國(guó)際科技信息

國(guó)際科技信息

歐盟一項(xiàng)新穎創(chuàng)新的農(nóng)業(yè)種植技術(shù)獲得顯著效益

歐盟第七研發(fā)框架計(jì)劃（FP7）資助支持的，基地設(shè)立于法國(guó)南錫（Nancy）的一家科技創(chuàng)新型企業(yè)，即法國(guó)先進(jìn)植物技術(shù)公司PAT（Plant Advanced Technology），作為自行研究開(kāi)發(fā)出的“植物榨取技術(shù)”（Plant Milking technology）的開(kāi)拓者，從植物的根部萃取所需珍貴的有機(jī)化合物質(zhì)成分，獲得巨大的經(jīng)濟(jì)效益。

幾年時(shí)間，從開(kāi)創(chuàng)到快速發(fā)展，并形成一定規(guī)模，正迅速向歐洲其它國(guó)家、特別是歐洲地中海沿岸國(guó)家擴(kuò)張。

自然界中的多年生植物會(huì)在其根部或植物本身產(chǎn)生活性物質(zhì)，以保護(hù)自身和抵御外部不利環(huán)境條件的入侵，這些活性物質(zhì)在醫(yī)藥保健和化妝品行業(yè)往往具有很高的應(yīng)用價(jià)值。公司采用植物無(wú)土栽培種植技術(shù)，選擇種植的作物主要以稀少的、受到保護(hù)的或生長(zhǎng)緩慢的，可從根部萃取珍貴有機(jī)化合物質(zhì)成分的植物為目標(biāo)。

一方面，相對(duì)“透明的”植物根部，更容易讓科技人員研究提高植物根系碩壯的方法，通過(guò)調(diào)整植物營(yíng)養(yǎng)液的配方，加速植物根部的生長(zhǎng)或獲取更高比率的活性物質(zhì)，從而提高植物的產(chǎn)量和質(zhì)量。

另一方面，在不影響植物根系的情況下，可有計(jì)劃地安排每次采收適量的根部進(jìn)行萃取，以保持植物繼續(xù)健康地成長(zhǎng)，不至于傳統(tǒng)的野外采收和土壤栽培往往以植物的死亡為代價(jià)。

目前，公司種植效益較高的植物主要包括：一種富含治療和預(yù)防婦女骨質(zhì)疏松特效成分的墨西哥高原植物；兩種抗消炎植物；數(shù)十種抗氧化物植物和應(yīng)用于化妝品的植物；還包括一種食蟲(chóng)植物，提取的成分可以有效醫(yī)治部分癌癥和罕見(jiàn)的遺傳性疾病。

公司獲得的高額收益，在快速擴(kuò)展市場(chǎng)的同時(shí)，持續(xù)加大著對(duì)企業(yè)研發(fā)創(chuàng)新投入的力度，不斷向市場(chǎng)推出有效的化合物質(zhì)成分新產(chǎn)品。

A French company is growing fast as it exploits a technology to ‘milk’ precious products from plants.

“We produce molecules from plants that otherwise would be very difficult to produce, and these molecules are very useful for cosmetics and pharmaceuticals,”says the CEO of Plant Advanced Technologies Jean-Paul Fèvre.

Plant Advanced Technologies, based in near Nancy, is a pioneer of what it calls ‘plant milking technology’.

The plants are grown without soil, and their roots are then ‘milked’of precious molecules.

The fi rm exploits the benefi ts of substances found within rare, protected and slow-growing plants.

“The plants produce active substances in their roots naturally that help them to defend themselves against aggressors in their environment.

We dip the roots into a solvent, which allows the roots to become more permeable, and bring out these high-value molecules,” says PAT’s reserach director Frédéric Bourgaud.

PAT is further refining its know-how as part of an EU-wide research project.

The scientists have identified a range of rare substances for use in medicine.

“This is a Mexican plant that produces a molecule that’s useful in treating osteoperosis in women. There we have two plants that naturally produce an antiinfl ammatory, and there we have a carnivorous plant that should help us to produce molecules that are useful in treating certain cancers and a rare genetic disorder,”explains Bourgaud.Swing open the store room doors and you will fi nd hundreds of litres of natural antioxydants ready for delivery.

Feeding the plants a lean diet of nutrients means they grow bigger roots, and produce more valuable molecules.

