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科学美国人60秒 SSS 古代岩石艺术受益于细菌

时间:2020-11-03 06:56:17

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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。

Modern painters usually get art supplies from a store—you want red paint, you buy red paint. But thousands of years ago, indigenous1 artists in what went on to become British Columbia actually cooked a slurry of aquatic2 bacteria to produce their distinctive3 red paints.

当代画家通常在商店就能买到美术用品,你想要红色颜料,那就买红色颜料。但数千年前,在现今不列填哥伦比亚的土著艺术家,实际上通过熬煮水生菌浆液来制作其独特的红色颜料。

"Well, yeah, it was a long time ago; there were no art stores. That's what got us interested in exploring it further, because it was just such a complex series of steps to produce this paint."

“没错,很久以前没有美术商店。不过,这令我们有兴趣进一步探寻,因为制作这种颜料需要一系列复杂步骤。”

Brandi MacDonald. She works in archaeological science at the University of Missouri Research Reactor4, that's a nuclear reactor used for studies in a wide va???riety of disciplines. The paint MacDonald examined was on a fragment of ancient rock art from central British Columbia. Indigenous artists there had used a distinctive ochre pigment5 to paint rocks with designs of otters6, fish, caribou7, beavers8 and canoes.

布兰迪·麦克唐纳说到。她在密苏里大学研究用反应堆的考古学部门工作,研究用反应堆是用于多种学科研究的核反应堆。麦克唐纳调查的颜料来自不列颠哥伦比亚省中部的古代岩画碎片。当地艺术家用一种独特的赭色颜料在岩石上画水獭、鱼、北美驯鹿、河狸和独木舟等图案。

Under an electron microscope, MacDonald saw tiny tubules in the paint—structures produced by a particular microbe—that tipped her off that the iron oxide9 pigment might be of biological origin. She later determined10 the pigment was produced by the aquatic bacterium11 Leptothrix ochracea.

在电子显微镜下,麦克唐纳看到颜料中有细管,这是一种特殊细菌产生的结构,这让她知道这种氧化铁颜料可能有生物来源。她后来确定,这种颜料由水生菌赭色纤毛菌制造。

"It kinda floats as this brownish auburn, orangish algal mat at the surfaces of little freshwater streams. And so it takes iron out of iron-enriched water and uses that as energy to grow these little colonies."

“它有点像褐色的赤褐色、橙色的海藻垫,漂浮在淡水小溪水面。因此,它从富含铁的水中提取铁,并将其用作能量来培育这些小菌落。”

But the substance wasn't just straight bacterial12 paint. The microscopic13 structure looked like it was cooked, too, to make the pigment more durable14 and colorfast. To test that idea, MacDonald and her team gathered mats of this bacterium from a stream in Maine. They heated it under the electron microscope. And they saw that the materials in the pigment crystallized—changes they'd also seen in the original sample—which would make the paint more resistant15 to breaking down.

但这种物质不仅仅是纯细菌涂料。它的显微结构看起来也像煮过,使色素更持久且不褪色。为了验证这个想法,麦克唐纳及其团队从缅因州的一条小溪中收集了这种细菌的菌垫。然后将其置于电子显微镜下加热。他们发现颜料中的物质结晶了,这是他们在原始样品中看到的变化,这将使颜料更不易分解。

The results—and links to incredible videos of that bubbling, cooking pigment—are in the journal Scientific Reports.

研究结果以及这种冒泡、熬煮颜料的令人难以置信的视频链接刊登在《科学报告》期刊上。

MacDonald's team is now working with indigenous communities in central British Columbia to learn more about the history of rock art there and how it was produced—and to share these new microscopic insights into this ancient art.

