10件脑洞大开的发明

Science is a mix of smarts， toughness， and having the right tools. Sometimes these tools are things you （hopefully） won’t find at your neighborhood garage sale注1： particle colliders[粒子碰撞器]， genetically[从基因方面] engineered fruit flies， and endless lists of data. But thanks to small budgets[预算]， a growth in creativity， or both， scientists turn boring or strange items[物品] into tools， too. Here are ten objects that took on new meaning in the hands of scientists.

科学是才智、毅力和正确工具的结晶。有时候，这些工具（但愿）不是你能在邻居的车库交易中找到的，比如粒子碰撞机、基因工程处理过的果蝇以及无穷无尽的数据单。然而，由于预算不足、想象力过剩，或者两者皆有，科学家们也会把各种或无聊或稀奇的物品当作工具。以下十件物品就被科学家赋予了新意义。

Rubber Ducks 橡皮鸭

In 2008， NASA注2 researchers launched a large group of rubber ducks into a glacial rift[长狭谷] in Greenland. Scientists wanted to know where the water from Greenland’s melting glaciers would go as the Earth heats up. Rubber ducks， swept along by the current[水流]， were a cheap way for scientists to keep track of the ice water. Plus， anyone who called the number on a rubber duck got a reward[獎赏] for telling the scientists where the toys ended up. Rubber duck hunting in the Arctic， anyone？

2008年，美国国家航空航天局（NASA）的研究员将一大批橡皮鸭放到格陵兰的一处冰川裂谷中。科学家想知道，随着地球气温不断上升，格陵兰融化的冰川水会流向何处。橡皮鸭会随着水流移动，是科学家记录冰水流向的一种廉价方式。另外，如果谁按橡皮鸭上印着的电话号码打回去，告诉科学家这些玩具最终飘到了哪里，就可以得到奖励。谁想去北极圈抓橡皮鸭？

Tampons 卫生棉条

After absorbing[吸收] even small amounts of detergent[清洁剂]， tampons shine brightly under UV light. Environmental researchers in Britain on the hunt for pollution recently used this fact to their advantage. Laundry detergent[洗衣粉] shouldn’t be leaking[漏出] into the English countryside， but old plumbing[水管装置] has a way of breaking down. By dipping[浸] the tampons in rivers and sewers[下水道]， then checking to see if the cotton glowed[发光] in the dark， scientists at the University of Sheffield knew to check for a leak upstream.

即使只吸收极少量的清洁剂，卫生棉条在紫外线下都会发出亮光。最近，英国一些追查污染源的环境研究专家对卫生棉条的这一特性加以利用。在英国的乡村是不能排放洗衣粉的，但老旧的管道往往会出现破损。把卫生棉条浸入河流和下水道，然后看看棉条是否在黑暗处发光，谢菲尔德大学的科学家们就知道需不需要到上游检查泄漏了。

Moose Costume 驼鹿戏服

A tailor-made moose suit allowed a pair of biologists get close to wild moose in Yellowstone National Park. The reason？ Because predators[食肉动物] were returning to the forest， the biologists wanted to see how moose would react to snowballs packed with the poop[大便] of grizzly bears[大灰熊] and wolves.

一套量身定制的驼鹿服让两名生物学家得以近距离观察（美国）黄石国家公园的野生驼鹿。为什么要这样做呢？因为食肉动物都回到森林里去了，生物学家想看看，驼鹿会对包着大灰熊和狐狸粪便的雪球做出什么反应。

Alfred Hitchcock注3 TV Show 阿尔弗雷德·希区柯克的电视剧

Director Alfred Hitchcock was not just known for his silver screen versions of psychos[精神病患者] and angry birds： he also had a well-known TV thriller[惊悚片]， Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Neurologists[神经学家] aired an episode of this show to conscious[有知觉的] volunteers as well as two patients in vegetative[植物人的] states， while scanning their brains. Surprisingly， one of the patients showed activity in the front of his brain during the scariest part—just like the fully conscious volunteers.

导演阿尔弗雷德·希区柯克不单以在大银幕上展现精神病患者或愤怒的鸟儿出名，他还制作过一部著名的惊悚电视剧——《希区柯克悬念故事集》。神经病学家对清醒的志愿者和两名处于植物人状态的病人播放了这部电视剧的其中一集，同时对他们的脑部进行扫描。令人惊讶的是，在播放到最恐怖的片段时，其中一名病人大脑的前部显示出活动的迹象——和完全清醒的志愿者一样。

Comic Books 漫画书

A few psychologists[心理学家] have turned to an unusual group of assistants： superheroes. Therapists[治疗师] like Dr. Patrick O’Connor use Batman and other geek[极客] culture characters to help kids express themselves in a more comfortable and familiar way.

