So I want to take you on a trip to an alien world. And it's not a trip that requires light-years of travel, but it's to a place where it's defined by light.
我想帶你們去趟旅行 去個奇妙的外星世界 但是這趟 不需要去光年之外的外太空 我們去一個地方 一個充滿光的地方
So it's a little-appreciated fact that most of the animals in our ocean make light. I've spent most of my career studying this phenomenon called bioluminescence. I study it because I think understanding it is critical to understanding life in the ocean where most bioluminescence occurs. I also use it as a tool for visualizing and tracking pollution. But mostly I'm entranced by it. Since my my first dive in a deep-diving submersible, when I went down and turned out the lights and saw the fireworks displays, I've been a bioluminescence junky. But I would come back from those dives and try to share the experience with words, and they were totally inadequate to the task. I needed some way to share the experience directly. And the first time I figured out that way was in this little single-person submersible called Deep Rover.
一個常常被忽略的事實是 大部份的海底生物 都能自己發光 我花了畢生心血 在研究生物發光的奧秘 因為我認為解開這個奧秘 對了解海底世界是非常重要的 海底世界蘊藏最豐富的發光生物 藉著研究生物發光體 我還能清楚地觀察與追蹤到環境汙染 但是事實上我是無可自拔地被牠們的美所吸引 打從我第一次坐著小潛艇潛入海底後就著迷了 當我潛入深海,關上探照燈的刹那 看到了如煙火般的絢爛的光影 我就不可自拔地愛上這些發光生物 我必須浮上岸來 將我看到的美景分享給大家 但是文字不足以完整地表達我所受到的震憾 我需要用其他更直接的方法來分享我所見的 我第一次想到這個妙計是在 一艘單人座、 叫深海探險號的小潛艇裡
This next video clip, you're going to see how we stimulated the bioluminescence. And the first thing you're going to see is a transect screen that is about a meter across.
接下來的這段影片 你將會看到我如何刺激這些會發光的海底生物 首先你將看到的是 一面網子 大約有一公尺寬
(Video) Narrator: In front of the sub, a mess screen will come into contact with the soft-bodied creatures of the deep sea. With the sub's lights switched off, it is possible to see their bioluminescence -- the light produced when they collide with the mesh. This is the first time it has ever been recorded.
(影片)旁白:在潛艇的前方 的一堆網子會接觸到 許多深海裡的軟體動物 當潛艇的燈熄滅後 就可以看到這些生物在發光 牠們撞上網子的當下會發出光芒 這可是史上第一次 被拍攝下來
Edith Widder: So I recorded that with an intensified video camera that has about the sensitivity of the fully dark-adapted human eye. Which means that really is what you would see if you took a dive in a submersible. But just to try to prove that fact to you, I've brought along some bioluminescent plankton in what is undoubtedly a foolhardy attempt at a live demonstration.
伊迪絲.威德:我特別用一種模擬 人類在完全黑暗的環境下 與肉眼敏感度相同的錄像機拍攝 換句話說,影片所拍攝到的就如同你自己搭一艘潛艇 潛入海底所看到的一樣 為了要證明給大家看 我今天還帶來一群會發光海底浮游生物 無庸至疑這可是大膽地嘗試 實境演出
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
So, if we could have the lights down and have it as dark in here as possible, I have a flask that has bioluminescent plankton in it. And you'll note there's no light coming from them right now, either because they're dead -- (Laughter) or because I need to stir them up in some way for you to see what bioluminescence really looks like.
請把燈關掉 保持越暗越好 玻璃瓶裡 有這些會發光海底浮游生物 你可能發現,現在什麼也看不到 要不是他們全死了 (笑聲) 就是我得想個法子把他們搖起床 讓你們看看生物發光體的真面目
(Gasps)
(抽氣聲)
Oops. Sorry.
啊!對不起
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
I spend most of my time working in the dark; I'm used to that. Okay.
我大部份時間都是在黑暗中工作,很習慣了 好
So that light was made by a bioluminescent dinoflagellate, a single-celled alga. So why would a single-celled alga need to be able to produce light? Well, it uses it to defend itself from its predators. The flash is like a scream for help. It's what's known as a bioluminescent burglar alarm, and just like the alarm on your car or your house, it's meant to cast unwanted attention onto the intruder, thereby either leading to his capture or scaring him away.
