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科学美国人60秒 SSS 嗅觉——鲨鱼导航秘诀

时间:2017-03-06 08:46:47

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(单词翻译)

Sharks Head Straight Home by Smell 嗅觉——鲨鱼导航秘诀

Some sea creatures can find their way through thousands of miles of seemingly featureless oceans. Even more impressive is the route that they take.

一些海洋生物能够在茫茫的大海中找到方向,而最让人印象深刻的是它们的航线。

“Well, we’ve known for a long time that sharks are capable of long-distance migrations1, and in some cases those migrations occur along very straight paths.” Scripps Institution of Oceanography biologist Andy Nosal. “And this has always begged the question: how exactly do they know where they’re going?...So, there have been a lot of hypotheses floated over the last several decades, including the idea that these sharks are using, for example, geomagnetic cues, chemical cues and others. But none of these have really been systematically2 tested in the field.”

“很久以前我们就知道,鲨鱼能够长途迁移,并且在某些情况下,它们的的迁徙路线是直的。” 斯克瑞普思研究生海洋生物学家安迪·诺萨尔说到。“一直以来人们都未探讨问题的实质:鲨鱼究竟是怎样知道自己的去向呢?因此,过去几十年来,人们有无数的假设,例如鲨鱼在利用地磁信号、化学信号等等。但是,所有这些假设都尚未得到系统地检测。”

Nosal and his team suspected that the navigational secret of some sharks might be their sense of smell. They use their keen noses to find food, of course. And other fish, like salmon3, are known to use olfaction to navigate4.

诺萨尔和他的团队猜测,鲨鱼的导航秘诀可能是嗅觉。鲨鱼可以使用自己灵敏的鼻子来寻找食物。人们知道鲑鱼等其他鱼类利用嗅觉进行导航。

To see if his hunch5 was right, Nosal scooped6 up some adult female leopard7 sharks in their preferred environment, waist-deep water off the San Diego coast. He attached a small radio transmitter behind their dorsal8 fins9. And he half of the sharks by shoving cotton balls soaked with petroleum10 jelly blocked the sense of smell inin their nostrils11.

为了验证猜测是否正确,诺萨尔在圣地亚哥海岸齐腰深的海水处,圈养观察一些成年雌性豹鲨。这里的环境为这些豹鲨所喜爱。诺萨尔在豹鲨的背鳍出装上小型的无线电发射器。并利用占有凡士林的棉花堵塞了一半鲨鱼的鼻孔,通过这种方法来阻塞鲨鱼的嗅觉。

Nosal and his crew dropped the sharks about six miles away at a spot in the open ocean. The researchers then tracked the sharks as they tried to swim back home. Four hours later, the sharks that could smell were two-thirds of the way back home—and had swum in very straight paths. But the ones with stuffed noses took erratic12 routes and only made it about half as far.

诺萨尔和同事们将这些鲨鱼放到六公里外的开放海域中。研究人员对这些鲨鱼进行跟踪记录,因为这些鲨鱼试图游回家。四小时后,嗅觉正常的鲨鱼距离家园只有1/3的路程,并且,它们游的路径是直的。但是,鼻子被堵塞的鲨鱼行程不稳,只游了约一半的距离。

Nosal thinks they all eventually got back home. “And we know that because even though their movements, even though they didn’t get as close to shore and even though their paths were more wind-y, their movements were still biased13 towards shore. On average they still finished closer to shore than when they started.” And those jelly-soaked cotton balls eventually disintegrate14, returning the sharks to normal. The experiment is the first to show that sharks can indeed sniff15 their way back home.

诺萨尔认为这些鲨鱼最终都能够回到家。“即使这些嗅觉受到限制的鲨鱼并未靠近海岸,同时它们的航线非常曲折,但他们仍在向海岸游行。总体而言,它们比开始时离海岸的位置近了。”这些棉花球最终会失效,鲨鱼的嗅觉就会恢复正常。此实验首次验证鲨鱼是靠嗅觉找到回家的路。

But it also shows that they must have some kind of back-up system that lets them that lets them navigate non-nasally. For Nosal, the next questions are: What’s the back-up system? And if sharks navigate by smell, what exactly is it they’re smelling that leads them—by the nose.

