[科学美国人60秒] SSS 2015-11-03(在线收听

 Ten years ago, a bacteria disease began to eat away the Florida citrous crop. It's called Huang Huang Bin, or citrous greening, and it causes mishap in bitter green fruits and eventually dead trees. Since 2005, the infection is estimated to have caused billions of dollars in damage. And the microbe did all that with the unwitting help of a tiny winged insect, the Citrous ?, which spreads the bacteria as it feeds. But now researchers at UFDA and University Of Florida have come up with a pesticide freeway to battle the insect by disrupting its ability to find a mate. When male soulmates are looking for love, they beat their wings, sending vibrations along a tree's branches. Nearby females pick up that signal and send back one of their own, which tells males to come hither. The researchers eavesdroped on that with a microphone rigged to a electonic microcontroller. And when the controller identified the male's call, it sent out a decoy female response more quickly than real female could respond. And that imposter call lure the males to the device where instead of a mate, they find flypaper. The researchers presented their result at a meeting of the acoustic society of America in Jackswill, Florida. The technique is not ready for the limelight just yet. For one, though the decoy call does fool the bugs, they are still adapted to avoiding the flypaper. But the researchers say this sort of signal jaming interference might be able to disrupt the insects' ability to find a mate, cutting overall numbers of the pest. A similar technique has worked in vineyards and if it works on orange , it could help citrous growers get out of the squeeze.

  原文地址:http://www.tingroom.com/lesson/sasss/2015/11/331144.html