文章轉載自 世紀君 21世紀英文報

導讀：許多動物會靠冬眠過冬，為什么人類卻不冬眠？有一個機構正認真對待這個問題……

Black bears hibernate to get through winter. TUCHONG

Is human hibernation possible?

With low temperatures and a lack of food, winter is a harsh season for animals. Many animals enter hibernation to get through it.

冬天溫度較低、食物短缺，對于動物來說是一個嚴酷的季節(jié)。許多動物靠冬眠來過冬。

Hibernation is when an animal goes into a state of extended inactivity. Animals hide away from predators. Their metabolism will slow to less than a quarter of its normal rate. This cools the creature’s body and slows its heartbeat to just a few times per minute, for up to months at a time.

冬眠指動物進入長時間的生命活動極低的狀態(tài)。冬眠時，動物會避開捕食者，將新陳代謝速度減慢至正常速度的四分之一以下。這會讓動物的體溫降低，心跳減慢至每分鐘幾次，而這種狀態(tài)每次會持續(xù)至數(shù)月。

But why don’t humans hibernate? Human hibernation doesn’t exist for many reasons. Our body is not designed for hibernation. Our evolutionary ancestors were tropical animals with no history of hibernating: Humans have only migrated into temperate and subarctic latitudes in the last hundred thousand years or so. That’s not quite long enough to evolve all the metabolic adaptations we would need to be able to hibernate, according to the BBC Science Focus Magazine.

但是人類為什么不冬眠呢？人類不冬眠有很多原因。人類的身體不適合冬眠。我們進化學上的祖先是沒有冬眠歷史的熱帶動物：人類在過去大約10萬年里，才遷移到溫帶和靠近北極地區(qū)。據(jù)英國廣播公司《科學焦點》雜志報道，這段時間還不夠長，人類無法進化出冬眠所需的所有代謝適應能力。

For example, waste management is a huge challenge for human hibernation. Animals that hibernate are able to essentially stop their urination and defecation during hibernation, sometimes through a process of reabsorption to preserve nutrients. Unfortunately, humans can’t do this.

例如，處理代謝廢物就是人類冬眠會面臨的巨大挑戰(zhàn)，冬眠的動物基本上能夠在冬眠期間停止排尿、排便，有時它們還會重新吸收廢物來保存營養(yǎng)。不幸的是，人類做不到這一點。

There are other challenges. Body temperatures below 2.8℃ tend to disrupt the human digestive tract and may cause pain. Cold temperatures can also suppress the immune system, making people more vulnerable to infections, according to Smithsonian Magazine.

人類冬眠還面臨其他挑戰(zhàn)。人體溫度如果低于2.8攝氏度，往往會損害人體的消化道，而且可能引發(fā)疼痛。據(jù)《史密森尼雜志》報道，低溫還會降低免疫系統(tǒng)活躍性，人們會更容易受到感染。

In fact, humans don’t need to sleep through winter. We have discovered fire, clothes, shelter, hunting and agriculture, all of which are much more effective ways of surviving the cold.

實際上，人類不需要靠睡覺過冬。我們發(fā)現(xiàn)通過生火、穿衣、躲進房屋中能夠避寒，依靠狩獵和農(nóng)耕可以果腹，所有這些手段幫助人類更有效地度過嚴寒。

Could humans hibernate in the future? For long-distance space travel, it’s likely. A journey to Mars would take around months using current technology. If we hope to visit another star system, even if we could travel at the speed of light, the journey would take years. Being able to hibernate would make such distances considerably less boring for the astronauts and conserve vital resources, according to University of Oxford in the UK.

在未來，人類會冬眠嗎?如果踏上長途太空旅行，人類很可能會冬眠。憑借目前的技術，人類去往火星需要幾個月的時間。如果我們希望去到另一個星系，即使能以光速旅行，這段旅程也需要數(shù)年。英國牛津大學研究表明，如果能夠令宇航員進入冬眠，將大幅減少其在漫長航程中的無聊感，并節(jié)約重要的資源。

NASA is treating this question seriously. Beginning in 2014, the agency funded research on long-term hibernation as a way to facilitate long-term space travel, according to The Atlantic magazine.

美國航空航天局（NASA）正在認真對待人類冬眠的問題。據(jù)《大西洋月刊》報道，NASA從2014年起資助了一項有關長期冬眠的研究，希望以這種方式推動長期太空旅行發(fā)展。

以上部分內容來自《21世紀學生英文報·高二》849期