科学家首次在月壤里种出植物

For the first time, scientists have grown plants in soil from the moon collected by NASA’s Apollo astronauts.
科学家首次在美国宇航局阿波罗号宇航员从月球上收集的土壤里种出了植物。

Researchers had no idea if anything would sprout in the harsh moon dirt and wanted to see if it could be used to grow food by a new generation of lunar explorers.
研究人员原本不知道贫瘠的月球土壤里能否长出东西，想看看新一代月球探险者能否用月球土壤种植食物。

The results stunned them.
实验结果让他们惊呆了。

"Holy cow. Plants actually grow in lunar stuff. Are you kidding me?" said Robert Ferl of the University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences.
美国佛罗里达大学食品和农业科学研究所的罗伯特•菲尔说：“我的天！月球土壤里真的能种出植物！这不是在开玩笑吧？”

Ferl and his colleagues planted thale cress in moon soil returned by Apollo 11’s Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, and other moonwalkers years ago, and the seeds sprouted.
菲尔和他的同事在阿波罗11号宇航员尼尔•阿姆斯特朗、巴兹•奥尔德林和其他登月者数年前带回的月球土壤上种植鼠耳芥，结果种子发芽了。

The downside was that after the first week, the coarseness and other properties of the lunar soil stressed the small, flowering weeds so much that they grew more slowly than seedlings planted in fake moon dirt from Earth. Most of the moon plants ended up stunted.
坏消息是，过了一周后，月球土壤的粗糙和其他特性给初生的鼠耳芥幼苗造成了很大压力，所以月球土壤上种植的鼠耳芥幼苗比来自地球的仿月球土壤上种植的鼠耳芥幼苗生长速度更缓慢。种植在月球土壤上的大多数鼠耳芥植株最后都会发育不良。