The hours we spend scrolling through our smartphones appear to be changing our skulls. This may be the reason why some people — especially the younger crowd — are developing a weird, bony spike just above their necks.
长时间看智能手机可能正在改变我们的头骨，这可能就是为什么有些人，尤其是年轻人，在脖子上方长出了奇怪的骨骼突出。

The bony skull bump — known as an external occipital protuberance — is sometimes so large, you can feel it by pressing your fingers on the base of your skull.
这种颅骨肿块被称为枕外隆突，有时很大，你把手指按压在头骨底部可以摸到。

"I have been a clinician for 20 years, and only in the last decade, increasingly, I have been discovering that my patients have this growth on the skull," David Shahar, a health scientist at the University of The Sunshine Coast, Australia, told the media in a fascinating feature about the changing human skeleton.
澳大利亚阳光海岸大学的健康科学家David Shahar在一个关于正在变化的人类骨骼的知名专题节目中对媒体说：“我做了20年的临床医生，就在过去的十年间，我发现越来越多的病人头骨上都有这种突出。”

图片来源：视觉中国

A cause-and-effect relationship hasn't been identified, but it's possible that the spike comes from constantly bending one's neck at uncomfortable angles to look at smart devices. The human head is heavy, weighing about 10 lbs. (4.5 kilograms), and tilting it forward to look at funny cat photos (or however you spend your smartphone time) can strain the neck — hence the crick people sometimes get, known as "text neck."
虽然并未证实存在因果关系，但这个突出很有可能就是由长时间低头以不舒服的角度看智能设备造成的。人类的头很重，约10磅（4.5kg），将头前倾去看搞笑的猫咪图片（或者看智能手机上别的内容）会拉伸脖子，导致人们有时会痉挛，也被称为“短信脖（长时间低头使用电子设备引起的颈椎疾病）”。

Text neck can increase pressure on the juncture where the neck muscles attach to the skull, and the body likely responds by laying down new bone, which leads to that spiky bump, Shahar told the media. This spike distributes the weight of the head over a larger area, he said.
Shahar对媒体说短信脖会增加颈部肌肉与头骨连接处的压力，身体对此做出的反应就是增加一块新的骨头，所以就长出了尖尖的突出。他说这个突出会把头部的重量分散到更大的面积上。

 

翻译：菲菲