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科学美国人60秒 SSS 飓风是一场自然选择实验

时间:2019-09-29 07:24:18

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(单词翻译)

This is Scientific American — 60-Second Science. I'm Jason G. Goldman.

这里是科学美国人——60秒科学。我是杰森·古德曼。

At about 7:30 P.M. on September 7, 2017, Hurricane Irma reached the Turks and Caicos Islands. By the next morning, the neighborhood called Blue Hill was gone. And on South Caicos Island, 75 percent of rooftops were obliterated1. Two weeks later, Hurricane Maria followed in Irma's destructive footsteps.

2017年9月7日晚7点30分左右,飓风“厄玛”抵达特克斯和凯科斯群岛。到第二天早上,该群岛附近的“蓝山”社区已完全消失。在南凯科斯岛,75%的屋顶彻底被毁。两周之后,飓风“玛丽亚”紧随“厄玛”的毁灭性脚步而来。

And Harvard University biologist Colin Donihue happened to be there a few days before the hurricanes blew through.

而在这两起飓风来袭的前两天,哈佛大学的生物学家科林·多尼克恰巧就在该岛上。

"The Turks and Caicos islands is home to a couple of different endemic species of lizard2, that's lizards3 that are only found there. We were interested in one in particular, called Anolis scriptus, the Turks and Caicos anole."

“特克斯和凯科斯群岛是几种特有品种蜥蜴的家园,这些蜥蜴只有那里才有。我们对其中一种被称为安乐蜥属的的特克斯和凯科斯变色龙尤为感兴趣。”

The mission of that first expedition, before the two hurricanes, was to assay4 the lizard population in anticipation5 of a program to eradicate6 the islands of invasive rats—which threaten the lizards. This work included taking detailed7 measurements of the bodies of lizards they trapped and released.

在两场飓风之前进行的首次考察的任务是测定蜥蜴数量,以期待实施一项消灭岛上入侵老鼠的计划——这些老鼠对蜥蜴构成威胁。这项工作包括对捕获的老鼠进行详细测量,然后再将它们放生。

The researchers intended to return several years later, after the rats were gone, to re-assess the lizards. But that plan changed.

研究人员本打算几年后,也就是在老鼠灭绝之后,再回到岛上对蜥蜴进行重新评估。但是这个计划改变了。

"We realized after the hurricanes had come through that we had a really serendipitous8 opportunity to test this question of whether hurricanes can act as agents of natural selection on wild populations in their path. Now this had never really been asked before, because hurricanes are just really hard to predict...we just happened to be in the right place at the right time to have that baseline data."

“在两次飓风过后,我们意识到自己获得了测试这个问题的偶然机会:飓风是否能充当对其路径上的野生种群进行自然选择的代理人?这个问题此前从未被提出过,因为飓风相当难以预测,我们只是碰巧在正确的时间和地点获得了这些基线数据。”

Which is why he and his team returned to the archipelago...just six weeks after his first visit.

这就是他和团队在首次造访6周后便回到了那个群岛的原因。

They expected that lizards with longer limbs and larger toe pads would be the ones better able to cling to trees and therefore more likely to survive the storms. And they were almost right. Longer front legs and larger toe pads indeed helped. But shorter hindlimbs were actually better. The results are in the journal Nature.

他们原本以为那些四肢较长、趾垫更大的蜥蜴能更好地附着在树上,因而更有可能在风暴中存活下来。他们的想法基本上是对的。前肢更长、趾垫更大确实有帮助。但实际上,后肢较短更有利。研究结果发表在《自然》期刊上。

To figure out these counterintuitive findings, the researchers conducted an experiment in a hotel room. They rounded up some lizards, gave them a perch10, and used a leaf blower to mimic11 the effects of high winds. They set up a net to catch any lizards that lost their grip.

为了弄清楚这些反直觉的发现,研究人员在酒店房间里进行了一项实验。他们围捕了一些蜥蜴,给它们一根栖木,然后用鼓风机模拟强风的效果。他们铺设了一张网,用来接住没抓住栖木的蜥蜴。

As the artificial wind blew, the lizards moved so the perch took most of the air flow. But their hind9 legs would stick out—and if those rear limbs stuck out too far, they acted as sails.

