You may be surprised to learn that many plants have a version of this body clock too, and now, it turns out, so do bacteria!

你可能會驚訝地發現，許多植物也有自己版本的生理時鐘，而現在，事實證明細菌也是如此！

This concept of a biological clock is often called a circadian rhythm.

這種生物鐘的概念通常被稱為晝夜節律。

You may think of it just as those signals that make you sleepy at night and wake your body up in the morning,

你可能認為它只是那些在晚上讓你犯睏，在早上喚醒你身體的信號，

but there are actually thousands of tiny clocks, controlling all kinds of biological pathways inside of us on timed cycles.

但實際上，我們的體內有成千上萬個微小的時鐘，在定時的週期內控制體內的各種生物途徑。

They're this beautiful, finely tuned dance of sensory information coming in, sparking a cascade of hormones and other signaling chemicals, turning the cogs of some very specific molecular machinery in our cells.

它們是種美麗、精細調整的感官資訊的舞蹈，能夠引發一連串的荷爾蒙和其他化學信號，轉動我們細胞中一些特定分子機器的齒輪。

In humans, these are important to our health and mental processing, and in animals that have them, biological clocks help us adapt to our environment.

在人體中，這些對我們的健康和心理處理都非常重要，而在擁有生物鐘的動物體內，生物鐘能幫助我們適應周圍環境。

So, I guess it's not surprising that we see these rhythms in plants, too.

因此，我想我們也能在植物中看到這種晝夜節律並不令人意外。

I mean organisms that photosynthesize also need to regulate their processes based on when the sun is out.

畢竟進行光合作用的生物體，也需要根據太陽出來的時間來調節它們的處理過程。

And get this, it's not just that organisms react to a stimulus like the sun rising.

而更進一步來說，這不僅僅是生物體對太陽昇起這樣的刺激起了對應反應而已。

Research shows that organisms like plants anticipate the rising of the sun, and continue cycling in their circadian rhythm even when deprived of that external cue, meaning that essentially, they can tell time.

研究表明，像植物這樣的生物體會預測太陽的升起，並在沒有外部光線當作線索的情況下，其晝夜節律中仍會繼續循環，也就是說，它們基本上其實能計算時間。

And with this understanding, it also makes sense that tiny microbes called cyanobacteria, which photosynthesize, also have a circadian rhythm.

而有了這層認知之後，會行光合作用，被稱為藍細菌的微小微生物也擁有晝夜節律也就合理許多。

But what's a little weirder is that just regular old bacteria, chilling in the soil or on our bodies or in your fridge, also have an internal clock!

但更奇怪的是，只是潛藏在土壤中，或我們的身體上，或在你的冰箱裡的普通細菌，竟然也有內部生理時鐘！

Now, you might be saying at this point, "Okay, that's interesting, but like, why should we really care?"

現在，你可能會說：「好喔，挺有趣的，但是這干我們什麼事？」

And I see where you're coming from, but bacteria are everywhere.

我明白你的想法，但細菌無處不在。

We can't even see them with our naked eye and yet they make up roughly 15% of all the biomass on this planet.

我們甚至無法用肉眼看到它們，但它們卻佔了這個星球上所有生物質的大約 15%。

They're essential not only to human health but to the health of the crops we grow and to the creation of industrial products.

它們不僅對人類健康至關重要，而且對我們種植的農作物的健康，和工業產品的生產來說也不可或缺。

We pretty much couldn't do anything without them. So knowing more about how they tick is pretty important!

沒有它們，我們幾乎什麼都做不了。因此更加深入地瞭解它們的生態是非常重要的！

An international team of researchers recently published a study on this little guy, Bacillus subtilis.

一個國際研究小組最近發表了一項關於這個小傢伙：枯草芽孢桿菌的研究。

They used a bioluminescent compound to track the activity of certain genes, and they found that levels of expression for these genes cycled up and down, aligning with a 24-hour cycle with 12 hours of light and 12 hours of dark.

