世界上速度最快的生物

科學(xué)家計(jì)劃研究世界上速度最快的生物——并希望將從它們的行動(dòng)中所學(xué)到的知識(shí)運(yùn)用到制造微型機(jī)器人當(dāng)中。

The creature isn't a cheetah or a falcon; instead, it's a single-celled organism called Spirostomum ambiguum, commonly found in bodies of water. Cheetahs can sprintat speeds of more than 60 mph (96.5 km/h), and falcons may dive at well over 250 mph (400 km/h). But S. ambiguum can move even faster, shortening its body by 60 percent into a football shape within "a few milliseconds," according to a press release.

這種生物既不是獵豹也不是獵鷹，而是一種名叫Spirostomum ambiguum的單細(xì)胞微生物，通常能在水體中找到它們。獵豹的沖刺時(shí)速可以超過96.5公里/小時(shí)，而獵鷹的俯沖時(shí)速可以超過400公里/小時(shí)。但是根據(jù)一篇新聞稿，S. ambiguum的移動(dòng)速度甚至更快，能在“短短幾毫秒”的時(shí)間內(nèi)能將身體縮短60%變成一個(gè)球形。

But researchers have no idea how the single-celled organism can move this fast without the muscle cells of larger creatures. And scientists have no clue how, regardless of how the contraction works, the little critter moves like this without wrecking all of its internal structures.

但是研究者不清楚這些沒有大型生物肌肉細(xì)胞的單細(xì)胞微生物是如何做到這么快速的移動(dòng)的。就算不管它們身體的收縮是怎么個(gè)原理，這些小家伙如此快速的移動(dòng)還不會(huì)破壞內(nèi)部結(jié)構(gòu)就讓科學(xué)家毫無頭緒了。

Saad Bhamla, a researcher at Georgia Tech, received a grant from the National Science Foundation to study and model S. ambiguum's contraction motion at the subcellular level. He hopes to come to understand the motion well enough, he said, to break it down into ideas that could be used for robots.

喬治亞理工大學(xué)的研究者Saad Bhamla得到了美國(guó)國(guó)家科學(xué)基金會(huì)的基金，用于研究和模擬S.ambiguum在亞細(xì)胞級(jí)別上的收縮運(yùn)動(dòng)。他希望能足夠了解這種運(yùn)動(dòng)，然后分解成概念再運(yùn)用到機(jī)器人當(dāng)中。

"As engineers, we like to look at how nature has handled important challenges," Bhamla said in the release. "We are always thinking about how to make these tiny things that we see zipping around in nature. If we can understand how they work, maybe the information can cross over to fill the gap for small robots that can move fast with little energy use."

“作為一個(gè)工程師，我們想看看大自然是怎樣對(duì)付重大的挑戰(zhàn)的，”Bhamla在新聞稿中表示，“我們一直在思考是什么讓我們看到的這些小東西在自然環(huán)境里移動(dòng)迅速的。如果我們能理解了其中的原理，或許這些知識(shí)可以用來填補(bǔ)使用少量的能量就能快速移動(dòng)微型機(jī)器人的空白。”

When you curl into a ball like the S. ambiguum, or sprint like a cheetah, or dive like a falcon (the latter is not recommended, except possibly into very deep swimming pools), you activate actin and myosin proteins in your muscle cells that contract to generate motion, the statement said.

聲明中說道，當(dāng)你像S.ambiguum一樣蜷縮成一個(gè)球，或者像獵豹一樣沖刺，或是像獵鷹一樣俯沖(最后一個(gè)不建議模仿，除非俯沖進(jìn)一個(gè)很深的游泳池里)，你會(huì)激活肌肉細(xì)胞中的肌動(dòng)蛋白和肌球蛋白。

But tiny creatures like S. ambiguum don't rely on proteins of that sort, Bhamla said. (S. ambiguum exists on a sort of fuzzy boundary between animals and non-animals. Older texts often considered single-celled "protozoans" like this, which have animal-like characteristics, to be part of the animal kingdom. But more recently biologists have tended to separate them into their own kingdom of life, known as Protista.)

但像是S.ambiguum這樣的微型生物并不依賴于蛋白質(zhì)這樣的，Bhamla說。(S.ambiguum存在于動(dòng)物和非動(dòng)物之間一個(gè)有些模糊的界線上。較老一些的教科書通常認(rèn)為像它這樣的是單細(xì)胞“原生動(dòng)物”，有著類似于動(dòng)物的特點(diǎn)，是動(dòng)物王國(guó)的一份子。但是最近的生物學(xué)家更傾向于將這類生物單獨(dú)劃分出來歸類為原生生物。)

"If they had only the actin and myosin proteins that make up our muscles, they couldn't generate enough force to actually move that fast,” Bhamla added. "The smaller they are, the faster they [accelerate] — up to 200 meters per second squared [650 feet per second squared]. That's really off the charts."

“如果它們只有構(gòu)成我們肌肉的肌動(dòng)蛋白和肌球蛋白的蛋白質(zhì)的話，是無法產(chǎn)生足夠的動(dòng)力供它們快速的移動(dòng)的，”Bhamla補(bǔ)充說道，“它們的體型越小，加速度就越快——能夠達(dá)到每平方秒200米。這真的是快到爆表。”

Instead, the creatures use alternative, complex molecules to achieve both motion and tasks like moving their internal structures around.

作為替代，這種生物使用交替的、復(fù)雜的分子來實(shí)現(xiàn)運(yùn)動(dòng)和完成移動(dòng)它們內(nèi)部結(jié)構(gòu)的任務(wù)。

Bhamla hopes, he said in the release, that the molecules at work in this motion might lead to meaningful technological jumps, which in turn could lead to improvements on existing nanorobot technology.

Bhamla在新聞稿中表示，他希望在這種運(yùn)動(dòng)中運(yùn)轉(zhuǎn)的分子可以帶來意義深遠(yuǎn)的技術(shù)飛躍，轉(zhuǎn)而改進(jìn)現(xiàn)有的納米機(jī)器人技術(shù)。