但是,此实验也表明,鲨鱼必须拥有一些在嗅觉失灵时进行导航的备用系统。诺萨尔的下一个问题是,那么这些备用系统是什么?如果鲨鱼利用嗅觉导航,它们利用鼻子到底在闻什么。


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1 migrations 2d162e07be0cf65cc1054b2128c60258     
n.迁移,移居( migration的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • It foundered during the turmoils accompanying the Great Migrations. 它在随着民族大迁徙而出现的混乱中崩溃。 来自辞典例句
  • Birds also have built-in timepieces which send them off on fall and spring migrations. 鸟类也有天生的时间感应器指导它们秋春迁移。 来自互联网
2 systematically 7qhwn     
adv.有系统地
参考例句:
  • This government has systematically run down public services since it took office.这一屆政府自上台以来系统地削减了公共服务。
  • The rainforest is being systematically destroyed.雨林正被系统地毀灭。
3 salmon pClzB     
n.鲑,大马哈鱼,橙红色的
参考例句:
  • We saw a salmon jumping in the waterfall there.我们看见一条大马哈鱼在那边瀑布中跳跃。
  • Do you have any fresh salmon in at the moment?现在有新鲜大马哈鱼卖吗?
4 navigate 4Gyxu     
v.航行,飞行;导航,领航
参考例句:
  • He was the first man to navigate the Atlantic by air.他是第一个飞越大西洋的人。
  • Such boats can navigate on the Nile.这种船可以在尼罗河上航行。
5 hunch CdVzZ     
n.预感,直觉
参考例句:
  • I have a hunch that he didn't really want to go.我有这么一种感觉,他并不真正想去。
  • I had a hunch that Susan and I would work well together.我有预感和苏珊共事会很融洽。
6 scooped a4cb36a9a46ab2830b09e95772d85c96     
v.抢先报道( scoop的过去式和过去分词 );(敏捷地)抱起;抢先获得;用铲[勺]等挖(洞等)
参考例句:
  • They scooped the other newspapers by revealing the matter. 他们抢先报道了这件事。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • The wheels scooped up stones which hammered ominously under the car. 车轮搅起的石块,在车身下发出不吉祥的锤击声。 来自《简明英汉词典》
7 leopard n9xzO     
n.豹
参考例句:
  • I saw a man in a leopard skin yesterday.我昨天看见一个穿着豹皮的男人。
  • The leopard's skin is marked with black spots.豹皮上有黑色斑点。
8 dorsal rmEyC     
adj.背部的,背脊的
参考例句:
  • His dorsal fin was down and his huge pectorals were spread wide.它的脊鳍朝下耷拉着,巨大的胸鳍大张着。
  • The shark's dorsal fin was cut off by the fisherman.鲨鱼的背鳍被渔夫割了下来。
9 fins 6a19adaf8b48d5db4b49aef2b7e46ade     
[医]散热片;鱼鳍;飞边;鸭掌
参考例句:
  • The level of TNF-α positively correlated with BMI,FPG,HbA1C,TG,FINS and IRI,but not with SBP and DBP. TNF-α水平与BMI、FPG、HbA1C、TG、FINS和IRI呈显著正相关,与SBP、DBP无相关。 来自互联网
  • Fins are a feature specific to fish. 鱼鳍是鱼类特有的特征。 来自辞典例句
10 petroleum WiUyi     
n.原油,石油
参考例句:
  • The Government of Iran advanced the price of petroleum last week.上星期伊朗政府提高了石油价格。
  • The purpose of oil refinery is to refine crude petroleum.炼油厂的主要工作是提炼原油。
11 nostrils 23a65b62ec4d8a35d85125cdb1b4410e     
鼻孔( nostril的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • Her nostrils flared with anger. 她气得两个鼻孔都鼓了起来。
  • The horse dilated its nostrils. 马张大鼻孔。
12 erratic ainzj     
adj.古怪的,反复无常的,不稳定的
参考例句:
  • The old man had always been cranky and erratic.那老头儿性情古怪,反复无常。
  • The erratic fluctuation of market prices is in consequence of unstable economy.经济波动致使市场物价忽起忽落。
13 biased vyGzSn     
a.有偏见的
参考例句:
  • a school biased towards music and art 一所偏重音乐和艺术的学校
  • The Methods: They employed were heavily biased in the gentry's favour. 他们采用的方法严重偏袒中上阶级。
14 disintegrate ftmxi     
v.瓦解,解体,(使)碎裂,(使)粉碎
参考例句:
  • The older strata gradually disintegrate.较老的岩层渐渐风化。
  • The plane would probably disintegrate at that high speed.飞机以那么高速飞行也许会四分五裂。
15 sniff PF7zs     
vi.嗅…味道;抽鼻涕;对嗤之以鼻,蔑视
参考例句:
  • The police used dogs to sniff out the criminals in their hiding - place.警察使用警犬查出了罪犯的藏身地点。
  • When Munchie meets a dog on the beach, they sniff each other for a while.当麦奇在海滩上碰到另一条狗的时候,他们会彼此嗅一会儿。

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