科学美国人60秒 SSS 古老艺术提供农业信息

This is Scientific American's 60-second Science, I'm Susanne Bard¹.

这里是科学美国人——60秒科学系列，我是苏珊娜·巴德。

Pieter Bruegel's iconic 1565 painting The Harvesters hangs at the Metropolitan² Museum of Art in New York City.

彼得·勃鲁盖尔1565年所作标志性画作《收割者》挂在纽约大都会艺术博物馆。

The work depicts³ peasants cutting stalks of wheat nearly as tall as they are.

这部作品描绘的是农民在收割几乎和他们一样高的小麦麦秆。

"Nowadays, if you walk through a wheat field, you basically see that wheat is about knee-height.

“现在，如果你走过小麦田，看到的小麦大概只到膝盖。

The short stature⁴ is essentially⁵ a consequence of breeding from the second half of the 20th century."

这种矮小身材本质上是20世纪下半叶育种的结果。”

University of Ghent biologist Ive De Smet.

根特大学的生物学家伊夫·德斯密特说到。

Selective breeding favored genes⁷ for reduced height, because they came along with genes for increasing yields to feed a growing population.

“现在，如果你走过小麦田，看到的小麦大概只到膝盖。

De Smet says wheat is just one example of how historical artwork can allow us to track the transformation⁸ of food crops over time.

德斯密特表示，小麦只是一个例子，说明历史美术品如何让我们追踪粮食作物随时间变化。

He teamed up with art historian David Vergauwen of Amarant to catalogue such artwork around the world.

他与阿马兰特的艺术历史学家大卫·韦高文合作，将全世界的此类艺术伤口进行了分类。

"We have been mainly looking at things where we kind of can spot changes in shape, in color, in size."

“我们主要观察我们可以察觉到的形状、颜色、大小变化的东西。”

Friends since childhood, their interest in plants in artwork began with a visit to the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia—

二人从小就是朋友，在参观完俄罗斯圣彼得堡艾尔米塔什博物馆后开始对艺术作品中的植物感兴趣，

where they noticed an odd-looking watermelon in an early-17th-century painting by Flemish artist Frans Snyders.

他们在博物馆注意到17世纪早期佛兰芒艺术家弗兰斯·斯奈德画的西瓜有点奇怪。

"So if you think of a watermelon, you cut it through, it should be dark red on the inside. But that one appeared to be pale and white."

“如果你认为那是西瓜，切开它，里面的瓤应该是暗红色的。但画中的看上去是灰白的白色。”

Biologist De Smet assumed the painter had done a poor job. But art historian Vergauwen had a different idea.

生物学家德斯密特猜测画家画错了。但是艺术史学家韦高文有不同的想法。

"He says, 'No, this is one of the best painters ever from that era. So if he paints it like that, that's the way it must have looked like.'"

“他表示，‘不对，他是那个时代最好的画家之一。所以如果他那样画，那肯定就是这样的。’”

Other paintings revealed that both red and white watermelons were cultivated during the 17th century.

其他画作显示，17世纪有种植红色和白色的西瓜。

The color is determined⁹ by a gene⁶ that controls the pigment¹⁰ lycopene.

颜色由控制番茄红素的基因决定。

"There must have been some sort of mutation¹¹ preventing the accumulation of that color.

“一定是某种变异阻止了这种颜色的积累。

Now, with all the genetic¹² knowledge that we have from various plant species, we can look in more detail how something comes about."

现在，我们掌握了各种植物的遗传知识，可以详细分析某种现象是如何发生的。”

For example, De Smet says carrots first started to be depicted¹³ as orange only in the 16th century, thanks to selective breeding for the beta-carotene pigment.

德斯密特表示，例如，由于β-胡萝卜素色素的选择性繁殖，胡萝卜只在16世纪被描绘成橙色。

And until the 18th century, European strawberries appear tiny in paintings—they then grew in size with the advent¹⁴ of crossbreeding with North American varieties.

直到18世纪，欧洲草莓在画作中仍显得很小，之后随着与北美品种杂交的出现，草莓的大小也随之增长。

The research is in the journal Trends in Plant Science.

这项研究发表在《植物科学趋势》期刊上。

Ultimately, the team hopes to create an online research database of historical plant artwork.

最终，该团队希望建立一个历史植物艺术品在线研究数据库。

They seek the contributions of art enthusiasts¹⁵ around the world via the social media hashtag #artgenetics.

