By Smithsonian.com, adapted by Newselastaff
本期節選了一篇關於《復仇者聯盟》的英文報導，這篇文章很特殊，它的落腳點不在於電影本身的劇情，而是腦洞大開的去想像滅霸打了響指之後的世界到底會是神馬樣子。文章有理有據，風趣幽默，值得大家讀一讀。
本篇文章為1021L級別，難度少高，適合大學和高中三年級學生閱讀。如果感到閱讀吃力，請看上一篇512L難度。
In the newest offering from Marvel films,the Avengers superhero team is up against its biggest challenge yet: savinglife as we know it across all the galaxies. When the powerful villain Thanoswon control of the infinity stones at the end of "Avengers: InfinityWar," he wiped out half of all life in the universe with the snap of hisfingers.
Like the 1700s scholar Thomas Malthus,Thanos believed that the amount of life in the universe could not be continued.He believed people would eventually destroy themselves by consuming allresources. In 1798, the philosopher wrote an essay claiming that populationsgrow much faster than their food sources. If that growth remained unchecked itwould lead to a collapse of society. Malthus opposed improving the lives of thepoor because he feared they might have more children — a clear pattern forThanos' motivations.
Malthus' theories were proven wrong —humans have managed to match food production with population growth. Today,many scientists worry about the effects of that growth on climate change,though researchers are still studying the potential impacts. Even if theremaining heroes in "Avengers: Endgame" triumph and reverseThanos' devastating action, the question remains: What would the environmentalwreckage from such an extinction event actually look like on Earth?
igesting Food Could Be A Problem
Of course, half of all the humans andanimals would die out, but Thanos' reality-altering snap would also destroy thesmallest life-forms. Some of them are a key part of human health — like themicroscopic organisms, or microbes, that live in our gut. How would humans liveif we suddenly lost half of them?
"[The microbiome] is a complexecosystem of organisms that includes bacteria, but also viruses as well asfungi," says Zuri Sullivan, an immunologist at Yale University.Immunologists study the immune system, which is what protects people againstdiseases. The microscopic ecosystem serves three main roles. First, it helpsthe host digest food by breaking down complex molecules. "Humans have apretty limited ability to digest complex plant material," Sullivan says.As a result, the bacteria in our microbiome break down the foods we eat.
Our microbiomes help teach our immunesystems to tell the difference between dangerous and harmless bacteria. Theimmune system has to learn when it should attack deadly pathogens, or microbesthat can cause disease. The immune system also has to learn not to overreact toharmless molecules. That is what happens when a person has an allergicreaction. Finally, the microbiome helps defend us directly against pathogensthat can make us sick.
Thanos would not necessarily make everyonesick with his snap. Each of us has billions of cells in our microbiome, solosing half would not be disaster, says scientist Nicholas Lesniak at theUniversity of Michigan. "They have a doubling time of hours, so in a matterof hours we've already overcome that hit," he said.
A Threat To Insects, Who Play Key Roles OnEarth
The next major concern would be insects.Although a trailer for "Avengers: Endgame" opened with Thanos retiredto life as a farmer, he might not even be able to farm without half of theworld's pollinating insects. Entomologist May Berenbaum at the University ofIllinois Urbana-Champaign says, "You would have problems with all theecosystem services that insects are responsible for, including removing deadbodies or pollination services."
Pollination is a key role of insects.Declines in pollinator species are a major concern around the world. The lossof these bugs has downstream effects for fruit growers and honey lovers alike.Insects are also important cleanup crews, dealing with materials like corpsesor dung that other animals can't break down.
"There's a whole community ofdung-feeding insects, and when this community is absent, then you end up kneedeep in dung," Berenbaum says.
A situation like this actually happened toAustralia in the 1890s. Colonists brought non-native mammals like sheep. Thelocal dung beetles couldn't digest their different poop. The accumulation offeces and accompanying flies caused a massive problem until a Hungarianecologist named George Bornemissza recognized the cause and started importingdung beetles that could process the waste. Thanos' snap could cause a similarsituation worldwide.
Smaller Species Would Have Best Chance AtSurviving
Thanos' snap could prove most devastatingfor the bigger species of the world. With half the world's life gone, smallanimals like rats could come to inherit the Earth, while larger species wouldsimply die out. University of Pennsylvania paleobiologist Lauren Sallanstudies mass extinctions. She says larger species tend to have fewer offspringand breed more slowly. So they would do poorly after the snap. "After amass extinction, what I've found in the past is that it's the smaller speciesthat tend to breed fast are the source of future [life]," Sallan says.
The Avengers story plays out across manygalaxies. If the remaining Avengers can't reverse Thanos' destruction, lifelikely wouldn't bounce back for millions of years. On the bright side, Sallansays, "I think humans would figure out a way to [survive], provided thatnot all of the ecosystems collapse."