這光 是會發光的甲藻產生的 他們是單細胞藻類的一種 為什麼單細胞藻類 需要會發光呢? 它們用光來保護自己不被獵食 這些閃光就像是求救訊號 是這些生物的防盜警鈴 就像你車子或房子的防盜警鈴 會將光線跟焦點打在入侵者的身上 這樣做不是導致入侵者被逮 就是將入侵者嚇跑
There's a lot of animals that use this trick, for example this black dragonfish. It's got a light organ under its eye. It's got a chin barbel. It's got a lot of other light organs you can't see, but you'll see in here in a minute. So we had to chase this in the submersible for quite sometime, because the top speed of this fish is one knot, which was the top speed of the submersible. But it was worth it, because we caught it in a special capture device, brought it up into the lab on the ship, and then everything on this fish lights up. It's unbelievable. The light organs under the eyes are flashing. That chin barbel is flashing. It's got light organs on its belly that are flashing, fin lights. It's a scream for help; it's meant to attract attention. It's phenomenal. And you normally don't get to see this because we've exhausted the luminescence when we bring them up in nets.
很多動物都用這種計倆 例如這種黑色巨口魚 在牠眼睛下方有個會發光的器官 頦鬚也是 還有其他你看不到的部位會發光,待會兒你就會看到 我們花了些時間追捕牠 因為這種魚最快的速度可達一節 跟我們的小潛艇一樣快 但是一切都是值得的 我們用一種特殊裝備捉到牠 一帶到了船上的實驗室 這條魚身上所有的發光體都亮了起來 簡直不可思議 那個在眼睛下方會發光的器官不停地在閃 頦鬚也在閃爍 魚肚上也有個部位在閃爍 鰭也發著光 牠其實是在尖叫求救,希望引起注意。 太神奇了。 平常是看不到這些的 通常當我們拉起漁網的時候牠們的冷光已經耗盡了。
There's other ways you can defend yourself with light. For example, this shrimp releases its bioluminescent chemicals into the water just the way a squid or an octopus would release an ink cloud. This blinds or distracts the predator. This little squid is called the fire shooter because of its ability to do this. Now it may look like a tasty morsel, or a pig's head with wings -- (Laughter) but if it's attacked, it puts out a barrage of light -- in fact, a barrage of photon torpedoes. I just barely got the lights out in time for you to be able to see those gobs of light hitting the transect screen and then just glowing. It's phenomenal.
還有其他利用光來保護自己的方法。 比如,這隻蝦 會將自身生物發光的化學物質釋放到水中 就和烏賊或章魚會釋放墨汁一樣。 這會讓捕食者失明或者受到干擾。 這隻小烏賊叫火鎗筒 因為牠可以這樣做 也許牠現在看起來像盤可口的小點 或是顆有翅膀的豬頭 (笑聲) 但是如果牠被攻擊 牠會釋放出一連串的光-- 事實上,像一連串的光子魚雷。 還好我及時關掉我的探照燈 才能讓你們能看到這一團一團 的發光物質撞擊到我們的網 持續不斷地發著光 這的太神奇了
So there's a lot of animals in the open ocean -- most of them that make light. And we have a pretty good idea, for most of them, why. They use it for finding food, for attracting mates, for defending against predators. But when you get down to the bottom of the ocean, that's where things get really strange. And some of these animals are probably inspiration for the things you saw in "Avatar," but you don't have to travel to Pandora to see them. They're things like this.
廣闊的大海中有很多生物 多數都能自我發光 而我們對生物為什麼要發光也已有足夠的了解 牠們以此來覓食、吸引異性 或用來抵禦捕食者。 但是當你下潜到海底的時候, 那是個一切都變得很奇怪的地方。 有一些動物 可能會讓你想起電影“阿凡達”的一些生物 但是你不必到潘多拉星球才能看到牠們。 牠們其實就像這
This is a golden coral, a bush. It grows very slowly. In fact, it's thought that some of these are as much as 3,000 years old, which is one reason that bottom trawling should not be allowed. The other reason is this amazing bush glows. So if you brush up against it, any place you brushed against it, you get this twinkling blue-green light that's just breathtaking. And you see things like this. This looks like something out of a Dr. Seuss book -- just all manner of creatures all over this thing. And these are flytrap anemones. Now if you poke it, it pulls in its tentacles. But if you keep poking it, it starts to produce light. And it actually ends up looking like a galaxy. It produces these strings of light, presumably as some form of defense.
