TED演讲:嘻哈音乐如何帮助我们理解科学(2)

The song is about cheating on your significant other.

这首歌是关于出轨的。

Now, around the time that this song was in heavy rotation¹,

在这首歌特别流行的时候，

biologists were in deep discussion about whether bird species,

生物学家们深刻讨论了鸟类，

notably² songbirds and waterfowl were actually monogamous or not.

特别是夜莺和水禽类是否真的是一夫一妻制。

See, for decades, generations of science students were taught that well over 90 percent of the bird species were monogamous.

几十年来，一代又一代的科学专业学生们学到的观念是：超过90%种类的鸟是一夫一妻制。

A male and female mating faithfully for life.

一雌一雄彼此一生忠贞不渝。

That was until the late 1980s, when a new laboratory technique came on the scene,

直到二十世纪八十年代末，一项新的实验技术问世了。

which could copy DNA³ from a small tissue or fluid sample and decode⁴ the genetics of individuals.

这项技术能够从少量组织或液体样本中复制DNA，然后解码个体的基因。

Now, before that technique, we were never ever certain about, 100 percent,

在这项技术出现之前，我们从来都不百分百确定，

who the parents of baby birds were. All we had were our field notes.

鸟宝宝的父母到底是谁。我们那时所有的证据只有现场考察的笔记。

And we would know which adults lived in a nest and which ones fed the baby birds.

根据这些笔记，我们知道了哪些成年鸟住在鸟巢中，哪些喂养鸟宝宝。

Well, come to find out, study after study kept coming in and we found so much evidence of infidelity

后来越来越多的研究表明，我们发现了大量出轨的证据，

among bird species, particularly these songbirds that we thought were the pinnacle⁵ of monogamy.

存在于鸟类之间，尤其是鸣禽之间，而我们以为鸣禽是最践行一夫一妻制的种类了。

It would have made Maury Povich jealous for the ratings.

（如果公开结果）这是让莫里·波维奇（美国脱口秀名人）都嫉妒的收视率。

It rocked biology and ornithology⁶ so hard, we had to modify and expand the entire definition of monogamy.

这一事实深刻地震撼了生物学和鸟类学界，我们不得不修正和扩大一夫一妻制的整个定义。

1 rotation   

n.旋转；循环，轮流

参考例句：

• Crop rotation helps prevent soil erosion.农作物轮作有助于防止水土流失。
• The workers in this workshop do day and night shifts in weekly rotation.这个车间的工人上白班和上夜班每周轮换一次。

2 notably   

adv.值得注意地，显著地，尤其地，特别地

参考例句：

• Many students were absent,notably the monitor.许多学生缺席，特别是连班长也没来。
• A notably short,silver-haired man,he plays basketball with his staff several times a week.他个子明显较为矮小，一头银发，每周都会和他的员工一起打几次篮球。

3 DNA   

(缩)deoxyribonucleic acid 脱氧核糖核酸

参考例句：

• DNA is stored in the nucleus of a cell.脱氧核糖核酸储存于细胞的细胞核里。
• Gene mutations are alterations in the DNA code.基因突变是指DNA密码的改变。

4 decode   

vt.译（码），解（码）

参考例句：

• All he had to do was decode it and pass it over.他需要做的就是将它破译然后转给他人。
• The secret documents were intercepted and decoded.机密文件遭截获并被破译。

5 pinnacle   

n.尖塔，尖顶，山峰；(喻)顶峰

参考例句：

• Now he is at the very pinnacle of his career.现在他正值事业中的顶峰时期。
• It represents the pinnacle of intellectual capability.它代表了智能的顶峰。

6 ornithology   

n.鸟类学

参考例句：

• He found his vocation in ornithology.他发现自己适于专攻鸟类学。
• His main interests are botany and ornithology.他主要对植物学和鸟类学感兴趣。