“In a relatively limited amount of space we’re able to produce many kilogrammes, many tens of kilogrammes of substances, which is totally in line with what the market demands,” says Bourgaud.

The test greenhouse is stacked with racks of unusual plants being grown and tested to see how they could be ‘milked’ for new medicines.

There is plenty of scope for growth:

“A great many molecules are yet to be discovered from rare and protected plants, or from those that grow slowly, so it’s useful to have a procedure that does not destroy the plant itself,” says Jean-Paul Fèvre.

科學(xué)家首次用“人造”卵子產(chǎn)下小鼠

想要一只小老鼠嗎？拿個(gè)培養(yǎng)皿就行了。在利用源自干細(xì)胞的精子產(chǎn)下了正常幼鼠后，日本京都大學(xué)的一個(gè)研究小組又通過(guò)同樣的方式利用卵子完成了這一壯舉。這項(xiàng)研究最終有望為幫助那些不育夫婦懷孕帶來(lái)新的方法。

美國(guó)加利福尼亞大學(xué)洛杉磯分校的干細(xì)胞生物學(xué)家Amander Clark認(rèn)為：“這是一項(xiàng)重要的成就，我相信它將對(duì)生殖細(xì)胞生物學(xué)和遺傳學(xué)領(lǐng)域產(chǎn)生深遠(yuǎn)而持久的影響?！?/p>

上述兩項(xiàng)研究所使用的干細(xì)胞都是胚胎干（ES）細(xì)胞和誘導(dǎo)多能干（iPS）細(xì)胞。前者來(lái)自于胚胎，而后者則是成熟組織細(xì)胞經(jīng)再編程后產(chǎn)生了類似于干細(xì)胞的作用。從理論上講，兩者都能夠形成所有類型的體細(xì)胞，但大多數(shù)研究人員一直無(wú)法把它們變成生殖細(xì)胞，即精子和卵子的前體細(xì)胞。由干細(xì)胞生物學(xué)家Mitinori Saitou率領(lǐng)的研究小組找到了一個(gè)可行的方法。與精子一樣，研究人員從ES和iPS細(xì)胞入手，并且在一種蛋白質(zhì)的“雞尾酒”中對(duì)其進(jìn)行培育，從而形成了與原生殖細(xì)胞類似的細(xì)胞。為了得到卵母細(xì)胞或前體卵細(xì)胞，研究人員隨后將這些原始細(xì)胞與小鼠胎兒的卵巢細(xì)胞相混合，從而形成了再造的卵巢，并最終將其移植到活體小鼠的正常卵巢中。4周零4天后，那些與原生殖細(xì)胞類似的細(xì)胞發(fā)育成為卵母細(xì)胞。

研究小組去除掉卵巢，得到卵母細(xì)胞，并且對(duì)其進(jìn)行體外授精，然后再將得到的胚胎移植進(jìn)代孕母親體內(nèi)。大約3周后，正常的小鼠崽誕生了。研究人員在最新一期美國(guó)《科學(xué)》雜志上報(bào)告了這一研究成果。

新加坡醫(yī)學(xué)生物學(xué)研究所的發(fā)育生物學(xué)家Davor Solter認(rèn)為：“這是非凡的，源自胚胎干細(xì)胞的細(xì)胞能夠產(chǎn)生卵母細(xì)胞，進(jìn)而具有持續(xù)完成發(fā)育的能力?！盋lark強(qiáng)調(diào)，對(duì)生殖細(xì)胞形成有關(guān)的分子機(jī)制的理解將對(duì)研究工作產(chǎn)生直接影響。Saitou說(shuō)，如果對(duì)起作用的復(fù)雜交互作用的理解進(jìn)一步加深，研究人員或許就能夠在實(shí)驗(yàn)室的培養(yǎng)皿中誘導(dǎo)細(xì)胞完成整個(gè)的卵母細(xì)胞發(fā)育過(guò)程。他說(shuō)，一旦獲得成功，“我們有望繞過(guò)移植這一步”。

