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  • Mosquitoes suck. And not just literally, their bites are also itchy and annoying, and certain

    蚊子超討厭,不只說說,被蚊子咬很癢又很煩,某些

  • species transmit parasites and viruses -- like the ones that cause Malaria, Yellow Fever,

    種類還會傳遞寄生蟲和病毒-- 像是瘧疾、黃熱病

  • and Zika -- infecting and killing hundreds of thousands of people each year.

    還有茲卡病毒--每年有上百萬人感染喪命

  • And when we told you about the Zika virus a couple weeks ago, a lot of you had the same question:

    兩個星期前我們談到茲卡病毒,很多人有同樣的疑問:

  • Why don’t we just kill them all? All of them! Kill all the mosquitoes!

    為什麼不把蚊子殺光?全部殺掉!殺死蚊子!

  • Humans are historically really good at making things go extinct. So it shouldn’t be too

    人類在歷史上真的很善於滅絕其他物種,所以

  • hard to get rid of these bloodsuckersright?

    擺脫這些吸血鬼應該不會太難... 對吧?

  • Yeah... not exactly.

    欸... 不完全是

  • First of all, there are over 3,000 mosquito species worldwide, and only a couple hundred

    首先,世界上有超過3000種蚊子,只有200多種

  • of them bite humans.

    會咬人類

  • Mosquitoes have been around for a lot longer than people, millions of years, and have survived

    蚊子存在的時間比人類還久,幾百萬年以來蚊子一直都在

  • lots of predators and environmental changes.

    從掠食者和環境改變之中存活下來

  • So that would be a lot of tough insects to kill, and a lot of bug deaths that wouldn’t

    所以如果要這麼做,不僅要殺掉一堆難纏的蟲子,還會殺死許多其實不會

  • affect humans at all.

    影響人類的物種

  • And weve tried to eradicate mosquitoes before, mostly using chemicals that turned

    我們先前也試過撲殺蚊子,大多是使用化學物質

  • out to be awful for both the planet and us, like DDT.

    不過這對植物和人類都會造成不良影響,像是DDT

  • But let’s pretend that we were actually able to kill all the mosquitoes in some not-environmentally-apocalyptic

    不過,我們先假裝自己能以對環境無害的方式殺死所有蚊子,

  • way. Say, if I wished on a star, and the next day all mosquitoes just poofed out of existence.

    像是跟星星許願,然後隔天蚊子就再也消失無蹤

  • Would that be so bad for the Earth?

    這樣就對地球無害了嗎?

  • Some scientists actually say no -- that if mosquitoes were suddenly ripped out of food

    有些科學家的答案其實是否定的,假如蚊子突然從食物網消失

  • webs, most ecosystems would heal pretty quickly, and other organisms would fill in those gaps.

    多數生態系統會迅速修復,會有其他有機體填補這個空缺

  • But other scientists argue that certain mosquito species do play important ecological roles.

    但有些科學家認為,某些種類的蚊子在生態系中扮演重要角色

  • Take the mosquitoes that live in the Arctic of Canada and Russia.

    就像活動於加拿大和俄國境內北極地區的蚊子

  • They fly around in gigantic thick swarms and make up a huge part of the biomass there. And these

    這些蚊子集結成一大群飛動,在那裡形成為數不小的生物量

  • mosquitoes pollinate Arctic plants and are a major food source for migrating birds.

    這些蚊子幫助北極植物授粉,並且是候鳥的主要食物來源

  • Removing these guys -- or other, more southern species that are food for fish, birds, and

    把這些傢伙除掉--或除掉其他種類,然而有更多南方的品種是魚類、鳥類和

  • other insects -- could send a ripple through ecosystems, endangering many other plants

    其他昆蟲的食物,如此將在生態系中引發連鎖效應,危害其他植物

  • and animals.

    和動物

  • So we probably shouldn’t kill all the mosquitoes.

    所以,也許我們不該殺了所有蚊子

  • But, we also don’t have to. We know which species are vectors, or carriers, of the worst

    不過,我們也不需這麼做,我們知道哪些品種是帶菌者或媒介,他們會傳播

  • viruses and parasites that can infect humans.

    影響人類甚劇的病毒和寄生蟲

  • So lots of researchers are currently targeting these species, and developing ways to kill

    所以許多研究人員目前正鎖定這些品種,研發出一些方法來殺死

  • them, or to kill the dangerous stuff inside them.

    他們,或者摧毀他們體內最危險的部分

  • Take the genus Aedes, which transmits lots of awful diseases. One particularly nasty

    舉豹腳蚊來說,豹腳蚊散布許多可怕的疾病,其中最惡名昭彰的

  • species is Aedes aegypti, which is the primary vector for the Yellow Fever, Dengue, Chikungunya,

    品種是埃及斑蚊,它是黃熱病、登革熱、屈公病的主要帶原者,

  • and Zika viruses.

    還有茲卡病毒

  • A. aegypti is not just a pest, it’s one of the most medically significant pests. So

    埃及斑蚊不僅只是害蟲,也是醫學上最具意義的害蟲,所以

  • it’s the focus of lots of recent experiments in targeted mosquito eradication.

