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The highest permanent human settlement is a tiny mining village called La Rinconada, in Peru, which is about 5,100 meters above sea level.
海拔最高的人类永久栖息地是一个位于秘鲁的小型采矿型乡村拉林科纳达,其位于海拔约5100米以上。
Considering that some people start to get altitude sickness at around 2500 meters, that's pretty intense.
鉴于一些人在约2500米左右的高度就会出现高原病,这个位子是相当高的了。
Not everything on Earth is as restricted as we are, though.
虽然不是地球上的每种事物都像人类一样限制重重。
You might have heard of the hardcore microbes that can live at super high elevations or the deepest parts of the ocean.
你或许听说过有一些硬核微生物可以在超高海拔地区或是海洋最深处生活。
But there are surprisingly complex forms of life that can survive in those places, too.
但是相当复杂的生命形式也可以在那些地方生存。
They just need some extreme adaptations to do it.
它们只不过需要一些极端适应就能做到。
The most immediate thing you'll notice at higher elevations is that it's way harder to breathe.
在一个更高海拔上,你会立即发现呼吸变得更加困难。
The higher you go, the less air pressure there is.
高度越高,气压越低。
Your lungs struggle to take in oxygen, and you can develop altitude sickness,
你的肺部难以吸入氧气,你可能会得高原病,
where the lack of oxygen causes symptoms like nausea, a rapid heart rate, and in severe cases, swelling in the brain.
因为缺少氧气而导致的各种症状,如恶心、心率加快,严重情况下,还会出现脑肿胀。
Spend enough time up there, though, and your body will start to adapt by producing more oxygen-carrying red blood cells.
在那里呆的时间越长,你的身体将会开始产生更多携带氧气的红细胞以适应这种情况。
Other complex animals, like mammals and birds, can have pretty similar problems.
其他复杂的动物,比如哺乳动物和鸟类都会出现类似的问题。
And yet, yaks regularly hang out at elevations of 6,100 meters.
但牦牛经常在海拔6100日的地方瞎晃。
To cope with that, they've evolved larger chests, lungs, and hearts, as well as thick, shaggy coats to help deal with the bitter cold.
为了应对这种情况,它们进化出了更大的胸腔、肺部以及更浓密嘈杂的皮毛以帮助它们对抗严寒。
Researchers have also discovered a bunch of changes to their genetic code that help them survive up there,
研究人员也发现它们遗传密码中出现了大量的变化以帮助它们在那里生存,
like by controlling their body's stress response when they're low on oxygen. Birds can go even higher.
比如在体内氧气含量低时可以控制它们身体的压力反应。鸟类甚至可以飞得更高。
The bar-headed goose, for example, regularly migrates over the Himalayas at altitudes up to 7,000 meters.
例如斑头雁通常要在海拔高达七千米的地方飞跃喜马拉雅山。
And the highest known vertebrate ever recorded is Ruppell's griffon vulture.
已知飞跃海拔最高的脊椎动物是西域兀鹫。
In 1973, two pilots flying at 11,000 meters, that's 2,500 meters higher than the top of Mount Everest,
1973年,两名飞行在11000米(比珠穆朗玛峰峰顶还高2500米)的飞行员
made a sudden and terrifying discovery when a bird got sucked into the plane's engine, forcing an emergency landing.
突然惊恐地发现一只鸟卡在了飞机引擎里,迫使他们紧急降落。
Not a good day for anybody involved. We don't fully understand how these birds do it,
这一天对他们任何人来说都并不美妙。我们还没弄明白这些鸟是怎么做到的,
but both the bar-headed goose and Ruppell's griffon vulture have genetic mutations
但斑头雁和西域兀鹫体内的基因突变
that allow the hemoglobin proteins in their blood to hold onto more oxygen.
让它们血液中的血红蛋白拥有更多氧气。
Researchers have also found that when they're low on oxygen,
研究人员也发现当它们体内氧气含量低时,
bar-headed geese can move more air in and out of their lungs than any other species we've ever studied.
