美国国家公共电台 NPR In 'Spineless,' How Jellyfish Have Survived Throughout Time

 

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

News reports about jellyfish often have an ominous¹ flavor.

(SOUNDBITE OF DOCUMENTARY, "RISE OF THE JELLYFISH")

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Jellyfish are invading all over the world. The Baltic, the Black Sea, Australia, the Bering Sea, the waters of South Africa have all been under attack.

SHAPIRO: That's from "Rise Of The Jellyfish," a documentary about massive swarms² called blooms. Scientists disagree on whether these blooms are natural or exacerbated³ by climate change and pollution. That's one of the questions that pulled the author Juli Berwald back to the ocean. Berwald was landlocked in Austin, Texas, writing high school textbooks. She hadn't used her biology Ph.D. in years. Then she became hypnotized by these creatures that are fragile enough to fall apart between your fingers, yet powerful enough to kill a person in four minutes. Her new book is part memoir⁴, part science. It's called "Spineless: The Science Of Jellyfish And The Art Of Growing A Backbone⁵." When I spoke⁶ with her, I asked, why jellyfish?

JULI BERWALD: Jellyfish are - well, they're an incredible muse⁷ because they sort of live in this space between angelic and demonic...

SHAPIRO: Ooh (ph), yeah.

BERWALD: ...Because, you know, you can't deny how gorgeous they are. And when they swim there's something very - that connects to you on sort of a very primal⁸ level. But there's also this demonic side in that they have this horrible sting. And they're - I mean, they're actually lethal⁹, some of them. But the real reason was because jellyfish - well, there was a lot of debate about whether their numbers were increasing globally and what that increase in abundance could tell us about how we're treating our oceans.

SHAPIRO: And the answer's not very simple.

BERWALD: No, the answer is not very simple. And part of the reason the answer isn't simple is because we've systematically¹⁰ understudied jellyfish for most of the 20th century. Once we started looking at the oceans using motors and nets, the things that were too fragile to come up in those motors and nets stopped being counted. So our view of the ocean became one that was biased¹¹ towards things that were durable¹². That said, there are certainly places in the world like those places mentioned in the documentary where jellyfish abundances are increasing. And in those places, jellyfish are definitely telling us that our care for the ocean is not what it should be.

SHAPIRO: You write that some of the greatest fisheries in the world have just collapsed¹³, and now it's all jellyfish.

BERWALD: Yeah. Yeah. Off of Namibia and South Africa it used to be one of the world's richest fisheries, you know, producing, like, a million tons of fish a year. And now it's estimated that the biomass there is two to three times more jellyfish than fish. And that ecosystem's unlikely to flip¹⁴ back to be fish-dominated.

SHAPIRO: So as you said, demonic and also angelic.

BERWALD: Absolutely.

SHAPIRO: You also write about these incredible structures that cause stings or propulsion or navigation. Is there one, like, jelly fish fun fact that you've been dropping at dinner parties that you learned as you were writing this book?

BERWALD: Yeah, that stinging cell - it's the fastest motion in the animal kingdom that we know of.

SHAPIRO: Wait. Really?

BERWALD: Yeah.

SHAPIRO: I'm sure that was somewhere in the book, which I did read cover to cover, but that didn't stick out to me - the fastest motion in the animal kingdom.

BERWALD: Oh, my - yeah. So, you know, if you just drop, like, a pencil onto the table it falls with an acceleration¹⁵ of one G. And then, like, a Ferrari accelerates with an acceleration of, like, three G's. But the stinging cell of a jellyfish explodes with an acceleration of 5 million G's.

SHAPIRO: How can an animal as simple as a jellyfish have something so sophisticated as part of its biology?

BERWALD: It's astonishing. I agree. That stinging cell is kind of a marvel¹⁶ of nature that is extremely underappreciated. But also, I mean, if you think about it, jellyfish have been swimming in our oceans for over half a billion years. And part of what allowed them to remain jellyfish that whole time is this stinging cell. It's really the key to their survival.

SHAPIRO: There was another jellyfish moment in this book that I liked where you were asking a biologist, like, why is it see-through? Why doesn't it actually have some features? And the biologist was like, it's really hard to see-through, and it's a huge advantage to be see-through. So...

BERWALD: Yeah. I mean, that's - that was another thing. I popped myself on the forehead when he said that to me. I mean, in the ocean there's nothing - there's nothing to hide behind or hide in. It's just water. So if you look like water you're at an advantage.

SHAPIRO: Which means you have to hide everything that's inside of you, all of the guts¹⁷...

BERWALD: Yes.

SHAPIRO: ...The brains, the everything.

BERWALD: The more cellular¹⁸ you are, the harder it is to stay clear. So the jellyfish do it by having this watery¹⁹ inside which allows them to sort of hide as a big creature using as few cells as possible. It's kind of brilliant.

(LAUGHTER)

SHAPIRO: So the process of writing this book led you away from your old life as a high school textbook writer back to your roots as a marine²⁰ biologist. Do you think you're there to stay?

BERWALD: I really hope so. I think I've found that I'm definitely happiest when I have the ocean to think about. And I also feel like the ocean's been neglected by us to some extent. We're damaging it in many ways that we don't think about very often. And so if I could continue to write about the ocean and what's going on with it, I would be really happy.

SHAPIRO: Julie Berwald's new book is called "Spineless: The Science Of Jellyfish And The Art Of Growing A Backbone." It's been great talking to you. Thanks a lot.

