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Stromatolites, a kind of bacterial rock, filled the shallows in the foreground. It didn't look like a very promising place to create and nurture life. I asked her if the painting was accurate.
前景的阴影里塞满了一种细菌寄生的岩石，名叫叠层石。它看上去不像是个很有希望产生和孕育生命的地方。我问她这幅画是否画得准确。
Well, one school of thought says it was actually cool then because the sun was much weaker. (I later learned that biologists, when they are feeling jocose, refer to this as the "Chinese restaurant problem"—because we had a dim sun.) "Without an atmosphere ultraviolet rays from the sun, even from a weak sun, would have tended to break apart any incipient bonds made by molecules. And yet right there"—she tapped the stromatolites—"you have organisms almost at the surface. It's a puzzle."
“哎呀，有个学派认为，当时其实很凉爽，因为太阳已经弱多了。（我后来获悉，生物学家们开玩笑时把这种看法称为“中国餐馆”问题因为我们有个光线暗淡的太阳。）要是没有大气，即使太阳很弱，紫外线也会撕碎早期的任何分子键。然而，在那儿，”她轻轻地拍了拍那几块叠层石，“生命几乎就在表面。这是个谜。”
So we don't know what the world was like back then?
“那么，我们其实不知道当时的世界是什么模样的？”
Mmmm, she agreed thoughtfully.
“嗯。”她想了想表示赞同。
Either way it doesn't seem very conducive to life.
“无论如何，反正对生命似乎不大有利。”
She nodded amiably. "But there must have been something that suited life. Otherwise we wouldn't be here."
她和蔼地点了点头：“但是，肯定有适合于生命的东西，要不然我们不会来到这个世界上。”
It certainly wouldn't have suited us. If you were to step from a time machine into that ancient Archaean world, you would very swiftly scamper back inside, for there was no more oxygen to breathe on Earth back then than there is on Mars today. It was also full of noxious vapors from hydrochloric and sulfuric acids powerful enough to eat through clothing and blister skin. Nor would it have provided the clean and glowing vistas depicted in the poster in Victoria Bennett's office. The chemical stew that was the atmosphere then would have allowed little sunlight to reach the Earth's surface. What little you could see would be illumined only briefly by bright and frequent lightning flashes. In short, it was Earth, but an Earth we wouldn't recognize as our own.
那个环境肯定不适合于我们。要是你从一台时间机器里出来，踏进那个古老的太古代世界，你会马上缩回去，因为当时的地球上与今天的火星上一样没有供我们呼吸的空气。而且，地球上还充满从盐酸和硫酸中散发出来的毒气，强烈得足以腐蚀衣服和使皮肤起泡。地球上也不会维多利亚·贝内特办公室里那幅宣传画上所描绘的那种干净而又鲜艳的景色。当时的大气里都是混浊的化学物质，阳光几乎射不到地面。你只能借助经常掠过的明亮的闪电，在短时间里看见有限的东西。总之，这是地球，但我们不会认出那是我们自己的地球。
