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For the residents of the English city of Salisbury, 2018 will be remembered as the year the nerve agent Novichok came to town.
对于英国城市索尔兹伯里的居民来说，2018年将被铭记为神经毒剂诺维乔克进城的一年。
Professor Andrea Sella calls it a uniquely devastating poison.
安德里亚·塞拉教授称它为一种独特的毁灭性毒药。
The nervous system just fires wildly and so you get all these bizarre symptoms of paralysis and convulsions at the same time.
神经系统会燃烧，与此同时你会出现瘫痪和抽搐这些奇怪的症状。
Russian operatives are suspected of using the nerve agent and they attempted poisoning of a former Russian spy and his daughter.
俄罗斯特工涉嫌使用这种神经剂，他们企图毒害一名前俄罗斯间谍和他的女儿，
The incident frayed relations between Europe and Russia.
这一事件破坏了欧洲和俄罗斯之间的关系。
2018 will also be remembered as the year that genetic engineering made significant advances.
2018年也被认为是遗传工程取得了重大进展的一年。
From the techniques, modest beginning with Dolly the sheep in 1997,
1997年绵羊多利的克隆技术还不成熟，
this year, scientists cloned pigs, dogs, mules and monkeys and gene editing techniques are now being used to create designer animals
然而今年，科学家们已经克隆了猪、狗、骡子和猴子，现在基因编辑技术正在用来创造设计动物。
like these Holsteins genetically engineered to be hornless.
比如把这些毫斯坦奶牛基因改造成没有角的。
Dairy cows like Holsteins grow horns and they're quite dangerous for human workers and also for their fellow cows.
像这样长角的毫斯坦奶牛对人类工人和其他奶牛来说都是相当危险的。
Scientists also uncovered some odd behavior in an ancient species of the humble but painful wasp.
科学家们通过观察古老物种黄蜂的体内，揭开了这种低等的令人生厌的昆虫一些奇怪行为的面纱。
X-rays uncovered a 30 million-year-old species of parasitic wasps about the size of a grain of rice
X射线发现了一种有着3000万年历史的寄生黄蜂，其大小相当于一粒米。
that even way back then was feeding on ancient flies.
这种黄蜂从那时候就以苍蝇为食。
Either the host is paralyzed, or it continues to feed and breathe and live relatively normally.
宿主要么会瘫痪，要么继续喂食寄生虫，呼吸和生活也相对正常，
But with this parasitoid thing living and growing inside it. And eventually, of course, it kills the host.
但这种寄生虫长期生活并在其体内生长，最终它肯定会杀死宿主。
Another puzzle the natural world was solved
另一个自然界让人费解的谜团也被解开了，
when scientists figure out how the annoying dandelion manages to be so good at spreading through the air.
科学家们弄明白了恼人的蒲公英是怎么做到在空气中很好的传播的。
Scientists are using this new information as a possible way to create micro flying objects
科学家们正在利用这项技术作为可操作的方法来制造微型飞行物。
that could stay afloat on wind currents for extended periods of time.
它们可以在风海流中保持长时间的漂浮。
And finally using The Very Large Telescope in Chile,
最终通过使用智利的大型望远镜，
scientists were able to monitor a small star passing close to a black hole
科学家能够监测到一颗越过黑洞的小恒星
and see how its light was distorted and warped by the black hole's super gravity.
并看到它的光是如何被黑洞的超强引力扭曲和变形的。
The observation confirmed one of the basic predictions of Einstein's theory of relativity
这一观察证实了爱因斯坦相对论中的一个基础理论。
that the universe is not just made up of space, but a bizarre combination of space and time that can be affected by gravity.
宇宙不是仅仅由空间组成的，而是由空间和时间构成的奇异组合。而且它还受到引力的影响。
Now that was a busy year.
这就是过去的忙碌的一年。
Kevin Enochs, VOA news
凯文·恩尼克斯，VOA新闻
