The natural time sense
天賦的時(shí)間感
1. One of the most amazing of living things, the honeybee, has recently been shown to possess still another remarkable skill. It has a built-in alarm clock that goes off exactly every 24 hours.
1、生物中最令人驚奇的東西之一是蜜蜂，在最近的研究里它又顯示出它持有的另一種非凡本領(lǐng)。蜜蜂身體里有一個(gè)天生的“鬧鐘”，它準(zhǔn)確地每24小時(shí)循環(huán)一次。
2. Scientists have long known that bees carry a sort of wrist watch inside their bodies. They will return to the same spot, day after day, right to the minute, to feed on sugar-water left for them. To find out how the bees manage to tell time, an unusual experiment was carried out four years ago. Two young German biologists in Paris trained bees to come out for sugar-water every day at exactly 8:15 p.m. The scientists then set out to baffle the bees. When it is 8:15 p.m. in Paris, New York City's Eastern Day-light Saving time is only 3:15 p.m. If the hive were flown to New York between feedings, which time would the bees follow-Paris' or New York's?
2、科學(xué)家早已知道，蜜蜂在它的身體里帶著某種手表。蜜蜂能夠日復(fù)一日，精確到同一分鐘，返回同一地點(diǎn)去吃為它們準(zhǔn)備的糖漿。為了研究蜜蜂如何辨別時(shí)間，四年前進(jìn)行了一項(xiàng)不尋常的實(shí)驗(yàn)。在巴黎，兩個(gè)年輕的德國(guó)生物學(xué)家訓(xùn)練蜜蜂每天晚上8點(diǎn)15分準(zhǔn)時(shí)出來(lái)喝糖漿。之后，科學(xué)家們?cè)O(shè)法迷惑蜜蜂。當(dāng)巴黎是晚上8點(diǎn)15分時(shí)，美國(guó)紐約市的東部夏令時(shí)間是下午3點(diǎn)15分。如果蜂箱在兩次喂食之間被空運(yùn)到紐約市，蜜蜂會(huì)遵循哪個(gè)時(shí)間？巴黎的或者紐約的？
3. So, immediately after a night feeding in Paris, the hive was sealed and rushed off on an air liner. In New York, scientists from the American Museum of National History placed the hive in a specially prepared laboratory in the museum. At exactly 3:15 p.m. New York time - a precise 24 hours after having been fed in Paris - the bees swarmed out of their hive. The experiment proved conclusively that in spite of a 3,500-mile flight and differences in local time, the bees' alarm clocks rang right on their 24-hour schedule.
3、為此，在巴黎進(jìn)行了一次晚間喂食后，蜂箱立刻被密封，迅速送上飛往紐約的航班。在紐約，來(lái)自于美國(guó)國(guó)家歷史博物館的科學(xué)家們把蜂箱設(shè)置在博物館特別準(zhǔn)備好的實(shí)驗(yàn)室里。在紐約時(shí)間下午3點(diǎn)15分整，也就是在巴黎進(jìn)食整整24小時(shí)之后，蜜蜂涌出它們的蜂箱。實(shí)驗(yàn)確切證明，盡管經(jīng)歷了3500英里的飛行，以及不同地方的時(shí)間差，蜜蜂的“鬧鐘”仍精確地依照它的24小時(shí)時(shí)間表運(yùn)行。
4. As further proof, the experiment was repeated-only this time the same hive of bees had its alarm set in New York and was flown to Paris. There, too. They emerged from their hive exactly 24 hours later for their accustomed feeding.
4、為了進(jìn)一步證明，該實(shí)驗(yàn)被重復(fù)進(jìn)行，這次，同一只蜂箱的蜜蜂，在紐約設(shè)定了進(jìn)食時(shí)間，然后飛往巴黎。這次蜜蜂同樣準(zhǔn)確地在24小時(shí)后，按它們的習(xí)慣進(jìn)食時(shí)間涌出蜂箱。
5. Scientists now believe that many, if not all, living things are born with some type of hidden clock. These clocks are sometimes set by the number of hours of light or darkness in a day, by the rhythm of the tides or by the seasons.
5、科學(xué)家們現(xiàn)在相信，即使不是全部，但仍然有很多生物具有天生的某種類(lèi)型的潛藏時(shí)鐘。這些時(shí)鐘有時(shí)根據(jù)一天中白晝或黑夜的小時(shí)數(shù)目設(shè)定，有時(shí)根據(jù)潮汐的規(guī)律或者季節(jié)設(shè)定。
6. One of the most remarkable of nature's living clocks belongs to the fiddler crab, that familiar beach-dweller with the overgrown claw. Biologists have long known that the crab's shell is darkest during the day, grows pale in late afternoon, then begins to darken again at daybreak. This daytime darkening is valuable for protection against enemies and sunlight, and for many years it was thought to be a simple response by the crab to the sun-just as if we were to get a tan during the day and lose it at night.
