美国国家公共电台 NPR Survival Of The Sluggish: Scientists Find An Upside To A Low Metabolism

 

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

All right, let me give you a big reason to listen to this next story about a clam's metabolism¹ - because the essential conclusion is it is better to be lazy. Here's NPR's Laura Wamsley.

LAUREL WAMSLEY, BYLINE²: Luke Strotz is a paleontologist at the University of Kansas who studies extinctions. But he's not so interested in big asteroids⁴ slamming into Earth. He studies small physical differences between animals that go extinct and ones that survive. And the thing that he's really hung up on is how animals use energy, their metabolism.

LUKE STROTZ: Can we look at the metabolism of an organism and say something about the likelihood of that particular species going extinct?

WAMSLEY: He and his colleagues decided⁵ to study 5 million years of mollusks.

STROTZ: Specifically, I was looking at what are called bivalves and gastropods, which essentially⁶ are clams⁷ and snails⁸. They go back almost to the beginnings of animal life.

WAMSLEY: Checking the metabolic⁹ rates of living clams was pretty easy. The researchers can watch their vital signs, like respiration¹⁰.

STROTZ: But you can't do that for a fossil organism, obviously, because they're dead. They're not respiring anymore.

WAMSLEY: So instead, they measured their shells and used climate models to estimate the metabolic rates. The results...

STROTZ: We find that the species that have gone extinct have higher metabolic rates than the species that are still currently living.

WAMSLEY: Yep, it's survival of the sluggish¹¹. On the individual level, a higher metabolism is correlated with higher rates of mortality and cell decay.

STROTZ: That that scales up to the level of the species is probably the big finding of this study.

WAMSLEY: And it means that metabolic rate could potentially be used to predict future extinction³ patterns. But, he cautions, the results only apply to mollusks. So we'll have to wait for more research to see if this finding applies to vertebrates and certain couch-dwelling organisms.

Laurel Wamsley, NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF THE AMERICAN DOLLAR'S "CAROUSEL")

1 metabolism   

n.新陈代谢

参考例句：

• After years of dieting,Carol's metabolism was completely out of whack.经过数年的节食，卡罗尔的新陈代谢完全紊乱了。
• All living matter undergoes a process of metabolism.生物都有新陈代谢。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 extinction   

n.熄灭，消亡，消灭，灭绝，绝种

参考例句：

• The plant is now in danger of extinction.这种植物现在有绝种的危险。
• The island's way of life is doomed to extinction.这个岛上的生活方式注定要消失。

4 asteroids   

n.小行星( asteroid的名词复数 )；海盘车，海星

参考例句：

• Asteroids,also known as "minor planets",are numerous in the outer space. 小行星，亦称为“小型行星”，在外太空中不计其数。
• Most stars probably have their quota of planets, meteorids, comets, and asteroids. 多数恒星也许还拥有若干行星、流星、彗星和小行星。

5 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

6 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。

7 clams   

n.蛤；蚌，蛤( clam的名词复数 )v.（在沙滩上）挖蛤( clam的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• The restaurant's specialities are fried clams. 这个餐厅的特色菜是炸蚌。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• We dug clams in the flats et low tide. 退潮时我们在浅滩挖蛤蜊。 来自辞典例句

8 snails   

n.蜗牛；迟钝的人；蜗牛( snail的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• I think I'll try the snails for lunch—I'm feeling adventurous today. 我想我午餐要尝一下蜗牛——我今天很想冒险。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Most snails have shells on their backs. 大多数蜗牛背上有壳。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 metabolic   

adj.新陈代谢的

参考例句：

• Impressive metabolic alternations have been undergone during embryogenesis.在胚胎发生期间经历了深刻的代谢变化。
• A number of intoxicants are associated with metabolic acidosis.许多毒性物质可引起代谢性酸中毒。

10 respiration   

n.呼吸作用；一次呼吸；植物光合作用

参考例句：

• They tried artificial respiration but it was of no avail.他们试做人工呼吸，可是无效。
• They made frequent checks on his respiration,pulse and blood.他们经常检查他的呼吸、脉搏和血液。

11 sluggish   

adj.懒惰的，迟钝的，无精打采的

参考例句：

• This humid heat makes you feel rather sluggish.这种湿热的天气使人感到懒洋洋的。
• Circulation is much more sluggish in the feet than in the hands.脚部的循环比手部的循环缓慢得多。