美国斯坦福大学的Sharon R. Long是一名研究豆科植物紫花苜蓿与根瘤菌共生固氮的专家。她是唯一一名当选为奥巴马总统科学顾问团的女科学家。她的当选除了她自身的能力和魅力外，奥巴马总统为了美国的能源和环境而做出的长远考虑也是重要因素。因为通过大力发挥生物固氮作用，可减少化学氮肥的使用，进而减少化学氮肥生产过程中耗费的大量能源及对环境的污染。苜蓿是美国重要的农作物之一，在畜牧业养殖中有牧草之王之称，这种豆科植物只需靠根系的根瘤固氮作用即可满足自身对氮素的需要，而不需要化学氮肥。

她的实验室网址为：

http://med.stanford.edu/profiles/Sharon_Long/

或http://cmgm.stanford.edu/biology/long/ （更详细一些）

下面是关于Sharon R. Long当选为科学顾问的报道：

Stanford University plant biologist Sharon R. Long is the only woman on the team of science advisors assembled by Barak Obama in September. Long's lab studies the symbiotic interaction of Rhizobium bacteria and alfalfa roots to form nodules. Root nodules are able to take nitrogen from the air to form ammonia, which is used by plants to synthesize amino acids, nucleotides and other cellular components. This ability allows the plants to grow with less nitrogen fertilizer than required by other crops, making the process of great interest to the agricultural industry. There has, in fact, been some criticism of Obama's choice of Long because of her ties to the agricultural biotech company Monsanto, on whose board of directors she served until last fall.

当选总统科学顾问后，记者对其进行了采访，如下，可以到相关网站上听录音：

（http://www.sciam.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=the-day-after-science-in-the-obama-08-11-05）

Long was interviewed about science under the Obama administration by Steve Mirsky for the Scientific American Science Talk podcast. Listen to the interview.

此次谈话中，她提到了她的研究方向，即豆科植物与根瘤菌之间的分子对话。以下是节录：

Steve: You want to talk for just a couple of minutes about your particular expertise? You mentioned that it's in crop research in part and the specifics of what the administration plans to do in those areas?

Long: My own area of research is on the symbiosis between beneficial soil bacteria and plants in [the] legume family, and this is familiar to many because it's the basis for crop rotation. Plants such as beans, clover, alfalfa—which is what I study—or soybean[s] are members of a plant family that have the unique ability to host beneficial bacteria in their roots. Now because of the bacteria and because they have the bacteria in their roots, these plants are actually able to flourish using nitrogen that the bacteria convert from a form that's in the air into a molecule that the plants make protein out of. That means that these plants don't need nitrogen fertilizer. This is the reason why, for example, the Native Americans had the practice of planting a little mound with squash, beans and corn. The beans didn't just produce a great seed, they also provided nitrogen nourishment for themselves and for the little mound of plants that were around them. Likewise crop rotation has been used in the ancient world, [in the] Mediterranean and in many other cultures throughout the world. That is important because crop rotation of that kind is a cornerstone of sustainable agriculture. And my work is very basic. I don't really study the applications in the field, but I do work on the question of how bacteria and plants can recognize each other in a highly specific way and how they can come together in a complex process so that the bacteria are benefiting the plant by providing them with the nitrogen that they need to make lots of protein, and in return, the plant, which can carry out photosynthesis, is able to provide sugars and other energy to the bacteria. So each partner benefits from the exchange. That's my great love in research. Whether that will be addressed in particular in the science plans of the future administration isn't known to me, but it is something that relates to energy, to productivity, to self-sustainability. So I hope that along with all of my colleagues in the United States who study this, I hope we'll all be able to make application and try to make our case for doing good science and create some benefits from that.

Steve: Some enlightened self-interest for you then to be involved here.

一个博客上关于Long的介绍：

Sharon Long: Recently stepped down as dean of Stanford University's School of Humanities & Science to return to her research on the symbiosis of soil bacteria with alfalfa. Long resigned last year from the Board of Directors of Monsanto, an agricultural biotechnology corporation. A former MacArthur Fellow, Long is a member of the leadership council of the National Academy of Sciences. She has contributed to the campaigns of both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

（来自：http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/09/obama-campaign.html）

 

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