他們使用一種生物發光的化合物來追蹤某些基因的活動，並發現這些基因活躍程度上升和下降的循環， 與 24 小時中 12 小時光照和 12 小時黑暗的循環一致。

See, B. subtilis is light sensitive. It has photoreceptors that allow it to react to light, how cool is that?

枯草桿菌有感光能力。它的內部有感光體，可以對光做出反應。這多酷啊？

So it cycles the expression of some of its genes based on the input it‘s receiving.

因此它能根據接收到的輸入訊號，循環活躍它的一些基因。

But the researchers also found that like with plants, they could take away the stimulus, the light, and the bacteria still performed the same cycle. So, these bacteria can tell time, you guys!

但研究人員還發現，與植物一樣，即便去除掉作為刺激物的光線，這些細菌仍然進行著同樣的循環。所以大家，這些細菌真的能夠辨別時間！

This is the first time we've ever seen something like this in a non-photosynthetic bacterium.

這是我們第一次在一個非光合作用的細菌中看到這種現象。

The research team actually observed a similar pattern in response to daily temperature changes, with expression of other genes also fluctuating with temperature shifts throughout the day.

研究小組實際上還觀察到了細菌對每日溫度變化也有類似的反應模式，讓其他基因的活躍也會隨著一天中的溫度變化而波動。

But again, you might be saying, "What do we do with this information?"

但是，你可能又會說：「我們能用這些資訊來做什麼呢？」

Well, if bacterial behavior does indeed shift and cycle in response to the environment, and certain bacteria have certain set rhythms, this might affect how we interact with those bacteria.

這個嘛，如果細菌的行為確實是隨著環境的變化而變化和循環，而且某些細菌有固定節律的話，這可能會影響我們與這些細菌的互動方式。

Like maybe giving an antibacterial treatment at a certain time of day would be more effective than at another time because of the bacteria's circadian rhythm.

例如，由於細菌有著晝夜節律，在抗細菌治療時挑選一天中特定的時段進行，可能會比其他的時段來得更有效。

In another example, Bacillus subtilis, the bacteria looked at in this study, is often used in crop soil to promote plant growth, so maybe learning more about its cycles could help us use it to even greater effect in agriculture.

舉另一個例子，本研究中所關注的枯草芽孢桿菌經常被用於農作物土壤中，用以促進植物生長。因此，對其週期的更多瞭解，或許可以幫助我們在農業中更有效地利用它。

And maybe an industrial production process, like the one that uses the bacterium E. coli to produce insulin, could also be optimized to use the organism's daily clock.

而像是利用大腸桿菌來製造胰島素這類的工業生產流程，或許也能利用對生物體生理時鐘的瞭解來進一步改良。

More research into all of these ideas, as well as exploring the potential rhythms of other bacteria, could give us the answers we need to better navigate and interact with our increasingly important microbial world.

對於這類想法的更多研究，以及對於其他細菌中所擁有潛在生物節律的更多探索，能夠幫助我們用來更好地瞭解越趨重要的細菌世界，以及與它們互動的方式。

And I, for one, am so excited to find out more about what makes them tick.

而對我來說，我也是對能更加瞭解它們運作方式感到非常興奮的一員。

Are you surprised by this discovery? Do you have questions about another bacterial innovation you want us to cover?

你對這個發現感到驚訝嗎？你有想要我們報導任何其他關於細菌上的革新突破嗎？

Let us know down in the comments below.

請在下面的評論中告訴我們吧。

You can check out another video about amazing bacterial behavior here, and make sure you subscribe to Seeker to keep up with all your creepy crawly behavioral news.

你可以在這裡查看另一個有關細菌令人驚豔行為的影片，並確保你訂閱了 Seeker 頻道，以瞭解所有令人毛骨悚然的行為學新聞。

As always, thank you so much for watching, and I'll see you in the next one.

一如既往，非常感謝您的收看，我們在下一集再見。