科学美国人60秒 SSS 透明蛙的伪装策略

This is Scientific American's 60-second Science, I'm Emily Schwing.

这里是科学美国人——60秒科学系列，我是埃米莉·施温。

Some ocean animals have a clever form of camouflage¹—they're transparent². But being see-through is far less common on land.

有些海洋动物拥有巧妙的伪装形式——它们是透明的。但陆地上的透明动物远没有海洋中常见。

"And there's a few reasons why that may be."

“这可能有几个原因。”

Jim Barnett is a postdoctoral research fellow at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada.

加拿大安大略麦克马斯特大学的博士后研究员吉姆·巴内特说到。

"Differences between air and water as a surrounding medium means that light interacts differently with a transparent organism's body tissues."

“空气和水作为周围介质，二者之间的差异意味着光与透明生物体的身体组织之间的相互作用不同。”

In the ocean, light is always coming from above, and the background is less variable.

在海洋中，光总是来自上方，而背景的变化较小。

But in jungle canopy³, light is coming from many directions, and the background is far more variable.

但在丛林树冠中，光线来自多个方向，而且背景的变化也要大得多。

Enter a little critter called the glass frog. It's not actually transparent; it's translucent⁴.

进入一种名为透明蛙的小生物。这种生物实际上并不是透明的；而是半透明的。

That means its skin in some places is thin enough that you can actually see its internal organs hard at work.

这意味着它某些地方的皮肤足够薄，以致于你可以看到它的内脏在努力工作。

"Most of the time, when you see photographs of these frogs, they're taken under quite controlled conditions,

“大多数时候，你所看到的这些青蛙的照片，都是在严格受控的条件下拍摄的，

with either strong lighting⁵, like a powerful flash, or they're photographed from underneath⁶ on a piece of glass,

要么有强力闪光灯等强烈的灯光，要么是将它们放在一块玻璃上进行拍摄，

and it's really their bellies⁷ which are transparent.

其实它们的腹部是透明的。

And these frogs are pretty small and thin and quite delicate, so if you have a powerful flash on your camera,

这些青蛙又瘦又小，而且很脆弱，如果你的相机上有强力闪光灯，

you can sort of just blast light through them, and they will look pretty transparent."

相当于你用光线穿越了它们，所以它们看起来会很透明。”

Barnett says the frog's translucent skin is actually a novel camouflage strategy that no one's ever really studied—until now.

巴内特表示，透明蛙半透明的皮肤其实是一种新颖的伪装策略，直到现在还没有人真正研究过。

"What we think is happening is that light is traveling through the frog, interacting with the pigmentation.

“我们认为，这是光线穿过透明蛙，与色素沉着相互作用。

But a lot of it does pass through the frog. Some of that light will be absorbed by the background underneath the frog.

但有很多光线穿越了透明蛙。其中一些光线被透明身下的背景吸收。

But some of it will be reflected off that background and come back through the frog."

其他光线则被背景反射回来，然后再次穿过透明蛙。”

So if a glass frog is sitting on a bright green leaf, high in the jungle canopy,

因此，如果透明蛙坐在丛林树冠高处的明亮的翠绿叶子上，

the light passing through its thin skin and onto the leaf will make the frog appear brighter in color, matching more closely with the leaf.

光线穿过它薄薄的皮肤照射到叶子上，会使透明蛙的颜色显得更明亮，与叶子的颜色更相近。

The jungle canopy is filled with leaves, but it's also filled with predators⁸: birds, snakes, mammals and even invertebrates⁹ in search of their next meal.

丛林树冠上长满了树叶，但也到处都是食肉动物：鸟类、蛇、哺乳动物，甚至无脊椎动物，它们都在寻找下一顿饭。

"And these animals are quite—their visual systems are pretty cued in to finding differences in luminance and brightness between different patches.

“这些动物的视觉系统很容易在不同的斑块之间发现亮度和亮度的差异。

So they're quite good at finding prey¹⁰ based on differences between the background and the animal's brightness.

因此，它们很擅长根据背景和动物亮度的差异来寻找猎物。

And by being translucent, it seems, these frogs are able to have an adaptive camouflage."

由于身体是半透明的，透明蛙似乎能够拥有自适应的伪装。”

So regardless of whether the leaf is dark or bright, if the glass frog is sitting on it, it will appear to change to more closely match its background.

