我們不知道的十大生活常識(下)

're Not Really Sure What Colors Are

5.我們不能確定顏色？

Our world is filled with color, and for the most part, we've reached a consensus on what certain colors are. It's easy enough to identify a banana as yellow and broccoli as green, but what's to say one person's image of green is the same as another's? Not much, and it turns out that science really isn't sure that we're all seeing the same colors in the same way. The idea seems odd, especially considering that the mechanism that allows us to see colors is essentially the same: Light enters our eyes, it's interpreted there, and then it's processed by our brain. But it turns out that it's not as clear-cut as that, and the idea of colorblindness is only part of the reason.

我們的世界充滿了色彩，在大多數情況下，關於色彩的辨識，我們已經達到了共識。人們很容易識別出香蕉是黃色的以及花椰菜是綠色的，但一個人所形容的綠色和另一個人形容的能保證一樣嗎？事實證明，真的不能保證我們都看到的是相同的顏色。這個想法似乎很奇怪，但是考慮到一個事實，假設我們看到顏色本質上是一樣的：光線進入我們的眼睛，但是由大腦處理過之後，大腦對顏色的理解就不一定一致了。事實證明，這種現象的發生，有部分原因是由於色盲的存在。

We know that different people have different numbers of photo receptors in their eyes. People who are colorblind have weak receptors, most commonly suffering from a deficiency in the ability to detect green (or variations of green). But there's another end to the spectrum, too: people who are theoretically incredibly sensitive to color. Tetrachromats can see more colors than exist in the normal color spectrum. To them, the rest of us appear that's a pretty extreme example, and experiments suggest that the way we see colors can differ considerably between individuals. When monkeys whose photoreceptors would normally only allow them to see blue and yellow were infected with a virus that changed the type of color their eyes could interpret, they demonstrated the ability to see these new colors. They recognized that the colors were different, but we have no way of telling what their brains were interpreting the colors as. They were essentially seeing new colors that their eyes had never had the ability to process, making the link between the eyes receiving colors and the brain processing colors even more vague.

我們知道，不同的人的眼睛會接收到不同數量的光。色盲的眼睛是已經疲軟的顏色受體，缺乏檢測綠色(或變化的綠色)的能力。除了色盲還有另一種光譜終結者的存在:這類人從理論上來說對色彩是非常敏感的。四色視者（注：正常人有三種視錐細胞，四色視者有四種，所以可以看到比別人更多的顏色）可以看到比正常存在的顏色光譜還要更多的顏色。對他們來說，我們其餘的人就是色盲。但這是一個非常極端的例子，實驗表明，我們能夠看到的顏色在個體之間差別很大。猴子通常只能看到藍色和黃色，但是當它們的感光細胞感染了一種病毒時，這種病毒會改變它們對顏色的理解，讓它們展示出看到新顏色的能力。它們認識到，顏色是不同的，但是我們沒有辦法告訴它們的大腦怎麼去解釋看到了什麼顏色。它們看到了新的顏色，但是它們的眼睛無法處理這個變化過程，使得眼睛收到的顏色之間的聯繫和大腦處理出來的顏色更加模糊。

A Virus Alive?

4.病毒是活着的嗎?

For the most part, everything falls into one of two categories: It's either alive, or it isn't. Ever since scientists have been aware of the existence of viruses, they've been unable to successfully determine which of these two very distinct groups viruses belong to. Originally, viruses were thought to be alive. The scientists that discovered viruses saw them as organisms that could spread and multiply, suggesting that they were very clearly alive. By the 1930s, however, researchers from the Rockefeller University were finally able to get a look into what was going on inside a virus. Since it didn't have any metabolic functions, they decided that it wasn't alive.

