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Dendrochronology 树木年代学 Not always the ring of truth 年轮不一定反映事实 The use of wood to assess past environmentsneeds care 通过树木判断过去的环境时要小心了 TREE rings are Mother Nature s history books. 年轮是大自然的史书。 Researchers often look at chemicals stored in them when trying to reconstruct pastenvironments. 在试图重现过去的环境时，研究人员经常会从年轮中所含的化学物质入手。 Like all history books, though, they can be unreliable. 然而就和所有的史书一样，年轮也并不怎么靠谱。 And in the case of one particular chemical of interest, mercury, Jose Antonio RodriguezMartin of the National Institute for Agricultural and Food Research and Technology, in Madrid,and his colleagues have just shown how unreliable they are. 通过其关注的一个特别的化学物质-汞，西班牙国家农业与食物研究及技术学会的何塞安东尼奥罗德里格斯马丁及其同事便刚刚证明了年轮多么不靠谱。 Dr Rodriguez Martin was studyingpines on La Palma, in the Canary Islands. 罗德里格斯马丁博士一直在研究拉帕尔马岛上的松树。 | 
