Level 5 Reading 8B

Reading 8B

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OF ANTS AND HUMANS E.O. Wilson, one of the world's foremost authorities on biodiversity, discusses his lifelong love of the natural world, including its smallest members. How did you develop a passion for nature? When I was nine years old and living in Washington, D.C., I somehow got excited about the idea of expeditions to far-off jungles to collect the sorts of things you saw in National Geographic. So I decided I would do some expeditions to Rock Creek Park, and I got bottles and everything, and I started collecting there. I would go on my own and wander for hours. Then I went to the National Zoo, which was paradise on Earth for me. How could you avoid becoming a naturalist in that kind of environment? Is that kind of exploration a rarer experience for kids today? I worry about that. I have no data, but it appears to me that many of our young people are staying at home or being influenced by an increasingly stimulating "artifactual" world. Fake nature, sci-fi movies, videos, being drawn into lives that are pursued in front of a computer. That's a trend that would take young people away from a naturalist's experience. But there are counter-influences. More people go to zoos in the United States than attend professional sports; did you know that? There's a strong pull remaining that I think is primal. Darwin loved beetles. What was it about ants for you? Originally, I was going to work on flies because I felt that was a wide-open area to do exploration, but I couldn't get the special insect pins to collect them. It was 1946, just after the Second World War, and those pins were not available. So, I turned to ants because l could collect them in bottles of alcohol. Do some say that this isn't serious science, its just collecting? Well, when people say that sort of thing, you can respond quickly that you're not going to get anywhere until you do this science, and furthermore, you're going to make all sorts of new discoveries while you're doing it. You never know when someone is going to be looking for some kind of lead in this growing body of information from mapping life on Earth. For instance, someone might say, "What I need for my work is an ant that hunts underwater and walks around submarine fashion and then comes out and goes back to a dry nest. Does any such thing exist?" It turns out, yes! A submarine ant? Yes, in Malaysia, on the pitcher plant Nepenthes. This plant collects water in which insects fall and drown, and there are substances in the water that help digest the insects. Nepenthes gets organic material from the insects it captures. There is this ant that lives on Nepenthes, and the workers walk in, right down into the mouth of hell. They just walk right in submarine-like and pick up insects that have fallen to the bottom. Are you doing any field trips these days? I get together with younger ant specialists— they all seem younger to me, these days— and we go into the field. On a recent trip to the Dominican Republic, we went up to 2.4 kilometers above sea level. Most people don't know the Dominican Republic has mountains. We were all the way up in cold pine forests, discovering new species at every mountain site. There's no feeling that the world has been conquered now? Oh, no. That's the point—we're just beginning exploration. For animals, we probably know as few as 10 percent of the species. Even in a fairly familiar group like ants, we're discovering them right and left. I estimate that maybe half the ants in the world remain undiscovered. How well did Darwin know his ants? Darwin knew his ants very well. He spent a lot of time watching ants, and part of the reason was that ants exemplified a peculiarity that he said might have proved fatal to his theory of evolution. And that potential flaw was that worker ants are so completely different from queen ants, yet they are sterile. So how would you explain that by natural selection? If worker ants couldn't have offspring, how are their traits developed and passed on? The problem was how this kind of self-sacrifice— tending the queen while giving up reproduction— evolved? Yes, and Darwin solved the problem: What counts is the group, and that worker ants are just part of the colony, just an extension of the queen. Her heredity is what matters. If she is producing separate organisms that serve her purpose, then all together, these colonies can prevail over solitary individuals. That was the solution, and actually, that isn't too far from the way we see it today. The most recent theories [are] spelled out in a book that Bert Holldobler and I wrote called The Superorganism. Why that title? The colony is the next level of biological organization. The colony, by group selection, has developed traits that could not be possible otherwise— communication, the "caste" system, cooperative behavior. It's a unit of activity ant of evolution. One colony against another is what's being selected. This happens to be close to Darwin's idea but in modern genetic terms. How does this kind of social behavior get started? It has to do with defense against enemies. Naturalists have discovered more and more groups that have altruistic workers and soldiers— ants, termites, certain beetles, shrimp, and even a mammal, the naked mole rat. What's consistently the case is that these animals have a resource, usually a place to live with food, that's very valuable. If you're a solitary individual and you build a chamber like that, somebody could chuck you out. The idea is that these lines are going to find it advantageous to develop sterile castes for maintaining and protecting the colony. So, this is a story about community and home. I've learned my lesson about jumping from ants or sponges to humans! But it does, in my opinion, call for another look at human origins.

