I love bugs. I think of them as nature’s tiny engineers because they come up with the most extraordinary and incredible solutions to life’s problems. And I just love observing them because they're so full of surprises and curiosities.
我喜欢蟲子。 我覺得它們就像是大自然的小工程師 因爲它們通常會有非凡和不可思議的方法 去解決生活問題。 我喜歡觀察它們 因爲它們充滿驚喜和可以學習的地方。
During my career, I studied spiders that use their webs as a slingshot to capture prey deep in the Amazon rainforest, worms that tangle up with each other and form knots to form these shape-shifting blobs to survive in harsh environments such as sewers and caves, and tiny aquatic beetles that bring their own scuba gear when they dive, on their butts.
在我的研究生涯中, 我研究蜘蛛怎麽用它們的網作為彈弓 在亞馬遜雨林深處裏捕捉獵物。 蠕蟲會相互纏繞 打結型成這些變形的斑點 以在下水道和洞穴這些惡劣的環境中生存, 而微小的水生甲蟲潛水時會自帶水肺裝備, 在他們的屁股上。
But today, I'm going to tell you a story about one of nature's most extraordinary engineers that pushes the limits of fluid mechanics and bioengineering and, arguably, solves their number one problem -- how insects pee.
但是,我現在要告訴你一個故事 關於一個在大自然中最非凡的工程師 突破了流體力學和生物工程的極限 甚至可以說解決了它們的頭號問題—— 昆蟲怎麽撒尿。
A few years ago, my student, Elio Challita, and I observed this tiny insect having a private moment in our own backyards in Atlanta, and we couldn't believe our eyes. This insect was peeing for hours, and it was so quick we could barely see it. And we were blown away -- we had never seen anything like this. We had never seen an insect pee.
我和我的學生,埃利奧 查利塔在幾年前 觀察這隻小昆蟲的私人時間 就在我們亞特蘭大的後院裏, 我們根本不敢置信。 這隻昆蟲撒了一個小時的尿, 它的動作很快以至於我們很難才看到。 我們很震撼——我們從未見過這樣的事情。 我們從來沒有看過昆蟲撒尿。
So today, I'm going to tell you how insects pee, why they pee so much and in this way, and finally, why you should care about insect pee.
所以今日我打算告訴你們昆蟲是怎樣撒尿, 它們爲什麽經常用這種方式撒尿, 還有最後,爲什麽你應該關心昆蟲撒尿。
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
So sit back and relax -- you're in for a treat.
所以放鬆坐好——是時候享受了。
(Laughter and applause)
(笑聲和掌聲)
(Laughs) So one of the first things we had to discuss is "Wait a second -- insects pee?" And it turns out that almost all insects pee, in one form or another. It's a closed system -- what goes in must come out.
(笑聲) 第一樣我們要討論的是 “等一下——昆蟲會撒尿?“ 原來大部分的昆蟲都會撒尿, 以同一種或另一種形式。 這是一個閉關系統——進去的東西一定要出來
But the protagonist of today's story, Homalodisca vitripennis, or a glassy-winged sharpshooter -- isn't it gorgeous? You can see where it gets its name from, it's got these transparent wings. This insect specializes in feeding on xylem fluid from plants. It’s a sapsucker. But I think of it as a plant's mosquito. And just after a mosquito sucks your blood, it leaves behind a parting gift -- so do these sharpshooters that spread bacteria into these plants, and it causes devastating and deadly diseases in plants, killing them. This is a huge problem in agriculture, including here in California, where it caused millions of dollars in damage to vineyards.
但是今天故事的主角是金翅蜂 或者叫作玻璃翅神槍手 —— 是不是很漂亮? 你可以從它透明的翅膀看出它的名字來源。 這隻特別的昆蟲以植物的木質部液體為食。 這是一個吸汁者。 但是我認爲它是植物的蚊子。 就像蚊子吸了你的血后, 它會留下一個臨別禮物 這些神槍手也同樣地 將細菌傳播到這些植物中, 這會在植物中引起破壞性和致命疾病, 然後害死它們。 這是一個很嚴重的農業問題, 包括在加利福尼亞州這裏, 這導致葡萄園造成了數百萬美元的損失。
And you can appreciate what they lack in size, they make up in numbers. This is what millions of insects feeding and peeing looks like. If only this woman knew where that water was coming from.
你可以體會到它們在規模上的不足, 它們在數量上有所彌補。 這就是數百萬隻昆蟲同時進食和撒尿的樣子。 如果這個女人知道這些水是從哪裏來的話。
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
Now, don't worry, this insect's pee is just water. And so for the first time, I'm going to show you this behavior, slowed down with our high-speed cameras, and this is what we discovered. We realized that this insect forms a droplet of pee, and then it flings them at extreme accelerations, of 40 g-forces. That's 40 times faster than the sprint of a cheetah. These insects are really packing a punch from their butts.
