美国有线新闻 CNN NASA将40只转基因老鼠送上太空（在线收听）

Which of these cartoon characters first appeared in a short called the Mouse of Tomorrow in 1942? Mickey Mouse, Mighty Mouse, Jerry or Fievel? Originally known as "Super Mouse", the character that became Mighty Mouse made his debut in '42.

下列哪个卡通形象在1942年电影《明日之鼠》中首次出现？米老鼠、太空飞鼠、杰瑞还是伟福？太空老鼠原名为“超级老鼠”，在1942年首次亮相。

As far as television goes, Mighty Mouse hasn't been on the air in years but he has been in space in a manner of speaking. These have been called "mighty mice". They're genetically modified mice that have twice the muscle mass than unaltered mice and 40 of them were recently sent into space for a study on muscle mass.

虽然《太空飞鼠》已经多年未在电视上播出，但从某种意义上说，它已经在太空中了。这些被称为“太空飞鼠”。它们是转基因老鼠，肌肉质量是未经改变的老鼠的两倍，其中40只最近被送入太空进行肌肉质量研究。

Without the daily force of gravity, people and mice normally lose muscle. NASA says in spaceflights lasting five to 11 days, astronauts can lose as much as 20 percent of their muscle. Those who spend months on the International Space Station regularly exercise to help prevent this loss, but this kind of training might not be possible during long-term space flight.

如果每天不受重力影响，那人和老鼠通常都会失去肌肉。美国国家航空航天局（简称NASA）表示，在持续5到11天的太空飞行中，宇航员的肌肉损失可能高达20%。那些在国际空间站度过数月的宇航员会经常锻炼，以防止肌肉损失，但这种训练可能对长期进行宇宙飞行的人没有效果。

So scientists have been experimenting with "mighty mice" to see if a drug could be produced one day that could help astronauts keep their muscle in a microgravity environment. Of course, drugs, especially those related to maintaining or increasing muscle mass have an array of unwanted side effects, so researchers are looking to create treatments that avoid those.

因此，科学家一直用“太空飞鼠”进行实验，看看是否某天能生产出一种药物，可以帮助宇航员在微重力环境下保持肌肉。当然，尤其是维持或增加肌肉质量的药物会产生大量有害的副作用，因此，研究人员正在寻找避免这些副作用的治疗方法。

And as far as the mice were concerned, the genetically altered ones were able to keep more of their muscle mass in space and recover it faster once they got back down to Earth.

而就老鼠而言，经过基因改造的老鼠能够在太空中维持更多的肌肉质量，一旦回到地球，它们的肌肉恢复得也更快。