Think sweat is gross?
你感觉出汗会很邋遢吗?
"It could have been so much worse," says Sarah Everts, the author of a new book called The Joy of Sweat, that is all about, you guessed it, the science of sweating.
“如果不出汗,情况会很不妙,”莎拉·埃弗茨说道,她最近写了本书叫《出汗的乐趣》,没错,写的就是关于出汗的科学道理。
Turns out human sweat — our body's air conditioning system — is really pretty tame on the "yuck" scale of animal cooling methods.
事实证明,人类的汗液——我们身体的空调系统——在多种“令人作呕”的动物冷却方法中算是相当温和的了。
Dogs drool to stay cool, while vultures will poop on their legs and seals urinate on their feet, she says.
她说,狗流口水是为了保持凉爽,而秃鹫会在腿上便便,海豹则会在脚上小便。
When you think about what evolution could have bequeathed us, Everts says, "sweat is arguably a million times better."
埃弗茨说,当你想到进化可能会给我们留下什么遗产时,“汗水可以说比那些要好一百万倍。”
In fact, Everts tells us, instead of thinking of sweat as gross, think of it as an "evolutionary marvel."
事实上,埃弗茨告诉我们,不要认为出汗很恶心,而要把它看作是“进化的奇迹”。
She even calls it a human superpower and a highly efficient one at that.
她甚至称这是人类的超能力,而且是非常高效的。
"We effectively dispatch water to our skin and, as it evaporates, it whisks heat away from our bodies," she says.
她说:“我们有效地将水分输送到皮肤,当水分蒸发时,它会将热量从身体带走。”
Everts points out in her book that this superpower enables humans to thrive and dominate across the globe.
埃弗茨在她的书中指出,这种超能力使人类得以繁荣并主宰全球。
"Sweating allowed us to forage out in the sun without overheating, while our predators were relegated to the shade for survival," she writes, and for us to adapt to many new environments.
她写道:“出汗让我们可以在阳光下觅食而不会感到过热,而我们的捕食者为了生存不得不躲在阴凉处。这也让我们适应了许多新环境。”
"Like the (city) pigeon and desert dove, we're capable of surviving almost anywhere."
“就像城市和沙漠都有鸽子一样,我们几乎可以在任何地方生存。”
Rhitu Chatterjee talked to Everts about the incredible science of sweat, which includes facts most people don't know.
记者和Everts谈论了汗液这一令人难以置信的科学,其中包括大多数人不知道的事实。
Like get this: How much you sweat is affected by both nature and nurture.
比如这个:你出汗的多少是受先天和后天两方面的影响。
And did you know you can sweat in different colors?
你知道你会看到不同的颜色而流汗吗?
Yep, both are true.
是的,这两者都是真的。
Some of the really interesting areas are the evolution of sweat glands and how we actually came to have evolved one of the most efficient ways to cool down in the animal kingdom.
真正有趣的领域是汗腺的进化,以及我们是如何进化出动物王国中最有效的降温方式之一的。
We don't even know how many genes are involved in sweating.
我们甚至不清楚与出汗有关的基因有多少。
And a lot of other really fabulous research is still going on.
还有很多相关研究正在进行。
[Researchers are] trying to, for example, do the forensics of science — like monitoring what is coming out when we sweat and monitoring what are the chemical residues in a fingerprint.
例如,(研究人员)正试图进行科学取证——比如监测我们出汗时排出的物质,以及监测指纹上的化学残留物。
Because a fingerprint is just a sweat print.
因为指纹其实就是汗渍。
And forensic researchers are now able to learn all about your biological identity from the actual chemicals left behind in the fingerprint.
法医研究人员现在可以通过指纹中残留的化学物质来了解你的生物学身份。
If you can analyze the chemicals of that fingerprint and find out, wow, that person was, you know, drinking alcohol or that person actually has cancer — all sorts of very private information is being left behind in the drips we leave on our yoga mats but also literally on everything that we touch.
也许将来能通过指纹的化学物质就知道,比如,这个人喝酒又或者那个人有癌症——各种各样的隐私信息就会留在我们的瑜伽垫的汗水中又或者我们所接触的每一样东西上面。
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