随着科学技术的飞速发展和全球化进程的不断加快，科普 文章 在向社会大众普及科学技术知识，提高公众科学素养等方面发挥着举足轻重的作用。下面是我带来的科普类英语文章，欢迎阅读!
科普类英语文章
生物与环境平衡的危机
The history of life on earth has been a history of interaction between living things and their surroundings. To a large extent, the physical form and the habits of the earth’s vegetation and its animal life have been molded by the environment. Considering the whole span of earthly time, the opposite effect, in which life actually modifies its surroundings, has been relatively slight. Only in the present century has one species man acquired significant power to alter the nature of his world.
During the past quarter century this power has not only become increasingly great but it has changed in character. The most alarming of all man’s assaults upon the environment is the contamination of air, earth, rivers, and sea with dangerous and even lethal materials. This pollution is for the most part irrecoverable. In this now universal contamination of the environment, chemicals are the sinister partners of radiation in changing the very nature of the world the very nature of its life. Chemicals sprayed on croplands or forests or gardens lie long in soil, entering into living organisms, passing from one to another in a chain of poisoning and death. Or they pass mysteriously by underground streams until they emerge and combine into new forms that kill vegetation, sicken cattle, and work unknown harm on those who drink from once pure wells. "Man can hardly even recognize the devils of his own creation," as a scientist has said.
It took hundreds of millions of years to produce the life that now inhabits the earth. Given time not in years but in millennia life adjusts, and a balance has been reached. But in the modern world there is no time.
The rapidity of change follows the impetuous pace of man rather than the deliberate pace of nature. Radiation is now the unnatural creation of man’s tampering with the atom. The chemicals are the synthetic5 creations of man’s inventive mind, having no counterparts in nature.
To adjust to these chemicals would require not merely the years of a man’s life but the life of generations. And even this, were it by some miracle possible, would be futile, for the new chemicals come from our laboratories in an endless stream; almost five hundred annually find their way into actual use in the United States alone. Among them are many that are used in man’s war against nature. Since the mid 1940’s over 200 basic chemicals have been created for use in killing insects, weeds, and other organisms described as "pests."
It is not my contention that chemical insecticides must never be used. I do contend that we have put poisonous and biologically potent chemicals indiscriminately into the hands of persons largely or wholly ignorant of their potentials for harm. We have subjected enormous numbers of people to contact with these poisons, without their consent and often without their knowledge. I contend, furthermore, that we have allowed these chemicals to be used with little or no advance investigation of their effect on soil, water, wildlife, and man himself. Future generations are unlikely to forgive our lack of concern for the integrity of the natural world that supports all life.
地球上生命的历史一直就是一部生物与其环境相互作用的历史。在很大程度上，地球上动植物的形态以及习性都是由外部环境所塑造的。考虑到地球上生命存在的整个时间，相反作用，即生命对其周围环境的实际改变作用，却相对很小。只有在当前这个世纪(指20世纪)才有一个物种--人类，获得了强大的力量，改变了其所生存的世界的自然状态。