蚂蚁和人类 E.O.Wilson是世界上最重要的生物多样性权威之一， 讨论了他一生对自然世界的热爱，包括最小的成员。 你是如何培养对自然的热爱的？ 我九岁的时候住在华盛顿特区。， 不知怎么的，我对去遥远丛林探险的想法感到兴奋 收集你在《国家地理》杂志上看到的各种东西。 所以我决定去洛克溪公园探险， 我买了瓶子和所有东西，然后开始在那里收集。 我会一个人去，闲逛几个小时。 然后我去了国家动物园，那里对我来说是人间天堂。 在那种环境下，你怎么能避免成为一名博物学家呢？ 这种探索对今天的孩子来说是一种罕见的经历吗？ 我对此感到担忧。 我没有数据，但在我看来，我们的许多年轻人都待在家里 或者受到越来越刺激的“人工”世界的影响。 假自然、科幻电影、视频，被卷入在电脑前追求的生活。 这一趋势将使年轻人远离博物学家的经验。 但也有反作用。 在美国，去动物园的人比参加职业运动的人多； 你知道吗？ 还有一种强烈的吸引力，我认为这是原始的。 达尔文喜欢甲虫。蚂蚁对你来说是什么？ 起初，我打算研究苍蝇，因为我觉得这是一个广阔的探索领域， 但我找不到特殊的昆虫别针来收集它们。 那是1946年，第二次世界大战刚刚结束，那些别针还没有。 所以，我转向蚂蚁，因为我可以把它们装在酒瓶里。 有人说这不是严肃的科学，只是收集吗？ 好吧，当人们说这种话时， 你可以迅速回应，除非你做这门科学，否则你哪儿也去不了， 此外，你在做这件事的时候会有各种各样的新发现。 你永远不知道什么时候会有人在寻找某种线索 在绘制地球生命地图的这一不断增长的信息中。 例如，有人可能会说， “我的工作需要的是一只在水下狩猎的蚂蚁 然后像潜水艇一样四处走动，然后出来回到一个干燥的巢穴。 这样的东西存在吗？“事实证明，是的！ 潜水蚁？ 是的，在马来西亚，猪笼草上有猪笼草。 这种植物收集昆虫掉下来淹死的水， 水中有一些物质有助于消化昆虫。 猪笼草从捕获的昆虫中获取有机物质。 有一只蚂蚁住在猪笼草上，工人们走进来，直接进入地狱之口。 它们就像潜水艇一样直接行走，捡起掉到海底的昆虫。 这些天你有实地考察吗？ 我和年轻的蚂蚁专家聚在一起-- 这些天，在我看来，他们都更年轻了——我们走进田野。 在最近一次去多米尼加共和国的旅行中，我们上升到了海平面以上2.4公里处。 大多数人不知道多米尼加共和国有山。 我们一直在寒冷的松林中，在每个山区都发现了新物种。 现在没有人觉得世界已经被征服了吗？ 哦，不。这才是重点——我们才刚刚开始探索。 对于动物来说，我们可能只知道10%的物种。 即使在像蚂蚁这样相当熟悉的群体中，我们也在左右两侧发现它们。 我估计世界上可能有一半的蚂蚁尚未被发现。 达尔文对他的蚂蚁了解多少？ 达尔文非常了解他的蚂蚁。 他花了很多时间观察蚂蚁，部分原因是 蚂蚁体现了一种特殊性，他说这可能对他的进化论是致命的。 这个潜在的缺陷是工蚁与蚁后完全不同，但它们是不育的。 那么，你如何用自然选择来解释这一点呢？ 如果工蚁没有后代，它们的特征是如何发展和传递的？ 问题是这种自我牺牲-- 在放弃繁殖的同时照顾女王——进化了？ 是的，达尔文解决了这个问题： 重要的是群体，工蚁只是群体的一部分， 这只是女王的延伸。 她的遗传才是最重要的。 如果她正在生产符合其目的的单独生物体， 那么，总的来说，这些群体可以战胜孤独的个体。 这就是解决方案，实际上，这与我们今天看到的方式并不遥远。 最近的理论在我和Bert Holldobler写的一本名为《超级有机体》的书中得到了阐述。 为什么是这个标题？ 群体是生物组织的下一个层次。 通过群体选择，这个群体已经发展出了其他方式不可能的特征-- 沟通、种姓制度、合作行为。 它是进化蚂蚁的活动单位。 一个群体与另一个群体的对抗是被选择的。 这恰好接近达尔文的想法，但从现代遗传学的角度来看。 这种社会行为是如何开始的？ 这与防御敌人有关。 博物学家发现越来越多的群体有无私的工人和士兵-- 蚂蚁、白蚁、某些甲虫、虾，甚至还有哺乳动物裸鼹鼠。 一贯的情况是，这些动物有资源， 通常是一个有食物的地方，这很有价值。 如果你是一个孤独的人，你建造了一个这样的房间，有人可能会把你赶出去。 这个想法是，这些品系将发现开发无菌品系有利于维持和保护菌落。 所以，这是一个关于社区和家庭的故事。 我已经吸取了从蚂蚁或海绵跳到人类的教训！ 但在我看来，这确实需要重新审视人类起源。

