首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
Mummies capture our imaginations and our hearts. Full of secrets and magic, they were once people who lived and loved, just as w
Mummies capture our imaginations and our hearts. Full of secrets and magic, they were once people who lived and loved, just as w
admin
2012-12-01
57
问题
Mummies capture our imaginations and our hearts. Full of secrets and magic, they were once people who lived and loved, just as we do today. I believe we should honor these ancient dead and let them rest in peace.
There are some secrets of the pharaohs, however, that can be revealed only by studying their mummies. By carrying out CT scans of King Tutankhamun’s mummy, we were able in 2005 to show that he did not die from a blow to the head, as many people believed. Our analysis revealed that a hole in the back of his skull had been made during the mummification process. The study also showed that Tutankhamun died when he was only 19—perhaps soon after he suffered a fracture to his left leg. But there are mysteries surrounding Tutankhamun that even a CT scanner cannot reveal. Now we have probed even deeper into his mummy and returned with extraordinary revelations about his life, his birth, and his death.
Ten years after ascending the throne, Tutankhamun is dead, leaving no heirs to succeed him. He is hastily buried in a small tomb, designed originally for a private person rather than a king. In a backlash against Akhenaten’s heresy, his successors manage to delete from history nearly all traces of the Amarna kings, including Tutankhamun.
Ironically, this attempt to erase his memory preserved Tutankhamun for all time. Less than a century after his death, the location of his tomb had been forgotten. Hidden from robbers by structures built directly above, it remained virtually untouched until its discovery in 1922. More than 5,000 artifacts were found inside the tomb. But the archaeological record has so far failed to illuminate the young king’s most intimate family relationships. Who were his mother and father? What became of his widow, Ankhesenamun? Are the two mummified fetuses found in his tomb King Tutankhamun’s own prematurely born children, or tokens of purity to accompany him into the afterlife?
To answer these questions, we decided to analyze Tutankhamun’s DNA, along with that of ten other mummies suspected to be members of his immediate family. In the past I had been against genetic studies of royal mummies. The chance of obtaining workable samples while avoiding contamination from modern DNA seemed too small to justify disturbing these sacred remains. But in 2008 several geneticists convinced me that the field had advanced far enough to give us a good chance of getting useful results. We set up two state-of-the-art DNA-sequencing labs, one in the basement of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo and the other at the Faculty of Medicine at Cairo University. The research would be led by Egyptian scientists: Yehia Gad and Somaia Ismail from the National Research Center in Cairo. We also decided to carry out CT scans of all the mummies, under the direction of Ashraf Selim and Sahar Saleem of the Faculty of Medicine at Cairo University. Three international experts served as consultants: Carsten Pusch of the Eberhard Karls University of Tubingen, Germany; Albert Zink of the EURAC-Institute for Mummies and the Iceman in Bolzano, Italy? and Paul Gostner of the Central Hospital Bolzano.
The identities of four of the mummies were known. These included Tutankhamun himself, still in his tomb in the Valley of the Kings, and three mummies on display at the Egyptian Museum: Amenhotep III, and Yuya and Tuyu, the parents of Amenhotep Ill’s great queen, Tiye. Among the unidentified mummies was a male found in a mysterious tomb in the Valley of the Kings known as KV55. Archaeological and textual evidence suggested this mummy was most likely Akhenaten or Smenkhkare.
Our search for Tutankhamun’s mother and wife focused on four unidentified females. Two of these, nicknamed the "Elder Lady" and the "Younger Lady," had been discovered in 1898, unwrapped and casually laid on the floor of a side chamber in the tomb of Amenhotep II (KV35), evidently hidden there by priests after the end of the New Kingdom, around 1000 B. C. The other two anonymous females were from a small tomb (KV21) in the Valley of the Kings. The architecture of this tomb suggests a date in the 18th dynasty, and both mummies hold their left fist against their chest in what is generally interpreted as a queenly pose.
