Getting Help From Nature

孟文杰

A group of clams recently caught people sattention after an article was posted by ChinaScience Communication online. Although theseclams are usually regarded as nothing morethan delicious food， they work to monitor thelocal water quality in Poland.

Gruba Kaska pumping station， whichstands in the River Wisla， helps provide mil-lions of liters of water to Warsaw， the capital ofPoland. However， one particular concern forthe water quality has been heavy metals， and re-searchers sought help from nature to solve thisproblem.

Clams are sensitive to pollutants in theirenvironment as they filter water to feed on mi-croorganisms. They shut their shells immediate-ly after detecting“dangerous ”water.

Based on this， the researchers selectedeight clams at a time and recorded the naturalopening of their shells. After the clam“employ-ees ”become accustomed to the local water，they are placed in a specially designed contain-

最近，科普中國線上發表了一篇關于河蚌的文章，吸引了人們的注意。文章中科普到，河蚌不僅可以被烹飪成美食，還能幫助檢測波蘭當地的水質。

建在維瓦斯河流上的 Gruba Kaska 水泵站，為波蘭首都華沙提供了數百萬升的水資源。然而，重金屬污染已經成為該地水質的一大問題，于是有專家試圖向大自然尋求幫助來改善水質。

河蚌對于其生存環境中的污染物極其敏感，因為它們濾食水中的微生物。一旦檢測到水源發出的“危險”信號，河蚌會立即合上蚌殼。

基于此，研究者們同時選擇了八只河蚌進行試驗，并且記錄其蚌殼的自然開啟。在這些河蚌“員工”適應了當地的水環境后，它們被放置在一個特別設計的容器中。蚌殼上粘貼的傳感器將河蚌與記錄蚌殼開啟程

er. With sensors stuck onto their shells， the clams are connected to a system that records how wide the shells are open.

If four or more clams close their shells at the same time， an alarm will be triggered and the water supply will be shut down. The result is reliable because the creatures are considering many different factors at the same time， accord- ing to ZME Science.

Animals have long been helpers for hu- man activities. Farmers in north Queensland， Australia， have been ordering different species of dung beetles to help clean up cattle dung， ac- cording to ABC News. As the number of cattle grows， their waste increases， leading to an enor- mous population of flies and a worsening envi- ronment. Dung beetles， however， take the waste and bury it. This way， they help improve soil quality.

Similarly， cockroaches are used to deal with kitchen waste at several firms in China， ac- cording to a report of The Beijing News in 2018. About 300 million cockroaches are fed 15 tons of food waste on a daily basis， and they themselves are a good protein resource for live- stock.

度的系統連接到一起。

如果四只及以上河蚌同時合上蚌殼，就會觸發警報，同時切斷水供給。ZME Sci-ence表明，該研究結果十分可靠，因為實驗過程中同時考慮到了多種因素。

動物一直以來都是人類活動的好幫手。據澳大利亞廣播公司報道，在澳大利亞昆士蘭北部的農民一直依靠不同種類的屎殼郎來幫助他們清理牛糞。隨著牛群的擴大，牛的排泄物也隨之增加，不僅引來大量蒼蠅，還污染環境。然而，屎殼郎可以將排泄物埋進土里，改善土質。

此外，新京報2018年的一篇報道稱，中國多家公司利用蟑螂處理廚余垃圾。大約3億只蟑螂一天可以被喂食15噸餐廚垃圾，并且蟑螂自身對牲畜來說也是很好的蛋白質來源。

選自《21世紀英文報》