在大多數情況下，一切病毒都分兩種:它要麼活着，要麼死去。自從科學家們意識到病毒的存在之後，他們無法成功地確定哪些病毒活着，哪些病毒已然死去。最初，病毒被認爲是活着的。科學家們發現病毒之後視他們爲生物，因爲病毒可以傳播和繁殖，這表明這些病毒是活着的。然而，到了1930年代，洛克菲勒大學的研究人員終於可以看到病毒的內部。由於病毒沒有任何代謝功能，他們認爲病毒不是活着的。

But it's far from clear, as further research by the same team discovered that a virus also exhibits one of the key components of life: reproduction. It not only makes more of itself but creates more proteins and internal chemical structures. Viruses have also been known to change over time, evolve, and carry on processes like repairing damage done to them. All this seems to indicate they're alive, unless nonliving organisms are also capable of evolution, which seems like a pretty odd thing to even suggest. Viruses are also unable to carry on these processes outside of a living host, leading some to suggest that they're functioning on something along the lines of life borrowed from another organism—but that doesn't make the answer any more clear.

但這種發現讓人更加困惑，同一個研究團隊進一步的研究發現，病毒有生命的跡象之一:繁殖。它不是創造更多的本身，而是創造了更多的蛋白質和內部化學結構。病毒也會隨時間發生變化，演變，甚至可以修復傷害。這一切似乎表明他們活着，除非無生命的物種也能進化，這似乎是一個相當奇怪的說法。病毒無法脫離活體而存在，這從某種程度上表明病毒是從活體身上汲取某種物質來生存的，但是這個說法並沒有太大的說服力。

Do We Age (And At Different Rates)?

3.爲什麼我們的身體年齡有增長快慢之分？

Every day we deal with the problems of aging, ever so gradually. We've been doing it for as long as we've been a species, but we have no idea what actually causes it. We know what happens to cells as they age: Muscles lose mass, tissues become more or less rigid, connective tissues stiffen, and new cells become less and less efficient at absorbing nutrients and removing waste. We just don't know why.

我們每天都在面對身體逐漸老化的問題，並且在研究如何解決。 我們每天都在衰老，但實際上我們不知道是什麼原因導致這種衰老。我們知道隨着年齡的增長會發生什麼:肌肉失去質量，組織變得剛性，結締組織變硬，新細胞有效地吸收營養，但是新細胞變得越來越少，我們不知道爲什麼會這樣。

There are a couple of different theories on why cells age the way they do, including the idea that the aging process is a by-product of the body's waste materials, or that it's because of damage done by external factors like ultraviolet rays. It's also been suggested that we're simply genetically programmed to age, and how fast or how well we age has nothing to do with external more bizarre is the question of why we age at different rates. Looking at the methylation patterns of cells gives an indication of how old they are, and all of our cells age at different rates. Female breast tissue, for example, shows patterns and changes that indicate it's about three years older than a person's calendar age. At the other end of the spectrum are heart cells, which age more slowly and can actually test as being several years younger than the body as a whole. Just why the body ages as it does—and why it ages at all—is nowhere near being completely understood.

有很多理論來解釋爲什麼細胞會隨着年齡的增長而出現一系列的問題，包括認爲身體年齡增長是人體廢料的副產品，或者由於外部因素（如紫外線）的傷害。還有人表示是由基因決定了人的年齡，身體年齡增長的快慢與外部因素無關。更奇怪的是爲什麼我們存在年齡增長速度不一致的問題。觀察細胞的甲基化模式（注：甲基化是指，在甲基轉移酶的作用下，甲基基團從供體轉移到DNA的鹼基上）表明這些細胞年齡有多大，並且所有的細胞在以不同的速度老化。一些身體結構的年齡與人們實際的年齡會存在差距，例如有些檢測心臟細胞的時候會發現心臟細胞的年齡比人們實際的年齡年輕。

Causes A Migraine?

2.是什麼導致偏頭痛?

Those who are prone to migraines know what it feels like to have one starting. It's a special kind of headache that goes way beyond just pain and can include nausea, vomiting, painful sensitivity to stimuli, blurred vision, and even loss of consciousness. What we're not sure about is why some people get migraines and why there are so many different triggers for them. Some people can have migraines that are triggered by anything from a change in the weather to bright sunlight and physical exertion. For some, it's sensory—migraine can be triggered by a certain smell or exposure to a certain food, drink, or food additive.