Finally, we would attempt to obtain DNA from the fetuses in Tutankhamun’s tomb—not a promising prospect given the extremely poor condition of these mummies. But if we succeeded, we might be able to fill in the missing pieces to a royal puzzle extending over five generations.
To obtain workable samples, the geneticists extracted tissue from several different locations in each mummy, always from deep within the bone, where there was no chance the specimen would be contaminated by the DNA of previous archaeologists—or of the Egyptian priests who had performed the mummification. Extreme care was also taken to avoid any contamination by the researchers themselves. After the samples were extracted, the DNA had to be separated from unwanted substances, including the unguents and resins the priests had used to preserve the bodies. Since the embalming material varied with each mummy, so did the steps needed to purify the DNA. In each case the fragile material could be destroyed at every step.
The geneticists extracted tissue from several different locations in each mummy because______.
选项
A、there was no chance the specimen would be contaminated
B、different research purposes would be fulfilled
C、the tissues would be studied by different scientific groups
D、some of the tissues would be contamination during the process of research
答案
A
解析
该题为细节题。根据文章最后一段,我们得知遗传学家们从每具木乃伊的不同位置提取组织是为了避免被研究人员自身的DNA污染标本。
转载请注明原文地址:https://jikaoti.com/ti/gIUYFFFM
0
专业英语八级
相关试题推荐
DangersofUsingComputerTerminalsUndoubtedly,thecomputerhasgreatlyincreasedhumanbeing’sworkingcapacityandintelle
Mostpeoplehaveexperiencedthefeeling,afterataxingmentalwork-out,thattheycannotbebotheredtomakeanymoredecision
Behindthebrewingwaroverprotectingpatients’recordsinanageofHMOsandonlinemedicine.Technologyisatwo-edgedswor
ThepreindustrialperiodofthedevelopmentofcitiesintheUnitedStatesbeganwiththeestablishmentofthecoloniesinthe
Accordingtoreportsinmajornewsoutlets,astudypublishedlastweekincludedastartlingdiscovery:thenation’sJewishpopu
Accordingtoreportsinmajornewsoutlets,astudypublishedlastweekincludedastartlingdiscovery:thenation’sJewishpopu
Whentheendoftheworldcomes,we’llknowwhattoblame.ScientistshavefoundcompellingevidencethattheSunhasababybro
NewdatareleasedtodayfromthePartnershipforaDrugFreeAmericasuggestthatnotonlyaregirlsnowdrinkingmorethanboys
BenjieGoodhartisinhislate30s,adoreshispartnerandhasayoungson.Butthethoughtofmarriagehasparalyzedhimwithf
随机试题
BUF中存放了一组数求其最大值和最小值。结臬存放在BX中,其中BH放最大值,BL放最小值,完成下列程序。DATASEGMENTBUFDW5,7,3,1,127,8,4,15,18,0DATAEN
目标管理的首先提出者是()
竹之始生,一寸之萌耳,而节叶具焉。
自身免疫病发生的根本机制是
某技师在使用离心铸造机进行铸造时忘记调整离心机臂两端平衡,可能造成A.毛刺B.冷隔C.偏析D.冷热裂E.砂眼
黑体表面温度由30℃增加到333℃,该表面辐射力增加为原来()倍。
多用途干粉灭火剂可用于扑灭()火灾。
张鹏于2000年创立了南华厨具用品公司。南华厨具用品公司确立的基本经营理念是“满足顾客的一切需要”,其不但销售普通的厨房用具,而且还向顾客提供一系列的后续服务,如瓷砖安装、地热安装、空调维护等。为确保销售产品的质量,张鹏专门建立了网络采购系统,选择全球最优
甲酒店想加盟另一个叫KJ酒店的项目,期限8年,相关事项如下:(1)项目初始支付加盟保证金10万元,初始加盟保证金一次性收取,合同结束时归还本金(无利息);(2)项目初始支付加盟费,按照酒店房间数120间计算,每个房间3000元,初始加盟
物业服务企业还应当经常进行(),跟踪掌握大多数业主的普遍需求和服务评价,以保证受益群体的最大化。
最新回复
(
0
)