在过去的1/4世纪中，这种力量不仅日趋强大，而且其性质也发生了变化。在人类破坏环境的种种行为中，最令人担忧的是人类向大气、土壤、河流以及海洋中排放危险甚至致命物质，而当今这种污染在很大程度上是无法挽救的。在当今这种对环境的普遍污染中，化学制品与辐射狼狈为奸，改变着地球的自然状态，也就是改变着地球上生命的自然状态。喷洒到农田、森林或者花园里的化学物质长期滞留于土壤中，渗入有机体内，并彼此相传，形成了一个中毒与死亡的链条。化学物质还神秘地通过地下水传递，最终以新的形式出现并结合，使植物毒死，牲畜害病，并使饮用一度纯净的井水的人遭受了不明之害。正如一位科学家所言：“人类甚至对自己创造的恶魔都不认识。”
地球历经了许多亿年才创造了栖息其上的生命。经过了一定时间--不是以若干年计而是以若干千年计的时间--生命开始适应环境，并形成了一种与环境的平衡。但是在现代世界中，时间这一因素已经没有了。
环境改变的速度不再顺从大自然从容不迫的节奏，而是顺从人类急切匆匆的步伐。辐射是当今人类通过支配原子而得到的一种非自然的创造物。化学制品则是人类有发明创造力的头脑创造出来的合成物，在自然界本无相应的东西。
为了适应这些化学制品，人类需要付出的时间不会只是一个人一生的时间，而是几代人的时间。而即使这样，就算出现奇迹成为可能，这种适应也是徒劳的，因为新的化学制品从我们的实验室中源源不断地涌出。仅在美国，每年就有大约500种化学制品投入使用，其中许多是用于人类对自然的战争中。从20世纪40年代中期起，人类已经创造了200多种基本化学制品用来消灭昆虫、野草以及其他所谓的“有害生物”。
我不是说人类决不能使用化学杀虫剂。我要说的是，我们不分青红皂白地将这些有毒的、具有强大生物功能的化学制品，交给了那些对这些制品的潜在危害基本上或者完全无知的人去使用。我们使众多的人接触这些有毒物质，却没有征得他们的同意，并常常将他们蒙在鼓中。我还要说的一点是，我们允许使用这些化学制品，却事先很少或者根本没有调查它们对土壤、水、野生生物以及人类自身造成的影响。我们缺乏对万物赖以生存的自然界生态统一的关心，对此，我们的后代是不可能原谅的。
科普类英语文章
基因技术能否使人更聪明?Get Smart
Many people dream of having a smarter brain. Princeton neurobiologist Joseph Z. Tsien found the key. In September he announced that he’d built a better mouse by altering a gene that affects learning and memory. A similar process of gene manipulation might conceivably be used one day to boost intelligence in humans.
The secret lies in a feature of brain cells called the nmda receptor, which Tsien likens[1] to a cylindrical tube or window that mediates[2] the flow of information. When the window is open, chemicals called neurotransmitters flow through easily and memory is registered and stored. But as organisms mature, the window begins to close. (This may explain why children lose their facility for learning new languages when they reach sexual maturity and why some people suffer memory loss as they age.)
Tsien noticed that the receptor worked more efficiently when teamed[3] with the gene NR2B, so he introduced extra NR2B genes into a batch of fertilized mouse eggs. In a normal mouse, the memory window is open for just 150-thousandths of a second. In Tsien’s specially engineered mice, the window opens for 250-thousandths of a second, long enough to make a remarkable difference in memory retention. When he pitted[4] his mice against common mice, they won paws down. Ordinary mice could recognize a Lego block for 12 hours, but smart mice could remember the block for up to three days. "That’s a profound enhancement," Tsien says.
Can it be done with humans? Maybe, but genetic engineering will have to make some extraordinary advances first. And some thorny ethical issues will have to be resolved. Meanwhile, Tsien promises to keep his furry little geniuses locked up in a lab, far from your larder. "Otherwise," he says, "you might need a smart cat or a smart mousetrap to catch them."
许多人都希望自己能变成更聪明。普林斯顿神经生物学家Joseph Z. Tsien就找到了这把开启智慧之门的钥匙：他于九月宣布，通过改变影响学习和记忆能力的基因培养出了一只聪明的老鼠。类似的基因处理技术有望在未来日子里运用到人脑，以推动人类智慧的飞跃。
该技术的奥秘就在于名为nmda感受器的脑细胞的功能。Tsien将其比作一个传递信息流的圆柱通道或窗口。当窗口开放时，某种称为神经传递素的化学物质就能轻易流过，记忆因此登记并存储了下来。然而，当器官成熟时，这扇窗口就开始关闭。(这也能解释为何 儿童 长大后(性器官成熟之时)会失去掌握新语言的能力，以及为何某些人年老时会患失忆)。
Tsien注意到，当感受器与名为NR2B的基因协作时效率会更高。因此，他将NR2B基因植入一批老鼠的受精卵中。一只普通老鼠的记忆之窗仅开放千分之150秒。而经Tsien植入基因的老鼠，记忆之窗能开放千分之250秒，这已经能够使其 记忆力 发生惊人的改变。当他让自己的老鼠与普通老鼠互斗时，它们竟能轻而易举地取胜。普通老鼠能够保留关于Lego block的记忆12小时，而聪明的老鼠居然能将记忆保持三天。“这可是一个意义深远的进步。”Tsien这样说。
那么，人类也能接受这种基因移植吗? 或许可以，但前提是基因工程得首先做出非凡的成就，还必须解决一系列棘手的伦理问题。Tsien保证他一定会将那些披着毛皮的小天才锁入实验室，远离人们的食品柜。“否则，”他说，“为了捉住他们，人们就不得不去寻找更聪明的猫或者功能更强的捕鼠器了。”
科普类英语文章
食用转基因食品安全吗?Food Safe To Eat?