這是一欉金黃色的珊瑚群 微微地發著光 事實上有些珊瑚可能 都有3千多年了 這就是為什麼海底拖網應該被禁止 當然還因為這些珊瑚群所散發的美麗 如果你輕拂過牠們 你觸摸過的地方 就會閃著藍綠色的光芒 真的令人難以置信 當你看到這個 你可能覺得跟Dr Seuss童話繪本裡的東西相似 好像所有生物的奇形怪狀都在牠身上 牠們是捕蠅海葵 如果你戳戳它的話,它會收回它的觸鬚 但是如果你一直戳它的話, 它就會開始發光 事實上看起來就像某個銀河星系 正散發出線狀的光芒, 這其實是某種形式的自我保護
There are starfish that can make light. And there are brittle stars that produce bands of light that dance along their arms. This looks like a plant, but it's actually an animal. And it anchors itself in the sand by blowing up a balloon on the end of its stock. So it can actually hold itself in very strong currents, as you see here. But if we collect it very gently, and we bring it up into the lab and just squeeze it at the base of the stock, it produces this light that propagates from stem to the plume, changing color as it goes, from green to blue. Colorization and sound effects added for you viewing pleasure. (Laughter) But we have no idea why it does that.
還有這個會發光的海星、 會發出條狀光芒的海蛇尾 光芒會隨著它們的觸手舞動 這看上去像一株植物, 但其實是動物。 它的底盤可以像氣球一樣鼓起來 好把自己固定在沙子中 以此抵擋强力的潮流 就像你看到的一樣 但是如果我們小心翼翼地撿起它、帶回到實驗室中 擠壓牠的身體底盤, 牠就會發出這樣的光 由觸手漫延到刺管 還會變換色彩, 由綠至藍 影片加入了色彩和音效 是為了增加你觀看的樂趣。 (笑聲) 但是我們完全不知道牠為什麼要這麼做。
Here's another one. This is also a sea pen. It's got a brittle star hitching a ride. It's a green saber of light. And like the one you just saw, it can produce these as bands of light. So if I squeeze the base, the bands go from base to tip. If I squeeze the tip, they go from tip to base. So what do you think happens if you squeeze it in the middle? (Gasps) I'd be very interested in your theories about what that's about.
另外一個例子,也是牠的親戚﹣海鰓。 牠搭着海蛇尾的便車 閃著螢光綠 就像你剛看到的一樣, 牠能發出那種帶狀的光 所以如果我擠壓底部, 光帶會從底部傳到頂端。 如果我捏頂部,就會從頂端傳到底部。 那如果我捏中間的話,你覺得會發生什麼事? (抽氣聲) 我很想知到你們對這些現象的解釋為何
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
So there's a language of light in the deep ocean, and we're just beginning to understand it, and one way we're going about that is we're imitating a lot of these displays. This is an optical lure that I've used. We call it the electronic jellyfish. It's just 16 blue LEDs that we can program to do different types of displays. And we view it with a camera system I developed called Eye-in-the-Sea that uses far red light that's invisible to most animals, so it's unobtrusive. So I just want to show you some of the responses we've elicited from animals in the deep sea.
在深海裡存在一種光之語, 而我們才剛剛開始了解它。 探究的方法之一 就是試著模仿這些花樣 這是我曾用過的一個視覺誘餌 我們叫它電子水母。 它有16顆藍色的發光二極體燈(LED) 能讓我們輸入不同顯示的花樣 我們用我所開發的海之眼攝影系統觀測它 這系統觀測利用了大多數動物看不見的遠紅外線, 所以不會引起其注意。 我想讓大家看 這些深海生物 被激發後的反應。
So the camera's black and white. It's not high-resolution. And what you're seeing here is a bait box with a bunch of -- like the cockroaches of the ocean -- there are isopods all over it. And right in the front is the electronic jellyfish. And when it starts flashing, it's just going to be one of the LEDs that's flashing very fast. But as soon as it starts to flash -- and it's going to look big, because it blooms on the camera -- I want you to look right here. There's something small there that responds. We're talking to something. It looks like a little of string pearls basically -- in fact, three strings of pearls. And this was very consistent. This was in the Bahamas at about 2,000 feet. We basically have a chat room going on here, because once it gets started, everybody's talking. And I think this is actually a shrimp that's releasing its bioluminescent chemicals into the water. But the cool thing is, we're talking to it. We don't know what we're saying. Personally, I think it's something sexy.
