10件腦洞大開(kāi)的發(fā)明

Science is a mix of smarts， toughness， and having the right tools. Sometimes these tools are things you （hopefully） won’t find at your neighborhood garage sale注1： particle colliders[粒子碰撞器]， genetically[從基因方面] engineered fruit flies， and endless lists of data. But thanks to small budgets[預(yù)算]， a growth in creativity， or both， scientists turn boring or strange items[物品] into tools， too. Here are ten objects that took on new meaning in the hands of scientists.

科學(xué)是才智、毅力和正確工具的結(jié)晶。有時(shí)候，這些工具（但愿）不是你能在鄰居的車(chē)庫(kù)交易中找到的，比如粒子碰撞機(jī)、基因工程處理過(guò)的果蠅以及無(wú)窮無(wú)盡的數(shù)據(jù)單。然而，由于預(yù)算不足、想象力過(guò)剩，或者兩者皆有，科學(xué)家們也會(huì)把各種或無(wú)聊或稀奇的物品當(dāng)作工具。以下十件物品就被科學(xué)家賦予了新意義。

Rubber Ducks 橡皮鴨

In 2008， NASA注2 researchers launched a large group of rubber ducks into a glacial rift[長(zhǎng)狹谷] in Greenland. Scientists wanted to know where the water from Greenland’s melting glaciers would go as the Earth heats up. Rubber ducks， swept along by the current[水流]， were a cheap way for scientists to keep track of the ice water. Plus， anyone who called the number on a rubber duck got a reward[獎(jiǎng)賞] for telling the scientists where the toys ended up. Rubber duck hunting in the Arctic， anyone？

2008年，美國(guó)國(guó)家航空航天局（NASA）的研究員將一大批橡皮鴨放到格陵蘭的一處冰川裂谷中?？茖W(xué)家想知道，隨著地球氣溫不斷上升，格陵蘭融化的冰川水會(huì)流向何處。橡皮鴨會(huì)隨著水流移動(dòng)，是科學(xué)家記錄冰水流向的一種廉價(jià)方式。另外，如果誰(shuí)按橡皮鴨上印著的電話號(hào)碼打回去，告訴科學(xué)家這些玩具最終飄到了哪里，就可以得到獎(jiǎng)勵(lì)。誰(shuí)想去北極圈抓橡皮鴨？

Tampons 衛(wèi)生棉條

After absorbing[吸收] even small amounts of detergent[清潔劑]， tampons shine brightly under UV light. Environmental researchers in Britain on the hunt for pollution recently used this fact to their advantage. Laundry detergent[洗衣粉] shouldn’t be leaking[漏出] into the English countryside， but old plumbing[水管裝置] has a way of breaking down. By dipping[浸] the tampons in rivers and sewers[下水道]， then checking to see if the cotton glowed[發(fā)光] in the dark， scientists at the University of Sheffield knew to check for a leak upstream.

即使只吸收極少量的清潔劑，衛(wèi)生棉條在紫外線下都會(huì)發(fā)出亮光。最近，英國(guó)一些追查污染源的環(huán)境研究專(zhuān)家對(duì)衛(wèi)生棉條的這一特性加以利用。在英國(guó)的鄉(xiāng)村是不能排放洗衣粉的，但老舊的管道往往會(huì)出現(xiàn)破損。把衛(wèi)生棉條浸入河流和下水道，然后看看棉條是否在黑暗處發(fā)光，謝菲爾德大學(xué)的科學(xué)家們就知道需不需要到上游檢查泄漏了。

Moose Costume 駝鹿戲服

A tailor-made moose suit allowed a pair of biologists get close to wild moose in Yellowstone National Park. The reason？ Because predators[食肉動(dòng)物] were returning to the forest， the biologists wanted to see how moose would react to snowballs packed with the poop[大便] of grizzly bears[大灰熊] and wolves.