在更遠(yuǎn)的將來(lái)，這項(xiàng)技術(shù)將成為治療不孕癥的一個(gè)新工具。Clark說(shuō)：“這項(xiàng)研究提供了原理上的關(guān)鍵證據(jù)，表明誘導(dǎo)多能干細(xì)胞能夠產(chǎn)生卵母細(xì)胞?！比绻麘?yīng)用于人體，它可能會(huì)導(dǎo)致從采自不孕女性的iPS細(xì)胞形成卵母細(xì)胞的能力。但是Saitou警告說(shuō)，向人類研究的轉(zhuǎn)移需要解決令人苦惱的倫理問(wèn)題和技術(shù)難題。

Solter表示，在極端情況下，新的方法將導(dǎo)致來(lái)自細(xì)胞系和組織樣本的人類胚胎的形成。他強(qiáng)調(diào)，盡管如此，“這種‘無(wú)父母’的人類胚胎的定義狀態(tài)，以及它們所引發(fā)的生物學(xué)、倫理學(xué)和法律問(wèn)題將挑戰(zhàn)你的想象力”。

該研究小組去年8月曾成功“人造”實(shí)驗(yàn)鼠精子，因此理論上利用iPS細(xì)胞培養(yǎng)的精子和卵子“人造”受精卵，進(jìn)而“人造生命”成為可能。京都大學(xué)名譽(yù)教授森崇英說(shuō)，這對(duì)不能生成卵子的不育女性是一個(gè)好消息。不過(guò)，相關(guān)研究尚處在動(dòng)物實(shí)驗(yàn)階段，還將面臨安全性和倫理等諸多挑戰(zhàn)。

Want baby mice? Grab a petri dish. After producing normal mouse pups last year using sperm derived from stem cells, a Kyoto University team of researchers has now accomplished the same feat using eggs created the same way. The study may eventually lead to new ways of helping infertile couples conceive.

“This is a significant achievement that I believe will have a sustained and long-lasting impact on the fi eld of reproductive cell biology and genetics,” says Amander Clark, a stem cell biologist at University of California, Los Angeles.

The stem cells in both cases are embryonic stem (ES) cells and induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells. The former are taken from embryos and the latter are adultissue cells that are reprogrammed to act like stem cells. In theory, both can produce all of the body’s cell types, yet most researchers have been unable to turn them into germ cells, precursors of sperm and eggs.

The Kyoto group, led by stem cell biologist Mitinori Saitou, found a process that works. As with the sperm, the group started with ES and iPS cells and cultured them in a cocktail of proteins to produce primordial germ cell-like cells. To get oocytes, or precursor egg cells, they then mixed the primordial cells with fetal ovarian cells, forming reconstituted ovaries that they then gratied onto natural ovaries in living mice. Four weeks and 4 days later, the primordial germ cell-like cells had developed into oocytes. The team removed the ovaries, harvested the oocytes, fertilized them in vitro, and implanted the resulting embryos into surrogate mothers. About 3 weeks later, normal mouse pups were born, the researchers report online today in Science.

“It is remarkable that one can produce oocytes capable of sustaining complete development starting with embryonic stem cells,”says Davor Solter, a developmental biologist at Singapore’s Institute of Medical Biology. Clark adds that the immediate impact of the work will be on understanding the molecular mechanisms involved in forming germ cells. Saitou says that with a bit more progress in understanding the complex interactions at work, they may be able to coax the cells through the entire oocyte development process in a lab dish. If successful, “we may be able to skip the gratiing,” he says.

Further in the future, the technique could lead to a new tool for treating infertility. “This study has provided the critical proof of principle that oocytes can be generated from induced pluripotent stem cells,” Clark says. If applied to humans, it could lead to the ability to create oocytes from iPS cells taken from infertile women. But Saitou cautions that moving on to human research will require resolving thorny ethical issues and technical difficulties. Solter says that at the extreme, the new approach could lead to the production of human embryos from cell lines and tissue samples. Still, he notes, “defining the status of such ‘parentless’ human embryos and the biological, ethical, and legal issues they will raise defi es the imagination.”

