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When it came to surviving freezing weather, mammoths relied on more than their woolly coats: even their blood was specially adapted to let them thrive in chilly climes. Their hemoglobin functioned well over a larger range of temperatures than does the hemoglobin found in modern elephants—and in humans. That finding is in the journal Biochemistry. [Yue Yuan et al., "A Biochemical–Biophysical Study of Hemoglobins from Woolly Mammoth, Asian Elephant, and Humans"]
为了在冰冻的气候下生存，猛犸更多地依赖于它们毛茸茸的外皮：甚至于它们体内的血液也为此作了特别的适应性改变。猛犸的血红蛋白与现代的大象和人类相比，能够在更大的温度范围下工作。这一发现发表在《生物化学》杂志上。（“猛犸象、亚洲象和人类血红蛋白的生物物理研究”Yue Yuan等）
Mammoth veins have, of course, long run dry. But researchers from North America, the U.K. and Australia extracted fragments of nucleic acids from three mammoth specimens, creating hemoglobin based on its coding DNA sequence. The recovered mammoths died in Siberia between 25,000 and 43,000 years ago.
当然，经过漫长的岁月，现在我们能找到的猛犸标本的血管内是没有血液的。然而，北美、英国和澳大利亚的研究人员从三个猛犸标本中提取出核酸片段，并给予其编码的DNA序列重新构建了血红蛋白。这三只用作标本的猛犸死于两万五千年之四万三千年前的西伯利亚。
The reconstructed mammoth hemoglobin could deliver oxygen at colder temperatures than the human form of the protein could handle. With mammoth hemoglobin as a guide, scientists hope to engineer blood products that will oxygenate our bodies during those medical procedures—such as some heart and brain surgeries—that require the big chill known as induced hypothermia. Mammoths may be long dead, but the secrets of their blood could help keep some people alive.
重建的猛犸血红蛋白与人类的血红蛋白相比，能够在耕地的温度下运送氧气。利用猛犸血红蛋白，科学家们希望能够生产出可以在某些医疗过程中（如一些心脏和脑科手术）为我们的机体提供氧气的血液制品。在这些医疗过程中，需要被称作为低温诱导的极低温。猛犸这种生物在地球上消失已久，但它们血液中的秘密也许可以帮助一些人活下去。
—Sophie Bushwick
n. 柄，把手
v. 买卖，处理，操作，驾驭
