[全文听写]:
Hints:
the journal Current Biology
Being a mosquito can really suck. Not only do you have to gulp down your food because your dinner can turn around and swat you if you're not fast enough, but a bellyful of hot blood can really do a number on your little body, which prefers to keep things cool. So how do feeding skeeters keep from overheating? They take advantage of evaporation. That's according to a study in the journal Current Biology. Insects depend on the environment to regulate their body temperatures. But too much heat can be bad for their health. That's a serious problem when your meals consist of hot, fresh animal blood. The solution, it seems, is to use a drop of your dinner to cool you down. Like sweat, only blood. Scientists used a thermal camera to watch mosquitos eat. And they found that mosquitoes that excrete, and then hang onto, a single bead of blood while feeding have bodies a couple degrees cooler than those that don't. Disrupting this sacrificial blood cooling system could provide a new strategy for controlling mosquitoes, and the diseases they spread. Because if a skeeter can't secrete, its next supper could be its last.
做一只蚊子可真是让人不愉快。不仅是因为你必须一口吞掉食物:如果你的动作不快的话,你的晚餐可能马上就转身溜掉了或者你还得挨一巴掌,而且还因为对于喜欢凉爽的你来讲,一肚子的热血还真够受的~~ 所以,如何既享受美味又不至于让自己也因热血而沸腾呢?它们巧妙地利用了蒸发散热原理。这是根据《当代生物学》杂志上的一项研究得出的结论。 昆虫一般是依靠周围环境来调整自己的体温。但是过热也会伤害到其自身健康。倘若你的食物恰好是新鲜的动物血的话,那这还真是一个比较严重的大问题啊。看来,也只有靠损失一滴晚餐这个办法才能使你降温了。就像是其它动物出汗降温,只不过蚊子使用的是血~~ 科学家们用热感照相机来观察蚊子进食。他们发现蚊子若先渗出一滴血然后再继续吸食的话,体温会比不这么做低几度。 干扰这个采血冷却系统可以提供给我们一个新的策略来控制蚊子以及它们传播的疾病。因为如果小蚊子们不能先分泌血滴提供降温的话,那么它们下一顿也许就是最后的晚餐了~~ —Karen Hopkin ---------------------------by hyjtb