英國(guó)研發(fā)空氣生成汽油方法解決能源危機(jī)

據(jù)英國(guó)《獨(dú)立報(bào)》報(bào)道，一家英國(guó)小公司的技術(shù)人員已經(jīng)借助一項(xiàng)革命性技術(shù)第一次“用空氣中的二氧化碳生成汽油”，這項(xiàng)技術(shù)有望解決能源危機(jī)問(wèn)題，并通過(guò)清除大氣里的二氧化碳，幫助對(duì)抗全球變暖。

蒂斯河畔斯托克的這家名叫空氣燃料合成(Air Fuel Synthesis)的公司從8月開(kāi)啟一個(gè)小型提煉廠，利用二氧化碳和水蒸氣進(jìn)行生產(chǎn)至今，已經(jīng)生產(chǎn)5升汽油。該公司希望能在2年內(nèi)建一座能夠大規(guī)模生產(chǎn)的更大廠房，日產(chǎn)1噸汽油。它還計(jì)劃生產(chǎn)綠色航空燃料，讓航空旅行變得更低碳環(huán)保。英國(guó)倫敦機(jī)械工程師學(xué)會(huì)能源及環(huán)境部門負(fù)責(zé)人提姆-?？怂拐f(shuō)：“這聽(tīng)起來(lái)實(shí)在太好了，感覺(jué)不像是真的，但其實(shí)這就是真的。他們生產(chǎn)汽油時(shí)，我就在跟前，我親眼見(jiàn)證了一切。他們的創(chuàng)新之處，是他們已經(jīng)讓這種方法變成現(xiàn)實(shí)。這是一個(gè)小型試驗(yàn)工廠，它捕獲空氣，通過(guò)已知原理從中提取二氧化碳。它利用我們?cè)缇褪熘以缫汛_定的成分進(jìn)行生產(chǎn)，但令人興奮的是他們把一切結(jié)合在一起，并向我們展示它是如何產(chǎn)生作用的?！?/p>

雖然這一方法目前仍處于早期開(kāi)發(fā)階段，需要借助國(guó)家輸電網(wǎng)提供電流才能進(jìn)行生產(chǎn)，但是該公司認(rèn)為，最終它將能利用風(fēng)電站或者擋潮閘等可再生能源提供動(dòng)力。該公司首席執(zhí)行官彼得-哈里森在倫敦舉行的機(jī)械工程師學(xué)會(huì)會(huì)議上公布了這一突破性成果。他說(shuō)：“我們已經(jīng)從空氣里提取出二氧化碳，從水里提取出氫，并把這些元素轉(zhuǎn)變成汽油。據(jù)我所知，迄今英國(guó)和其他國(guó)家還沒(méi)有人做這樣的事情。它看起來(lái)，聞起來(lái)都像汽油，但是它比常規(guī)汽油更清潔，比用石油生產(chǎn)的汽油更清潔。傳統(tǒng)汽油里含有的添加劑和不好的東西，我們這里面一樣都沒(méi)有，我們的汽油能夠用于現(xiàn)有發(fā)動(dòng)機(jī)。這意味著人們可以到車庫(kù)前院，把我們的產(chǎn)品注入到他們的汽車?yán)?，不用安裝電池或者適合該車的燃料電池，抑或是氫氣發(fā)生器專用液罐。也就是說(shuō)現(xiàn)有運(yùn)輸基礎(chǔ)設(shè)施都能用?！?/p>

能夠捕獲空氣里的二氧化碳，有效清除燃燒石油和煤等化石燃料產(chǎn)生的主要工業(yè)溫室氣體，是正在形成的綠色經(jīng)濟(jì)的“圣杯”。利用從空氣里提取的二氧化碳生產(chǎn)可以儲(chǔ)存、運(yùn)輸和適用于現(xiàn)有發(fā)動(dòng)機(jī)的汽油，使這一想法向成功更邁進(jìn)一步。哈里森解釋說(shuō)，這將改變英國(guó)的環(huán)境和經(jīng)濟(jì)前景。他說(shuō)：“我們正在把可再生電能轉(zhuǎn)變成用途更廣、更方便使用和儲(chǔ)存的能源形式，也就是液體運(yùn)輸用燃料。我們認(rèn)為，倘若我們的資金夠用，到2014年底我們將開(kāi)始利用再生能源生產(chǎn)汽油，并開(kāi)始大規(guī)模生產(chǎn)。我們打算在未來(lái)15年內(nèi)達(dá)到煉油廠級(jí)別的生產(chǎn)規(guī)?！，F(xiàn)在的問(wèn)題是證實(shí)英國(guó)是一個(gè)能夠安設(shè)該技術(shù)所需的所有制造設(shè)備的好地方。如果你能自己生產(chǎn)能源，你就有可能改變一個(gè)國(guó)家的經(jīng)濟(jì)狀況。”