6、大自然中最非凡的“活鐘”之一就屬招潮蟹，是人們熟悉的沙灘居民。它有著過(guò)分增長(zhǎng)的螯，生物學(xué)家早就知道招潮蟹的殼在白天是黑暗的，傍晚時(shí)變成灰白，然后在破曉的時(shí)候又變黑。這種白晝黑化是針對(duì)敵人和陽(yáng)光的有價(jià)值的自我保護(hù)，很多年以來(lái)，它被認(rèn)為是蟹對(duì)于太陽(yáng)光的一種簡(jiǎn)單反應(yīng)，就像我們?nèi)祟?lèi)白天皮膚被太陽(yáng)曬黑，晚上又會(huì)白回來(lái)。
7. But when an enterprising scientist placed a fiddler crab in darkness, he was amazed to find that the color of the crab's shell kept ticking off the time with the same accuracy.
7、但是，當(dāng)一個(gè)勇于探索的科學(xué)家把招潮蟹放在黑暗中，他驚訝的發(fā)現(xiàn)蟹殼的顏色依然準(zhǔn)確的按時(shí)間轉(zhuǎn)變。
8. Yet another startling fact was revealed: the crab's shell reached the darkest color about 50 minutes later each day. There was a second clock inside the crab, for the tides also occur 50 minutes later from day to day. Moreover, even when the crabs were taken from the beach and put back in the dark, they continued their tidal rhythm. More research disclosed that a crab from Cape Cod, Massachusetts, reached its darkest color four hours earlier than the one taken from a beach on a neighboring island. The tides on the nearby island were found to be exactly four hours later than the Cape Cod tides.
8、人們還發(fā)現(xiàn)了另一個(gè)令人驚愕的事實(shí)：蟹殼的顏色變得最深的時(shí)間每天推遲50分鐘。顯然在蟹的身體里存在著第二只鐘，因?yàn)槌毕M(jìn)退的時(shí)間恰恰也是一天比一天推遲50分鐘。而且，即使把蟹從海灘上帶回來(lái)放在黑暗中，它們?nèi)匀槐３炙鼈兊某毕?jié)奏。更進(jìn)一步的研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，來(lái)自馬賽諸塞州CAPECOD的蟹達(dá)到它最深顏色的時(shí)間，比來(lái)自于鄰島的蟹早4個(gè)小時(shí)。同時(shí)觀察出，鄰島的潮汐極其準(zhǔn)確地比CAPECOD的潮汐晚了4個(gè)小時(shí)。
9. Ants don't carry calendars around with them any more than fiddler crabs possess real wrist watches. But ants show amazing accuracy as to the day of the year. Each year, an ant nest sends out winged, young queens on mating flights. Hundreds of them may fly out of a single nest in the soil. Last summer, at the crest of my mountain, I watched an ant city prepare to send forth its young queens. At the precise moment that they took wing, a colony of the same species that my wife was watching near the bottom of the mountain, also sent its queen on a wedding flight. There was, of course, no way could the two colonies have checked take-off time with each other.
9、螞蟻不可能隨身攜帶日歷就像招潮蟹不可能帶著真正的手表一樣。但是螞蟻對(duì)一年中的特定一天有著驚人的精確判斷。每年，每一個(gè)蟻巢都會(huì)送出帶翅膀的、年輕的蟻后進(jìn)行交配飛行。上百個(gè)這樣的蟻后有可能從土中的同一個(gè)蟻巢飛出。去年夏天，在我家的山頂，我看到一個(gè)蟻巢準(zhǔn)備放出它們的年輕蟻后。在它們起飛的同一個(gè)精確時(shí)刻，由我的妻子負(fù)責(zé)觀察的山腳附近的另一窩同種的蟻?zhàn)�，亦放出它們的蟻后舉行飛行婚禮。顯然，這兩個(gè)蟻群根本沒(méi)有辦法校對(duì)彼此的起飛時(shí)間。
10. Entomologist Albro T.Gaul once jotted down in his notebook that a particular species of ant in northern Massachusetts began its wedding flight at a certain day and time. He later learned that another entomologist in New Jersey, 260 miles away, observed a wedding flight by the same species of ant, on the same day, and at exactly the same time! This split-second timing is not always the rule. However, most flights take place within a definite period of time.
