With low temperatures and a lack of food, winter is a harsh season for animals. Many animals enter hibernation to get through it.
冬天溫度較低、食物短缺，對(duì)于動(dòng)物來說是一個(gè)嚴(yán)酷的季節(jié)。許多動(dòng)物靠冬眠來過冬。
Hibernation is when an animal goes into a state of extended inactivity. Animals hide away from predators. Their metabolism will slow to less than a quarter of its normal rate. This cools the creature’s body and slows its heartbeat to just a few times per minute, for up to months at a time.
冬眠指動(dòng)物進(jìn)入長(zhǎng)時(shí)間的生命活動(dòng)極低的狀態(tài)。冬眠時(shí)，動(dòng)物會(huì)避開捕食者，將新陳代謝速度減慢至正常速度的四分之一以下。這會(huì)讓動(dòng)物的體溫降低，心跳減慢至每分鐘幾次，而這種狀態(tài)每次會(huì)持續(xù)至數(shù)月。
But why don’t humans hibernate? Human hibernation doesn’t exist for many reasons. Our body is not designed for hibernation. Our evolutionary ancestors were tropical animals with no history of hibernating: Humans have only migrated into temperate and subarctic latitudes in the last hundred thousand years or so. That’s not quite long enough to evolve all the metabolic adaptations we would need to be able to hibernate, according to the BBC Science Focus Magazine.
但是人類為什么不冬眠呢？人類不冬眠有很多原因。人類的身體不適合冬眠。我們進(jìn)化學(xué)上的祖先是沒有冬眠歷史的熱帶動(dòng)物：人類在過去大約10萬(wàn)年里，才遷移到溫帶和靠近北極地區(qū)。據(jù)英國(guó)廣播公司《科學(xué)焦點(diǎn)》雜志報(bào)道，這段時(shí)間還不夠長(zhǎng)，人類無(wú)法進(jìn)化出冬眠所需的所有代謝適應(yīng)能力。
For example, waste management is a huge challenge for human hibernation. Animals that hibernate are able to essentially stop their urination and defecation during hibernation, sometimes through a process of reabsorption to preserve nutrients. Unfortunately, humans can’t do this.
例如，處理代謝廢物就是人類冬眠會(huì)面臨的巨大挑戰(zhàn)，冬眠的動(dòng)物基本上能夠在冬眠期間停止排尿、排便，有時(shí)它們還會(huì)重新吸收廢物來保存營(yíng)養(yǎng)。不幸的是，人類做不到這一點(diǎn)。
There are other challenges. Body temperatures below 2.8 C tend to disrupt the human digestive tract and may cause pain. Cold temperatures can also suppress the immune system, making people more vulnerable to infections, according to Smithsonian Magazine.
人類冬眠還面臨其他挑戰(zhàn)。人體溫度如果低于2.8攝氏度，往往會(huì)損害人體的消化道，而且可能引發(fā)疼痛。據(jù)《史密森尼雜志》報(bào)道，低溫還會(huì)降低免疫系統(tǒng)活躍性，人們會(huì)更容易受到感染。
In fact, humans don’t need to sleep through winter. We have discovered fire, clothes, shelter, hunting and agriculture, all of which are much more effective ways of surviving the cold.
實(shí)際上，人類不需要靠睡覺過冬。我們發(fā)現(xiàn)通過生火、穿衣、躲進(jìn)房屋中能夠避寒，依靠狩獵和農(nóng)耕可以果腹，所有這些手段幫助人類更有效地度過嚴(yán)寒。
Could humans hibernate in the future? For long-distance space travel, it’s likely. A journey to Mars would take around months using current technology. If we hope to visit another star system, even if we could travel at the speed of light, the journey would take years. Being able to hibernate would make such distances considerably less boring for the astronauts and conserve vital resources, according to University of Oxford in the UK.
在未來，人類會(huì)冬眠嗎?如果踏上長(zhǎng)途太空旅行，人類很可能會(huì)冬眠。憑借目前的技術(shù)，人類去往火星需要幾個(gè)月的時(shí)間。如果我們希望去到另一個(gè)星系，即使能以光速旅行，這段旅程也需要數(shù)年。英國(guó)牛津大學(xué)研究表明，如果能夠令宇航員進(jìn)入冬眠，將大幅減少其在漫長(zhǎng)航程中的無(wú)聊感，并節(jié)約重要的資源。
NASA is treating this question seriously. Beginning in 2014, the agency funded research on long-term hibernation as a way to facilitate long-term space travel, according to The Atlantic magazine.
美國(guó)航空航天局（NASA）正在認(rèn)真對(duì)待人類冬眠的問題。據(jù)《大西洋月刊》報(bào)道，NASA從2014年起資助了一項(xiàng)有關(guān)長(zhǎng)期冬眠的研究，希望以這種方式推動(dòng)長(zhǎng)期太空旅行發(fā)展。
(Translator & Editor: Li Xinzhu AND Luo Sitian)
http://www.cycjq.cn/story/3740.html
