Earth is in the middle of its sixth mass extinction.
地球正在经历第六次生物大灭绝。
The last such event took place 66 million years ago, when an asteroid – a huge space rock –- hit our planet.
上一次发生在6600万年前，当时一块小行星--一块巨大的太空岩石撞击了我们的星球。
The asteroid strike killed off dinosaurs and almost everything else.
小行星撞击地球消灭了恐龙和几乎所有的生物。
Now, scientists are in a race against time to classify -– organize into groups -– the estimated 11 million species alive today.
现在，科学家们正争分夺秒地将预计尚存的1100万个物种进行分类。
Yet only about two million species are known to science.
然而科学所知的只有200万个物种。
Researchers are worried many will disappear before they even have a name.
研究人员们担心还没来得及给许多物种定名，它们就消失了。
The United States Botanic Garden has launched a field project with a really big goal.
美国植物园已经开展了一项目标远大的实地项目。
Vicki Funk, a botanist with the Smithsonian Institution, explains.
史密森学会的植物学家薇琪·芬克解释道：
"We are trying to get about half of the diversity of plant life on Earth at the genus level in two years."
我们正努力在2年内使地球上全部植物种类的一半达到属的水平。
The effort is part of what Smithsonian officials are calling the Global Genome Initiative.
这是史密森学会所谓的“全球基因组计划”工作的部分内容。
Its goal is to classify 50 percent of all plant species.
它的目标是对一半的植物物种进行分类。
Vicki Funk admits it seems like a huge project, but says the Botanic Garden is a great place to start.
薇琪·芬克不否认这项工程看起来十分巨大，但是她说植物园是个很好的起点。
"Because if you look around you, you see all kinds of plants from all over the world growing right next to one another.
因为如果你环顾四周，你会看到世界各地各种各样的植物一个紧挨着一个地生长。
So instead of going to Madagascar to get a plant and Hawaii to get a plant, you can get them in rooms that are adjacent to one another."
因此不用大老远地跑到马达加斯加和夏威夷拿株植物，你可以在挨着的房间内得到这些植物。
Many of the species are already growing in botanic gardens – places known for their collections of rare or endangered plants.
植物园种了许多种植物，植物园以拥有广泛的稀有或濒危植物而负有盛名。
The aim is to set up a program to classify plants at 36 partner organizations in 17 countries.
其目的是开展一项计划，在17个国家的36家合作机构对植物进行分类。
One recent day in Washington, Vicki Funk performed a test-run on a long-stemmed pink flower called Sabatia.
近日，薇琪·芬克对一株长茎名为“Sabatia”的粉色花朵进行试验。
She took pictures of the plant.
她拍下花的照片。
She then put one piece into silica gel, and dropped another piece into liquid nitrogen, where it is frozen.
然后她把一片花瓣放进硅胶，又把另一片花瓣放入液氮中进行冷冻。
Next, she removed the flower and pressed it in a plant book for a museum collection.
接下来，她取出花，然后把它夹在一本植物书内，收藏于博物馆。
"The plants are placed between these corrugates (corrugated cardboard) that have holes in them and when we get the press back we put it into a dryer that blows hot air through it and overnight it will turn it into a beautiful specimen.
这些花被夹在多孔的瓦楞纸板中间，我们取出后再把它放进干燥器内，用热风吹干，过了一晚，它就会变成一个美丽的标本了。
Usually it saves the color. It looks very nice."
通常它的颜色没有改变，看起来非常漂亮。
All the plants are numbered and linked in a computer database with the frozen pieces.
计算机数据库对所有的植物编号，并同冰冻的植物相关联。
These specimens are sent to the Smithsonian Institute's Genomics Laboratory for studies of their genetic material.
这些物种将被送到史密森学会基因组实验室进行基因材料研究。
Jonathan Coddington directs the Genome Initiative at the Smithsonian's Museum of Natural History.
乔纳森·科丁顿指导史密森自然历史博物馆基因组计划。
He says the project is on target to gather samples from all 10,000 plant and animal families, and half the genera in those families, within five years.
他说该项目的目标是在5年内集齐10000个植物和动物族群的样本和一半动植物族群的属。
"Just into our biorepository in the pipeline I have over 2,000 families and close to 12,000 genera."
我正准备将2000多个族群和近12000个属收入到生物知识库中。
Jonathan Coddington says that biorepository is the largest such facility in the world.
乔纳森·科丁顿称生物知识库是世界上这类设施中最大的。
It collects, classifies and stores samples.
它对样本进行搜集，分类和储存。
"What we want to do is organize it and get a lot of information evenly spaced out across all of life from bacteria to humans."
我们想做的就是整理生物知识库，让从细菌到人的所有生物的信息均匀分布。
College student Kristen Van Neste is helping with the project.
大学生克里斯汀·范娜斯特正在协助该项目。
"What we are doing is important because it is not just for our use, its for future use."
“我们在做的事情很重要，因为这不仅是供我们使用，也是为了供后人使用。”
Scientists will use the information to identify species, solve environmental problems, study climate change and look for new cures for diseases.
科学家们将利用该信息来辨认物种，解决环保问题，研究气候变化和寻找疾病的新疗法。
I'm Marsha James.
我是玛莎·詹姆斯

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