politician thing of kind of circling around the question here. So it definitely, the abundance of planets improves the odds of us obtaining an answer, which is huge. Don’t underestimate that. What does it mean for the actual probability of there being other life out there and how often it occurs? If I’m completely honest with you—we don’t know.”
因為，假如行星的數量其實不多，假如太陽系呆在這兒(was sitting here)距離下一個行星系統(planetary system)有一千光年遠，我們就很難對那些行星進行研究，因為他們太遠了，所以我才跟大家玩這治人物那套(doing the politician thing)，有點繞著問題打轉(circling around the question)，所以說，眾多的行星會增進我們獲得答案的機率，而且是很高的機率(which is huge)，不要小看它，然而實際找到外面生命的機率有多大？找到次數有多少？我很老實告訴大家(completely honest with sb)，我們不曉得。

You can watch the full 90-minute discussion featuring Scharf, Scientific American’s Lee Billings and Wall Street Journal science writer Robert Lee Hotz at the NYU Journalism website. Just go to journalism.nyu.edu and look for the series of Kavli Conversations on Science Communication.
大家可以上紐約大學新聞網站收看完整九十分鐘的討論，參加來賓有(featuring)Scharf, 科學美國人Ledd Billings、華爾街日報(Wall Street Journal)科學專欄作家Robert Lee Hots，網址journalism.nyu.edu，在科學談話中搜尋Kavli Conversations系列。