該公司最初的計(jì)劃是生產(chǎn)能與常規(guī)燃料混合使用的汽油，它必須適合摩托車運(yùn)動(dòng)所需的高性能燃料。該技術(shù)還是偏遠(yuǎn)地區(qū)的理想之選，這些地方的可再生能源豐富，例如太陽(yáng)能、風(fēng)輪機(jī)或者波能，但是卻沒(méi)有儲(chǔ)存它們的方法。哈里森說(shuō)：“我們正在與很多孤島地區(qū)和其他縫隙市場(chǎng)進(jìn)行談判，希望幫助它們解決能源問(wèn)題。這些市場(chǎng)的問(wèn)題是石油的價(jià)格太高，從某些方面來(lái)說(shuō)，這些市場(chǎng)將會(huì)促使我們的燃料變得更便宜?！边@個(gè)圓形系統(tǒng)的設(shè)計(jì)目的，是為了從空氣中提取二氧化碳，現(xiàn)在該方法的這個(gè)部分的效率還太低，根本無(wú)法進(jìn)行工業(yè)規(guī)模的生產(chǎn)。

Petrol from air at fi rst glance from this week's headlines, claiming scientists have turned fresh air into petrol, looked as if this was yet another over the top claim about a killer solution to solve the environmental crisis and specter of global warming. Still, engineers in the UK believe a small UK company may be on to something real, a synthetic replacement for fossil fuel. A small company in the north of England, Air Fuel Synthesis (AFS), has developed air capture technology to create synthetic petrol. The company has been running a demonstration plant in Stockton-on-Tees where it has produced fi ve liters of petrol since August, manufacturing gasoline from carbon dioxide and water vapor.

"We've taken carbon dioxide from air and hydrogen from water and turned these elements into petrol," said Peter Harrison, the company's chief executive. "The unit we have here is a demo facility to show the processes can work," he said. AFS expects to be in production by 2015.

Tim Fox, the head of energy and the environment at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers in London, underlined the significance of what he has seen of the AFS solution so far. "The innovation is that they have made it happen as a process. It's a small pilot plant capturing air and extracting CO2 from it based on well-known principles."

Its product looks and smells like petrol but it's cleaner and clearer, without additives. The fuel can be used in any regular petrol tank. The results so far are said to be promising but there are more development stages to go. The company said power could be used from renewable sources such as wind farms or tidal barrages. The company has used carbon dioxide extracted from air to make petrol, but it is also using industrial sources of carbon dioxide until it can improve on carbon capture.

Still, the company has its own vision. The company hopes that in two years it will build a larger, commercial-scale plant capable of producing a ton of petrol a day. "We think that by the end of 2014, provided we can get the funding going, we can be producing petrol using renewable energy and doing it on a commercial basis," Harrison said.

The vision is also that people could go on to a garage and put the new product into their cars without having to install batieries or adapt the vehicle for fuel cells or having hydrogen tanks fitted. AFS also plans to produce "green" aviation fuel to make air travel more carbonneutral.

歐盟科研人員利用綠茶萃取物醫(yī)治皮膚癌療效顯著

歐盟第七研發(fā)框架計(jì)劃（FP7）資助的，由蘇格蘭斯特拉斯克萊德大學(xué)（Strathclyde）和格拉斯格大學(xué)（Glasgow）教授領(lǐng)導(dǎo)的一個(gè)歐洲科研團(tuán)隊(duì)，利用從綠茶中提取的表沒(méi)食子兒茶素沒(méi)食子酸酯化合萃取物（Eplgallocatechin Gallate, EGCG），直接作用于兩種皮膚腫瘤，對(duì)兩種皮膚癌的醫(yī)治獲得顯著療效。研究結(jié)果在最新一期的納米醫(yī)學(xué)雜志上發(fā)表。

綠茶萃取物已長(zhǎng)期應(yīng)用于癌癥的治療，但傳統(tǒng)的靜脈注射法往往效率不高，主要原因是腫瘤獲取的萃取物不足。

科研團(tuán)隊(duì)的研究人員，采用先進(jìn)的定向投遞系統(tǒng)技術(shù)（Targeted Delivery System），可以讓腫瘤有效地吸收萃取物，限制和降低腫瘤的生長(zhǎng)速度。