当人造风吹来时,蜥蜴会移动位置,因此栖木承受了大部分气流。但蜥蜴的后肢会伸出来——如果后肢会伸得过远,就会起到帆的作用。

"Eventually those back legs were blown off the perch, and the lizards were just holding on with their front two legs. And they could only hold on like that for so long as the wind speed increased further and further, until they were blown off the perch and into the nets."

“最后,风会把它们的后肢从栖木上吹下去,蜥蜴只能用两条前腿抓住栖木。随着风速越来越大,它们只能一直这样在栖木上坚持着,直到它们被吹下来落到网里为止。”

So shorter back legs gave a survival advantage. A trait that might be passed on to the next lizard generation.

因此,较短的后肢提供了生存优势。这种特征可能会传给下一代蜥蜴。

Thanks for the minute for Scientific American — 60-Second Science. I'm Jason G. Goldman.

谢谢大家收听科学美国人——60秒科学。我是杰森·古德曼。


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点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 obliterated 5b21c854b61847047948152f774a0c94     
v.除去( obliterate的过去式和过去分词 );涂去;擦掉;彻底破坏或毁灭
参考例句:
  • The building was completely obliterated by the bomb. 炸弹把那座建筑物彻底摧毁了。
  • He began to drink, drank himself to intoxication, till he slept obliterated. 他一直喝,喝到他快要迷糊地睡着了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
2 lizard P0Ex0     
n.蜥蜴,壁虎
参考例句:
  • A chameleon is a kind of lizard.变色龙是一种蜥蜴。
  • The lizard darted out its tongue at the insect.蜥蜴伸出舌头去吃小昆虫。
3 lizards 9e3fa64f20794483b9c33d06297dcbfb     
n.蜥蜴( lizard的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • Nothing lives in Pompeii except crickets and beetles and lizards. 在庞培城里除了蟋蟀、甲壳虫和蜥蜴外,没有别的生物。 来自辞典例句
  • Can lizards reproduce their tails? 蜥蜴的尾巴断了以后能再生吗? 来自辞典例句
4 assay 1ODyx     
n.试验,测定
参考例句:
  • The assay result of that material is rich in iron.化验结果表明那种物质含铁量丰富。
  • The ore assay 75 percent of gold.这种矿石经分析证明含金百分之七十五。
5 anticipation iMTyh     
n.预期,预料,期望
参考例句:
  • We waited at the station in anticipation of her arrival.我们在车站等着,期待她的到来。
  • The animals grew restless as if in anticipation of an earthquake.各种动物都变得焦躁不安,像是感到了地震即将发生。
6 eradicate Ui1zn     
v.根除,消灭,杜绝
参考例句:
  • These insects are very difficult to eradicate.这些昆虫很难根除。
  • They are already battling to eradicate illnesses such as malaria and tetanus.他们已经在努力消灭疟疾、破伤风等疾病。
7 detailed xuNzms     
adj.详细的,详尽的,极注意细节的,完全的
参考例句:
  • He had made a detailed study of the terrain.他对地形作了缜密的研究。
  • A detailed list of our publications is available on request.我们的出版物有一份详细的目录备索。
8 serendipitous cf73abfb75b644a95fbb19f85e4b95a9     
adj.偶然发现的
参考例句:
  • There was a serendipitous second advantage working with a library of equations. 利用方程库有个意外收获的附带好处。 来自互联网
  • Strategic networking prepares us for serendipitous moments. 战略性人际交往让我们为不时之需做好准备。 来自互联网
9 hind Cyoya     
adj.后面的,后部的
参考例句:
  • The animal is able to stand up on its hind limbs.这种动物能够用后肢站立。
  • Don't hind her in her studies.不要在学业上扯她后腿。
10 perch 5u1yp     
n.栖木,高位,杆;v.栖息,就位,位于
参考例句:
  • The bird took its perch.鸟停歇在栖木上。
  • Little birds perch themselves on the branches.小鸟儿栖歇在树枝上。
11 mimic PD2xc     
v.模仿,戏弄;n.模仿他人言行的人
参考例句:
  • A parrot can mimic a person's voice.鹦鹉能学人的声音。
  • He used to mimic speech peculiarities of another.他过去总是模仿别人讲话的特点。

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