Thank you. I have two missions here today. The first is to tell you something about pollen, I hope, and to convince you that it's more than just something that gets up your nose. And, secondly, to convince you that every home really ought to have a scanning electron microscope. (Laughter) Pollen is a flower's way of making more flowers. It carries male sex cells from one flower to another. This gives us genetic diversity, or at least it gives the plants genetic diversity. And it's really rather better not to mate with yourself. That's probably true of humans as well, mostly.
謝謝,我今天有二個任務, 第一是要告訴各位有關花粉的一切, 我希望我的演說能讓你不再認為花粉只是引起鼻子過敏的東西。 第二,我希望能說服你們 在家裡都放一台電子顯微鏡。 (笑聲) 花粉是植物傳遞下一代的媒介, 它能把雄性生殖細胞 從一株植物帶到另一株植物上。 這會讓我們看到多樣化的物種, 至少會讓植物產生多元的下一代。 而且植物知道最好不要和自己交配, 我想這也適用於人類。
Pollen is produced by the anthers of flowers. Each anther can carry up to 100,000 grains of pollen, so, it's quite prolific stuff. And it isn't just bright flowers that have pollen; it's also trees and grasses. And remember that all our cereal crops are grasses as well.
花粉是由花粉囊所產生的, 每一個花粉囊裡最多可以儲存十萬個花粉, 所以還算是滿多產的。 而且不是只有看得見的花朵才會產生花粉, 樹和禾本植物也會產生花粉。 別忘了,所有的穀類農作物都是禾本植物。
Here is a scanning electron micrograph of a grain of pollen. The little hole in the middle, we'll come to a bit later, but that's for the pollen tube to come out later on. A very tiny tube. So, that's 20 micrometers across, that pollen grain there. That's about a 50th of a millimeter. But not all pollen is quite so simple looking.
這是花粉在電子顯微鏡下的樣子, 我們待會兒會談到花粉中間的小洞, 那是讓花粉管冒出來的地方, 一條非常細的管子。 這個花粉的直徑 大約只有20微米而已, 也就是50分之一公釐那麼大。 每一種花粉的形狀都不一樣。
This is Morina. This is a plant -- which I've always thought to be rather tedious -- named after Morin, who was an enterprising French gardener, who issued the first seed catalog in 1621. But anyway, take a look at its pollen. This is amazing, I think. That little hole in the middle there is for the pollen tube, and when the pollen finds its special female spot in another Morina flower, just on the right species, what happens? Like I said, pollen carries the male sex cells. If you actually didn't realize that plants have sex, they have rampant, promiscuous and really quite interesting and curious sex. Really. (Laughter) A lot.
這是莫琳娜, 我一直覺得這種植物很乏味, 它是以法國園藝企業家 莫林之名來命名, 他在1621年發行了 第一本種子目錄。 不管怎樣,我們來看看它的花粉。 很驚人吧! 中間的洞是讓花粉管冒出來的地方, 當花粉在另一株同樣品種的 莫琳娜花上發現它的 真命天女時,你猜會怎樣? 就像我說的,花粉會帶著自己的雄性生殖細胞, 如果你以為植物沒有性交,那就錯了! 他們有雜交、亂交 和其他各種稀奇古怪的性交方式。 (笑聲)
My story is actually not about plant propagation, but about pollen itself. "So, what are pollen's properties?" I hear you ask. First of all, pollen is tiny. Yes we know that. It's also very biologically active, as anyone with hay fever will understand. Now, pollen from plants, which are wind-dispersed -- like trees and grasses and so on -- tend to cause the most hay fever. And the reason for that is they've got to chuck out masses and masses of pollen to have any chance of the pollen reaching another plant of the same species.
今天的主題其實不是在談植物的繁殖, 而是要談花粉。 那麼花粉的功能是什麼?你一定想問吧? 首先,花粉很微小,大家都知道。 花粉同時也很活躍, 有花粉症的人就能瞭解。 只要是藉由風力傳播花粉的植物, 像是樹木或是禾本植物, 就很容易引起花粉症。 原因在於,這些植物會產生大量、 無以計數的花粉,藉以提升花粉 到達其他相同植物的機率。
Here are some examples -- they're very smooth if you look at them -- of tree pollen that is meant to be carried by the wind. Again -- this time, sycamore -- wind-dispersed. So, trees: very boring flowers, not really trying to attract insects. Cool pollen, though. This one I particularly like. This is the Monterey Pine, which has little air sacks to make the pollen carry even further. Remember, that thing is just about 30 micrometers across.
