没有耳朵--蜘蛛利用蜘蛛网来探测声音（下）

For one thing, they had to find a way to get a whole web into the special soundproof chamber in the basement of the lab building.

首先，他们必须想办法把一整张网放进实验室大楼地下室的特殊隔音室。

You know, spider webs are very delicate.

蜘蛛网是非常脆弱的。

You can’t go out in the woods and find a spider web and grab it and take it home.

你不可能在树林里找到一张蜘蛛网，然后将其抓起来带回家。

Especially those made by the industrious orb-weavers, spiders like the title character in Charlotte’s Web.

尤其是那些由勤劳的圆网蜘蛛结的网，这种蜘蛛是《夏洛的网》中的主角。

We’re talking about quite a spectacular web.

我们说的是巨大的蜘蛛网。

It’s this wheel-shaped web that is around upstate New York…

这是一张车轮状的网，分布在纽约州北部。

If you walk through any field, you’ve either gonna walk through one or you’re gonna see it and avoid it because they’re big.

如果你在此地的任何一个区域穿行，你要么会穿过蜘蛛网，要么会发现蜘蛛网从而避开它，因为这些蜘蛛网很大。

It can get as big as a yard or a meter across.

这种蜘蛛网可以达到一码或一米宽。

So Jian Zhou and fellow student Junpeng Lai came up with a way to get custom-made webs to go.

因此，周健和他的同学赖俊鹏想出了一种获得定制网络的方法。

What they did is make a little wooden frame--kind of the size of a decent sized picture frame--and they placed this frame on the windows of our building.

他们制作了一个小木框——大小和相框差不多——他们把这个木框放在我们大楼的窗户上。

The lights in the building attracted bugs and the bugs attracted spiders.

大楼里的灯吸引虫子，虫子又吸引蜘蛛。

So the spiders built their webs on the frames.

所以蜘蛛就在木框上结了网。

Then in the morning, my students would go and collect the frames and basically hijack the spiders and take them over and put the frame in the chamber intact.

早上，我的学生们会去收集木框，其实就是劫持蜘蛛，把蜘蛛拿下来，把木框完好无损地放在房间里。

Now, how can you tell whether a web functions as an arachnid hearing aid?

那么，你如何判断蜘蛛网是否充当了蜘蛛的助听器呢?

One way is to keep an eye on the spider’s brain.

一种方法是密切关注蜘蛛的大脑。

My lab, the neurophysiologists, made some recordings from the nervous system, sensory system that showed that indeed you get an acoustic response in the nerves to sound coming from a speaker a little more than a meter away.

神经生理学家在实验室录到了一些神经系统和感官系统的反应，这表明神经会对一米多一点的扬声器发出的声音作出声学反应。

But even more revealing was how the spiders acted.

但更能说明问题的是蜘蛛的行为方式。

To very loud sounds, you could get a strong response--the spider would either flatten out or it might actually crouch.

对于非常大的声音，可能会有强烈的反应——蜘蛛要么会横冲直撞，要么会蜷伏起来。

But it’s really hunkering down.

蜘蛛真的会蜷伏起来。

That is indicative to a biologist of an alarm response.

在生物学家眼中，这是一种警报反应。

And when serenaded with sounds that are maybe 10 decibels or 100 times softer--

当用10分贝或100倍轻的声音唱小夜曲时——

Without changing its body posture or making any other movements, it might simply raise its front two legs off of the web.

在不改变身体姿势或做任何其他动作的情况下，蜘蛛可能只会将两条前腿抬离蛛网。

That leg lift, says Hoy…

霍伊说，抬腿……

--is a spider’s way of maybe putting two more sensors out there to see what’s coming.

——抬腿是蜘蛛放置两个传感器，看看接下来会发生什么的一种方式。

But that response to a very soft stimulus might be simply the spider’s reaction to, “I know something’s out there, I heard it, but I need more information.”

但这种对柔和刺激的反应可能只是蜘蛛对“我知道外面有东西，我听到了，但我需要更多的信息”的反应。

So that’s essentially the demonstration that was needed to show that spiders can hear sound.

这基本上就是证明蜘蛛能听到声音所需要的演示。

This filamentous approach to acoustics could someday change the way we make microphones.

这种与蜘蛛丝有关声学方法有一天可能会改变我们制造麦克风的方式。

For Scientific American’s 60 Second Science, I’m Karen Hopkin.

谢谢大家收听科学美国人——60秒科学。我是凯伦·霍普金。