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　　鸟类智商不算太糟

Research Shows Bird Brains Aren’t So Bad

鸟类并不笨头笨脑

The next time someone calls you a “bird brain,” you should thank them.

下次有人对你说“头笨如鸟”的话，你要谢谢他。

Changing Opinions

转变观点

Neuroscientists’ opinions about the brains of birds have changed. In humans and other mammals, the roof of the forebrain has evolved into the cerebral cortex, a structure responsible for flexible learning and reasoning.

神经系统科学家关于鸟类大脑的传统观念发生了转变。人类和其他哺乳动物的前脑顶层已经进化为大脑皮层，这一结构主管弹性学习和推理能力。

Early neuroanatomists thought that the forebrain roof was small and simple in birds, with its forebrain instead being dominated by structures in its base, called the basal ganglia. Without an elaborate forebrain roof, it seemed that birds couldn’t be very smart.

早期的神经系统科学家认为鸟类的前脑顶层在大脑中面积小，构造简单，且并非由大脑基底部名为基底神经节的结构组成。因此，鸟类并不拥有复杂精妙的前脑顶层，这似乎决定了鸟类智商有限。

New Research

新研究

Recent research shows that birds are a lot smarter than scientists once thought. To give just a few examples, the New Caledonian crow can manufacture and use tools. The African grey parrot can learn to classify objects into categories, and the Florida scrub jay stores food in dozens of caches and can remember their locations for future use.

最近的研究表明鸟类要比科学家想象的聪明得多。例如，新喀里多尼亚乌鸦会制作和使用工具。非洲灰鹦鹉能学会对东西进行分类，佛罗里达灌丛鸦会将食物存储在不同的地方，并且能记住位置，以备将来之需。

It turns out that neuroanatomists had it all wrong about bird forebrains. During more than 300 million years of separate evolution, the forebrain roofs of birds and of mammals each grew larger and more elaborate, but in different ways. The roof of a bird’s forebrain is so different from the cerebral cortex of a mammal that the neuroanatomists had confused most of it with enlarged basal ganglia.

结果是神经解剖学家 对鸟类前脑的研究完全错误。在3亿多年各自的进化过程中，鸟类和哺乳动物的前脑顶层分别以不同的方式变大变精。鸟类的大脑顶层与哺乳动物的大脑皮层差别如此之大以至于神经解剖学家 将其与增大的基底神经节基本都弄混了。

　　玫瑰不叫玫瑰

A Rose By Any Other Name

玫瑰不叫玫瑰

Just saying the word “rose” conjures up images of romance, secret admirers, Valentines gifts, and bridal bouquets. Romantics imagine soft, red petals and long, graceful stems, but practical gardeners know all about painful, pointy thorns. As the saying goes, every rose has its thorn. But, what we call thorns are actually not thorns at all.

“玫瑰”很容易让人联想到浪漫的场景，神秘的爱慕者，情人节的礼物和结婚的花束。浪漫的人会想象出柔软的、红色的花瓣和修长的，优雅的花茎，但是实际上园丁们才知道那些尖锐的刺带来的痛楚。常言道，每朵玫瑰都有刺。但是，我们所说的这种刺其实根本就不是刺。

Thorns

刺

Thorns, like those found on the Hawthorn tree, are modified branches that project from the stem and branches of a woody plant.

刺，例如山楂树上的刺，实际上是一种改良的分枝，它会从木本植物的茎和分枝中生长出来。

They are very sharp and quite strong because they are made of the same stuff as the stem of the tree or bush. Thorns are deeply embedded in the woody structure of the plant and can’t be broken off easily. Those nasty points on the stem of the rose are not true thorns: they are what scientists call “prickles.”

它们非常锋利并且相当坚硬，因为它们的质地与灌木或树的茎是一样的。这些刺都深深地嵌在植物的木纹状组织结构内，不会被轻易破坏。这些令人讨厌的长在玫瑰茎上的刺其实并不是真正的刺，科学家们称它们为“皮刺”。

Prickles

皮刺

Prickles are smaller than thorns: they are sharp outgrowths of the plant’s outer layers, the skin-like epidermis, and the sub-epidermal layer just beneath it. Unlike a thorn, a prickle can be easily broken off the plant because it is really a feature of the outer layers rather than part of the wood, like a thorn.

皮刺比刺要小了许多：它们是这些植物外层的附属物，看上去像皮肤的表皮，其下还有亚表皮层。不像刺，皮刺能够被轻易地从植物茎上剥落，因为它仅仅是植物外层的一种特征，而不像刺那样是茎的一部分。

Both prickles and thorns protect the plant from predators, and, maybe, from lovers looking for a free bouquet. But perhaps we call the rose prickles “thorns” because saying “every rose has its prickle” doesn’t seem to do justice to the pain of unrequited love.

不管是刺抑或荆棘，都可以保护这些植物不被捕食者所猎食，同样，或许也能免于被那些寻找免费花束的情人所折断。但是或许，我们应该叫这些皮刺为“刺”，因为“每一朵玫瑰都有它的刺”的说法似乎对那些暗恋者所感受的痛苦来说不太公平。