現在,不用擔心,這隻昆蟲的尿只是水 所以現在我要第一次用我們的高速相機放慢速度, 給你看這個行爲是怎麽樣的, 這就是我們發現的東西。 我們發現這隻昆蟲會形成一滴尿液, 然後它以極快的加速度拋出它們, 40 克力。 這比獵豹的衝刺速度快 40 倍。 這些昆蟲真的是從它們的屁股上打了一拳
And we wanted to under-- (Laughs) We wanted to take a closer look at this flicker, so we put this insect and took a look under a microscope at its business end, and this beautiful structure has a scientific name: it's called a butt flicker.
我們想——(笑聲) 我們想靠近一點觀察這個閃爍, 所以我們把這隻昆蟲放到顯微鏡下觀察直到完結 這個漂亮的結構有一個學名: 這叫做屁股閃爍。
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
And this is what we discovered. We realized that this insect had evolved springs and latches, just like a catapult, so that it could efficiently hurl its droplets of pee, repeatedly, at these high accelerations.
這就是我們發現的東西。 我們瞭解到這隻昆蟲已經進化出彈簧和閂鎖, 就像一個彈射器, 讓它可以有效地拋出它的尿液滴, 不斷重復在這些高加速度。
Now, we wanted to measure the speed at which this flicker was moving, and the droplets, so we measured the speed of both the droplets and the flicker. And this is where we made a puzzling observation. The speed of the droplets in the air was faster than the flicker. So if you take a ratio of that, we were expecting it to be 100 percent, but turns out that the speed of the droplets are about 150 to 200 [percent] faster than the flicker itself.
現在,我們想要計算這個閃爍的移動速度, 和尿液滴的, 所以我們計算了尿液滴和閃爍的速度。 這裏是我們的一個令人費解的觀察。 尿液滴的速度比閃爍的速度更快。 所以如果要取一個比例,我們期望它是 100%的, 但是結果尿液滴的速度 比閃爍本身快大約 150 到 200 [%]。
This is why this is counterintuitive: imagine a Yankees baseball player throwing a ball at 100 miles an hour. At some point during that throw, their hands and fingers are moving at 100 miles an hour. Say an amateur ballplayer throws a ball at 50 miles an hour, and if you measure the speed of the ball and it's 100 miles an hour in midair, we’d be surprised -- where would that extra speed come from, right? This is exactly what these insects are doing.
這就是為什麼這是違反直覺的: 想像一個洋基隊的棒球運動員 以每小時 100 英里的速度投球。 在投球的某一個點上, 他們的手和手指 以每小時 100 英里的速度移動。 或者說一個業餘棒球手 以每小時 50 英里的速度投球, 如果你計算球的速度的話, 那就是半空中每小時 100 英里, 我們十分驚訝—— 到底這些額外的速度從哪裏來的,對吧? 這就是這些昆蟲在做的事情。
So to solve this puzzle, we went back and looked at our videos. And we’ll play this a couple of times -- see if you can figure this out.
爲了找出答案,我們重新看我們的視頻。 我們重復播放了幾次—— 看看你能不能發現。
Did you catch it? Let me grab a frame.
你看到了嗎? 讓我划出一個框架。
We realized that unlike a baseball that’s rigid ... due to surface tension, these tiny droplets are squishy, and we had an “aha” moment. We were wondering if this insect is storing energy due to the surface tension just before launch. And to test this, we did, naturally, what any of us would do -- we converted our kitchen tables into a lab to test this.
我們發現堅硬的和棒球不同 由於表面張力,這些微小的水滴是粘糊糊的, 而我們也有一個”啊“的時間。 我們想如果這隻昆蟲有足夠的能量 由於發射前的表面張力 爲了測試這個,我們也的確測試了,自然地, 我們每個人都會做—— 我們將廚房的桌子改成了實驗室來測試這一點。
So now, we're going to place droplets on a speaker, to squish them at high speeds, and this is what we discovered. We realized that water that flows in our faucets like a liquid, at these tiny scales, due to surface tension, with the right timing, can get a kick, store energy, and if you time it just right, you can launch these off at extremely high speeds, just like a child on a trampoline. And to test this idea of timing, we even built a catapult. Our should I say a "cata-pee"?
所以現在,我們打算將水滴放在揚聲器上, 以高速壓扁它們, 這就是我們發現的東西。 我們瞭解到水會像液體一樣流入我們的水龍頭, 在這些微小的尺度上,由於表面張力, 加上正確的時間,就可以踢一腳,儲存能量, 如果你的時間計算得剛剛好, 你就可以以極高的速度發射它們, 就像一個在蹦床上的孩子一樣。 我們爲了測試這個時間點, 甚至建造了一個彈射器。 或者我應該說是”“小便“?
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
And it reinforced this idea: too slow, the droplets don’t go off, and then if you move at the right speed, you've flung this.
這強化了這個想法: 太慢,尿滴就不會彈射, 而如果你動作的速度正確的話, 你就可以彈射尿滴
So I've told you today how these insects use this catapulting structure to store energy and surface tension and throw these droplets at record-breaking speeds to be, really, number one ... at number one. (Laughs) But why have these insects evolved this remarkable ability? And there are two reasons for this.
