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科学美国人60秒 SSS 螃蟹会走迷宫

时间:2020-09-08 02:55:54

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(单词翻译)

This is Scientific American's 60-second Science, I'm Christopher Intagliata.

这里是科学美国人——60秒科学系列,我是克里斯托弗·因塔格里塔。

Rats can do it. Mice can do it; honeybees; some people, too. And now add green crabs1 to the list of creatures that can navigate3 a maze4.

大老鼠能做到。小老鼠能做到。蜜蜂以及有些人也能做到。现在,能走出迷宫的生物名单中又加上了青蟹。

"They're far more sophisticated animals than we give them credit for." Ed Pope, a marine5 biologist at Swansea University in the U.K.

“它们远比我们想象的要复杂。”英国斯旺西大学的海洋生物学家艾德·波普说到。

Apart from a couple preliminary papers from the early 1900s, he says—including one by the influential6 psychologist and primatologist Robert Yerkes—there wasn't a lot of evidence whether crabs possessed7 this ability.

他表示,除了20世纪初的几篇早期论文外,包括有影响力的心理学家和灵长类动物学家罗伯特·亚尔克斯的一篇论文在内,没有太多证据表明螃蟹是否具有这种能力。

So Pope and his colleagues went to the shore and brought back a dozen green crabs. They built mazes8 in the lab and put a crushed mussel at the end as enticement9. Then they set the crabs loose and captured video of their movements. Over the next month, the crabs ran—or maybe skittered—through the maze faster and faster to get to the food.

因此,波普及其同事去海边带回了12只青蟹。他们在实验室里建了迷宫,并在迷宫出口放了贻贝碎肉作为诱饵。之后,他们将螃蟹放入迷宫,并拍下它们移动的视频。在之后的一个月,这些螃蟹为了找到食物而跑过或蹿过迷宫的速度越来越快。

"But they also started taking fewer and fewer wrong turns. In fact, by week three, we had animals that were taking no wrong turns at all. And that, I think, gave us quite good evidence they were learning the maze."

“但它们转错弯的次数也开始越来越少。到第三周时,它们已经完全不会再转错弯。这很好地证明了螃蟹正在研究迷宫。”

Then the researchers thoroughly10 scrubbed the tank to get rid of any telltale mussel aromas11. After a few weeks, they put the crabs back into the maze. And even with no mussel waiting at the end of the course, experienced crabs still made it to the end more quickly than crabs who'd never walked the maze. That ability suggests that the veterans had indeed remembered the route. The details are in the journal Biology Letters.

之后,研究人员彻底清洗了容器,以去除任何能引导方向的贻贝气味。几周之后,他们将螃蟹放回迷宫。即使迷宫出口处没有贻贝,有经验的螃蟹仍比从未走过迷宫的螃蟹更快到达终点。这种能力表明经验丰富的螃蟹确实记得路线。研究详情发表在《生物学通讯》期刊上。

Maze-running crabs are not just a novelty act. The trials demonstrate that wild crabs might be highly competent at returning to a favorite feeding spot or hiding place. And as the world's oceans become more polluted and acidic, the crab2 finding gives Pope and other scientists a cognitive12 skill to test—to see how crabs and other undersea invertebrates13 might weather a changing tide.

跑迷宫的螃蟹并不仅仅是新奇的个例。这些实验表明,野生螃蟹可能非常善于回到最爱的进食地点或藏身之处。随着全球海洋污染越来越严重,酸性越来越强,这项有关螃蟹的发现使波普和其他科学家获得了可进行测试的认知能力,以观察螃蟹和其它海底无脊椎动物如何应对变化的潮汐。

Thanks for listening for Scientific American's 60-second Science. I'm Christopher Intagliata.

