马有失蹄，章鱼怎么就不会缠住自己？

 　　Researchers observed the behavior of amputated octopus¹ arms, which remain very active for an hour after separation. Those observations showed that the arms never grabbed octopus skin, though they would grab a skinned octopus arm. The octopus arms didn’t grab Petri dishes covered with octopus skin, either, and they attached to dishes covered with octopus skin extract with much less force than they otherwise would.

　　在截断章鱼的腕足后，研究人员观察发现断肢在离体一小时后仍相当有活力。断肢离体后的行为观察显示，断肢不会吸附章鱼皮肤，但是会吸附剥了皮的章鱼腕足；断肢也不会吸附覆盖着章鱼皮的培养皿。在吸附涂有章鱼皮肤提取物的培养皿时，会比吸附空培养皿时使用更小的力量。一只章鱼的八条腕足上密布着成百上千个吸盘，会吸附几乎任何东西，但有一个重要的例外。这些吸盘一般不会吸附章鱼自身；否则，这只极其灵活的动物很快就会发现自己整个纠缠在了一起。

　　Now, researchers from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem report in the Cell Press publication Current Biology on May 15 that they have discovered how octopuses² manage this feat³, even as the octopuses’ brains are unaware⁴ of what their arms are doing. A chemical produced by octopus skin temporarily prevents their suckers from sucking.

　　现在，耶路撒冷希伯来大学的研究人员于5月15日在细胞期刊数据库（Cell Press [i]）的期刊《现代生物》（Current Biology）上发表了他们的研究成果，并称他们已发现章鱼实现这一壮举的原理，甚至是章鱼的大脑不知情的情况下完成这一行为。一种由章鱼皮肤产生的化学物质能够在短期内阻止其吸盘的吸附行为。

　　“We were surprised that nobody before us had noticed this very robust⁵ and easy-to-detect phenomena,” says Guy Levy⁶, who carried out the research with co-first author Nir Nesher. “We were entirely⁷ surprised by the brilliant and simple solution of the octopus to this potentially very complicated problem.”

　　“这个现象非常强大且易于检测，在我们之前竟无人注意到这一点，我们感到很惊讶，”与共同第一作者尼尔-内舍（Nir Nesher）一同进行了研究后，盖伊-列维（Guy Levy）说。“更让我们惊讶的是章鱼精彩而又简单地解决了这本会非常复杂的问题。”

　　Binyamin Hochner and his colleagues had been working with octopuses for many years, focusing especially on their flexible arms and body motor control. There is a very good reason that octopuses don’t know where their arms are exactly, in the same way that people or other animals do.

　　本雅明-霍齐纳（Binyamin Hochner）和他的同事研究章鱼多年，尤其是关注他们灵活的腕足和身体运动的控制。他们发现，章鱼并不能像人与其他动物一样知道自己腕足的确切位置。

　　“Our motor control system is based on a rather fixed⁸ representation of the motor and sensory⁹ systems in the brain in a formant of maps that have body part coordinates,” Hochner explains.

　　“我们人类大脑中的感觉系统有分别对应特定身体部位的区域，而运动控制系统则是一个相对固定的感觉系统对动作的映射，”霍齐纳解释道。

　　That works for us because our rigid¹⁰ skeletons limit the number of possibilities. “It is hard to envisage¹¹ similar mechanisms¹³ to function in the octopus brain because its very long and flexible arms have an infinite number of degrees of freedom,” Hochner continues. “Therefore, using such maps would have been tremendously difficult for the octopus, and maybe even impossible.”

　　这对于我们来说是适用的，因为我们僵硬的骨架限制了我们活动。“在章鱼大脑中也使用与之相似的机制是难以想象的，因为它那长而灵活的腕足可以进行各种角度的运动，”霍齐纳继续说道，“因此，如果章鱼大脑中也用相似的区域分布来控制运动，会是相当困难的，甚至是不可能的。”

　　Indeed, experiments have supported the notion that octopuses lack accurate knowledge about the position of their arms. And that raised an intriguing¹⁴ question: How, then, do octopuses avoid tying themselves up in knots?