所以我今天告訴你 這些昆蟲是怎麽利用這個彈射結構 去儲存能量和表面張力 還有以破紀錄的速度彈射那些尿滴 成爲,真正的第一名 在所有第一名中 (笑聲)但是這些昆蟲 是怎麽進化出這些出色的能力的? 這裏有兩個原因。
Number one is they are on a zero-calorie diet. These tiny bugs are feeding from the xylem fluid that comes up through the roots, through the soil, and goes to the rest of the plant. It's very, very poor in nutrients -- it's just water and some minerals. This is unlike the phloem fluid, which is rich in sugar, coming through photosynthesis at the leaves and going through the rest of the plant. This is akin to a human purely sustaining themselves on a diet of diet lemonade. Very low energy source -- you'd have to constantly drink, but you'd have to constantly pee as well.
第一是它們的零卡路里飲食。 這些小昆蟲的食物是木質部液體 通過根部,通過土壤, 最後去植物的其他部分 這是很,很營養不良—— 這些只是水和一些礦物質。 和含有豐富的糖分韌皮部液體不同 通過葉子的光合作用 和通過植物的其餘部分。 這類似於人類 純粹靠減肥檸檬水維持自己的飲食。 非常低的能源—— 你必須不斷地喝水,但你也必須不斷地小便。
This still doesn't explain why these insects pee in droplets, and not in jets, like you and I would, if you were to take a bio break. Let's take a look at cicadas. These are the cousins of these sharpshooters. They're also xylem fluid feeders ... and they pee in jets.
這不能解釋爲什麽昆蟲以尿滴的方式撒尿, 而不是輸尿管射流,就像我們一樣, 如果你要上洗手間。 我們來看看蟬。 這些是這些神槍手的表親。 它們也是以木質部液體爲食... 但是他們以噴射式撒尿
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
I love this video. This shows cicadas doing two of their favorite things when they come out of hibernation -- singing at the top of their lungs and peeing in the wind.
我喜歡這個視頻。 這展示了蟬在做它們最喜歡做的兩件事 當它們從冬眠中甦醒 —— 用他們肺的頂部唱歌並在風中撒尿。
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
And the second reason why these insects pee in droplets is size -- these things are tiny, they're smaller than my pinky. In fact, the surface tension that enables them to store energy in these droplets to launch is actually an impediment, because gravity doesn't matter, and surface tension sticks these droplets to their bodies. So they actually have to flick these droplets away -- it's actually very difficult for these tiny bugs to pee. And that's why I just love studying bugs.
這些昆蟲以液滴形式撒尿的 第二個原因是尺寸—— 這些太小了,它們甚至比我的小指還小。 實際上,這些表面張力 可以讓它們進化出儲存能量 在這些液滴發射 是一個障礙, 因爲重力無關緊要, 而表面張力將這些尿滴粘在它們的身上。 所以它們實際上需要輕彈掉這些尿滴—— 這對這些小昆蟲而言撒尿十分困難。 這就是爲什麽我喜歡研究昆蟲。
This tiny engineer has figured out how to survive on barely just water through the xylem fluid. And it’s figured out to do so, it has to drink a lot, and pee a lot. In that sense, it's not so different from other engineers I know on a Friday night at a bar.
這隻小工程師發現了如何僅靠水生存 通過木質部流體。 并且它也發現了爲了這樣做,它要喝很多水, 和撒很多尿。 從此可見,它和我認識的其他工程師一樣 在周五晚上的酒吧裏。
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
But to do so, it’s figured out it had to evolve this catapulting structure and fling these droplets at high speeds. And that’s why I always tell my students when we explore new bugs, "It's not a bug, it's a feature."
但爲了這樣做, 它發現它要進化這個彈射結構 和高速拋出這些液滴。 這就是爲什麽我經常告訴我的學生, 當我們發現新昆蟲的時候, ”這不是一隻昆蟲,這是一個特徵。”
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
(Applause)
(掌聲)
OK, so why should you care about insect pee, and what’s the practical application of this work? Maybe, maybe one day, these ideas, these principles could help us design more efficient water-ejector systems for our smartphones, our watches and hearing aids.
好,所以爲什麽你應該要關心昆蟲撒尿, 還有這項工作的實際應用? 可能,可能有一天, 這些想法,這些原則可以幫我們設計 更有效率的水噴射器系統 給我們的智能手機,我們的手錶和助聽器。
But I have to be honest, that's not really why I've obsessed over insect pee for the last four years. I do this because when I share my work with kids, it ignites their curiosity. When I talk about insect pee, it makes their eyes light up. They laugh, they run around in their backyards, looking at bugs and asking questions. It reminds them and us that we can discover marvelous in the mundane, even in our own backyards. We just have to look closely.
但是說實話, 這不是我沉迷研究昆蟲撒尿的原因 在之前的四年。 我這樣做是爲了 當我和小朋友們分享我的工作的時候, 這可以點燃他們的好奇心。 當我談到昆蟲的尿液時, 他們的眼睛都亮了起來。 他們大笑,在他們的後院裏到處跑, 觀察昆蟲和問問題。 這提醒了他們和我們, 我們可以在平凡中發現精彩, 甚至是在我們的後院裏。 我們只需要靠近一點。
Thank you so much.
多謝。
(Cheers and applause)
(歡呼和掌聲)
I've got to go pee.
我要去撒尿了。