Anthropologists now pretty much agree that a major factor in human origins was having a habitation, a campsite, which allowed for certain specialization, where some stayed and looked after the site and the young and so on, while others ventured out to bring food back. And the pressures from predators must have been pretty intense. But we don't have sterile castes. No, we have a division of labor. That is very true, and that's a fundamental difference between us and insects and these other creatures, and that's why we have to be very careful about drawing analogies. Because human beings are so flexible and intelligent, we can divide labor without physical castes. That system has worked pretty well for ants. They dominate ecosystems. In tropical forests, from one study, ants alone make up four times the weight of all the land vertebrates put together— amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals. The weight of all the ants in the world is roughly the weight of all the humans... They are the principal predators of small animals, the principal scavengers in much of the world, and the principal turners of the soil. It's interesting that ants and humans are both social and that both dominate their environment. Sure enough, we're the one highly social vertebrate with altruism and high levels of division of labor, though not sterility, We're the one species that has reached this level, and we dominate. We also have a tremendous effect on other species. More than any kind of ant. But I'm always at risk of having it said, "That nut wants to compare ants and humans." Well, obviously not. Beyond the fact that we both reached high levels of social behavior based on altruism and division of labor, the resemblance between humans and ants pretty much comes to an end. For example, they communicate almost entirely by taste and smell. They live in a sensory world that's totally different from humans. It's like ants are from another planet. And ants are constantly at war. Well, so are we! But they are the most warlike of animals. It makes you wonder whether war and complex societies go together. It may turn out that highly evolved societies with this level of altruism tend strongly to divide into groups that then fight against each other. We humans are constantly at war and have been since prehistory. I know a lot of people would like to believe that this is just a nasty habit we developed, just a cultural anomaly, and all we have to do is get enlightened and drop it. I hope that's true. Do the ants offer any lessons? At least not any we would care to put in practice. Ant colonies are all female; males are tolerated only part of the year. Slavery and cannibalism are commonplace. There is one lesson we have already learned, however: Ants keep themselves fanatically clean, so epidemics are rare. But now ants and many other creatures are threatened with extinction. Are you hopeful that we can save enough in time? Actually, I am. The best funded global conservation organizations are now scoring successes in persuading developing countries to set up sustainable reserves— sustainable meaning they provide an actual increase in the quality of life for people living in and around them. That doesn't take as much money as some have thought. It can be achieved in many of these countries where the greatest destruction is occurring because incomes may be just a few hundred dollars a year. There are reasons to believe that where most of the biodiversity occurs— the tropical forest, grasslands, and shallow marine areas—a lot can be saved.

人类学家现在几乎一致认为，人类起源的一个主要因素 有一个住所，一个露营地，可以进行某种专业化， 有些人留下来照顾现场和年轻人等， 而其他人则冒险出去把食物带回来。 捕食者的压力一定很大。 但我们没有无菌种姓。 不，我们有分工。 这是非常正确的，这是我们与昆虫和其他生物之间的根本区别， 这就是为什么我们必须非常小心地进行类比。 因为人类是如此灵活和聪明， 我们可以在没有身体种姓的情况下分工。 这个系统对蚂蚁很有效。 它们主宰着生态系统。 根据一项研究，在热带森林中， 仅蚂蚁的重量就相当于所有陆地脊椎动物总重量的四倍-- 两栖动物、爬行动物、鸟类、哺乳动物。 世界上所有蚂蚁的重量大致相当于所有人类的重量。.. 它们是小动物的主要捕食者， 世界大部分地区的主要食腐动物，以及土壤的主要翻耕者。 有趣的是，蚂蚁和人类都是社会性的，都主宰着他们的环境。 果然，我们是一种高度社会化的脊椎动物，具有利他主义和高度的分工，尽管不是不育， 我们是唯一达到这一水平的物种，我们占主导地位。 我们也对其他物种产生了巨大的影响。 比任何一种蚂蚁都多。 但我总是冒着被人说的风险， “那个疯子想把蚂蚁和人类做比较。” 显然不是。 除了我们都达到了基于利他主义和分工的高水平社会行为之外， 人类和蚂蚁之间的相似性几乎结束了。 例如，它们几乎完全通过味觉和嗅觉进行交流。 他们生活在一个与人类完全不同的感官世界里。 这就像蚂蚁来自另一个星球。 蚂蚁经常处于战争状态。好吧，我们也是！ 但它们是最好战的动物。 这让你怀疑战争和复杂的社会是否是相辅相成的。 事实可能证明，具有这种利他主义水平的高度进化的社会 倾向于强烈地分成不同的群体，然后相互争斗。 自史前以来，我们人类一直处于战争之中。 我知道很多人都愿意相信这只是我们养成的一个坏习惯，只是一种文化异常， 我们所要做的就是开悟并放下它。 我希望这是真的。 蚂蚁有什么教训吗？ 至少我们不想付诸实践。 蚁群都是雌性；男性只在一年中的一部分时间里被容忍。 奴隶制和同类相食是司空见惯的。 然而，我们已经吸取了一个教训： 蚂蚁保持着狂热的清洁，所以流行病很少见。 但现在蚂蚁和许多其他生物都面临着灭绝的威胁。 你希望我们能及时节省足够的时间吗？ 事实上，我是。 资金最充足的全球保护组织现在正在取得成功 说服发展中国家建立可持续的储备-- 可持续性意味着它们为生活在其中和周围的人们提供了生活质量的实际提高。 这并不像有些人想象的那么多钱。 在许多遭受最大破坏的国家，这是可以实现的 因为年收入可能只有几百美元。 有理由相信，大多数生物多样性发生在哪里-- 热带森林、草原和浅海地区——可以拯救很多。

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