麦克唐纳的团队现在正与不列颠哥伦比亚省中部的土著社区合作,以更多地了解该地岩石艺术的历史及其产生方式,并分享有关这一古老艺术的新的微观见解。

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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1 indigenous YbBzt     
adj.土产的,土生土长的,本地的
参考例句:
  • Each country has its own indigenous cultural tradition.每个国家都有自己本土的文化传统。
  • Indians were the indigenous inhabitants of America.印第安人是美洲的土著居民。
2 aquatic mvXzk     
adj.水生的,水栖的
参考例句:
  • Aquatic sports include swimming and rowing.水上运动包括游泳和划船。
  • We visited an aquatic city in Italy.我们在意大利访问过一个水上城市。
3 distinctive Es5xr     
adj.特别的,有特色的,与众不同的
参考例句:
  • She has a very distinctive way of walking.她走路的样子与别人很不相同。
  • This bird has several distinctive features.这个鸟具有几种突出的特征。
4 reactor jTnxL     
n.反应器;反应堆
参考例句:
  • The atomic reactor generates enormous amounts of thermal energy.原子反应堆发出大量的热能。
  • Inside the reactor the large molecules are cracked into smaller molecules.在反应堆里,大分子裂变为小分子。
5 pigment gi0yg     
n.天然色素,干粉颜料
参考例句:
  • The Romans used natural pigments on their fabrics and walls.古罗马人在织物和墙壁上使用天然颜料。
  • Who thought he might know what the skin pigment phenomenon meant.他自认为可能知道皮肤色素出现这种现象到底是怎么回事。
6 otters c7b1b011f1aba54879393a220705a840     
n.(水)獭( otter的名词复数 );獭皮
参考例句:
  • An attempt is being made to entice otters back to the river. 人们正试图把水獭引诱回河里去。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • Otters are believed to have been on Earth for 90 million years. 水獭被认为存活在地球上已经9千多万年。 来自互联网
7 caribou 8cpyD     
n.北美驯鹿
参考例句:
  • Afar off he heard the squawking of caribou calves.他听到远处有一群小驯鹿尖叫的声音。
  • The Eskimos played soccer on ice and used balls filled with caribou hair and grass.爱斯基摩人在冰上踢球,他们用的是驯鹿的毛发和草填充成的球。
8 beavers 87070e8082105b943967bbe495b7d9f7     
海狸( beaver的名词复数 ); 海狸皮毛; 棕灰色; 拼命工作的人
参考例句:
  • In 1928 some porpoises were photographed working like beavers to push ashore a waterlogged mattress. 1928年有人把这些海豚象海狸那样把一床浸泡了水的褥垫推上岸时的情景拍摄了下来。
  • Thus do the beavers, thus do the bees, thus do men. 海狸是这样做的,蜜蜂是这样做的,人也是这样做的。
9 oxide K4dz8     
n.氧化物
参考例句:
  • Oxide is usually seen in our daily life.在我们的日常生活中氧化物很常见。
  • How can you get rid of this oxide coating?你们该怎样除去这些氧化皮?
10 determined duszmP     
adj.坚定的;有决心的
参考例句:
  • I have determined on going to Tibet after graduation.我已决定毕业后去西藏。
  • He determined to view the rooms behind the office.他决定查看一下办公室后面的房间。
11 bacterium BN7zE     
n.(pl.)bacteria 细菌
参考例句:
  • The bacterium possibly goes in the human body by the mouth.细菌可能通过口进入人体。
  • A bacterium is identified as the cause for his duodenal ulcer.一种细菌被断定为造成他十二指肠溃疡的根源。
12 bacterial dy5z8q     
a.细菌的
参考例句:
  • Bacterial reproduction is accelerated in weightless space. 在失重的空间,细菌繁殖加快了。
  • Brain lesions can be caused by bacterial infections. 大脑损伤可能由细菌感染引起。
13 microscopic nDrxq     
adj.微小的,细微的,极小的,显微的
参考例句:
  • It's impossible to read his microscopic handwriting.不可能看清他那极小的书写字迹。
  • A plant's lungs are the microscopic pores in its leaves.植物的肺就是其叶片上微细的气孔。
14 durable frox4     
adj.持久的,耐久的
参考例句:
  • This raincoat is made of very durable material.这件雨衣是用非常耐用的料子做的。
  • They frequently require more major durable purchases.他们经常需要购买耐用消费品。
15 resistant 7Wvxh     
adj.(to)抵抗的,有抵抗力的
参考例句:
  • Many pests are resistant to the insecticide.许多害虫对这种杀虫剂有抵抗力。
  • They imposed their government by force on the resistant population.他们以武力把自己的统治强加在持反抗态度的人民头上。

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