科学美国人60秒 鸽子血检测可以替代儿童血液检测（在线收听）

Pigeons. Ever since humans established permanent agricultural settlements, we’ve lived side-by-side with the birds—or, as some people call them, rats with wings. They walk on our sidewalks, roost on our buildings, and eat our leftovers. But soon pigeons may help us identify risks to public health.

鸽子。自从人类建立农业永久居住地之后，我们周围总有鸟类——或者，像有些人说的那样，长了翅膀的老鼠。它们走在人行道上，在我们的建筑物上栖息，吃我们剩下的食物。但是，不久以后，鸽子或许能帮助我们识别对公共健康有害的危险。

"What we're doing here in my lab is we're assessing how we can use something that's been considered a pest that people actively try to exterminate: the pigeon. How can we use it to better the environment for not only ourselves but for pigeons and for other wildlife?"

现在我们在实验室研究正在做的是：我们正在评估，之前被人类视为害虫而遭到人类竭力消灭的动物：鸽子。我们应该如何利用鸽子来造福环境，不仅仅是为了我们人类自己，同时也是为了鸽子和其他的野生动物?

U.C. Davis neurobiologist Rebecca Calisi. She looked at lead levels in blood samples from more than 800 injured pigeons brought to a New York City wildlife rehabilitation center. And she compared those to lead levels in blood samples collected from children by the New York City Department of Health in routine screening efforts. The results were published in the journal Chemosphere.

加州大学戴维斯分校神经生物学家丽贝卡·凯莉斯。她测量了纽约市野生动物康复中心800只受伤鸽子血液样本中的铅含量。之后，她将鸽子血液中的铅含量同纽约健康部门中常规监测到的儿童的血样中的铅含量进行对比。该研究结果发布在《化学界》杂志上。

"The neighborhoods where children have high rates of lead toxicity, that's where we saw pigeons with high blood lead levels…so this is a proof of concept kind of project."

在小孩子的血样中有较高含铅量的居住地区,我们发现那里的鸽子的血样中也含有较高的铅含量,所以这也许能证明我们的理论。

Most pigeons will live out their lives within just two kilometers of the place they hatched, so the birds may be able to help researchers develop a detailed map of the risk of toxic lead exposure.

大部分鸽子的生活地区距离其孵化的巢穴只有两公里，所以，它们或许可以帮助研究人员开发出铅含量的地区分布图。

In people, especially kids, lead exposure can affect intelligence, brain development, social skills and memory. Having demonstrated that pigeons can pinpoint areas with high lead contamination, Calisi thinks that the birds can help researchers zero in on other potential environmental hazards as well.

铅可以影响人类，尤其是儿童的智力、大脑发育、社交能力以及记忆力。实验证明了鸽子的相关信息可以指出铅污染较高的地区，凯莉斯认为鸽子可以帮助研究人员找到环境中存在的其他潜在的危险。

"The thing is, we don't know what to test for right now. We know to test for lead, but what about certain pesticides? Or fire retardants are a big problem these days. We're not sure what the problems are. So instead of drawing a ton of blood from children and putting them through all these tests, why not use an animal that shares our environment, the pigeon, and test for a whole suite of different potential harmful pollutants?"

但问题是，我们现在还不知道用这种方法检测何种指标。我们知道可以测试铅元素，但是对于某些特定的杀虫剂呢?现在，阻燃剂是一个大问题。我们尚不知道问题在哪里。因此我们不能对很多孩子进行抽血，来将所有的测试都做一遍，我们可以利用和人类生存在同一环境中的动物，如鸽子，来测试环境中可能存在的潜在污染物。

So rather than dismissing them as rats with wings, why not think of them as…lab rats with wings?

所以与其驱散这种会飞的老鼠, 为什么不能将它们当作, 实验室中的飞天小白鼠呢~