Now the way she's carrying out this research is worth thinking about.
Varian-Ramos进行这项研究的方法值得我们思考。
She's using a mixture of studies using birds kept in laboratories, and studies carried out outdoors in the wild.
通过对实验室养的鸟进行研究，并在野外进行户外研究，她所进行的是一项混合研究。
The lab-based studies have the advantage that you don't get all the variables you would in a natural setting,
基于实验室的研究，其优点在于在自然环境中可能无法得到所有的变量，
so the experimenter has a much higher level of control,
实验者因此有着更高程度的控制，
and that means they can be more confident about their results in some ways.
这就意味着在某些方面他们能对自己的结果更加自信。
And of course they don't have to worry about going out and finding the birds in order to observe them.
当然他们也不用担心得出去找鸟然后才能进行观察。
So what are the implications here for humans?
那这对人类有什么启示呢？
Well, because many birds are migratory, they may be transporting mercury far from contaminated sites.
因为很多鸟类是候鸟，所以它们可能会将污染区域的汞带到很远的地方。
For example, it's been found that ducks who'd been feeding at a contaminated site
举例来说，曾经发现有在某个受污染区域觅食的鸭子
were later shot by hunters over a thousand kilometres away, and presumably eaten.
被千里之外的猎人射杀，然后很有可能被吃掉。
But these birds likely had mercury levels high enough to warrant concern for human consumption.
这些鸟体内的汞含量可能高至产生人类食用的担忧。
In addition, going back to song learning by birds, we saw that this may be affected by mercury contamination.
此外，回到鸟类学习鸣叫的事情上，我们看到这一过程可能会受到汞污染的影响。
Well, we also know that in humans, mercury causes developmental delays in the acquisition of language,
我们还知道汞会引起人类语言习得的发展延迟，
and in fact this process is very similar in the brain regions it involves and even the genes that are involved.
事实上这一过程就其脑部控制区域而言跟鸟类学习鸣叫时用到的是相似的，甚至涉及到的基因也是相似的。
But mercury contamination has other important implications for humans as well.
但是对人类而言汞污染还有其他严重的后果。
It's now known that a unborn child can be affected if the food eaten by its mother contains high levels of mercury,
现在人们已知道未出世的婴儿会因其母亲食用了汞含量高的食物而受到影响，
and these effects can be quite substantial.
而且这些影响可能是十分严重的。
In the end, it comes down to whether more value is placed on human economic well-being or environmental well-being.
最终，问题还是回归到是要更重视人类的经济福祉，还是环境福祉。
It's true there are new regulations for mercury emissions from power plants,
的确，现如今针对发电厂的汞排放有了新的规定，
but these will need billions of dollars to implement, and increase costs for everyone.
但这些规定需要数以十亿计的美元来实施，这会增加所有人的生活成本。
Some argue that's too much to pay to protect wildlife.
有的人争论道为保护野生动物付出的代价太大了。
But as we've seen, the issues go beyond that, and I think it's an issue we need to consider very carefully.
但正如我们所看到的，这一问题不止如此简单，我认为我们需要非常认真地考虑这一问题。