"We've been thinking about this for several years now - we've had a look at a number of different approaches, and didn't have any success," one of the research team, Derek Tittensor, told BBC News.

“对这个问题，我们已经思考了几年——我们看到了各种各样的估计值，却没有取得任何成果。”研究团队的一员，Derek Tittensor对BBC News说。

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"The electric car will account for 10% of the global market in 10 years, " he told BBC News.

BBC: Nissan Leaf electric car to be built in Sunderland

"We all admire the beaver for the way it can turn a linear river into a lake with a dam, but the termites turning the desert into a pattern of oases that allow permanent life even in drought periods for hundreds of years - that's much more fascinating, " he told BBC News.

BBC: Termites 'engineer fairy circles'

"This makes a nonsense of competition, ten years of liberalistion is being wiped out in one go, " Mr. Nicholson told BBC News Online.

BBC: Gas prices worry UK industry