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This is Scientific American's 60-second Science, I'm Christopher Intagliata.

这里是科学美国人——60秒科学系列，我是克里斯托弗·因塔格里塔。

There's a lot of advertising¹ mythology² about what causes dandruff. Like this:

有很多谈论头皮屑产生原因的广告神话。比如这条：

(CLIP: "Here's why clean scalp is important. Your hair roots must breathe—or there's trouble; deep trouble; dandruff.")

（音频剪辑：“这就是为什么清洁头皮非常重要的原因。你的发根必须要呼吸，否则就会产生问题；严重问题，即头皮屑。”）

"Dandruff itself is actually a very, very complicated condition."

“头皮屑本身确实是非常非常复杂的病症。”

Microbiologist and molecular³ biologist Barry Murphy at Unilever in the U.K., says dandruff is a perfect storm of flakiness—involving your fungal microbiome, the health and oiliness of the skin on your scalp, even weather!

英国联合利华公司的微生物学家和分子生物学家巴里·墨菲表示，头皮屑完全是一场脱落风暴，涉及你的真菌微生物群，头皮的健康和油质，甚至还有天气状况！

His team set out to investigate the microbial component⁴. They sequenced DNA⁵ from the heads of people with healthy hair and from others with dry, dandruffy scalps—none of whom had used antidandruff shampoo within the last six months.

他的团队开始着手研究其微生物成分。他们对头发健康者和头皮干燥且有头皮屑者进行了头皮DNA测序，这些人在过去六个月内都未使用过去屑洗发水。

As previous studies have found, they spotted⁶ 10 times as much of a type of fungus⁷ called Malassezia on dandruffy scalps versus⁸ the healthy cohort. But they also found that populations of a bacterium⁹ called Staphylococcus capitis spiked¹⁰ on flaky scalps.

与此前研究结果一样，他们在头屑头皮上发现了一种名为马拉色菌的真菌，其数量是健康人群头皮上的10倍。但他们同时发现，头屑头皮上的头状葡萄球菌的数量在飙升。

"Really, really interestingly, we found there was approximately 100 times more of this bacteria on a dry or a dandruff scalp than there was on a healthy scalp."

“非常非常有趣的是，我们发现，干燥或头屑头皮上的这种细菌的数量，大约是健康头皮上的100倍。”

But it's still a mystery why it's there—or what it's doing. The results are in the journal PLOS ONE.

但这种细菌为何出现以及它有何作用，现在仍然是谜。这项研究结果发表在《公共科学图书馆·综合》期刊上。

Murphy's employer Unilever makes its own antidandruff products. So this could be useful information someday. But rather than just zapping scalp fungi¹¹ with antifungal compounds like most of today's antidandruff shampoos do, Murphy says the goal might be to make a more gentle product.

墨菲所在的联合利华公司生产自己的去头屑产品。因此这些信息在未来某天可能会派上用场。但墨菲表示，他们的目标并不是像现在大多数去头屑洗发水那样，仅仅用抗真菌化合物去除头皮真菌，而是制造更加温和的产品。

"It should be about trying to restore an equilibrium¹². It should be about microbiome balance. It should be about the very fact that we've lived in harmony with these microbes for millions and millions of years."

“这种产品应该具有恢复平衡的功能。应该能恢复微生物平衡。应该认识到的事实是，我们已经与这些微生物和睦相处了数百万年。”

Either way, it seems the old lore¹³ that a dandruffy scalp just needs a thorough "cleaning" might be a little flaky.

不管怎样，头屑头皮需要彻底“清洁”的古老说法似乎有点离谱。

(CLIP: "That's why there is no dandruff ever in this family.")

（音频剪辑：“这就是这个家庭没有头皮屑的原因。”）

Thanks for listening for Scientific American's 60-second Science. I'm Christopher Intagliata.

谢谢大家收听科学美国人——60秒科学。我是克里斯托弗·因塔利亚塔。