因此，无论叶子是暗还是亮，如果透明蛙坐在上面，它似乎能进行变化，以更接近背景颜色。

The study by Barnett and colleagues is in the Proceedings¹¹ of the National Academy of Sciences.

巴内特及其同事的研究发表在《美国国家科学院院刊》上。

With around 150 known species of glass frogs in the world,

巴内特表示，世界上已知的透明蛙种类约有150种，

Barnett says the next project is to find out if the frogs' translucency¹² may differ based on their individual habitats.

下一个项目是确定透明蛙的半透明性是否会因个体的栖息地不同而有所差异。

One thing is certain: it will be hard to see what they find.

有一点是肯定的：很难看到他们发现了什么。

Thanks for listening for Scientific American's 60-second Science. I'm Emily Schwing.

谢谢大家收听科学美国人——60秒科学。我是埃米莉·施温。

1 camouflage   

n./v.掩饰，伪装

参考例句：

• The white fur of the polar bear is a natural camouflage.北极熊身上的白色的浓密软毛是一种天然的伪装。
• The animal's markings provide effective camouflage.这种动物身上的斑纹是很有效的伪装。

2 transparent   

adj.明显的，无疑的；透明的

参考例句：

• The water is so transparent that we can see the fishes swimming.水清澈透明，可以看到鱼儿游来游去。
• The window glass is transparent.窗玻璃是透明的。

3 canopy   

n.天篷，遮篷

参考例句：

• The trees formed a leafy canopy above their heads.树木在他们头顶上空形成了一个枝叶茂盛的遮篷。
• They lay down under a canopy of stars.他们躺在繁星点点的天幕下。

4 translucent   

adj.半透明的；透明的

参考例句：

• The building is roofed entirely with translucent corrugated plastic.这座建筑完全用半透明瓦楞塑料封顶。
• A small difference between them will render the composite translucent.微小的差别,也会使复合材料变成半透明。

5 lighting   

n.照明，光线的明暗，舞台灯光

参考例句：

• The gas lamp gradually lost ground to electric lighting.煤气灯逐渐为电灯所代替。
• The lighting in that restaurant is soft and romantic.那个餐馆照明柔和而且浪漫。

6 underneath   

adj.在...下面，在...底下；adv.在下面

参考例句：

• Working underneath the car is always a messy job.在汽车底下工作是件脏活。
• She wore a coat with a dress underneath.她穿着一件大衣，里面套着一条连衣裙。

7 bellies   

n.肚子( belly的名词复数 )；腹部；（物体的）圆形或凸起部份；腹部…形的

参考例句：

• They crawled along on their bellies. 他们匍匐前进。
• starving children with huge distended bellies 鼓着浮肿肚子的挨饿儿童

8 predators   

n.食肉动物( predator的名词复数 )；奴役他人者（尤指在财务或性关系方面）

参考例句：

• birds and their earthbound predators 鸟和地面上捕食它们的动物
• The eyes of predators are highly sensitive to the slightest movement. 捕食性动物的眼睛能感觉到最细小的动静。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 invertebrates   

n.无脊椎动物( invertebrate的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Insects and worms are all invertebrates. 昆虫和蠕虫都是无脊椎动物。 来自辞典例句
• In the earthworm and many other invertebrates, these excretory structures are called nephridia. 在蚯蚓和许多其它无脊椎动物中，这些排泄结构称为肾管。 来自辞典例句

10 prey   

n.被掠食者，牺牲者，掠食；v.捕食，掠夺，折磨

参考例句：

• Stronger animals prey on weaker ones.弱肉强食。
• The lion was hunting for its prey.狮子在寻找猎物。

11 proceedings   

n.进程，过程，议程；诉讼(程序)；公报

参考例句：

• He was released on bail pending committal proceedings. 他交保获释正在候审。
• to initiate legal proceedings against sb 对某人提起诉讼

12 translucency   

半透明，半透明物； 半透澈度

参考例句：

• His body seemed to have not only the weakness of a jelly, but its translucency. 他的身体不但像冻胶那么软，而且像冻胶那么半透明。 来自英汉文学
• It also supports fog, color density, translucency, fluorescence, and other special effects. 它也支持雾、色密度、透明度、光以及其他特效。