CoolJob： Rethinking How Plants Hunt for Water 有趣的職業(yè)：反思植物是怎樣尋找水源的

石斯琳

José Dinneny wants us to see plants as strange.

約瑟·迪涅尼想讓我們以不同尋常的眼光看待植物。

Plants have no brain and no nervous system. Yet they take in different kinds of information and can make good decisions. They also find water without sight or touch.

植物沒有大腦，沒有神經(jīng)系統(tǒng)，但卻能接收各種信息，做出正確的選擇。它們還能在沒有視覺或觸覺的情況下探尋水源。

They are everywhere in our lives： lawns， salads and pots on a sunny windowsill1. Theyre so familiar that its easy to forget how odd they really are.

植物遍布我們生活的各個角落：草坪，色拉，以及擺放在窗沿上沐浴陽光的盆里。它們是生活中的常客，但因為太常見以至于我們忘了它們實際上有多么非同尋常。

Dinneny is a plant biologist2 in Stanford， California. He says the excitement of discovering plants alien3 ways drives him to explore how roots search for water. His research group “runs on curiosity4，” he says. He conducts projects just to discover how plants work. He once studied plants trying to grow in difficult places. Now hes focusing on ways to figure out whats happening in roots.

迪涅尼是加利福尼亞州斯坦福大學的植物生物學家。他說，正是發(fā)現(xiàn)了植物這種奇異的生活方式的驚奇感促使他去探索植物的根是怎樣尋找水源的。他說，他所在的研究團隊是“基于好奇心成立的”。他實施這個項目的目的是探求植物本身是如何生存的。他曾經(jīng)研究過在惡劣環(huán)境下生存的植物。現(xiàn)在他則關(guān)注植物根的作用方式。

To study how plants grow those roots， biologists often start seedlings in petri dishes5 with a nutrient6 gel7 instead of soil. This lets researchers experiment with lots of plants in the lab. But this is very different from how plants grow in real life. For more realism， Dinneny and his colleagues created a system called GLO-Roots. It creates a special view of roots in soil.

生物學家在研究植物的根如何生長的時候，通常先在皮氏培養(yǎng)皿里培養(yǎng)幼苗，并用營養(yǎng)凝膠代替土壤。研究者們利用這個方法可以在實驗室中培植各種植物。但這種培植方法同在真實環(huán)境中植物的生長方式存在很大差別。為了營造更加真實的環(huán)境，迪涅尼和他的同事們研發(fā)了一個叫做GLO根系統(tǒng)的系統(tǒng)。這個系統(tǒng)為研究生長在泥土里的根莖提供了特殊的視角。

In the GLO-roots system， plants grow their roots in soil held between two clear plates. The roots weave8 among air pockets， micro rivers and clots9 of dirt. Its like mini versions of the conditions that roots find in the ground. But these roots are special： They glow when various genes turn on in this twinkling underground observatory10. Computers analyze where that glow shows up. And that gives researchers clues to how roots are responding to their environment.

在GLO根系統(tǒng)中，植物的根在夾在兩片透明板之間的泥土里生長。根在氣穴，微小水流以及塵土塊中迂回延伸。這種模擬條件就像是根在地底下生長的迷你版本。但是這些根很特殊：在這個透亮的地下模擬觀測設(shè)備中，各種不同基因一激活，根就會生長。電腦會分析哪里的根生長了。研究者根據(jù)這些線索來分析植物的根是如何對環(huán)境做出反應(yīng)的。

Thrusting11 out a side branch to seek out water depends on local soil conditions， Dinneny and his colleagues learned. Its shown that the roots tissues12 can sense water differences at points only about 100 micrometers （around a thousandth of an inch） apart.

迪涅尼和他的同事通過研究了解到，植物會不會伸出側(cè)根去尋找水源，取決于當?shù)赝寥罈l件。研究表明，根組織能分辨出100微米（大約千分之一英寸）開外的水份條件的不同。

For much of his childhood， Dinneny was interested in deep-sea creatures and ocean exploring. But plants， it seems， have turned out to be strange enough.

迪涅尼在大部分童年時光都對深海動物以及海洋探索充滿興趣。但是現(xiàn)在看來，植物也是一種足夠奇特的生物。

Notes：

1. windowsill n. 窗臺；窗沿

2. biologist n. 生物學家

3. alien adj. 外國的；陌生的；相異的

4. curiosity n. 好奇，好奇心

5. petri dish 培養(yǎng)皿（皮氏培養(yǎng)皿）

6. nutrient adj. 營養(yǎng)的；滋養(yǎng)的

7. gel n. 凝膠，膠體

8. weave v. 編織；迂回前進

9. clot n. 凝塊

10. observatory n. 觀測臺

11. thrust vt. 插 vi. 插入

12. tissue n. 組織