一套量身定制的駝鹿服讓兩名生物學(xué)家得以近距離觀察（美國(guó)）黃石國(guó)家公園的野生駝鹿。為什么要這樣做呢？因?yàn)槭橙鈩?dòng)物都回到森林里去了，生物學(xué)家想看看，駝鹿會(huì)對(duì)包著大灰熊和狐貍糞便的雪球做出什么反應(yīng)。

Alfred Hitchcock注3 TV Show 阿爾弗雷德·希區(qū)柯克的電視劇

Director Alfred Hitchcock was not just known for his silver screen versions of psychos[精神病患者] and angry birds： he also had a well-known TV thriller[驚悚片]， Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Neurologists[神經(jīng)學(xué)家] aired an episode of this show to conscious[有知覺(jué)的] volunteers as well as two patients in vegetative[植物人的] states， while scanning their brains. Surprisingly， one of the patients showed activity in the front of his brain during the scariest part—just like the fully conscious volunteers.

導(dǎo)演阿爾弗雷德·希區(qū)柯克不單以在大銀幕上展現(xiàn)精神病患者或憤怒的鳥(niǎo)兒出名，他還制作過(guò)一部著名的驚悚電視劇——《希區(qū)柯克懸念故事集》。神經(jīng)病學(xué)家對(duì)清醒的志愿者和兩名處于植物人狀態(tài)的病人播放了這部電視劇的其中一集，同時(shí)對(duì)他們的腦部進(jìn)行掃描。令人驚訝的是，在播放到最恐怖的片段時(shí)，其中一名病人大腦的前部顯示出活動(dòng)的跡象——和完全清醒的志愿者一樣。

Comic Books 漫畫(huà)書(shū)

A few psychologists[心理學(xué)家] have turned to an unusual group of assistants： superheroes. Therapists[治療師] like Dr. Patrick O’Connor use Batman and other geek[極客] culture characters to help kids express themselves in a more comfortable and familiar way.

一些心理學(xué)家向一群不尋常的助手求助：超級(jí)英雄。像帕特里克·奧康納醫(yī)生這樣的治療專(zhuān)家，就利用蝙蝠俠和其他極客文化角色幫助兒童用他們更為舒服熟悉的形式表達(dá)自己。

Live Sheep 活羊

TNT注4 is no match for[不敵] a sheep’s iron gut， or at least the bacteria[細(xì)菌] that live there. The tiny organisms[生物體] inside sheep help animals digest[消化] tough plants， but it turns out they can also break down explosives into harmless compounds[化合物]. In 2011， veterinarians[獸醫(yī)] had sheep chew through soil that contained TNT， rather than traditional but more expensive clean-up methods.

三硝基甲苯拼不過(guò)羊的鐵胃——至少是活在里面的細(xì)菌。羊體內(nèi)的這些小小的生物體不僅能讓動(dòng)物消化難啃的植物，原來(lái)還可以將爆炸物分解為無(wú)害的化合物。2011年，獸醫(yī)讓羊咀嚼含有三硝基甲苯的泥土，而不是用成本高昂的傳統(tǒng)清理方式。

Dead Salmon 死三文魚(yú)

Neuroscientists[神經(jīng)系統(tǒng)科學(xué)家] use MRI注5 machines to analyze[分析] cerebral[大腦的] activity， which normally works on brains inside living humans. But Dartmouth University scientists needed to run a few tests， so they stuck a （dead） supermarket salmon in the MRI. As they were running the tests， the MRI happened to light up right where the salmon’s brain was. It doesn’t mean that the MRI was broken or that we now need to worry about zombie salmon—but MRIs， like many scientific tests， sometimes show false positives[假陽(yáng)性] due to background noise.