Traditional plant breeding involve s crossing varieties of the same species in ways they could cross naturally.For example，disease-resistant varieties of wheat have been crossed with high-yield wheat to combine these properties.This type of natural gene exchange is safe and fairly predictable.
Genetic engineering(GE)involves exchanging genes between unrelated species that cannot naturally exchange genes with each other.GE can involve the exchange of genes between vastly different species――e.g.putting scorpion toxin genes into maize or fish antifreeze genes into tomatoes.It is possible that a scorpion toxin gene，even when it is in maize DNA，will still get the organism to produce scorpion toxin――but what other effects may it have in this alien environment?We are already seeing this problem――adding human growth hormone genes to pigs certainly makes them grow――but it also gives them arthritis and makes them cross-eyed，which was entirely unpredictable.
It will be obvious，for example，that the gene for human intelligence will not have the same effect if inserted into cabbage DNA as it had in human DNA――but what side-effect would it have?In other words，is GM food safe to eat?The answer is that nobody knows because long-term tests have not been carried out.
Companies wanting a GM product approved in the UK or USA are required to provide regulatory bodies with results of their own safety tests.Monsanto’s soya beans were apparently fed to fish for10weeks before being approved.There was no requirement for independent testing，for long-term testing，for testing on humans or testing for specific dangers to children or allergic people.
The current position of the UK Government is that“ There is no evidence of long-term dangers from GM foods.”In the US，the American Food and Drug Administration is currently being prosecuted for covering up research that suggested possible risks from GM foods.
传统的植物培育 方法 ，是依照植物自然杂交的方式，进行相同物种的人工杂交。比如，抗病小麦同高产小麦杂交，形成了一种具有双重特性的新的小麦品种。这种自然的基因交换既安全，又具有相当的可预见性。
基因工程是在彼此毫无关系的物种之间，相互交换在自然条件下无法交换的基因。它可在有巨大差异的物种之间进行基因交换。比如，将蝎子毒素基因注入玉米，或者将鱼防冻基因注入西红柿。即使在玉米DNA中，蝎子毒素基因依然可能获得有机组织产生蝎子毒素。但是在这种异质的环境中，这种基因产品会有什么其他作用吗?我们实际上已经发现这个问题：将人类生长荷尔蒙基因植入猪的体内，一定会使猪的生长加速，但是同时也使猪患上了关节炎和内斜视，而这一切是完全无法预测的。
打个比方，人类的智力基因显而易见在人体DNA内和注入卷心菜DNA后的作用是不同的。但将它植入卷心菜中会产生什么样的副作用呢?换句话说，食用转基因食品安全吗?没有人知道答案，因为人们尚未进行长期的测试。
在英国或者美国，一个公司如果希望其转基因产品获得批准，它必须向管理机构提供本公司转基因产品安全测试的结果。Monsanto的大豆在获得批准之前，曾用了10周时间进行喂鱼试验。目前，尚无要求对转基因产品进行独立测试、长期测试、人体测试，或者就其对儿童及过敏者所造成的特定危险进行测试。
英国政府目前的态度是：“尚无证据表明食用转基因食品存在长期性的危险。”在美国，人们正在起诉美国食品药品管理局掩盖转基因食品安全性的研究结果，这些研究结果表明，食用转基因食品可能导致危险。
英语科普文章选——2004年十大科学发现
不久前，著名的《科学》杂志评选出2004年最重要的十大科学发现。这些发现中既有人类对神秘宇宙太空的探索，也有对身边熟悉事物的新发现。无论是何种的科学探索和发现，人类求知的愿望和动力永远都在推动社会的发展和进步。
Water and robots on Mars chosen as tops in 2004 by 'Science'
WASHINGTON — The conclusive discovery by a pair of wheeled robots that Mars once had vast pools of water and possibly could have harbored life was chosen by the editors of the journal Science as the most important scientific achievement of 2004.
Scientists announced in March that the Mars once played host to salty seas. This Mars Express image indicates water erosion.
NASA's two Mars rovers（漫游者）Opportunity and Spirit, landed on the Red Planet early in 2004 and have since found clear and conclusive evidence that Mars was drenched with（浸透） water at some time in its history.
