评论
打印
So how did you first get interested in insects?
那你是怎么开始对昆虫感兴趣的呢？
Well, I grew up in a family of artists, so always was keen on aesthetics, and I grew up on the edge of Detroit, Michigan, and since it’s such an urban environment, the organisms that were so diverse, abundant and accessible were the insects.
我成长在一个满是艺术家的家庭，所以我一直对美学很感兴趣，我在密歇根州底特律的边缘长大，那里是城市环境，所以最多样化、最丰富和最常见的生物就是昆虫。
And the shapes, colors, sizes and ranges of behaviors really struck me, really inspired me.
它们的形状、颜色、大小和动作姿势让我大为震撼，给了我很多启发。
So at the age of five I had this nebulous epiphany, and I knew I wanted insects to be at the core of my existence; I just didn’t know how.
所以在五岁的时候，我就有了个模糊的顿悟，我知道我的人生想以昆虫为核心；但我那时候还不知道该怎么做。
And tell me about the work you do today.
跟我说说你现在在做的工作。
I do a mix of things: So I am an entomologist who studies social insect behavior, and I’m especially interested in sleep biology—so the mysteries of sleep and dreaming I combine with my interest in what it means to be a social organism.
我是一名研究群居昆虫行为的昆虫学家，我对睡眠生物学特别感兴趣，所以我把睡眠和做梦的奥秘与我对这种社会生物的兴趣结合了起来。
But I also do cultural entomology, so I look at how insects affect human culture in different ways, and I look at the intersection of science and art.
但我也研究文化昆虫学，我研究的是昆虫如何以不同的方式影响人类文化，我还研究科学与艺术的交集。
Yeah, that’s a great segue into talking about your book because it talks a lot about how insects shaped humanity. What inspired you to write about that?
嗯，这是个谈论你书籍的很好的开场白，里面写到了很多关于昆虫是如何塑造人类的内容。是什么启发了你写这篇文章？
Well, I’d long thought about that intersection of human culture and insects.
我一直在思考人类文化和昆虫有什么交集。
I think the reason why Timber Press folks reached out to me to potentially write a book on the topic is because there are open nooks and niches and whole arenas to explore.
我想，Timber Press的人之所以联系我，让我写一本关于这个主题的书，是因为有很多开放的角落、小生境和整个领域值得探索。
And so that invitation about five, six years ago really got me thinking, “How would I want to tell tales?”
五六年前的那次邀请让我开始思考，“我要怎么讲述这个故事？”
Eventually I decided I was going to take the most intriguing stories to me and use this as a vehicle to further explore, jumping down rabbit holes, and make new discoveries of not only the explicit or overt connections we have, but the clandestine ones.
最终，我决定把最吸引我的故事作为进一步探索的工具，跳进“兔子洞”，不仅发现双方之间明确或公开的联系，还发现了秘密的联系。
Ooh, I definitely wanna hear about some of those clandestine connections. Could you give me an example?
我真想听听那些秘密联系。你能给我举个例子吗？
Sure, so what would you say are the most famous documents, historical documents, in the world? Let’s start with the United States.
当然，你认为世界上最著名的历史文献是什么呢？我们先从美国开始说。
Hmm, I mean, I would probably say the Declaration of Independence, if I had to pick one.
嗯，我是说，如果让我选的话，我可能会说是《独立宣言》。
There you go. Yeah, and we could add Constitution of the U.S. If we go out of the U.S., we could add the Magna Carta.
是的。没错，我们还可以加上美国宪法。如果是看美国之外的地方，那还可以加上大宪章。
We could look at Leonardo da Vinci notes or van Gogh sketches, Beethoven’s compositions.
可以看看列奥纳多·达·芬奇的笔记或梵高的素描，贝多芬的作品。
All those are inked with oak gall ink, which is induced chemically by different species of gall wasps.
所有这些都是用橡树墨水记录的，这是由不同种类的瘿蜂化学诱导的。
So if we take the Magna Carta, there are at least three insect species involved in the production, including that ink.
所以如果我们拿《大宪章》来说，至少有三种昆虫参与了制作，包括它所用的墨水。
So imagine these gall wasps: they’re laying their eggs, and the developing larva causes this chemical cascade where the plants build this defensive structure, a gall, but the insect lives a great life within, developing with food and shelter and producing this mix of tannins used as inks.
想象一下这些瘿蜂：它们在产卵，发育中的幼虫引起了化学级联反应，导致植物建立了防御结构，产生了一个瘿，但是昆虫在里面生活得很好，它们有食物，有住所，还产生了可以用作墨水的单宁混合物。
But Bombyx mori, silkworm moths, were used in terms of the silk cords that bind one of the Magna Carta, and beeswax, Apis mellifera honeybee beeswax, was used for the seal of one of the Magna Carta.
还有家蚕，蚕蛾，它们的丝线做成了大宪章的绳结，蜜蜂的蜂蜡做成了大宪章的印章。
Wow.
哇。