他们可以通过社交媒体标签“艺术遗传学”来获得全世界艺术爱好者的艺术品。

But, they caution, the source paintings need to be realistic.

但是，他们警告称，绘画作品必须是写实的。

"If you're going to use, for example, Picasso to try and understand how a pear looked in the early 20th century, you might be misled."

“比如说，如果你打算用毕加索的作品来尝试了解20世纪初梨子的样子，你可能会被误导。”

Indeed, such an attempt could be fruitless.

的确，这样的尝试可能毫无结果。

Thanks for listening for Scientific American's 60-second Science. I'm Susanne Bard.

谢谢大家收听科学美国人——60秒科学。我是苏珊娜·巴德。

1 bard   

n.吟游诗人

参考例句：

• I'll use my bard song to help you concentrate!我会用我的吟游诗人歌曲帮你集中精神！
• I find him,the wandering grey bard.我发现了正在徘徊的衰老游唱诗人。

2 metropolitan   

adj.大城市的，大都会的

参考例句：

• Metropolitan buildings become taller than ever.大城市的建筑变得比以前更高。
• Metropolitan residents are used to fast rhythm.大都市的居民习惯于快节奏。

3 depicts   

描绘，描画( depict的第三人称单数 )； 描述

参考例句：

• The book vividly depicts French society of the 1930s. 这本书生动地描绘了20 世纪30 年代的法国社会。
• He depicts the sordid and vulgar sides of life exclusively. 他只描写人生肮脏和庸俗的一面。

4 stature   

n.（高度）水平，（高度）境界，身高，身材

参考例句：

• He is five feet five inches in stature.他身高5英尺5英寸。
• The dress models are tall of stature.时装模特儿的身材都较高。

5 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

6 gene   

n.遗传因子，基因

参考例句：

• A single gene may have many effects.单一基因可能具有很多种效应。
• The targeting of gene therapy has been paid close attention.其中基因治疗的靶向性是值得密切关注的问题之一。

7 genes   

n.基因( gene的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• You have good genes from your parents, so you should live a long time. 你从父母那儿获得优良的基因，所以能够活得很长。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Differences will help to reveal the functions of the genes. 它们间的差异将会帮助我们揭开基因多种功能。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 生物技术的世纪

8 transformation   

n.变化；改造；转变

参考例句：

• Going to college brought about a dramatic transformation in her outlook.上大学使她的观念发生了巨大的变化。
• He was struggling to make the transformation from single man to responsible husband.他正在努力使自己由单身汉变为可靠的丈夫。

9 determined   

adj.坚定的；有决心的

参考例句：

• I have determined on going to Tibet after graduation.我已决定毕业后去西藏。
• He determined to view the rooms behind the office.他决定查看一下办公室后面的房间。

10 pigment   

n.天然色素，干粉颜料

参考例句：

• The Romans used natural pigments on their fabrics and walls.古罗马人在织物和墙壁上使用天然颜料。
• Who thought he might know what the skin pigment phenomenon meant.他自认为可能知道皮肤色素出现这种现象到底是怎么回事。

11 mutation   

n.变化，变异，转变

参考例句：

• People who have this mutation need less sleep than others.有这种突变的人需要的睡眠比其他人少。
• So far the discussion has centered entirely around mutation in the strict sense.到目前为止，严格来讲，讨论完全集中于围绕突变问题上。

12 genetic   

adj.遗传的，遗传学的

参考例句：

• It's very difficult to treat genetic diseases.遗传性疾病治疗起来很困难。
• Each daughter cell can receive a full complement of the genetic information.每个子细胞可以收到遗传信息的一个完全补偿物。

13 depicted   

描绘，描画( depict的过去式和过去分词 )； 描述

参考例句：

• Other animals were depicted on the periphery of the group. 其他动物在群像的外围加以修饰。
• They depicted the thrilling situation to us in great detail. 他们向我们详细地描述了那激动人心的场面。

14 advent   

n.(重要事件等的)到来，来临

参考例句：

• Swallows come by groups at the advent of spring. 春天来临时燕子成群飞来。
• The advent of the Euro will redefine Europe.欧元的出现将重新定义欧洲。

15 enthusiasts   

n.热心人，热衷者( enthusiast的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• A group of enthusiasts have undertaken the reconstruction of a steam locomotive. 一群火车迷已担负起重造蒸汽机车的任务。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Now a group of enthusiasts are going to have the plane restored. 一群热心人计划修复这架飞机。 来自新概念英语第二册