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Hey there! Welcome to Life Noggin.
大家好！欢迎来到脑洞大开的生命奇想。
I was talking with my animator yesterday, and I was surprised to find out how many creepy-crawly little insects are roaming around your human world.
昨天我和动画师聊着天，突然惊奇地发现，有多少可怕的小虫子在你们人类世界里游荡。
Being so tiny, they can't have much of an impact on Earth, right? Well, the answer might surprise you.
它们太小了，不会对地球产生太大的影响，是吗？答案可能会让你大吃一惊。
So, just how important are insects and what would happen if they all died? At first glance, it might sound like a pretty good thing.
那么，昆虫到底有多重要，如果它们都死了会发生什么？乍一看，那可能是件好事。
No wasps to sting you when you go outside, no fleas to annoy our furry friends, and no cockroaches to scare the daylight out of you… man, those things look like little aliens!
你出去的时候没有黄蜂叮你，没有跳蚤骚扰我们这些毛孩子，也没有蟑螂来把你吓得魂飞魄散…兄弟，这些东西长得真像小型外星人！
And there's even some larger-scale benefits too. We could say goodbye to insects that are invasive species, like gypsy moths and the asian longhorned beetle.
甚至还有一些更大的好处。我们可以告别那些属于入侵物种的昆虫，比如舞毒蛾和亚洲长角甲虫。
No more insects should also lessen the spread of insect-spread diseases, like malaria.
昆虫全部消失，那些通过昆虫传播的疾病，就不能再肆虐，比如疟疾。
According to the CDC, malaria is a mosquito-borne disease that gives a flu-like illness that, if left untreated, can lead to death.
根据疾病控制和预防中心的说法，疟疾是一种由蚊子传播的疾病，它会导致一种类似流感的疾病，如果不加以治疗，可能会导致死亡。
They estimated that around 429,000 people died from malaria in 2015, so stopping the spread of diseases like this could go a long way for our global health!
他们估计，2015年大约有42.9万人死于疟疾，因此，阻止这种疾病的传播对我们的全球健康大有裨益！
The benefits could also spread to our agriculture, as it would make it so that farmers would no longer need to use insecticides to protect their crops.
这些好处也可以扩展到我们的农业，农民将不再需要使用杀虫剂来保护庄稼。
Different pesticides would most likely still be used though, as there could still be other threats to the crops, like weeds or rodents.
尽管如此，农民可能会用别的杀虫剂，因为杂草或啮齿动物等仍可能威胁农作物。
But without insects, there would probably be far less plants and food to protect in the first place.
但是，如果没有昆虫，首先，要保护的植物和粮食可能会少得多。
This is because around 80 percent of the plants in the world are angiosperms, which are flowering plants.
这是因为世界上大约80%的植物是被子植物，也就是开花植物。
They directly provide us nutrition in the form of foods like potatoes, beans, wheat, and many different fruits, vegetables, and nuts.
它们长成土豆、豆类、小麦以及许多不同的水果、蔬菜和坚果直接为我们提供营养。
They are also indirectly part of our plates by being commonly used to feed the animals we farm.
它们也间接地成为我们饮食的一部分，因为它们通常被用来喂养我们饲养的动物。
While these plants can be pollinated by things like wind and other animals like birds, insects are often vital for their pollination.
虽然这些植物可以由风和鸟类等其他动物授粉，昆虫通常是主要的授粉者。
Without another way to pollinate these flowering plants, we could lose out on a pretty big supply of food!
如果没有其他方法来给这些开花植物授粉，我们就会失去大量的食物。
Losing out on insects would also likely have a widespread domino effect, making it harder for other animals to survive, which would then make it harder for us to survive.
失去昆虫也可能产生广泛的多米诺骨牌效应，使得其他动物更难生存，因此我们也更难生存。
Not just from their pollination contributions, but insects themselves are also widely a part of the diet of animals like frogs, birds, lizards, and many more!
不仅是因为它们的传粉作用，昆虫本身也是青蛙、鸟类、蜥蜴等动物的食物。
Adding up all the little things that insects do for the planet both directly and indirectly could really lead us down a rabbit hole of awfulness if, you know, they all went splat.
考虑到昆虫直接或间接地为地球做的所有小事情，如果它们全都灰飞烟灭，我们就会掉进可怕的无底洞里。
That, and according to the UK's Living With Environmental Change Partnership, the global crop production attributable to insect pollination was estimated to be worth about $215 billion dollars.
另外，根据英国与环境变化共存计划的数据，全球因昆虫授粉而产生的农作物价值估计约为2,150亿美元。
And that was in 2005.
那还是在2005年。
Losing insects might also make it a little harder for all my aspiring Sherlock Holmes out there.
失去昆虫也可能会让我那有前途的夏洛克·福尔摩斯遇到更多困难。
That's because insects are drawn to a decomposing body and may lay eggs in it. I know, this all sounds really gross.
这是因为昆虫会被吸引到腐烂的身体上并在里面产卵。我知道，这些听起来很恶心。
But through the study of insects and developing larval stages, forensic scientists can estimate how long since a person died, changes in corpse positions, and further insight into the cause of death.
但通过对昆虫和幼虫阶段的研究，法医科学家可以估计出一个人死亡的时间，尸体位置的变化，并进一步了解死亡原因。
It's super creepy to think about, but also kind of cool. So did any of this surprise you? Are you still afraid of bugs or do you think they are a little cool now?
这太恐怖了，但也很酷。有没有觉得吃惊呢？你还害怕虫子吗？还是你现在觉得虫子有点酷？
Let me know in the comments section below!
请在下面的评论区告诉我!
And if you are craving even more information on tiny little creatures, then you should definitely check out the video we did on when multicellular life began.
如果你想了解更多关于微小生物的信息，那么你一定要看看我们做的，关于多细胞生命起源的视频。
Buried 2,600 feet under South Africa, they found a possible fossilized fungus that is 2.4 billion years old. And complex life might have existed even before that.
在南非2600英尺的地下，他们发现了一种可能已经有24亿年历史的真菌化石。复杂的生命甚至在此之前就已经存在了。
As always, my name is Blocko. This has been Life Noggin. Don't forget to keep on thinking!
我是宝高。这里是脑洞大开的生命奇想。思考不要停！