相比我们研究过的任何其他物种,斑头雁可以将更多空气吸入和排出肺部。
Any higher than that and you start to get into the realm of microbes.
在任何以上的高度,人类就要步入微生物领域了。
Bacteria, for example, have been found at the tops of storm clouds and up to 15 kilometers above the surface of the Earth.
例如,人类在暴风云的顶部以及地球15千米以上的地方发现了细菌。
We don't yet totally understand how they survive, either,
我们也不太清楚它们在那里是如何生存的,
but it's not too uncommon to find microbes in some of the most extreme environments on Earth.
但是在地球上的一些最极端环境中发现细菌并不稀奇。
It doesn't take quite as many genetic changes to adapt when you're a super tiny simple organism.
当你是一个超小的简单生物体时,你需要的适应改变并不多。
Funnily enough, the biggest problem for survival at extreme depths is the same as it is for extreme heights, at least for mammals.
有趣的是,在极端深度下生存的最大问题和极端高度中的问题一样,至少对哺乳动物而言是如此。
You start running low on oxygen.
你开始缺氧了。
The deepest a human has ever dived without taking oxygen with them is about 250 meters,
在没有氧气的情况下,人类潜入的最大深度为250米左右,
but that's nothing compared to some other mammals.
但和一些其他哺乳动物相比,根本不算什么。
Southern elephant seals can dive more than 2400 meters, and in 2014,
南部的海象可以潜入2400米以下,并且2014年,
scientists watched as a Cuvier's beaked whale dove 3000 meters below the surface.
科学家们观察到了一只柯氏喙鲸潜入表面三千米以下。
Since mammals have to breath air, they need special adaptations to dive that far.
因为哺乳动物需要呼吸空气,它们需要特殊适应才能潜到那么深的地方。
For example, some species have more red blood cells, can slow down their heart rate,
例如,一些拥有更多红细胞的物种可以减慢它们的心率,
or can temporarily shut down non-vital organs like their kidneys.
或者可以暂时关闭失活器官,如肾脏。
Some also have extra myoglobin, a protein that stores oxygen in muscle cells. But these divers are just visitors.
一些动物也有额外的肌红蛋白,一种可以在肌肉细胞中储存氧气的蛋白。但是这些不过是过客。
There are species of animals that spend their entire lives in the deep ocean.
有一些种类的动物一生都在深海中度过。
In 2017, scientists found the deepest known vertebrate:
2017年,科学家们发现了已知海洋最深处的脊椎动物:
a pink, wiggly snailfish at over 8,000 meters down in the Mariana Trench, the deepest part of the ocean.
一种粉红色的蠕动的狮子鱼,它们生活在海洋最深处马里亚纳海沟八千米以下的地方。
The fish doesn't have that oxygen problem that whales and seals do, since it gets its oxygen directly from the water.
这种鱼没有鲸鱼和海豹那样的氧气问题,因为它们从水中直接获取氧气。
But there is another problem: pressure.
但是它们有另一个问题:压力。
Water is heavy, and the deeper you go in the ocean, the stronger the water pressure becomes.
水很沉,潜入海洋越深,水压就越大。
At 8,000 meters, the pressure is like having a cow sitting on every square centimeter of your body.
在八千米处,水压就像是在你身体的每一立方米处都坐着一只奶牛。
And not a small cow either. At that point, the pressure is so great it might actually destabilize the proteins the fish's body is made of.
还不是一只小奶牛。在那时,巨大的压力可能真的会让这种鱼体内的蛋白构成不稳定。
To compensate, biologists think the fish's tissues are full of a compound called trimethylamine N-oxide,
为了弥补这一点,生物学家认为这种鱼的组织中充满了一种化合物—二水氧化三甲胺
or TMAO for short, which can help stabilize proteins.
简称TMAO,可以帮助稳定蛋白。
TMAO is common in fish, and the deeper you go, the more of it they tend to have.