　　事实上，实验结果表明章鱼确实并不能掌握其腕足确切位置。这样的结果也引出了一个有趣的问题：那么，章鱼是怎样避免把自己缠成一团乱麻的呢？

　　To answer that question, the researchers observed the behavior of amputated octopus arms, which remain very active for an hour after separation. Those observations showed that the arms never grabbed octopus skin, though they would grab a skinned octopus arm. The octopus arms didn’t grab Petri dishes covered with octopus skin, either, and they attached to dishes covered with octopus skin extract with much less force than they otherwise would.

　　为了找到答案，研究人员将章鱼腕足截取下来，观察其行为，这些腕足在离体一小时后仍然相当有活力。最终观察结果显示，腕足断肢不会吸附章鱼皮，但是会吸附剥了皮的章鱼腕足；不会吸附覆盖着章鱼皮的培养皿，但是在吸附涂有章鱼皮肤提取物的培养皿时，会比吸附空培养皿时使用更小的力量。

　　“The results so far show, and for the first time, that the skin of the octopus prevents octopus arms from attaching to each other or to themselves in a reflexive manner,” the researchers write. “The drastic reduction in the response to the skin crude extract suggests that a specific chemical signal in the skin mediates¹⁵ the inhibition of sucker grabbing.”

　　“目前为止，研究有了新发现：章鱼皮肤能够防止腕足间相互吸附或腕足吸附自身，”研究人员这样写道。“对皮肤粗提取物的反应急剧减弱说明皮肤中存在一种特定的化学信号，这种化学信号会调解对吸盘吸附的抑制作用。”

　　In contrast to the behavior of the amputated arms, live octopuses can override¹⁶ that automatic mechanism¹² when it is convenient. Living octopuses will sometimes grab an amputated arm, and they appear to be more likely to do so when that arm was not formerly¹⁷ their own.

　　与腕足断肢的行为活动相比，章鱼能够在适当时候无视这种自动机制。章鱼有时会吸附一个断肢，而且如果那不是自己的断肢，他们更有可能这么做。

　　Hochner and his colleagues haven’t yet identified the active agent in the animals’ self-avoidance behavior, but they say it is yet another demonstration¹⁸ of octopus intelligence. The self-avoidance strategy might even find its way into bioinspired robot design.

　　霍齐纳和他的同事们还没能确定在动物自我回避行为中起作用的活化剂，但是他们说这是章鱼智慧的又一次完美呈现。这种自我回避策略也许将来会应用于仿生机器人的设计。

　　“Soft robots have advantages [in] that they can reshape their body,” Nesher says. “This is especially advantageous¹⁹ in unfamiliar²⁰ environments with many obstacles that can be bypassed only by flexible manipulators, such as the internal human body environment.”

　　“柔软的机器人的优势在于他们可以改变身体形状，”内舍说。“这在一个陌生的环境中是尤其有利的，这样可以利用灵活的机械手绕过重重障碍，比如在人体的内部环境中。”

　　In fact, the researchers are sharing their findings with European Commission project STIFF-FLOP, aimed to develop a flexible surgical²¹ manipulator in the shape of an octopus arm. “We hope and believe that this mechanism will find expression in such new classes of robots and their control systems,” Hochner says.

　　事实上，研究者正在于欧洲委员会STIFF-FLOP项目共享他们的研究成果，该项目致力于研发章鱼腕足形状的手术操作臂。霍齐纳说：“我们希望并且相信这个机制能够在这种新型机器人和他们的控制系统中发光发热。”

 

1 octopus   

n.章鱼

参考例句：

• He experienced nausea after eating octopus.吃了章鱼后他感到恶心。
• One octopus has eight tentacles.一条章鱼有八根触角。

2 octopuses   

章鱼( octopus的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Snails and octopuses are molluscs. 蜗牛和章鱼是软体动物。
• Limpets, snails and octopuses are mollusks. 帽贝、蜗牛和章鱼都是软体动物。

3 feat   

n.功绩；武艺，技艺；adj.灵巧的，漂亮的，合适的

参考例句：

• Man's first landing on the moon was a feat of great daring.人类首次登月是一个勇敢的壮举。
• He received a medal for his heroic feat.他因其英雄业绩而获得一枚勋章。

4 unaware   

a.不知道的，未意识到的

参考例句：

• They were unaware that war was near. 他们不知道战争即将爆发。
• I was unaware of the man's presence. 我没有察觉到那人在场。

