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科学美国人60秒 SSS “美食”共分享

时间:2017-03-15 02:52:27

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Microbes play a huge role in our nutrition, our immunity1, maybe even our mental health. But we aren’t the only ones that rely on these armies of resident bacteria. "Baby cockroaches2, the ones that just emerge from the egg, don't have any gut3 bacteria." Coby Schal, an entomologist and chemical ecologist at North Carolina State University. "The first thing they do is take a nice feces meal: basically, eating the poop of their brothers and sisters and mothers and fathers."

微生物在我们的营养、免疫甚至心理健康中都发挥着重要的作用。但是并只是我们人类依赖这些常住细菌。“那些刚才出壳的幼儿蟑螂,肠道内并没有细菌。”科比·沙尔是北卡罗莱纳州立大学的一名昆虫学者和化学生态学家。他讲到,“这些刚出生的蟑螂所作的第一件事情就是享受一场粪便盛宴,基本上就是吃他们兄弟姐妹和父母的粪便。”

Excrement4 inoculates5 the roaches with beneficial gut bugs6, Schal says. And it's also a longevity-boosting nutritional7 supplement. But the weirdest8 thing is, the poop actually calls the tots to come hither. Because it's laced with compounds, like fatty acids, that attract roaches of all ages. The substances are called aggregation9 pheromones. So poop essentially10 serves as a rallying call to congregate—and feast.

沙尔称,粪便孕育蟑螂拥有有益的肠道细菌。同时粪便还为蟑螂提供长期的营养供给。但是最奇怪的事情是,这些粪便会招引一些幼儿的蟑螂。因为这些粪便中含有脂肪酸等有机化合物,会吸引各个年龄阶段的蟑螂。这些物质被称为聚合信息素。所以粪便实际上是蟑螂们聚集——享受盛宴的集合信号。

To determine where the attractive chemicals come from, Schal and his colleagues raised a group of sterile11, microbe-free cockroaches—and then collected their excrement.

为了确定这些有吸引力的化学物质来自哪里,沙尔和同事们饲养了一群无菌的、无微生物的蟑螂,并收集了他们的排泄物。

But as they suspected, the sterile stuff, without any microbial by-products, failed to tantalize12 other roaches. They then gave the sterile bugs a fecal transplant. "So we took feces of normal cockroaches, and exposed sterile cockroaches to those feces. They very readily eat these feces and they incorporate the microbes, the bacteria from these feces, into their gut. And then these cockroaches then produce the aggregation pheromone again." They published the findings in the Proceedings13 of the National Academy of Sciences.

但是令他们怀疑的是,这些无菌、没有任何微生物副产品的粪便并没有吸引其他的蟑螂。之后,研究人员给这些无菌的虫子进行粪便移植。“我们收集正常蟑螂的粪便,然后将无菌的蟑螂来接触这些粪便。这些无菌的蟑螂非常乐意享受这些粪便,然后它们就会吸收这些粪便中的微生物和细菌。之后这些蟑螂就会产生聚合信息素。”研究人员将研究结果发表在《美国国家科学院院刊》上。

The results suggest gut bacteria may do a lot more than we thought—including, at least for cockroaches, aid communication. That's a plus for us—because we might be able to hijack14 those compounds to build better baits and traps. To make sure that [Clip from commercial: "Roaches check in… but they don't check out."]

研究结果表明肠道细菌的功能可能比我们想象的要多——其中对于蟑螂来说,包括辅助交流。这对我们来说有帮助的——因为我们或许可以劫持这些化合物来构建更好的诱饵和陷阱。保证蟑螂们“有进无出” 。