讓我舉幾個例子。 如果你觀察樹木的花粉,你會發現 他們的表面很光滑,因為這樣較容易被風吹送出去。 再來,西克莫無花果,也是靠風吹送花粉, 這些樹木,沒有漂亮的花朵, 吸引不到昆蟲, 但是他們有很酷的花粉。 這個是我最喜歡的, 這是蒙特利松,他的花粉上還有小小的風囊, 可以讓花粉被吹送得更遠。 要注意,這些花粉的直徑大約只有30微米而已。
Now, it's much more efficient if you can get insects to do your bidding. This is a bee's leg with the pollen glommed onto it from a mallow plant. And this is the outrageous and beautiful flower of the mangrove palm. Very showy, to attract lots of insects to do its bidding. The pollen has little barbs on it, if we look. Now, those little barbs obviously stick to the insects well, but there is something else that we can tell from this photograph, and that is that you might be able to see a fracture line across what would be the equator of this, if it was the Earth. That tells me that it's actually been fossilized, this pollen. And I'm rather proud to say that this was found just near London, and that 55 million years ago London was full of mangroves. Isn't that cool? (Laughter)
如果可以讓昆蟲幫忙授粉就會更有效率多了。 這是蜜蜂的腳, 在它飛進某株錦葵科植物時,花粉就附著在它身上。 這是紅樹林棕櫚 最光彩奪目的花朵, 很顯眼,就為了吸引昆蟲來幫它授粉。 如果我們細看這些花粉, 會發現有些細小的芒刺在上面, 這些芒刺很明顯是要 黏附在昆蟲身上。 但這張照片還有其他值得細究的地方, 你會看到中間好像有一條裂痕, 就像地球上的赤道一樣, 這表示這個花粉其實是個化石。 我可以很驕傲地說, 這個化石是在倫敦附近發現的,也就是在五千五百萬年前, 倫敦其實長滿了紅樹林棕櫚, 很酷吧? (笑聲)
Okay, so this is another species evolved to be dispersed by insects. You can tell that from the little barbs on there. All these pictures were taken with a scanning electron microscope, actually in the lab at Kew Laboratories. No coincidence that these were taken by Rob Kesseler, who is an artist, and I think it's someone with a design and artistic eye like him that has managed to bring out the best in pollen. (Laughter)
好,這是另一種利用昆蟲散佈花粉的植物, 你可以從上面的芒刺分辨出來。 這些照片都是利用電子顯微鏡拍出來的, 就在Kew實驗中心的實驗室裡拍攝。 攝影師是 Rob Kessler,他是個藝術家, 我想像他這樣一位具有設計及藝術眼光的人, 一定會把花粉的最好一面挖掘出來。 (笑聲)
Now, all this diversity means that you can look at a pollen grain and tell what species it came from, and that's actually quite handy if you maybe have a sample and you want to see where it came from. So, different species of plants grow in different places, and some pollen carries further than others. So, if you have a pollen sample, then in principle, you should be able to tell where that sample came from. And this is where it gets interesting for forensics.
花粉有各種不同的形狀, 也就是說,你可以從花粉的形狀 判斷出產生這種花粉的植物。 如果你恰好拿到一個花粉樣本, 你就可以很容易地知道它的來源地在哪裡, 因為不同的植物 生長在不同的地方。 雖然有些花粉會被傳送到較遠處, 但只要你有花粉的樣本, 理論上來說,就應該可以推論出 花粉的來源, 這讓科學鑑識變得有趣起來。
Pollen is tiny. It gets on to things, and it sticks to them. So, not only does each type of pollen look different, but each habitat has a different combination of plants. A different pollen signature, if you like, or a different pollen fingerprint. By looking at the proportions and combinations of different kinds of pollen in a sample, you can tell very precisely where it came from. This is some pollen embedded in a cotton shirt, similar to the one that I'm wearing now. Now, much of the pollen will still be there after repeated washings. Where has it been? Four very different habitats might look similar, but they've got very different pollen signatures. Actually this one is particularly easy, these pictures were all taken in different countries.
花粉很小,它會附著在物品上,也會牢牢地吸附住。 不只花粉有不同的形狀, 每一個地方的植物組成也不同, 這就形成了獨一無二的花粉印鑑, 你也可以稱之為花粉指紋。 你只要看一看某件物品上的花粉種類 及各種花粉的數量, 你就可以精確地判斷出它的來源地。 這是一些花粉附著在一件棉質襯衫上的照片, 很像我現在穿在身上的這一件, 就算重複洗過幾次, 大部分的花粉還是會繼續附著在上面。 這件襯衫的主人到過哪裡? 這四個地方看起來都很像, 但是他們各自的花粉指紋都不同, 要判斷出來源地還滿容易的,因為這四個地方 分處於不同的國家。
But pollen forensics can be very subtle. It's being used now to track where counterfeit drugs have been made, where banknotes have come from, to look at the provenance of antiques and see that they really did come from the place the seller said they did. And murder suspects have been tracked using their clothing, certainly in the U.K., to within an area that's small enough that you can send in tracker dogs to find the murder victim. So, you can tell from a piece of clothing to within about a kilometer or so, where that piece of clothing has been recently and then send in dogs. And finally, in a rather grizzly way, the Bosnia war crimes; some of the people brought to trial were brought to trial because of the evidence from pollen, which showed that bodies had been buried, exhumed and then reburied somewhere else.
利用花粉指紋來進行鑑識是非常精確的, 現在被用來追踨 偽藥的來源、 鈔票的來源、 古董的來源, 以及古董是否真如賣家所宣稱 來自某地。 在英國,則利用謀殺案嫌犯 的衣物進行追蹤, 就可將區域縮小到一定範圍, 然後讓偵察犬去 尋找受害者。 所以,你可以利用一小片衣物, 鎖定某個一公里左右的範圍, 確定那片衣物最近曾出現在那兒, 然後再派出偵察犬。 最後,花粉還被用在一種令人不甚愉快的鑑識上 -- 波士尼亞戰爭。 有些人被起訴, 起訴的證據是花粉, 因為花粉顯示出某些屍體曾被埋葬、 而後又被挖掘出來,然後又被埋到另一個地點。
I hope I've opened your eyes, if you'll excuse the visual pun, (Laughter) to some of pollen's secrets. This is a horse chestnut. There is an invisible beauty all around us, each grain with a story to tell ... each of us, in fact, with a story to tell from the pollen fingerprint that's upon us. Thank you to the colleagues at Kew, and thank you to palynologists everywhere. (Applause)
我希望今天能讓你們大眼界, 請原諒我開了一些玩笑, 希望你們都瞭解花粉的奧祕。 順便提一下,這是七葉樹。 在我們週遭存在著許多我們看不見的美麗事物, 每一個花粉背後都有一個故事, 事實上,我們身上所存在的花粉指紋 也能告訴我們一些故事。 謝謝Kew實驗中心的同仁, 也謝謝世界各地的花粉研究專家。 (掌聲)