一些心理学家向一群不寻常的助手求助：超级英雄。像帕特里克·奥康纳医生这样的治疗专家，就利用蝙蝠侠和其他极客文化角色帮助儿童用他们更为舒服熟悉的形式表达自己。

Live Sheep 活羊

TNT注4 is no match for[不敌] a sheep’s iron gut， or at least the bacteria[细菌] that live there. The tiny organisms[生物体] inside sheep help animals digest[消化] tough plants， but it turns out they can also break down explosives into harmless compounds[化合物]. In 2011， veterinarians[兽医] had sheep chew through soil that contained TNT， rather than traditional but more expensive clean-up methods.

三硝基甲苯拼不过羊的铁胃——至少是活在里面的细菌。羊体内的这些小小的生物体不仅能让动物消化难啃的植物，原来还可以将爆炸物分解为无害的化合物。2011年，兽医让羊咀嚼含有三硝基甲苯的泥土，而不是用成本高昂的传统清理方式。

Dead Salmon 死三文鱼

Neuroscientists[神经系统科学家] use MRI注5 machines to analyze[分析] cerebral[大脑的] activity， which normally works on brains inside living humans. But Dartmouth University scientists needed to run a few tests， so they stuck a （dead） supermarket salmon in the MRI. As they were running the tests， the MRI happened to light up right where the salmon’s brain was. It doesn’t mean that the MRI was broken or that we now need to worry about zombie salmon—but MRIs， like many scientific tests， sometimes show false positives[假陽性] due to background noise.

神经系统科学家利用磁共振成像机分析大脑活动，分析对象通常是活人的大脑。然而，达特茅斯学院的科学家需要进行一些测试，于是他们把一条从超市买来的（死）三文鱼塞进了磁共振成像机里。在进行测试的过程中，机器恰好在三文鱼的脑部亮了起来。这不代表磁共振成像机坏了，也不是说从现在开始我们要担心三文鱼丧尸了——和很多科学实验一样，磁共振成像机有时会因为背景噪音而测出假阳性。

FaceBook 脸谱网

In a study of how people use language—perhaps the largest of its kind—University of Pennsylvania linguists[语言学家] analyzed the Facebook pages of 75，000 volunteers. Depending on the words used， the scientists could predict[预测] a person’s gender[性别]， and more than ha the time estimated[估计] how old a user was to within three years.

在一项研究人类如何运用语言的研究中——也许是同类当中最大型的一次——宾夕法尼亚大学的语言学家分析了75000个志愿者的脸谱网頁。科学家们可以根据志愿者使用的词汇判断其性别;而且在超过一半的情况下能准确估算使用者的年龄，误差不超过三年。

ToothBrushes 牙刷

Shovels and hammers may be great for breaking rocks or dirt， but when ancient and fragile fossils[化石] are involved[使牵涉]， it calls for a more gentle touch. A team of fossil hunters found a giant crocodile skeleton in Kenya， and paleontologist[古生物学家] Louise Leakey gave up her toothbrush to dust off the old bones.

铁铲和锤子也许是用来砸烂石头和泥土的好工具，但当你遇上古老而脆弱的化石时，就要用温柔百倍的方式了。一队化石猎人在肯尼亚发现了一具巨大的鳄鱼骨化石，古生物学家路易斯·李基贡献出自己的牙刷，用来扫去这些老骨头上的灰尘。

Junk Food 垃圾食物

Ants chow down[（俚）大快朵颐] on waste food and keep cities clean， according to a December 2014 study. To see just how good a job ants do at cleaning up after us， biologists left out hot dogs and bits of cookies in a few parts of New York. The amount[数量] of food the bugs ate came out to about 60，000 hot dogs per year on two New York City streets alone.

按照2014年12月某项研究的说法，蚂蚁可以吃掉垃圾食物，让城市变得整洁。为了看看蚂蚁的善后工作有多好，生物学家在纽约市的几个区域放置了热狗和曲奇碎。（结果）单单在纽约两条街上，这些小昆虫每年吃掉的热狗数量就相当于约六万根之多。

注1：指通常在私家车库进行的闲置物品交易。

注2：美国国家航空航天局（National Aeronautics and Space Administration）简称NASA，是美国联邦政府的一个行政性科研机构，负责制定、实施美国的民用太空计划与开展航空科学暨太空科学的研究。

注3：阿尔弗雷德·希区柯克（1899—1980），英国（后加入美国国籍，同时保留英国国籍）电影导演、编剧、制片人，尤其擅长拍摄惊悚悬疑片。

注4：TNT（三硝基甲苯）是一种烈性炸药，呈黄色粉末或鱼鳞片状，难溶于水，可用于水下爆破。由于威力大，常用来做副起爆药。

注5：MRI也就是磁共振成像，英文全称是Magnetic Resonance Imaging。

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