參考譯文：
在Marvel電影公司最新推出的產品中，復仇者超級英雄團隊面臨著迄今為止最大的挑戰：拯救我們所知的橫跨所有星系的生命。當強大的惡棍滅霸在「復仇者：無限戰爭」結束時贏得了對無限之石的控制權，他用手指的一聲，消滅了宇宙中一半的生命。
像18世紀的學者託馬斯·馬爾薩斯一樣，滅霸認為宇宙中的生命數量是無法延續的。他相信人們最終會通過消耗所有資源來毀滅自己。1798年，這位哲學家寫了一篇文章，聲稱人口的增長速度比他們的食物來源快得多。如果這種增長不加控制，就會導致社會崩潰。馬爾薩斯反對改善窮人的生活，因為他擔心他們可能會有更多的孩子——這是滅霸動機的明確模式。
馬爾薩斯的理論被證明是錯誤的——人類已經設法將糧食生產與人口增長相匹配。今天，許多科學家擔心這種增長對氣候變化的影響，儘管研究人員仍在研究潛在的影響。即使《復仇者：終極之戰》中剩下的英雄們取得了勝利並扭轉了滅霸的毀滅性行動，問題仍然存在：這種滅絕事件造成的環境破壞實際上看起來會是什麼？艾克在地球？
消化食物可能是個問題
當然，一半的人和動物都會死亡，但塔諾斯改變現實的瞬間也會摧毀最小的生命形式。它們中的一些是人類健康的關鍵組成部分，比如生活在我們腸道中的微生物。如果我們突然失去了一半，人類將如何生存？
耶魯大學免疫學家蘇裡•沙利文說：「（微生物群）是一個複雜的生物生態系統，包括細菌、病毒和真菌。」免疫學家研究免疫系統，這是保護人們免受疾病侵害的系統。微觀生態系統有三個主要作用。首先，它通過分解複雜分子幫助宿主消化食物。」人類消化複雜植物物質的能力相當有限，」沙利文說。結果，微生物群中的細菌分解了我們吃的食物。
我們的微生物群幫助我們的免疫系統區分危險和無害的細菌。免疫系統必須學會何時攻擊致命的病原體，或是能導致疾病的微生物。免疫系統還必須學會不要對無害分子反應過度。當一個人有過敏反應時，就會發生這種情況。最後，微生物群有助於我們直接抵禦可能使我們生病的病原體。
滅霸不一定會讓每個人都對他的急躁感到噁心。密西根大學的科學家Nicholas Lesniak說：「我們每個人的微生物群中都有數十億個細胞，因此失去一半不會是災難。」他們有兩倍的時間，所以在幾個小時內，我們已經克服了打擊，」他說。
對在地球上扮演關鍵角色的昆蟲的災難
下一個主要問題是昆蟲。儘管《復仇者：終局遊戲》的預告片是與滅霸已經解甲歸田，過著農民的生活，但如果沒有世界上一半的傳粉昆蟲，他甚至可能無法耕種。伊利諾伊大學香檳分校的昆蟲學家May Berenbaum說：「昆蟲負責的所有生態系統服務都存在問題，包括清除屍體或授粉服務。」
授粉是昆蟲的關鍵作用。傳粉昆蟲種類的減少是全世界關注的一個主要問題。這些蟲子的消失對水果種植者和蜂蜜愛好者都有下遊影響。昆蟲也是重要的清理人員，處理其他動物無法分解的屍體或糞便等物質。
貝倫鮑姆說：「有一個以糞便為食的昆蟲群落，當這個群落不在的時候，你就會在齊膝深的糞便中死去。」
19世紀90年代澳大利亞發生了這樣的情況，殖民者帶來了非本地哺乳動物，比如綿羊。當地的糞甲蟲無法消化它們不同的糞便。糞便和隨行的蒼蠅的積聚造成了一個巨大的問題，直到匈牙利生態學家喬治·博內米薩（George Bornemissza）認識到原因並開始進口能夠處理糞便的糞甲蟲。薩諾斯的突然行動可能會在世界範圍內造成類似的情況。
較小的物種將有最好的生存機會
對世界上更大的物種來說，薩諾斯的突然行動可能是最具毀滅性的。隨著世界上一半的生命消失，像老鼠這樣的小動物可以來繼承地球，而更大的物種則會滅絕。賓夕法尼亞大學古生物學家Lauren Sallan研究大規模滅絕。她說，較大的物種往往後代較少，繁殖速度較慢。所以他們會在拍攝後表現不佳。」薩蘭說：「在大滅絕之後，我在過去發現，較小的物種往往繁殖迅速，這是未來生命的來源。」
復仇者的故事在許多星系中上演。如果殘存的復仇者無法逆轉滅霸的毀滅，那麼數百萬年後，生命可能不會復甦。Sallan說，從好的方面來說，「我認為在所有的生態系統都崩潰之前，人類會找到一種生存的方法。」
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