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科学美国人60秒 SSS Flying Through a Corpse's Clues

时间:2017-07-26 07:38:25

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(单词翻译)

Flying Through a Corpse's Clues

能帮法医验尸的苍蝇

As soon as a person dies, decomposition1 begins. And the first visitors arrive. "Within five to fifteen minutes of death, blow flies or other insects begin to colonize2 the body." Rabi Musah, an organic chemist at the University of Albany.

人一旦死亡,分解便马上开始。第一批访客也会随之而来。“人死后五到十五分钟内,苍蝇或其他昆虫便会开始在身体中繁殖。”奥尔巴尼大学的有机化学家拉比·穆萨说道。

She says different species turn up at different stages of decomposition. "Because of that, depending on what entomological evidence you find, you can learn something about when the person died in terms of the timing3 of the death."

她说,不同的物种会在不同的分解阶段出现。“因此,根据发现的昆虫学证据,可以从死亡时间段的角度了解到一个人的死亡时间。”

\Flies don't tend to stick around when disturbed—by detectives, for example. But they do leave behind eggs. The eggs are hard to tell apart by appearance alone, so forensic4 entomologists rear them until they hatch, a few weeks later—getting a species ID, and, with a little guesswork, a person's time of death.

例如,当侦探来打扰时,苍蝇便不会在附近逗留,但它们却会留下苍蝇卵。这些卵很难单凭外观观察就能被分辨出来,因此法医昆虫学家们会把它们养大,直到它们孵化,然后几周后拿到一个物种ID,加上一点猜测便会得出一个人的死亡时间。

But Musah has come up with a less time-intensive approach: chemical analysis of the eggs. She and her team investigated that method by first harvesting flies with pig liver traps, stashed5 throughout New York City. "So it turns out that it's easy to hide pig livers in various parts of Manhattan. There's a lot of foliage6 and what not, so no one knew."

但是穆萨提出了一种更省时的方法:对卵进行化学分析。她和她的团队通过将猪肝藏到纽约市各处设置诱捕苍蝇的陷阱,来对这种方法进行了研究。“所以事实证明,曼哈顿各区都很容易藏匿猪肝。那里有很多植物树叶等等,所以没人会知道。”

They collected the trapped flies, and then chemically analyzed7 their eggs. And it turns out each species of fly egg has a unique chemical fingerprint—enough to tell the bugs8 apart without raising the eggs to maturity9. And in a useful twist, the technique uses eggs preserved in alcohol—eggs that wouldn't be viable10 for rearing live insects anyway. The study is in the journal Analytical11 Chemistry.

她们将捕获的苍蝇收集起来,然后用化学方法分析它们的卵。结果发现,每一种苍蝇卵都有一种独特的化学指纹图谱——足以在不让卵发育成熟的情况下分辨它们。此外,这项技术还利用了将卵保存在酒精中的方法,致使昆虫无法在卵上繁殖。这项研究发表在《分析化学》杂志上。

Musah and her colleague Jennifer Rosati are now testing the method on a real case. "And once we do that we will be publishing some case studies to illustrate12 that this is a method that can be used, and hopefully eventually it's something that will stand up in court."

穆萨和她的同事詹妮弗·罗萨蒂现在正将这一方法用在一个真实案例上进行测试。“一旦我们这样做了,我们就将能够发表一些案例研究来说明这是一种可行的方法,并且希望最终它能成为在法庭上站得住脚的证据。”

And something that could speed up detective work—or help revive a cold case.

而且它还能加速破案进程——或者帮忙解决一些旧案悬案。


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1 decomposition AnFzT     
n. 分解, 腐烂, 崩溃
参考例句:
  • It is said that the magnetite was formed by a chemical process called thermal decomposition. 据说这枚陨星是在热分解的化学过程中形成的。
  • The dehydration process leads to fairly extensive decomposition of the product. 脱水过程会导致产物相当程度的分解。
2 colonize mqzzM     
v.建立殖民地,拓殖;定居,居于
参考例句:
  • Around 700 Arabs began to colonize East Africa.公元700年阿拉伯人开始把东非变为殖民地。
  • Japan used to colonize many countries in Asia.日本曾经殖民过许多亚洲国家。
3 timing rgUzGC     
n.时间安排,时间选择
参考例句:
  • The timing of the meeting is not convenient.会议的时间安排不合适。
  • The timing of our statement is very opportune.我们发表声明选择的时机很恰当。
4 forensic 96zyv     
adj.法庭的,雄辩的
参考例句:
  • The report included his interpretation of the forensic evidence.该报告包括他对法庭证据的诠释。
  • The judge concluded the proceeding on 10:30 Am after one hour of forensic debate.经过近一个小时的法庭辩论后,法官于10时30分宣布休庭。
5 stashed 07562c5864f6b713d22604f8e1e43dae     
v.贮藏( stash的过去式和过去分词 );隐藏;藏匿;藏起
参考例句:
  • She has a fortune stashed away in various bank accounts. 她有一大笔钱存在几个不同的银行账户下。
  • She has a fortune stashed away in various bank accounts. 她在不同的银行账户上秘密储存了一大笔钱。 来自《简明英汉词典》
6 foliage QgnzK     
n.叶子,树叶,簇叶
参考例句:
  • The path was completely covered by the dense foliage.小路被树叶厚厚地盖了一层。
  • Dark foliage clothes the hills.浓密的树叶覆盖着群山。
7 analyzed 483f1acae53789fbee273a644fdcda80     
v.分析( analyze的过去式和过去分词 );分解;解释;对…进行心理分析
参考例句:
  • The doctors analyzed the blood sample for anemia. 医生们分析了贫血的血样。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • The young man did not analyze the process of his captivation and enrapturement, for love to him was a mystery and could not be analyzed. 这年轻人没有分析自己蛊惑著迷的过程,因为对他来说,爱是个不可分析的迷。 来自《简明英汉词典》
8 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》
9 maturity 47nzh     
n.成熟;完成;(支票、债券等)到期
参考例句:
  • These plants ought to reach maturity after five years.这些植物五年后就该长成了。
  • This is the period at which the body attains maturity.这是身体发育成熟的时期。
10 viable mi2wZ     
adj.可行的,切实可行的,能活下去的
参考例句:
  • The scheme is economically viable.这个计划从经济效益来看是可行的。
  • The economy of the country is not viable.这个国家经济是难以维持的。
11 analytical lLMyS     
adj.分析的;用分析法的
参考例句:
  • I have an analytical approach to every survey.对每项调查我都采用分析方法。
  • As a result,analytical data obtained by analysts were often in disagreement.结果各个分析家所得的分析数据常常不一致。
12 illustrate IaRxw     
v.举例说明,阐明;图解,加插图
参考例句:
  • The company's bank statements illustrate its success.这家公司的银行报表说明了它的成功。
  • This diagram will illustrate what I mean.这个图表可说明我的意思。

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