其工作機(jī)理是，將萃取物與攜帶鐵原子的蛋白融合，可以更容易地被腫瘤依次吸收消化，從而促使腫瘤出現(xiàn)萎縮，甚至消失。

科研團(tuán)隊(duì)在實(shí)驗(yàn)室和臨床上所進(jìn)行的試驗(yàn)，已取得意想不到的成功。

采取該方法醫(yī)治的兩種不同類型皮膚癌癥患者，一個(gè)月后，接近三分之二的病患腫瘤得到有效控制。

其中：30%的患者腫瘤完全消失，20%出現(xiàn)萎縮，另有10%得到穩(wěn)定控制。進(jìn)一步的研究證實(shí)，該醫(yī)治方法對(duì)正常的人體組織細(xì)胞不產(chǎn)生任何副作用，即使對(duì)腫瘤繼續(xù)生長(zhǎng)的病患。

根據(jù)世界衛(wèi)生組織（WHO）的統(tǒng)計(jì)報(bào)告，兩種不同類型的皮膚癌癥患者，非黑色素（Non-Melanoma）和黑色素（Melanoma），在世界范圍的持續(xù)地增長(zhǎng)，每年新產(chǎn)生的非黑色素皮膚癌癥患者達(dá)到200～300萬(wàn)之間，而黑色素皮膚癌癥患者也達(dá)到了15萬(wàn)左右?？蒲袌F(tuán)隊(duì)研究開(kāi)發(fā)出的治療上述兩種不同皮膚癌癥的創(chuàng)新型技術(shù)，必將成為皮膚癌的殺手和患者的福音。

A team of Scottish researchers has successfully used a chemical compound found in green tea to treat two types of skin cancer.

The researchers, from the Universities of Strathclyde and Glasgow, developed a specific method for applying the extract, known as epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), directly to tumours.

Writing in the journal Nanomedicine, the team explains the connection between green tea and cancer.

Despite green tea long being associated with combating cancer, delivering tea compounds to the tumour by conventional intravenous administration is not very eff ective, as not enough of the extract gets to the tumour.

Now the team have managed to make the extract effective at shrinking tumours by devising a targeted delivery system, which works by fusing the extract to proteins that carry iron molecules, which are in turn absorbed by the tumour.

In a laboratory study on two diff erent types of skin cancer, nearly two-thirds of the tumours it was delivered to either shrank or disappeared within one month. To boot, no side eff ects for normal tissues were associated with the treatment.

A total of 40 % of both types of tumour vanished, while 30 % of one and 20 % of another type shrank. A further 10 % of one of the types were stabilised. It is thought that these are the fi rst tests where that this type of treatment has made cancerous tumours shrink or vanish.

Lead study author Dr Christine Dufès from the University of Strathclyde comments on this promising research: 'These are very encouraging results which we hope could pave the way for new and eff ective cancer treatments. When we used our method, the green tea extract reduced the size of many of the tumours every day, in some cases removing them altogether. By contrast, the extract had no eff ect at all when it was delivered by other means, as every one of these tumours continued to grow. This research could open doors to new treatments for what is still one of the biggest killer diseases in many countries.'

The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that the number of cases of both nonmelanoma and melanoma skin cancers continues to rise; currently, between 2 million and 3 million non-melanoma skin cancers, and 132 000 melanoma skin cancers occur each year worldwide.

英報(bào)告稱全球已停止變暖16年

現(xiàn)在幾乎所有人都認(rèn)為全球正在變暖，然而英國(guó)氣象局近日發(fā)布的報(bào)告表明，早在16年前全球變暖的趨勢(shì)便已經(jīng)停止。

據(jù)英國(guó)《每日郵報(bào)》網(wǎng)站10月14日?qǐng)?bào)道，這份報(bào)告是由英國(guó)氣象局和東安格利亞大學(xué)氣候研究中心共同編寫并發(fā)表的，他們對(duì)分布在陸地和海洋里的3000多個(gè)測(cè)量站點(diǎn)進(jìn)行了數(shù)據(jù)統(tǒng)計(jì)與分析。