5 robust   

adj.强壮的，强健的，粗野的，需要体力的，浓的

参考例句：

• She is too tall and robust.她个子太高，身体太壮。
• China wants to keep growth robust to reduce poverty and avoid job losses,AP commented.美联社评论道，中国希望保持经济强势增长，以减少贫困和失业状况。

6 levy   

n.征收税或其他款项，征收额

参考例句：

• They levy a tax on him.他们向他征税。
• A direct food levy was imposed by the local government.地方政府征收了食品税。

7 entirely   

ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
• His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。

8 fixed   

adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的

参考例句：

• Have you two fixed on a date for the wedding yet?你们俩选定婚期了吗？
• Once the aim is fixed,we should not change it arbitrarily.目标一旦确定，我们就不应该随意改变。

9 sensory   

adj.知觉的，感觉的，知觉器官的

参考例句：

• Human powers of sensory discrimination are limited.人类感官分辨能力有限。
• The sensory system may undergo long-term adaptation in alien environments.感觉系统对陌生的环境可能经过长时期才能适应。

10 rigid   

adj.严格的，死板的；刚硬的，僵硬的

参考例句：

• She became as rigid as adamant.她变得如顽石般的固执。
• The examination was so rigid that nearly all aspirants were ruled out.考试很严，几乎所有的考生都被淘汰了。

11 envisage   

v.想象，设想，展望，正视

参考例句：

• Nobody can envisage the consequences of total nuclear war.没有人能够想像全面核战争的后果。
• When do you envisage being able to pay me back?你看你什么时候能还我钱？

12 mechanism   

n.机械装置；机构，结构

参考例句：

• The bones and muscles are parts of the mechanism of the body.骨骼和肌肉是人体的组成部件。
• The mechanism of the machine is very complicated.这台机器的结构是非常复杂的。

13 mechanisms   

n.机械( mechanism的名词复数 )；机械装置；[生物学] 机制；机械作用

参考例句：

• The research will provide direct insight into molecular mechanisms. 这项研究将使人能够直接地了解分子的机理。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He explained how the two mechanisms worked. 他解释这两台机械装置是如何工作的。 来自《简明英汉词典》

14 intriguing   

adj.有趣的；迷人的v.搞阴谋诡计(intrigue的现在分词)；激起…的好奇心

参考例句：

• These discoveries raise intriguing questions. 这些发现带来了非常有趣的问题。
• It all sounds very intriguing. 这些听起来都很有趣。 来自《简明英汉词典》

15 mediates   

调停，调解，斡旋( mediate的第三人称单数 )； 居间促成； 影响…的发生； 使…可能发生

参考例句：

• We therefore investigated whether hypercoagulability mediates a beneficial effect during denovo atherogenesis. 因此我们研究了高凝在原位动脉粥样硬化形成中是否介导了有益的作用。
• Not happy when the mood that how mediates oneself? 不开心的时候怎样调解自己的情绪？

16 override   

vt.不顾，不理睬，否决；压倒，优先于

参考例句：

• The welfare of a child should always override the wishes of its parents.孩子的幸福安康应该永远比父母的愿望来得更重要。
• I'm applying in advance for the authority to override him.我提前申请当局对他进行否决。

17 formerly   

adv.从前，以前

参考例句：

• We now enjoy these comforts of which formerly we had only heard.我们现在享受到了过去只是听说过的那些舒适条件。
• This boat was formerly used on the rivers of China.这船从前航行在中国内河里。

18 demonstration   

n.表明，示范，论证，示威

参考例句：

• His new book is a demonstration of his patriotism.他写的新书是他的爱国精神的证明。
• He gave a demonstration of the new technique then and there.他当场表演了这种新的操作方法。

19 advantageous   

adj.有利的；有帮助的

参考例句：

• Injections of vitamin C are obviously advantageous.注射维生素C显然是有利的。
• You're in a very advantageous position.你处于非常有利的地位。

20 unfamiliar   

adj.陌生的，不熟悉的

参考例句：

• I am unfamiliar with the place and the people here.我在这儿人地生疏。
• The man seemed unfamiliar to me.这人很面生。

21 surgical   

adj.外科的，外科医生的，手术上的

参考例句：

• He performs the surgical operations at the Red Cross Hospital.他在红十字会医院做外科手术。
• All surgical instruments must be sterilised before use.所有的外科手术器械在使用之前，必须消毒。