In the spring of 1912 an iceberg in the Atlantic took down the Titanic. Now, some humble bacteria are trying to finish the job. Scientists analyzing rust from the sunken ship have discovered a new species of microbe that eats iron. Their findings are described in the International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology.
Researchers have been studying the Titanic’s remains since they were discovered resting more than two miles beneath the ocean surface. And they’ve found that the ship has been not-so-slowly disappearing. Visitors have removed artifacts, and ____1____ rusticles: icicle-shaped accretions of iron oxide, ____2____ rust.
Nearly 20 years ago scientists took samples of that rust, and found that it ____3____ a mix of iron-munching microbes. Now, analyzing the DNA of these organisms, researchers have catalogued more than two dozen strains of bacteria, including a new one they’ve ____4____ Halomonas titanicae.
The bacteria are bad news for the Titanic, which may only last another 20 years, say the scientists. The good news is such bugs could be used to ____5____ the decay of other, less cinematic wrecks.

【視聽(tīng)版科學(xué)小組榮譽(yù)出品】
the hull is festooned with otherwise known as harbors dubbed hasten
微生物蠶食泰坦尼克殘骸 1912年春，泰坦尼克號(hào)撞到大西洋上的一座冰山，沉入海底?，F(xiàn)如今，一些微小的細(xì)菌正在努力完成使其消失的工作?？茖W(xué)家分析了從沉船上采集的鐵銹，發(fā)現(xiàn)了一種新型噬鐵微生物。他們的研究成果發(fā)表在《國(guó)際系統(tǒng)與進(jìn)化微生物學(xué)雜志》上。 自從在海平面下超過(guò)兩英里的地方發(fā)現(xiàn)了泰坦尼克號(hào)沉船遺跡之后，科研人員一直在對(duì)其殘骸進(jìn)行研究。他們發(fā)現(xiàn)泰坦尼克號(hào)并不是慢慢消失的。船內(nèi)物品已被打撈，船體上掛滿了一種生物群落——rusticles，這是一種外形類(lèi)似于冰柱的氧化鐵聚積物，亦即鐵銹。 大約20年前，科學(xué)家們采集了鐵銹樣本，發(fā)現(xiàn)有噬鐵微生物組合在其中生存。現(xiàn)在，研究人員對(duì)這些生物的DNA進(jìn)行分析，為二十多種細(xì)菌做了分類(lèi)編目，還將其中一個(gè)新細(xì)菌命名為Halomonas titanicae（鹽單胞泰坦尼西（titanicae）菌）。 科學(xué)家表示，這些細(xì)菌對(duì)泰坦尼克號(hào)來(lái)說(shuō)可是個(gè)噩耗，它們或許會(huì)讓這艘巨輪只能再存留二十年。而好消息是這樣的細(xì)菌可以用來(lái)使其它部分——跟電影相關(guān)更少的殘骸——腐蝕得更快些。