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1 immunity dygyQ     
n.优惠;免除;豁免,豁免权
参考例句:
  • The law gives public schools immunity from taxation.法律免除公立学校的纳税义务。
  • He claims diplomatic immunity to avoid being arrested.他要求外交豁免以便避免被捕。
2 cockroaches 1936d5f0f3d8e13fc00370b7ef69c14c     
n.蟑螂( cockroach的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • At night, the cockroaches filled the house with their rustlings. 夜里,屋里尽是蟑螂窸窸瑟瑟的声音。 来自辞典例句
  • It loves cockroaches, and can keep a house clear of these hated insects. 它们好食蟑螂,可以使住宅免除这些讨厌昆虫的骚扰。 来自百科语句
3 gut MezzP     
n.[pl.]胆量;内脏;adj.本能的;vt.取出内脏
参考例句:
  • It is not always necessary to gut the fish prior to freezing.冷冻鱼之前并不总是需要先把内脏掏空。
  • My immediate gut feeling was to refuse.我本能的直接反应是拒绝。
4 excrement IhLzw     
n.排泄物,粪便
参考例句:
  • The cage smelled of excrement.笼子里粪臭熏人。
  • Clothing can also become contaminated with dust,feathers,and excrement.衣着则会受到微尘、羽毛和粪便的污染。
5 inoculates f1c507b5597f063ea9c282c3a332c13c     
n.给…做预防注射( inoculate的名词复数 )v.给…做预防注射( inoculate的第三人称单数 )
参考例句:
6 bugs e3255bae220613022d67e26d2e4fa689     
adj.疯狂的,发疯的n.窃听器( bug的名词复数 );病菌;虫子;[计算机](制作软件程序所产生的意料不到的)错误
参考例句:
  • All programs have bugs and need endless refinement. 所有的程序都有漏洞,都需要不断改进。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • The sacks of rice were swarming with bugs. 一袋袋的米里长满了虫子。 来自《简明英汉词典》
7 nutritional 4HRxN     
adj.营养的,滋养的
参考例句:
  • A diet lacking in nutritional value will not keep a person healthy.缺乏营养价值的饮食不能维持人的健康。
  • The labels on food products give a lot of information about their nutritional content.食品上的标签提供很多关于营养成分的信息。
8 weirdest 1420dbd419e940f3a92df683409afc4e     
怪诞的( weird的最高级 ); 神秘而可怕的; 超然的; 古怪的
参考例句:
  • Think of the weirdest, craziest shit you'd like to see chicks do. 想想这最怪异,最疯狂的屁事。你会喜欢看这些鸡巴表演的。
  • It's still the weirdest damn sound I ever heard out of a Jersey boy. 这是我所听过新泽西人最为怪异的音调了。
9 aggregation OKUyE     
n.聚合,组合;凝聚
参考例句:
  • A high polymer is a very large aggregation of units.一个高聚物是许多单元的非常大的组合。
  • Moreover,aggregation influences the outcome of chemical disinfection of viruses.此外,聚集作用还会影响化学消毒的效果。
10 essentially nntxw     
adv.本质上,实质上,基本上
参考例句:
  • Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
  • She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。
11 sterile orNyQ     
adj.不毛的,不孕的,无菌的,枯燥的,贫瘠的
参考例句:
  • This top fits over the bottle and keeps the teat sterile.这个盖子严实地盖在奶瓶上,保持奶嘴无菌。
  • The farmers turned the sterile land into high fields.农民们把不毛之地变成了高产田。
12 tantalize iGHyp     
vt.使干着急,逗弄
参考例句:
  • The boy would come into the room and tantalize the dog with his feed.那个男孩会到房间里拿狗食逗弄狗。
  • He tried to tantalize me by revealing that the Soviet Union was prepared to discuss a package deal.他想要逗弄我,于是就露出口风说,苏联愿意讨论一揽子交易。
13 proceedings Wk2zvX     
n.进程,过程,议程;诉讼(程序);公报
参考例句:
  • He was released on bail pending committal proceedings. 他交保获释正在候审。
  • to initiate legal proceedings against sb 对某人提起诉讼
14 hijack KdNxS     
v.劫持,劫机,拦路抢劫
参考例句:
  • Most countries refuse to give sanctuary to people who hijack aeroplanes.大多数国家拒绝对劫机者提供庇护。
  • The hijack take place just after the plane take off.劫持是飞机刚起飞后发生的。

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