BERWALD: Thank you so much, Ari. It's been really fun.

(SOUNDBITE OF ELSE'S "PACIFIC 704")

1 ominous   

adj.不祥的，不吉的，预兆的，预示的

参考例句：

• Those black clouds look ominous for our picnic.那些乌云对我们的野餐来说是个不祥之兆。
• There was an ominous silence at the other end of the phone.电话那头出现了不祥的沉默。

2 swarms   

蜂群，一大群( swarm的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• They came to town in swarms. 他们蜂拥来到城里。
• On June the first there were swarms of children playing in the park. 6月1日那一天，这个公园里有一群群的孩子玩耍。

3 exacerbated   

v.使恶化，使加重( exacerbate的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The symptoms may be exacerbated by certain drugs. 这些症状可能会因为某些药物而加重。
• The drugs they gave her only exacerbated the pain. 他们给她吃的药只是加重了她的痛楚。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 memoir   

n.[pl.]回忆录，自传；记事录

参考例句：

• He has just published a memoir in honour of his captain.他刚刚出了一本传记来纪念他的队长。
• In her memoir,the actress wrote about the bittersweet memories of her first love.在那个女演员的自传中，她写到了自己苦乐掺半的初恋。

5 backbone   

n.脊骨，脊柱，骨干；刚毅，骨气

参考例句：

• The Chinese people have backbone.中国人民有骨气。
• The backbone is an articulate structure.脊椎骨是一种关节相连的结构。

6 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

7 muse   

n.缪斯（希腊神话中的女神），创作灵感

参考例句：

• His muse had deserted him,and he could no longer write.他已无灵感，不能再写作了。
• Many of the papers muse on the fate of the President.很多报纸都在揣测总统的命运。

8 primal   

adj.原始的；最重要的

参考例句：

• Jealousy is a primal emotion.嫉妒是最原始的情感。
• Money was a primal necessity to them.对于他们，钱是主要的需要。

9 lethal   

adj.致死的；毁灭性的

参考例句：

• A hammer can be a lethal weapon.铁锤可以是致命的武器。
• She took a lethal amount of poison and died.她服了致命剂量的毒药死了。

10 systematically   

adv.有系统地

参考例句：

• This government has systematically run down public services since it took office.这一屆政府自上台以来系统地削减了公共服务。
• The rainforest is being systematically destroyed.雨林正被系统地毀灭。

11 biased   

a.有偏见的

参考例句：

• a school biased towards music and art 一所偏重音乐和艺术的学校
• The Methods: They employed were heavily biased in the gentry's favour. 他们采用的方法严重偏袒中上阶级。

12 durable   

adj.持久的，耐久的

参考例句：

• This raincoat is made of very durable material.这件雨衣是用非常耐用的料子做的。
• They frequently require more major durable purchases.他们经常需要购买耐用消费品。

13 collapsed   

adj.倒塌的

参考例句：

• Jack collapsed in agony on the floor. 杰克十分痛苦地瘫倒在地板上。
• The roof collapsed under the weight of snow. 房顶在雪的重压下突然坍塌下来。

14 flip   

vt.快速翻动；轻抛；轻拍；n.轻抛；adj.轻浮的

参考例句：

• I had a quick flip through the book and it looked very interesting.我很快翻阅了一下那本书，看来似乎很有趣。
• Let's flip a coin to see who pays the bill.咱们来抛硬币决定谁付钱。

15 acceleration   

n.加速，加速度

参考例句：

• All spacemen must be able to bear acceleration.所有太空人都应能承受加速度。
• He has also called for an acceleration of political reforms.他同时呼吁加快政治改革的步伐。

16 marvel   

vi.(at)惊叹vt.感到惊异；n.令人惊异的事

参考例句：

• The robot is a marvel of modern engineering.机器人是现代工程技术的奇迹。
• The operation was a marvel of medical skill.这次手术是医术上的一个奇迹。

17 guts   

v.狼吞虎咽，贪婪地吃，飞碟游戏（比赛双方每组5人，相距15码，互相掷接飞碟）；毁坏（建筑物等）的内部( gut的第三人称单数 )；取出…的内脏n.勇气( gut的名词复数 )；内脏；消化道的下段；肠

参考例句：

• I'll only cook fish if the guts have been removed. 鱼若已收拾干净，我只需烧一下即可。
• Barbara hasn't got the guts to leave her mother. 巴巴拉没有勇气离开她妈妈。 来自《简明英汉词典》

18 cellular   

adj.移动的；细胞的，由细胞组成的

参考例句：

• She has a cellular telephone in her car.她的汽车里有一部无线通讯电话机。
• Many people use cellular materials as sensitive elements in hygrometers.很多人用蜂窝状的材料作为测量温度的传感元件。

19 watery   

adj.有水的，水汪汪的；湿的，湿润的

参考例句：

• In his watery eyes there is an expression of distrust.他那含泪的眼睛流露出惊惶失措的神情。
• Her eyes became watery because of the smoke.因为烟熏，她的双眼变得泪汪汪的。

20 marine   

adj.海的；海生的；航海的；海事的；n.水兵

参考例句：

• Marine creatures are those which live in the sea. 海洋生物是生存在海里的生物。
• When the war broke out,he volunteered for the Marine Corps.战争爆发时，他自愿参加了海军陆战队。