那些容易偏頭痛的人們好像都有種預兆。 這是一種特殊的病症，表現出來的不僅僅是頭痛，伴隨的症狀還包括噁心、嘔吐、視力模糊，甚至喪失意識。我們不確定的是爲什麼有些人會患偏頭痛，爲什麼有這麼多不同的觸發因素。有些人的偏頭痛可能是由於天氣的變化和體力消耗引發的。有些人的偏頭痛可能是接觸某些氣味或某種食物，飲料，或者食品添加劑而引發的。

Even those sensitive to certain triggers don't always get migraines when they're exposed to those triggers, and they can also come down with a migraine without being exposed. Just why it happens to people isn't known, although it's suspected that there's a genetic connection, because migraines seems to run in families. One suggestion is that people susceptible to migraines have parts of their brains that are more sensitive to certain stimuli than others or that migraines happen in response to certain changes in brain chemistry. So far, though, there have been no concrete findings regarding just what causes migraines in some people and not others.

甚至那些敏感型的總是會因爲接觸到某種觸發物質而導致偏頭痛。爲什麼人們會偏頭痛呢，答案不得而知，有些人還懷疑偏頭痛跟血緣有關係，因爲偏頭痛似乎在家庭中會傳遞。目前有一種說法是，容易偏頭痛的人們的大腦有一部分對某些刺激非常敏感。不過，到目前爲止，還沒有具體的結論能夠解釋爲什麼有些人患偏頭痛而有些人沒有偏頭痛。

Do Allergies Come And Go?

1.爲什麼過敏總是忽來忽去?

Living with allergies can be a nightmare. From not being able to indulge in ice cream or not being able to own a pet to feeling like you're always on the verge of coming down with the flu, allergies can make life difficult. Many people suffer from allergies, which makes it even more surprising that we have no idea why they have a tendency to come and go, seemingly at random. Almost any kind of allergy can disappear—and reappear—over time. Some people may find their symptoms are occasionally greatly reduced, even if they don't go away completely.

過敏體質的人們的生活更像是一場噩夢。很多人由於自己的過敏體質而無法吃冰淇淋或無法接觸寵物，這種感覺會讓你覺得生活極其不便。許多人患有過敏，但是有時候人們發現過敏總是忽來忽去，看似隨意。幾乎任何類型的過敏都有可能在一段時間內消失然後出現，循環往復。有些人可能會發現他們的過敏程度有時候會大大降低，即使症狀不完全消失。

Peanut allergies are among the most potentially dangerous types of allergies, and it's recently been discovered that about 20 percent of people who have peanut allergies as children lose their sensitivity as they get older. As much as 80 percent of children with milk allergies outgrow their sensitivity by the time they're in their teens, and those allergic to eggs will also commonly outgrow the allergy. Blood tests can tell if an allergy is going away, and sometimes desensitization done with small amounts of food or food prepared in a certain way can help—but this should always be done under the supervision of a doctor. Even stranger is the fact that kids today are much more likely to outgrow their allergies than the kids of the last generation, which raises more questions than it answers.

花生過敏是最具有潛在危險的過敏類型，最近發現，大約20%的對花生過敏的孩子隨着年齡的增長會失去花生敏感性。多達80%的小孩子對牛奶過敏，但是到青少年的時候就沒有那麼多了，那些對雞蛋過敏的孩子也是如此。 通過血液測試可以告訴我們過敏是否消失了，並且有時候食用一些少量的脫敏食物能夠對消除過敏有所幫助，但這應該在醫生的監督下完成。更奇怪的是，孩子們會一代比一代更容易過敏，這個也引起了人們的思考，思考如何來消除過敏。

翻譯:哈利小王子 來源:前十網