TMAO在鱼类中很普遍,越深处的鱼,就越可能有这种物质。
But even with this adaptation, this may be the deepest fish we're ever going to see.
但即便有了这种适应,这也可能是我们见过的最深处的鱼类了。
Researchers have calculated that beyond 8200 meters,
研究人员估算在8200米以外,
fish would need so much TMAO to withstand the pressure that their cells would be saltier than the seawater around them.
鱼类将需要很多TMAO才能抵抗压力,因此它们的细胞比它们周围的海水更咸。
Except then more water would rush into the cells through osmosis,
除了更多海水会通过渗透作用冲进细胞中,
and then they would explode, and you can see why that would be a problem. And yet, we can go even deeper.
然后它们会爆炸,你就明白为啥这也是个问题了。然而我们可以更加深入。
In 2012, James Cameron, yeah, the guy who made Avatar and Titanic, visited the deepest part of the Mariana Trench in a submersible.
2012年,《阿凡达》和《泰坦尼克号》的导演詹姆斯·卡梅隆,乘坐潜水艇来到了马里亚纳海沟的最深处。
And even there, over 10,000 meters below the surface, he was greeted by relatively complex life:
即使在那里,距离表面一万米以下的地方,他也受到了相对复杂生命的欢迎:
giant, foot-long crustaceans known as amphipods, sea cucumbers, and weird, gooey, shelled things called foraminifera.
巨大的英尺长甲壳端足类、海参以及怪异黏黏的有孔虫。
There's a lot we still don't know about the organisms that live in the deepest parts of the ocean.
海洋最深处还有很多生物体是我们未知的。
It's one of the biggest habitats on Earth, and yet it's also the hardest to explore.
海洋是地球上最大的栖息地之一,也是最难探索的地方。
But we do know that life is super adaptable.
但是我们知道生命的适应力超棒。
And with a collection of those amazing adaptations, complex life can exist at some incredible highs and some very low lows.
有了这些超棒的适应,复杂生命可以在非常高以及非常深的地方存在。
If you want to learn more about science, and of course you do, because you're watching SciShow,
如果你想了解更多关于科学的知识,你当然可以,因为你正在收看《科学秀》,
as well as other topics like history and technology, we think you might enjoy the videos on offer over at CuriosityStream.
以及其他话题,如历史和科技。我们认为大家可能会喜欢CuriosityStream的视频。
Today's episode is brought to you by CuriosityStream, which is a subscription streaming service
本期节目由CuriosityStream为大家呈现,这是一个订阅流媒体服务
that offers over 2000 documentaries and nonfiction titles from some of the world's best filmmakers, including exclusive originals.
为大家提供两千多个纪录片和来自世界顶级制片人的非虚构节目,包括独家原创。
They have videos on nature, history, technology, even society and lifestyles, which is one of the reasons why we like them so much.
它们的视频涉及自然、历史、科技甚至是社会和生活方式等主题。所以我们非常喜欢。
Like, if you liked the extreme environments in this episode,
如果你喜欢本期节目中讲到的极端环境,
there's a whole show called Underwater Wonders of the National Parks.
那么它们有一个节目是《国家公园的水下奇迹》。
As if national parks don't have enough to offer above ground, there's even more to discover beneath the surface.
就好像国家公园地表已经没啥可讲的,但地表之下还有很多去发现的事物。
Even in Death Valley. They'll take you diving in the underwater cave of Devil's Hole.
还有死谷。他们会带你潜入魔鬼洞的水下洞穴。
You can get unlimited access to content like this starting at $2.99 a month.
每月2.99美元即可观看。
And as a special thanks to our SciShow audience, you can get the first 30 days for free!
为了特别感谢《科学秀》的观众,大家可以免费试用30天!
You just have to sign up at curiositystream.com/scishow and then use the promo code "scishow" during the sign-up process.
注册curiositystream.com/scishow,输入优惠码‘scishow’。