報(bào)告顯示，從1980年至1996年間，全球溫度的確在上升。然而自1997年初至2012年8月，全球氣溫并沒(méi)有明顯升高，也就是說(shuō)變暖的趨勢(shì)16年前已經(jīng)停止。報(bào)告還顯示，在1980年之前的40年期間，全球氣溫一直處于基本穩(wěn)定狀態(tài)，甚至稍有下降。

不過(guò)，這一最新結(jié)論引發(fā)了環(huán)境科學(xué)家之間的激烈討論。很多科學(xué)家不贊同報(bào)告的說(shuō)法，就連東安格利亞氣候研究中心負(fù)責(zé)人菲爾·瓊斯教授也表示，僅憑15年或16年內(nèi)的情況就下結(jié)論，未免太過(guò)倉(cāng)促。美國(guó)喬治亞科技大學(xué)的氣候科學(xué)系主任朱迪絲·柯里教授在接受媒體采訪時(shí)指出：“很明顯，被用于預(yù)測(cè)未來(lái)變暖的計(jì)算機(jī)模式存在嚴(yán)重問(wèn)題?！?/p>

當(dāng)然，也有人認(rèn)同這一報(bào)告。英國(guó)政府相關(guān)部門正計(jì)劃根據(jù)報(bào)告里的數(shù)據(jù)，更改英國(guó)二氧化碳排放規(guī)定，新建設(shè)一些發(fā)電站，以應(yīng)對(duì)電力供應(yīng)短缺的狀況。

對(duì)此，一些科學(xué)家宣稱，如果不大幅削減全球二氧化碳排放量的話，那么全球變暖的速度肯定要增加。也有預(yù)測(cè)說(shuō)，到本世紀(jì)末，全球溫度將再上升5攝氏度。

The world stopped getting warmer almost 16 years ago, according to new data released last week.

The figures, which have triggered debate among climate scientists, reveal that from the beginning of 1997 until August 2012, there was no discernible rise in aggregate global temperatures.

This means that the ‘plateau’or ‘pause’ in global warming has now lasted for about the sametime as the previous period when temperatures rose, 1980 to 1996. Before that, temperatures had been stable or declining for about 40 years.

The new data, compiled from more than 3,000 measuring points on land and sea, was issued quietly on the internet, without any media fanfare, and, until today, it has not been reported.

This stands in sharp contrast to the release of the previous fi gures six months ago, which went only to the end of 2010 – a very warm year.

Ending the data then means it is possible to show a slight warming trend since 1997, but 2011 and the first eight months of 2012 were much cooler, and thus this trend is erased.

Some climate scientists, such as Professor Phil Jones, director of the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia, last week dismissed the significance of the plateau, saying that 15 or 16 years is too short a period from which to draw conclusions.

Others disagreed. Professor Judith Curry, who is the head of the climate science department at America’s prestigious Georgia Tech university, told The Mail on Sunday that it was clear that the computer models used to predict future warming were ‘deeply fl awed’.

Even Prof Jones admitted that he and his colleagues did not understand the impact of ‘natural variability’ – factors such as longterm ocean temperature cycles and changes in the output of the sun. However, he said he was still convinced that the current decade would end up signifi cantly warmer than the previous two.

The regular data collected on global temperature is called Hadcrut 4, as it is jointly issued by the Met Off i ce’s Hadley Centre and Prof Jones’s Climatic Research Unit.

Since 1880, when worldwide industrialisation began to gather pace and reliable statistics were fi rst collected on a global scale, the world has warmed by 0.75 degrees Celsius.

Some scientists have claimed that this rate of warming is set to increase hugely without drastic cuts to carbon-dioxide emissions, predicting a catastrophic increase of up to a further five degrees Celsius by the end of the century.

The new figures were released as the Government made clear that it would ‘bend’ its own carbon-dioxide rules and build new power stations to try to combat the threat of blackouts.

At last week’s Conservative Party Conference, the new Energy Minister, John Hayes, promised that ‘the high-flown theories of bourgeois Left-wing academics will not override the interests of ordinary people who need fuel for heat, light and transport –energy policies, you might say, for the many, not the few’ – a pledge that has triggered fury from green activists, who fear reductions in the huge subsidies given to windturbine fi rms.

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Global warming stopped 16 years ago, reveals Met Office report quietly released... and here is the chart to prove it