狗狗是如何用它们的鼻子'看'世界的
日期:2018-11-02 16:20

(单词翻译:单击)

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"Hi, Bob." "Morning, Kelly. The tulips looks great."
“嗨,鲍勃。”“早上好,凯利。这株郁金香看起来好美。”
Have you ever wondered how your dog experiences the world?
你曾经为你的狗狗如何感受这个世界产生过质疑吗?
Here's what she sees. Not terribly interesting.
这是她看到的世界。不是特别的有趣。
But what she smells, that's a totally different story.
但是,她利用嗅觉感知的却是另一个世界。
And it begins at her wonderfully developed nose.
这都是取决于她发达的鼻子。
As your dog catches the first hints of fresh air, her nose's moist, spongy outside helps capture any scents the breeze carries.
当你的狗狗捕捉到第一缕新鲜空气,她鼻子潮湿像海绵一样的外部帮助她捕捉风中每一丝香气。
The ability to smell separately with each nostril,
两个鼻孔在嗅觉上分别有不同的功能,
smelling in stereo, helps to determine the direction of the smell's source so that within the first few moments of sniffing,
立体的嗅觉,可以帮助狗狗来判断气味源的方向,因此,在刚开始嗅的几分钟里,
the dog starts to become aware of not just what kind of things are out there but also where they're located.
狗狗就开始意识到的有什么在附近,而且还能判断出他们的位置在哪里。
As air enters the nose, a small fold of tissue divides it into two separate folds,
当空气进入到狗狗的鼻子里,小部分褶皱组织把空气分成两缕,
one for breathing and one just for smelling.
一缕用来维持呼吸,另一缕为嗅觉。
This second airflow enters a region filled with highly specialized olfactory receptor cells,
第二缕空气进入一个充满高度特殊化嗅觉接受细胞的区域,
several hundred millions of them, compaired to our five million.
狗狗有数亿个嗅觉细胞,人类却只有五百万个。
And unlike our clumsy way of breathing in and out through the same passage,
不同于人类笨拙地呼吸进出同一丝气息,
dogs exhale through slits at the side of their nose,
狗狗透过鼻旁的细缝呼气,
creating swirls of air that help draw in new odor molecules and allow odor concentration to build up over multiple sniffs.
形成空气漩涡帮助吸纳新的气味分子,并且透过多次嗅闻建立起味道浓度。
But all that impressive nasal architecture
但如此精妙的鼻子架构,
wouldn't be much help without something to process the loads of information the nose scoops up.
缺乏一个信息处理组织是难以实现的。
And it turns out that the olfactory system dedicated to processing smells
事实证明,狗狗用于处理气味的嗅觉系统
takes up many times more relative brain area in dogs than in humans.
占用了比人类更多的脑空间。
All of this allows dogs to distinguish and remember
这些都帮助了狗狗分辨和记忆
a staggering variety of specific scents at concentrations up to 100 million times less than what our noses can detect.
各种人类无法检测的、浓缩亿万倍的特殊气味。

狗狗是如何用它们的鼻子'看'世界的

If you can smell a spritz of perfume in a small room,
如果你能闻到一个小房间里的香水味,
a dog would have no trouble smelling it in an enclosed stadium and distinguishing its ingredients, to boot.
狗狗就能在封闭的体育馆里闻到且分辨出它的成分,
And everything in the street, every passing person or car, any contents of the neighbor's trash, each type of tree,
街上任何事物,每一个经过的行人和车辆、邻居的垃圾、每种树、
and all the birds and insects in it has a distinct odor profile telling your dog what it is,
还有栖息在树上的鸟儿,都有独特的气味信息,似乎在告诉你的狗狗他们是什么,
where it is, and which direction it's moving in.
在哪里以及朝着那个方向移动。
Besides being much more powerful than ours, a dog's sense of smell can pick up things that can't even be seen at all.
除了比我们人类厉害百倍,狗的嗅觉还能感知到一些无法看见的事物。
A whole separate olfactory system, called the vomeronasal organ, above the roof of the mouth,
一个完全分离的嗅觉系统,叫做犁鼻器,位于口腔上方,
detects the hormones all animals, including humans, naturally release.
检测所有动物,包括人类,自然释放的荷尔蒙。
It lets dogs identify potential mates, or distinguish between friendly and hostile animals.
它让狗狗能辨识潜在的伴侣,或是区分友好和带敌意的动物。
It alerts them to our various emotional states, and it can even tell them when someone is pregnant or sick.
它也提醒狗狗留意我们不同的情绪,或者当有人怀孕或生病的时候告诉它们。
Because olfaction is more primal than other senses,
因为嗅觉比其他感官更原始,
bypassing the thalamus to connect directly to the brain structures involving emotion and instinct,
绕过丘脑直接连接大脑,涉及情感和本能,
we might even say a dog's perception is more immediate and visceral than ours.
我们甚至可以说狗狗的感知比我们的更直接和发自肺腑。
But the most amazing thing about your dog's nose is that it can traverse time.
但狗鼻子最神奇的地方在于它可以跨越时间。
The past appears in tracks left by passersby,
闻出来往路人留下的轨迹,
and by the warmth of a recently parked car where the residue of where you've been and what you've done recently.
可以透过刚刚离开的车辆气味、透过残留气味知道你去了哪里和你做的一切。
Landmarks like fire hydrants and trees are aromatic bulletin boards carrying messages of who's been by,
消防栓或树木等地标,是留下气味的告示牌,记录着谁曾路过,
what they've been eating, and how they're feeling.
他们曾吃过什么,他们曾感觉到了什么。
And the future is in the breeze, alerting them to something or someone approaching long before you see them.
未来也蕴藏在风的气息里,告知狗狗在它们还未看到之前,即将靠近的人事物。
Where we see and hear something at a single moment, a dog smells an entire story from start to finish.
我们看到或听到的一瞬,狗狗就能闻到整个故事的开头到结尾。
In some of the best examples of canine-human collaboration, dogs help us by sharing and reacting to those stories.
在一些人犬合作的例子里,狗狗透过对故事的分享和反馈来帮助我们。
They can respond with kindness to people in distress, or with aggression to threats
用友善回应悲伤或用进攻抵御威胁,
because stress and anger manifest as a cloud of hormones recognizable to the dog's nose.
因为压力和愤怒都能释放能被狗狗嗅到的荷尔蒙。
With the proper training, they can even alert us to invisible threats ranging from bombs to cancer.
透过正规的训练,狗狗能告知我们从炸弹到癌症的潜在危险。
As it turns out, humanity's best friend is not one who experiences the same things we do,
事实证明,人类最好的朋友并不是与我们同经历共患难的谁,
but one whose incredible nose reveals a whole other world beyond our eyes.
而是透过灵敏的鼻子,带给我们视线以外新世界的它们。

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重点单词
  • dedicatedadj. 专注的,献身的,专用的
  • humanityn. 人类,人性,人道,慈爱,(复)人文学科
  • distinctadj. 独特的,不同的,明显的,清楚的
  • emotionaladj. 感情的,情绪的
  • separaten. 分开,抽印本 adj. 分开的,各自的,单独的 v
  • alertadj. 警觉的,灵敏的 n. 警戒,警报 vt. 警惕
  • olfactionn. 嗅觉
  • specificadj. 特殊的,明确的,具有特效的 n. 特效药,特性
  • potentialadj. 可能的,潜在的 n. 潜力,潜能 n. 电位,
  • specialized专门的 专科的