10、有一次，昆蟲(chóng)學(xué)家AlbroT、Gaul先生在他的筆記本里匆匆記下，在馬賽諸塞州北部某種螞蟻開(kāi)始舉行飛行婚禮的準(zhǔn)確“日”和“時(shí)”。他后來(lái)知道，在260英里以外紐澤西州另一個(gè)昆蟲(chóng)學(xué)家也觀察到同一種類(lèi)螞蟻舉行飛行婚禮的時(shí)間，竟和他記錄的在同一天、同一個(gè)時(shí)刻！這種分割到秒的記時(shí)并不總是有規(guī)律的�？傊^大多數(shù)的飛行婚禮開(kāi)始時(shí)間在一個(gè)確定的時(shí)間段里。
11. Birds also have built-in timepieces which send them off on fall and spring migrations. What the birds really have is a clock-like mechanism which allows them to time hours of darkness or light in each day.
11、鳥(niǎo)類(lèi)也有天生的時(shí)間感應(yīng)器指導(dǎo)它們秋春遷移。鳥(niǎo)類(lèi)真正具有的是一種“似鐘的裝置”，使它們能從時(shí)間上區(qū)分每天黑夜或白晝的小時(shí)數(shù)。
12. But what sends birds northward again in the spring? New research by Dr. Albert Wolfson of Northwestern University seems to indicate that the timing of return flight is extraordinarily complex. In the fall of the year the short days and long nights cause the "clocks" in migratory birds to undergo a kind of "winding" in preparation for their spring return and breeding. Then during the late fall and winter as the clock "ticks", certain physiological changes occur in the bird. The length of each day during the winter determines how fast the clock will run, and hence when the "alarm" will ring for the spring migration. The clock continues to run through breeding time, then stops-to be re-wound again the next fall.
12、但是，是什么讓鳥(niǎo)在春天北飛呢？西北大學(xué)AlbertWolfson博士的最新研究似乎指出決定回飛的時(shí)間是極其復(fù)雜的問(wèn)題。每年秋季，短暫的白晝和長(zhǎng)時(shí)間的黑夜令候鳥(niǎo)身體里的“時(shí)鐘”經(jīng)歷某種轉(zhuǎn)變，為它們春天的返回和繁殖做準(zhǔn)備。在之后的深秋和冬天，如同鐘的轉(zhuǎn)動(dòng)一樣，特定的生理變化在鳥(niǎo)類(lèi)的身體上表現(xiàn)出來(lái)。在冬天里，每一天白晝的長(zhǎng)短決定該時(shí)鐘的運(yùn)轉(zhuǎn)快慢，因此“鬧鈴”將為春天的遷徙響起提示信號(hào)。時(shí)鐘在繁殖期間持續(xù)運(yùn)轉(zhuǎn)，然后停止，再在下一個(gè)秋天復(fù)蘇。
13. Scientists are now learning that many of the clocks of nature can be reset, speeded up or slowed down-all for our benefit. Pioneering experiments at the U.S. Department of Agriculture's research center in Beltsville, Maryland, have shown that plants can be helped to develop faster in less time. By increasing or lessening the hours of darkness in each day, the scientists have been able to turn plant growth off and on like an electric switch.
13、科學(xué)家現(xiàn)在知道，從人類(lèi)的利益出發(fā)，很多大自然的鐘都可以重置、加速、或者減慢。美國(guó)農(nóng)業(yè)部在瑪里蘭州BELTSVILLE的研究中心進(jìn)行了開(kāi)拓性的實(shí)驗(yàn)，實(shí)驗(yàn)表明人們能幫助植物在較短時(shí)間內(nèi)生長(zhǎng)得更快。用增加和減少每天黑暗小時(shí)數(shù)的方法，科學(xué)家已經(jīng)能夠控制植物生長(zhǎng)，如同控制一個(gè)電器開(kāi)關(guān)。
14. New knowledge about nature's living clocks has practical applications. For man, too, seems to follow daily rhythms. The amount of sugar in our blood stream varies with the time of day, as does our temperature. More of the cells in our skin and muscles divide during the night hours than during the day. By tinkering with the clocks of plants and animals, scientists may learn more about the fascinating way our bodies work.
14、關(guān)于大自然的“活鐘”的新知識(shí)具有實(shí)際用途。人類(lèi)似乎也遵循每天的時(shí)間節(jié)奏。我們血液中的血糖水平以及體溫隨一天的時(shí)間不同而不同。我們的皮膚和肌肉里的細(xì)胞分裂在夜間比在白天要多。通過(guò)調(diào)整植物和動(dòng)物的生物鐘，科學(xué)家們可以更多了解我們身體運(yùn)作的神秘方式。