谢谢大家收听科学美国人——60秒科学。我是克里斯托弗·因塔利亚塔。


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点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 crabs a26cc3db05581d7cfc36d59943c77523     
n.蟹( crab的名词复数 );阴虱寄生病;蟹肉v.捕蟹( crab的第三人称单数 )
参考例句:
  • As we walked along the seashore we saw lots of tiny crabs. 我们在海岸上散步时看到很多小蟹。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • The fish and crabs scavenge for decaying tissue. 鱼和蟹搜寻腐烂的组织为食。 来自《简明英汉词典》
2 crab xoozE     
n.螃蟹,偏航,脾气乖戾的人,酸苹果;vi.捕蟹,偏航,发牢骚;vt.使偏航,发脾气
参考例句:
  • I can't remember when I last had crab.我不记得上次吃蟹是什么时候了。
  • The skin on my face felt as hard as a crab's back.我脸上的皮仿佛僵硬了,就象螃蟹的壳似的。
3 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。
4 maze F76ze     
n.迷宫,八阵图,混乱,迷惑
参考例句:
  • He found his way through the complex maze of corridors.他穿过了迷宮一样的走廊。
  • She was lost in the maze for several hours.一连几小时,她的头脑处于一片糊涂状态。
5 marine 77Izo     
adj.海的;海生的;航海的;海事的;n.水兵
参考例句:
  • Marine creatures are those which live in the sea. 海洋生物是生存在海里的生物。
  • When the war broke out,he volunteered for the Marine Corps.战争爆发时,他自愿参加了海军陆战队。
6 influential l7oxK     
adj.有影响的,有权势的
参考例句:
  • He always tries to get in with the most influential people.他总是试图巴结最有影响的人物。
  • He is a very influential man in the government.他在政府中是个很有影响的人物。
7 possessed xuyyQ     
adj.疯狂的;拥有的,占有的
参考例句:
  • He flew out of the room like a man possessed.他像着了魔似地猛然冲出房门。
  • He behaved like someone possessed.他行为举止像是魔怔了。
8 mazes 01f00574323c5f5c055dbab44afc33b9     
迷宫( maze的名词复数 ); 纷繁复杂的规则; 复杂难懂的细节; 迷宫图
参考例句:
  • The mazes of the dance were ecstatic. 跳舞那种错综曲折,叫人快乐得如登九天。
  • For two hours did this singlehearted and simpleminded girl toil through the mazes of the forest. 这位心地单纯的傻姑娘在林间曲径中艰难地走了两个来小时。
9 enticement qoYxn     
n.诱骗,诱人
参考例句:
  • He fell victim to her enticement. 他被她的魅力征服了。
  • He ought to curb his excessive internal desires and resist unreasonable enticement. 控制过度内欲、抵制不当外惑。
10 thoroughly sgmz0J     
adv.完全地,彻底地,十足地
参考例句:
  • The soil must be thoroughly turned over before planting.一定要先把土地深翻一遍再下种。
  • The soldiers have been thoroughly instructed in the care of their weapons.士兵们都系统地接受过保护武器的训练。
11 aromas 22108e13d76196351f5487c7c02f8109     
n.芳香( aroma的名词复数 );气味;风味;韵味
参考例句:
  • Intoxicating earth aromas induced lassitude and ethereal calm. 泥土的醉人的芳香叫人懒洋洋的,感到一种远离尘世的宁静。 来自辞典例句
  • Nose and elegant nose with attractive fruity, floral and citrus fruit aromas. 芳香:优雅、馥郁、迷人的柑橘属水果的果香及花的清香。 来自互联网
12 cognitive Uqwz0     
adj.认知的,认识的,有感知的
参考例句:
  • As children grow older,their cognitive processes become sharper.孩子们越长越大,他们的认知过程变得更为敏锐。
  • The cognitive psychologist is like the tinker who wants to know how a clock works.认知心理学者倒很像一个需要通晓钟表如何运转的钟表修理匠。
13 invertebrates 7e45dc289993d00de9b9f14a70e51319     
n.无脊椎动物( invertebrate的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • Insects and worms are all invertebrates. 昆虫和蠕虫都是无脊椎动物。 来自辞典例句
  • In the earthworm and many other invertebrates, these excretory structures are called nephridia. 在蚯蚓和许多其它无脊椎动物中,这些排泄结构称为肾管。 来自辞典例句

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