The editors of Science, one of the world's leading publishers of peer-reviewed, original research, judged the robotic accomplishment as the top scientific "Breakthrough of the Year."
"Inanimate, wheeled, one-armed boxes roaming another planet have done something no human has ever managed," Science reported in this week's edition. "They have discovered another place in the universe where life could once have existed."
Nine other scientific achievements, including discovery of another species of human, were selected as runners-up, but Science editor-in-chief Donald Kennedy said "there wasn't much doubt about this year's winner."
Opportunity and Spirit found unmistakable proof of Martian water: rippled sediments（沉积物） that were once at the bottom of a shallow sea, and rock that once was so water-soaked that "it had rotted," the journal said.
"Their finds mark a milestone in humankind's search for life elsewhere in the universe," Science said.
Kennedy said one of the most important messages from the remote exploration is "the extraordinary efficiency of these robot missions."
He said it is clear that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration must not abandon its robotic exploration while gearing up for President Bush's program to send humans to the moon and later to Mars.
"To do one at the expense of the other would be a mistake," Kennedy said. "It remains to be demonstrated what a human exploration could do that we can't do now or couldn't do in the next 10 years with robotic technology."
The first runner-up for breakthrough of the year was the discovery on the Indonesian island of Flores of fossils from a species of tiny humans who stood about 3 feet tall and had a brain less than a third the size of modern humans. Yet, the diminutive（小的） hominid（原始人） lived about 18,000 years ago. This suggests that Homo floresiensis shared the Earth with Homo sapiens（人类）, or modern people. Science said some described the find as "the biggest discovery in half a century of anthropological research."
Third on Science's list of 2004 breakthroughs was the cloning of human embryos by South Korean researcher Woo San Hwang and his colleagues. The work was not an attempt to genetically duplicate a human. Instead, the researchers hoped to make embryonic stem cells for research purposes. Although many other mammals have been cloned, the work was the first to demonstrate that cloning techniques would work with human cells.
Following are the rest of Science's 2004 selections.
4. U.S. and Austrian scientists created a new form of condensate（冷凝物）, an ultracold gas that slips into a quantum state where a group of atoms act as a single superatom. The achievement was notable because it used fermions（费米子）, a class of atoms with a nuclear structure that makes it difficult to create a condensate.
5. Scientists discovered that "junk DNA," the base pairs between known genes in the human genetic structure, play an important role. Several research teams have found that DNA between genes helps determine how vigorously and often the genes are activated and shapes the coding for protein production.
6. Astronomers discovered a pair of neutron stars（中子星） locked in orbit of each other and spewing out beams of radiation. Both objects are pulsars（脉冲星）, rapidly flickering on and off with pulses of energy. One object is pulsing at the rate of 44 times a second. By studying the radiation, astronomers hope for the first time to learn about the density of matter within a neutron star.
7. Naturalists tracking the fate of wild species worldwide reported bad news. A survey of amphibians（两栖动物） found that of 5,700 known species, about 30% were at risk of extinction. A survey in the United Kingdom found that butterflies, songbirds and native plant species are all losing ground in the battle for species survival.
8. It is one of the most common and universally known substances, but researchers are still learning more about water. Several teams of researchers made new discoveries about how water molecules（分子） bind together and how electrons（电子） and protons（质子） dissolve in water. Some of the findings are questioned and Science noted: "Water still gives researchers much to scratch their heads about."
9. A new form of research and aid is creating "a revolution in public health," said Science. The partnership of public and private organizations worldwide is changing the way drugs are developed, tested and distributed to the poorest nations on Earth, the journal said. Researchers tallied at least 92 public-private partnerships worldwide attacking such diseases as malaria, tuberculosis and HIV.
10. Researchers have developed techniques to identify genes in ocean water or in specimens recovered from deep underground. Thousands of new genes have been found. By sequencing these genes, researchers hope to identify news species and, perhaps, learn how organisms survive in harsh and forbidding locations on Earth.
泰哥，我给你找了几个，必须采纳啊！ To Pull up the Seedlings to Help Them Grow “拔苗助长”
Once upon a time, there was an old farmer who planted a plot of rice. After he planted the seedlings, every day he went to the field to watch the seedlings grow. He saw the young shoots break through the soil and grow taller each day, but still, he thought they were growing too slowly. Eventually he got impatient with the young plants and suddenly he hit upon an idea that one by one, he pulled up the young plants by half an inch. The next early morning, the young man couldn’t wait to check his “achievement”, but he was heart-broken to see all the pulled-up young plants dying.