神經(jīng)系統(tǒng)科學(xué)家利用磁共振成像機(jī)分析大腦活動(dòng)，分析對(duì)象通常是活人的大腦。然而，達(dá)特茅斯學(xué)院的科學(xué)家需要進(jìn)行一些測(cè)試，于是他們把一條從超市買(mǎi)來(lái)的（死）三文魚(yú)塞進(jìn)了磁共振成像機(jī)里。在進(jìn)行測(cè)試的過(guò)程中，機(jī)器恰好在三文魚(yú)的腦部亮了起來(lái)。這不代表磁共振成像機(jī)壞了，也不是說(shuō)從現(xiàn)在開(kāi)始我們要擔(dān)心三文魚(yú)喪尸了——和很多科學(xué)實(shí)驗(yàn)一樣，磁共振成像機(jī)有時(shí)會(huì)因?yàn)楸尘霸胍舳鴾y(cè)出假陽(yáng)性。

FaceBook 臉譜網(wǎng)

In a study of how people use language—perhaps the largest of its kind—University of Pennsylvania linguists[語(yǔ)言學(xué)家] analyzed the Facebook pages of 75，000 volunteers. Depending on the words used， the scientists could predict[預(yù)測(cè)] a person’s gender[性別]， and more than ha the time estimated[估計(jì)] how old a user was to within three years.

在一項(xiàng)研究人類(lèi)如何運(yùn)用語(yǔ)言的研究中——也許是同類(lèi)當(dāng)中最大型的一次——賓夕法尼亞大學(xué)的語(yǔ)言學(xué)家分析了75000個(gè)志愿者的臉譜網(wǎng)頁(yè)。科學(xué)家們可以根據(jù)志愿者使用的詞匯判斷其性別;而且在超過(guò)一半的情況下能準(zhǔn)確估算使用者的年齡，誤差不超過(guò)三年。

ToothBrushes 牙刷

Shovels and hammers may be great for breaking rocks or dirt， but when ancient and fragile fossils[化石] are involved[使?fàn)可鎉， it calls for a more gentle touch. A team of fossil hunters found a giant crocodile skeleton in Kenya， and paleontologist[古生物學(xué)家] Louise Leakey gave up her toothbrush to dust off the old bones.

鐵鏟和錘子也許是用來(lái)砸爛石頭和泥土的好工具，但當(dāng)你遇上古老而脆弱的化石時(shí)，就要用溫柔百倍的方式了。一隊(duì)化石獵人在肯尼亞發(fā)現(xiàn)了一具巨大的鱷魚(yú)骨化石，古生物學(xué)家路易斯·李基貢獻(xiàn)出自己的牙刷，用來(lái)掃去這些老骨頭上的灰塵。

Junk Food 垃圾食物

Ants chow down[（俚）大快朵頤] on waste food and keep cities clean， according to a December 2014 study. To see just how good a job ants do at cleaning up after us， biologists left out hot dogs and bits of cookies in a few parts of New York. The amount[數(shù)量] of food the bugs ate came out to about 60，000 hot dogs per year on two New York City streets alone.

按照2014年12月某項(xiàng)研究的說(shuō)法，螞蟻可以吃掉垃圾食物，讓城市變得整潔。為了看看螞蟻的善后工作有多好，生物學(xué)家在紐約市的幾個(gè)區(qū)域放置了熱狗和曲奇碎。（結(jié)果）單單在紐約兩條街上，這些小昆蟲(chóng)每年吃掉的熱狗數(shù)量就相當(dāng)于約六萬(wàn)根之多。

注1：指通常在私家車(chē)庫(kù)進(jìn)行的閑置物品交易。

注2：美國(guó)國(guó)家航空航天局（National Aeronautics and Space Administration）簡(jiǎn)稱(chēng)NASA，是美國(guó)聯(lián)邦政府的一個(gè)行政性科研機(jī)構(gòu)，負(fù)責(zé)制定、實(shí)施美國(guó)的民用太空計(jì)劃與開(kāi)展航空科學(xué)暨太空科學(xué)的研究。

注3：阿爾弗雷德·希區(qū)柯克（1899—1980），英國(guó)（后加入美國(guó)國(guó)籍，同時(shí)保留英國(guó)國(guó)籍）電影導(dǎo)演、編劇、制片人，尤其擅長(zhǎng)拍攝驚悚懸疑片。

注4：TNT（三硝基甲苯）是一種烈性炸藥，呈黃色粉末或魚(yú)鱗片狀，難溶于水，可用于水下爆破。由于威力大，常用來(lái)做副起爆藥。

注5：MRI也就是磁共振成像，英文全稱(chēng)是Magnetic Resonance Imaging。