科学美国人60秒 SSS Bats Learn To Take White-Nose Punch
时间:2018-12-02 作者:英语课 分类:2016年Scientific American(十二)月
The little brown bat was once abundant in the eastern U.S. But within the last 15 years, a fungus 1 called Pseudogynmoascus destructans infiltrated 2 a cave in upstate New York. This fungus causes what’s called white-nose syndrome 3 in bats.
The illness has now spread throughout North America, causing widespread bat die-offs. But recently, little brown bats in New York have stopped declining. In fact, their numbers are actually going back up.
"That was exciting, but we had no idea how these bats were persisting with the disease." Harvard University epidemiologist Kate Langwig.
"Little brown bats, during the fall swarm 4 around hibernacula entrances. During that time period they're active, and they're feeding and fattening 5 for winter, they also mate during that time period. Then they go into hibernation 6, and that's really when infection peaks. Winter is the time period in which white nose syndrome is happening to bats."
To understand how the New York bats were surviving, Langwig and her team compared them to bats from Illinois and Virginia, in colonies that are still experiencing the initial mass die-offs. They wanted to see whether the New York bats had simply found a way to tolerate the presence of the pathogen, or whether they'd actually developed resistance to the infection.
"So we found that when bats first return to hibernacula, they still become infected. Both in areas where the fungus has recently invaded as well as in areas where the fungus is established, bats become infected at the same time. And then in both places we see the fungus begin to grow and start to increase. However in areas where the disease has been for a number of years, what we find is that the fungus then reaches kind of a plateau." [Kate E. Langwig et al. Resistance in persisting bat populations after white-nose syndrome invasion, in Philosophical 7 Transactions of the Royal Society B]
So in New York, the disease ramps 8 up starting in the early winter but then the fungus stops spreading. In Illinois and Virginia, it just keeps on growing.
"It suggests that the bats are somehow actually limiting the growth of the fungus on their skin."
Langwig still doesn't know how the bats are fighting off the disease. She also wants to find out why their resistance doesn't show up until so late in the winter. Does the response wait until it hits some threshold? Do the bats' immune systems just take longer to boot up during hibernation?
And last, of course, she wants to know what lessons bat researchers can learn from this population that might help them save other types of bats in other places.
“These results, that little brown bats have developed resistance, are really encouraging to think about. We could see bats abundant once again in the Northeast.”
—Jason G. Goldman
(The above text is a transcript of this podcast)
- Mushrooms are a type of fungus.蘑菇是一种真菌。
- This fungus can just be detected by the unaided eye.这种真菌只用肉眼就能检查出。
- The headquarters had been infiltrated by enemy spies. 总部混入了敌方特务。
- Many Chinese idioms have infiltrated into the Japanese language. 许多中国成语浸透到日语中。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
- The Institute says that an unidentified virus is to blame for the syndrome. 该研究所表示,引起这种综合症的是一种尚未确认的病毒。
- Results indicated that 11 fetuses had Down syndrome. 结果表明有11个胎儿患有唐氏综合征。
- There is a swarm of bees in the tree.这树上有一窝蜜蜂。
- A swarm of ants are moving busily.一群蚂蚁正在忙碌地搬家。
- The doctor has advised him to keep off fattening food. 医生已建议他不要吃致肥食物。 来自《简明英汉词典》
- We substitute margarine for cream because cream is fattening. 我们用人造黄油代替奶油,因为奶油会使人发胖。 来自《简明英汉词典》
- Bears wake up in the spring after a winter of hibernation.熊经过一个冬天的冬眠后在春季苏醒。
- The tortoise spends the winter months in hibernation.乌龟在冬眠中度过寒冬季节。
- The teacher couldn't answer the philosophical problem.老师不能解答这个哲学问题。
- She is very philosophical about her bad luck.她对自己的不幸看得很开。