It's almost Halloween, which means it's time for the traditional binging on candy and horror movies.
万圣节就要到啦,也就是说是时候开始传统的糖果和恐怖片大狂欢了。
And while you're watching Night of the Living Dead for the bazillionth time,
当你无数次欣赏《活死人之夜》的时候,
you might start to ponder what you'd do to survive a zombie apocalypse.
你或许会开始思考怎样才能从僵尸末日中生存下来。
Your survival hinges upon picking the right place to hunker down and to figure that out, it's essential to know whether zombies float or sink.
能不能活下来取决于选择一个正确的躲藏点并弄清楚,僵尸是会漂浮水面还是沉入水中。
After all, if they sink, then your best bet for shelter may be a large, well-stocked yacht just out of their reach.
毕竟,如果他们沉下去了,那么最好的避难所就是一艘备货充足的大游艇,僵尸们够不着就行。
Unfortunately, scientists haven't found any zombies to experiment on… yet.
不幸的是,科学家们并没有发现任何可供试验的僵尸....暂时没有。
But they do know a lot about the properties of bodies after death,
但他们知道很多关于尸体的特质,
thanks to forensic studies and work conducted on our animal body doubles, pigs. And the short answer is: it depends.
多亏了法医研究和对身体替身—猪猪进行的研究。总之,答案就是:不一定。
Zombies can probably sink or float, depending on factors like age and water temperature.
僵尸可能会沉下去,也可能浮上来,这取决于年龄和水温等因素。
If you've ever been swimming, you know that humans are pretty close to the same density as water.
如果你游泳,那么你应该知道人体密度和水的密度一样。
So, generally, if you take a deep breath, you become slightly less dense than water, so you can float.
所以如果你深呼吸,那么你的密度就比水的密度低,所以你可以浮起来。
If you empty your lungs, you become slightly denser than the water, so you sink.
如果你排空你的肺部,你的密度就稍微比水重,所以你沉了下去。
Most zombie movies seem to agree that zombies don't breathe.
大部分僵尸电影似乎都认为僵尸是不会呼吸的。
So unless air is trapped in their lungs, which can happen, a new zombie would sink to the bottom of a body of water.
所以除非空气被困在他们的肺部,这是有可能发生的,否则一只新僵尸会因为一肚子的水而沉到水底。
But it won't stay on the bottom for very long.
但是僵尸不会沉下去很长时间。
That's because the human gut is full of microbes, and when a person dies, not all of these microbes die with them.
这是因为人体内脏中满是微生物,当人去世的时候,并不是所有这些微生物都会陪葬。
Some begin to digest the body from the inside out instead.
一些微生物开始由内到外消化身体。
And as they break down and consume tissues, they produce gases like hydrogen sulfide, methane, cadaverine, and putrescine.
当它们分解并吸收组织时会产生气体,比如硫化氢、甲烷、尸胺和腐胺。
These gases usually become trapped in the gut, eventually causing the body to float.
这些气体通常会被困在内脏中,最后导致身体漂浮。
How long that takes can vary, but in a 2004 experiment, scientists put dead pigs in the ocean for observation, hopefully in a secluded area,
漂浮时间长短不一定,但在2004年的一项研究中,科学家们将死猪放入海洋中进行观察,希望是在一片隐蔽的地区,
and found that the bodies started to float again after about 3 days and remained floating for several weeks.
他们发现尸体约在3天后开始漂浮,并持续了几个星期。
Since zombies rot on the outside, we're assuming that they aren't somehow immune to this type of internal rotting either.
由于僵尸腐烂的是外表,我们假设他们对这种内脏腐烂也没有免疫。
So right when the zombie turns, they'd probably sink, but within a week, they'd float,
所以僵尸转身时,他们可能会沉下去,但是一个星期内,他们会漂浮上来。
and then they'd continue floating until the gases are somehow released.
然后他们继续漂浮,直到这些气体全部释放。
It's possible that their body movements like frantically trying to dog-paddle after you to get at your brains would help the trapped gases work their way out,
可能他们的肢体运动,比如疯狂地用狗刨式追着你,想吃的脑袋,将会帮助他们体内的气体排出去,
resulting in presumably horrific zombie flatulence and also the zombie sinking again.
结果可能导致僵尸肠胃气胀,僵尸也会再次沉入水中。
Temperature can also affect how quickly these bacteria work and how quickly gases build up.
温度也可以影响这些细菌的工作速率以及气体形成的速度。
Just like a refrigerator, a cold ocean or lake could slow down bacterial growth, so it'd take longer before the zombie starts to float.
就像是冰箱一样,冰冷的海洋或湖泊会减慢细菌的生长,因此,僵尸要花更长的时间才能漂浮起来。
There are just a lot of variables to consider, so you can't count on zombies sinking or floating when building your apocalypse safehouse.
还有很多考虑的变量,所以搭建天启安全屋的时候,你不能依靠僵尸的沉浮。
But… they might be less coordinated in the water, and draw unwelcome attention from hungry fish…
但是...在水中,他们或许没那么协调,还会吸引来饥饿的鱼群...
So maybe a yacht isn't such a bad an idea after all. Perhaps a more important question is: can fish become zombies?
所以或许游艇也不是个坏主意。大概一个更重要的问题是:鱼类会变成僵尸么?
Thanks to Chantelle for asking, and as always, thanks to all of you who support SciShow on Patreon.
感谢Chantelle的提问,感谢所有在Patreon上支持我们的观众。
If you want to pose questions like this or just get some really neat stuff you can't get anywhere else,
如果你想提问或是想获得我们的独家礼物,
you can learn more about becoming a patron at Patreon.com/Scishow.
登录Patreon.com/Scishow了解更多。
And if you're a big fan of zombie thrillers, you might like the episode on why some people like horror movies over on our sister channel SciShow Psych.
如果你超喜欢僵尸恐怖片,那么你或许会喜欢我们姊妹频道SciShow Psych的视频《为什么一些人喜欢看恐怖电影》。