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昆虫带给人类的启示有哪些?(4)

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And we’re pretty ready to consider pain in a dog, in a cat—so these mammals, sure. Extend it to other vertebrates.

我们已经在替猫和狗感到疼——当然,这些哺乳动物是会疼的。把这一点扩展到其他脊椎动物身上。

Will you say that a bird feels pain and other reptiles feel pain? Can you extend that to amphibians: Will that frog feel pain? And then to fish.

你认为鸟类和其他爬行动物都能感觉到疼痛吗?你能把这个问题扩展到两栖动物身上吗:青蛙能感觉到疼痛吗?然后是鱼。

Now can we go to 540 million years ago, where we broke from our invertebrate ancestors, and go up that branch of the tree to look at insects?

现在我们能否回到5.4亿年前,那时我们从无脊椎动物的祖先中分离出来,爬到树枝上去看看昆虫?

And you’ll see that insects respond to adverse stimuli in ways that compellingly look like pain.

你会发现,昆虫对不利刺激的反应看起来很像疼痛。

We even look to insects like fruit flies as model organisms, with their nociceptors that teach us about pain reception, or the experience of the subjective phenomenon of pain.

我们甚至把像果蝇这样的昆虫当作模式生物,它们的伤害感受器告诉我们疼痛是如何接收的,或者如何体验疼痛的主观现象。

So if we better appreciate those little neighbors’ lives, I think we might better accommodate and maybe even celebrate those lives.

因此,如果我们更好地欣赏这些小邻居的生活,我们可能会更好地适应甚至庆祝它们的生活。

Yeah, absolutely. My last question, and I know this is probably a hard one: What is your favorite insect?

是的,当然。我的最后一个问题,这可能很难回答啊:你最喜欢的昆虫是什么?

Oh, that’s a terribly difficult one because if I were—if you were to pick an insect out of the blue, that insect will come, by definition, with its own unique features defining that species, which is ripe for not only scientific exploration, but artistic exploration and observance in terms of cultural exploration.

哦,这个问题太难了,因为如果你要凭空挑出一种昆虫,根据定义,这种昆虫会以其独特的特征来定义该物种,这不仅适合科学探索,而且适合艺术探索和文化探索。

So if I were to think about a praying mantis, I can look at not only the exquisite ability of those spined, tubercle-laden, raptorial forelegs and their powerful, speedy thrusts to grab and retain prey and their ability to move their head around their necks, but I can also look to the cultural connection of how a praying mantis capturing a cicada inspired a human to develop a martial art: mantis-style kung fu.

所以,如果我想到一只螳螂,我不仅可以看到它那有刺、长满结核、像猛禽一样的前腿的精湛能力,以及它们有力而迅速的抓住并留住猎物的能力,以及它们的头可以绕着脖子转的能力,我还能看到螳螂捕蝉是如何启发人类发展出一种武术的:螳螂式功夫。

If I were to choose a cicada, maybe a periodical cicada, how amazing is it to imagine that one set of stages of life, the nymphal stages, could last 17 years under the earth before they explosively emerge in song—some of the earliest music that has ever existed on planet Earth, which probably has inspired human music in subtle ways but also has definitely inspired music in explicit ways, where we not only incorporate insect sounds, but we mimic those insects. The list goes on.

如果我想到一只蝉,也许是只周期蝉,想到它们在爆发式鸣叫着出土前,蝉蛹竟然可以在地下埋藏17年,这太惊人了——它们的鸣叫声曾是地球上存在最早的音乐,它们或微妙或明显地启发人类去创作音乐,我们不仅把昆虫的声音融入音乐,还会模仿昆虫的叫声。这样的例子不胜枚举。

Yeah, I do get the sense that we could just keep doing this all day, but I think that is a great place to leave it on. Thank you so much for taking the time to chat today.

是的,我确实觉得我们可以这样谈上一整天,不过我觉得在这里停下很好。非常感谢您今天抽出时间和我聊天。

Thank you so much. I love Scientific American, so it’s a thrill to participate.

非常感谢。我喜欢《科学美国人》,能来到节目我很兴奋。

That’s all for today’s episode. If you’d like to learn more about how insects have helped shape human culture, check out Barrett’s book. It’s called The Insect Epiphany.

今天的节目就到这里。如果你想了解更多关于昆虫如何帮助塑造了人类文化的信息,可以看看巴雷特的书。书名是《The Insect Epiphany》。

重点单词   查看全部解释    
artistic [ɑ:'tistik]

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adj. 艺术的

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explicit [iks'plisit]

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adj. 明确的,详述的,明晰的,外在的

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emerge [i'mə:dʒ]

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vi. 浮现,(由某种状态)脱出,(事实)显现出来

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subtle ['sʌtl]

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adj. 微妙的,敏感的,精细的,狡诈的,不明显的

 
respond [ris'pɔnd]

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v. 回答,答复,反应,反响,响应
n.

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accommodate [ə'kɔmədeit]

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vi. 使自己适应
vt. 使一致,和解;提供

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appreciate [ə'pri:ʃieit]

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vt. 欣赏,感激,赏识
vt. 领会,充分意

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absolutely ['æbsəlu:tli]

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adv. 绝对地,完全地;独立地

 
mimic ['mimik]

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adj. 模仿的,假的 [计算机] 模拟的 vt. 模仿

 
species ['spi:ʃiz]

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n. (单复同)物种,种类

 

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