拍攝的錄像只有黑白 也不是高解析 你現在看到的是一盒誘餌 裡面有滿滿一堆像海蟑螂的 等足類動物 正前方 則是電子水母。 當它開始閃爍的時候, 只會有一顆LED燈快速地閃動 但是當它開始閃爍的時候 看起來很巨大,那只是鏡頭的效果 請大家注意這裡 有個小東西作出了回應。 那個東西 基本上看起來像一小串珍珠, 事實上,是三串珍珠。 這樣的反應是非常一致的。 這是在巴哈馬群島2000尺深的海底 我們在這裡有個聊天室, 只要有“人“開始,大家都在說話,七嘴八舌的。 我認為這隻是蝦 牠正向水中釋放生物發光體的化學物質。 但是有趣的是,我們似乎正在對話。 我們不知道我們說了些什麼。 個人覺得,應該是一些甜言蜜語。
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
And then finally, I want to show you some responses that we recorded with the world's first deep-sea webcam, which we had installed in Monterey Canyon last year. We've only just begun to analyze all of this data. This is going to be a glowing source first, which is like bioluminescent bacteria. And it is an optical cue that there's carrion on the bottom of the ocean. So this scavenger comes in, which is a giant sixgill shark. And I can't claim for sure that the optical source brought it in, because there's bait right there. But if it had been following the odor plume, it would have come in from the other direction. And it does actually seem to be trying to eat the electronic jellyfish. That's a 12-foot-long giant sixgill shark.
最後 我想讓大家看一些我們 用世界首台深海攝影機拍到的現象, 這是我們去年安装在蒙特利峡谷的。 我們才剛剛開始分析這些研究資料。 這起初就像個光源, 就好像會發光的細菌 指引著 深海底部的腐肉 而這隻海底清道夫循線而來 這是一隻巨型灰六鰓鯊 我不能肯定 是光源吸引牠而來,還是那些誘餌 但是如果我們細究這氣味飄散的方向, 牠應該從另外一個方向來。 牠正在嘗試 吃掉那隻電子水母。 這是條12呎長的巨型灰六鰓鯊。
Okay, so this next one is from the webcam, and it's going to be this pinwheel display. And this is a burglar alarm. And that was a Humboldt squid, a juvenile Humboldt squid, about three feet long. This is at 3,000 feet in Monterey Canyon. But if it's a burglar alarm, you wouldn't expect it to attack the jellyfish directly. It's supposed to be attacking what's attacking the jellyfish. But we did see a bunch of responses like this. This guy is a little more contemplative. "Hey, wait a minute. There's supposed to be something else there." He's thinking about it. But he's persistent. He keeps coming back. And then he goes away for a few seconds to think about it some more, and thinks, "Maybe if I come in from a different angle." (Laughter) Nope.
好了,下一個出場的 是座旋轉輪盤 其實是個防盗警報器。 那是洪堡魷魚, 一隻年輕的洪堡魷魚,大約3英呎長。 這是在蒙特利峡谷海面下3000呎。 如果這個真的是防盗警報器,它應該不會直接攻擊那隻水母的 而是反擊其他攻擊水母的生物 但是我們反而觀察到一連串這樣的反應 這傢伙正躊躇不前 “嘿,等等 這裡本來是另一個東西的” 他正在思考這個問题。 他也很執著 不斷徘徊 接着牠離開了幾秒鐘 重新思考眼前的難題 然後想到, "也許我需要從另一個角度進攻" (笑聲) 失敗
So we are starting to get a handle on this, but only just the beginnings. We need more eyes on the process. So if any of you ever get a chance to take a dive in a submersible, by all means, climb in and take the plunge. This is something that should be on everybody's bucket list, because we live on an ocean planet. More than 90 percent, 99 percent, of the living space on our planet is ocean. It's a magical place filled with breathtaking light shows and bizarre and wondrous creatures, alien life forms that you don't have to travel to another planet to see.
我們才剛開始着手做這些, 但是僅僅是初始階段。 我們需要更多人力投入觀測 所以如果你們其中任何一位有機會乘潜艇下潜的話, 不管怎樣一定要試試下潛到深海 這是每個人在死前一定要做的一件事 因為我們生存在一個海洋星球 在我們的地球上超過百分之九十、九十九 有生命的地方 就是大海 那真是個神奇的地方 充滿著壯觀的光舞 和奇形怪狀神祕的生物 像是從外太空來的 而你不必跑去另一個星球去看
But if you do take the plunge, please remember to turn out the lights. But I warn you, it's addictive.
只需要潛入海底就行 請記得關掉你的探照燈 我可得警告你 這可是會上癮的
Thank you.
謝謝大家
(Applause)
(掌聲)