从前，有个农夫，种了稻苗（seedlings）后，便希望能早早收成。每天他到稻田时，都发觉那些稻苗长得非常慢。他等得很不耐烦。想了又想，他终于想到一个“最佳方法”，他将稻苗全都拔高了几分。第二天，一早起身，他迫不及待地去稻田看他的“成果”。 哪知，却看到所有的稻苗都枯萎了。
Plugging One’s Ears While Stealing a Bell “掩耳盗铃”
Once upon a time, there was a man who wanted to steal his neighbor’s doorbell. However, he knew clearly that the bell would ring and catch the other people’s attention as long as he touched the bell. So he thought hard and suddenly hit on a clever “idea”. He plugged his ears with something, thinking that everything would go well when he stole the bell. Unfortunately to his disappointment, the bell still rang loudly and he was caught on the spot as a thief.
从前，有一个人想偷邻居门上的铃，但是他知道一碰到铃，铃就会响起来，被人发现。他想啊想，终于他想出一个“妙极”，他把自己的耳朵用东西塞起来，就听不见铃声了。但是当他去偷铃时，铃声仍旧响起来，他被别人当场抓住
The Fox and the Crow “狐狸和乌鸦”
One day a crow stood on a branch near his nest and felt very happy with the meat in his mouth. At that time, a fox saw the crow with the meat, so he swallowed and eagerly thought of a plan to get the meat. However, whatever the fox said to the crow, the crow just kept silent. Until the fox thought highly of the crow’s beautiful voice, the crow felt flattered and opened his mouth to sing. As soon as the meat fell down to the ground, the fox took the meat and went into his hole.
有一天,一只乌鸦站在窝旁的树枝上嘴里叼着一片肉，心里非常高兴。这时候，一只狐狸看见了乌鸦，馋得直流口水，非常想得到那片肉。但是，无论狐狸说什么，乌鸦就是不理睬狐狸。最后，狐狸赞美乌鸦的嗓音最优美，并要求乌鸦唱几句让他欣赏欣赏。乌鸦听了狐狸赞美的话，得意极了，就唱起歌来。没想到，肉一掉下来，狐狸就叼起肉，钻回了洞
Draw a Snake and Add Feet to It “画蛇添足”
Long long ago, several people had a jar of wine among them and all of them wanted to drink it by himself. So they set a rule that every one would draw a snake on the ground and the man who finished first would have the wine. One man finished his snake very soon and he was about to drink the wine when he saw the others were still busy drawing, so he decided to draw the feet to the snake. However, before he could finish the feet, another man finished and grabbed the jar from him, saying, "Who has ever seen a snake with feet?” The story of "Draw a snake and add feet to It.” tells us going too far is as bad as not going far enough.
古时几个人分一壶酒。他们都想独自喝完那壶酒，所以就定了一个规矩：每人在地上画一条蛇，谁画得最快，这壶酒就归谁。有一个人很快就把蛇画好了。他正打算喝这壶酒时，看见别人都还在忙着画，就决定给蛇再画上几只脚。结果，他的蛇脚还没加完，另一个人已经把蛇画好了。那人一下把酒壶夺了过去，说：“有谁见过长脚的蛇？”。这个故事告诉我们这样的道理：做得过分和做得不够都是不对的
您好：
Two new fossils were found in China. They are fossils of dinosaurs. The kind os dinosaurs lived 160 million years ago. They are about 3.6 feet tall and 9.8 feet long. Scientists think they are a group of small, meat-eating dionsaurs, with a crest on their head.
They arenamed Guanlong Wucai in Chinese."Guanlong" comes from the crest. People belive the crest isn't for fight but just for show like the peacock.
"Wucai" comes from the rich color of the crest. Scientists guess there are also some feathers on the crest and this makes them think of birds. Maybe they had something the same as birds at the beginning.
Studuing the fossils, from zhe size of them, the stronger legs and the crest, scientists are almost sure they are from the tyrannosaur family. But they are much smaller than tyrannosaurs. Tyrannosaurs are best known from 70 million years ago.if it is ture, wewill say tyrannosaurs were not born in North America.
恕我不才,只能找到这篇文章了,在此深感歉意!