    最近很多實驗的重點,都鎖定在消滅蚊子

  • But some of the most promising research doesn’t set out to kill mosquitoes outright -- instead,

    但一些具威信的研究,並不完全著手於殺死蚊子--而是在

  • it genetically modifies them.

    改造蚊子的基因

  • In 2015, a British company called Oxitec created male A. aegypti mosquitoes with a self-limiting

    2015年,英國公司Oxitec製造出有自限性基因的雄性埃及斑蚊

  • gene, which basically means that the gene can stop their cells from functioning normally.

    意思是這種基因會讓細胞無法正常運作

  • When these genetically modified mosquitoes are released and mate with females in the

    當這些基改蚊子被釋放出來,在野外和雌性交配後

  • wild, the self-limiting gene gets passed on to their offspring.

    自限性基因會傳給他們後代子孫

  • Those offspring usually can’t develop properly and die before they become adults.

    這些基改蚊子的後代通常無法正常發育,並在成蟲前死亡

  • No adult mosquitoes means no disease transmission.

    沒有蚊子成蟲表示沒有疾病傳播

  • Likewise, a team of scientists in California inserted modified genes into a species of

    同樣地,加州有一組科學家將基因改造後植入某種

  • Anopheles mosquitoes, which are vectors for the parasite that causes Malaria.

    瘧蚊,瘧蚊是傳播瘧疾寄生蟲的帶原者

  • The modified genes cause the mosquitoes to kill the Malaria-causing parasites that live

    基改蚊子會將體內導致瘧疾的的寄生蟲殺死

  • inside them, before they can transmit them to humans.

    再開始傳播給人類前就殺死這些寄生蟲

  • And as a bonus, these parasite-destroying genes are designed to be passed on to 99.5%

    另外,這些摧毀寄生蟲的基因被設計成可以99.5%傳給

  • of the mosquitoesoffspring.

    蚊子的下一代

  • So, eventually, this entire species could be unable to transmit Malaria. And scientists

    所以,到最後,這整個品種的蚊子就無法傳播瘧疾,科學家

  • think that this same technology could be applied to other mosquito species, and other parasites

    思考後覺得同樣的科技可以應用在其他品種的蚊子或是寄生蟲

  • and viruses -- like Zika.

    還有病毒-像是茲卡

  • Lastly, some scientists are fighting fire with fire -- or fighting viruses with bacteria

    最後,有些科學家則是以毒攻毒--用細菌來打擊病毒

  • -- by intentionally infecting A. aegypti mosquitoes with a bacterium called Wolbachia.

    --讓埃及斑蚊感染一種叫Wolbachia的細菌

  • Wolbachia seems to stop most viruses from growing inside these mosquitoes. So even if

    Wolbachia細菌似乎可以阻止病毒在蚊子體內成長,所以,即使

  • the mosquitoes bite people infected with, say, the Dengue virus, the virus wouldn’t

    蚊子咬了被登革熱感染的人,病毒也不會

  • survive inside the mosquito long enough to be transmitted to a new person.

    在蚊子體內存活太久,無法存活到傳播給下一個人

  • Now, because viruses mutate rapidly, scientists worry about accidentally creating deadly viruses

    現在,因為病毒變化非常快速,科學家擔心會意外製造致命病毒

  • that are resistant to Wolbachia.

    也就是可以抵抗Wolbachia的病毒

  • But a study released this week suggested a strategy to superinfect mosquitoes with more

    但這週發表的一篇研究建議要盡量感染蚊子,並且

  • than one strain of the bacteria at a time.

    一次要用不只一種細菌

  • This way, the viruses can’t develop resistance to the bacteria as easily. And we can keep

    如此,病毒就無法輕易發展成可對抗某種細菌,我們就可以繼續

  • infecting mosquitoes, to keep them from infecting us.

    感染蚊子,讓蚊子無法感染我們

  • I mean, it’s only fair.

    我想,這很公平

  • So, basically, it would be incredibly difficult and possibly harmful to kill all the mosquitoes.

    所以,基本上,要殺掉所有蚊子是非常困難的,也許還會造成危害

  • But we may soon be able to focus on certain species and take away their ability to infect

    但我們能聚焦在某些品種,移除它們感染人類的能力

  • us, making the world a lot safer.

    讓世界更安全

  • But... not any less itchy.

    但是...沒辦法讓被咬比較不癢

  • Thanks for watching this episode of SciShow News.

    感謝收看這一集 《科學秀新聞》

  • Thank you to all of the people doing this amazing research.

    感謝進行這項超棒研究的大家

  • And thank you to our patrons on Patreon who support SciShow so it can always be freely

    也感謝各位資助Patreon,《科學秀新聞》在Patreon的支持下,才能免費

  • available to everyone.

    讓大家觀看

  • If you want to help us keep making shows like this, you can go to patreon.com/scishow­.

    如果您想幫助我們製作更多類似的節目,請到 patreon.com/scishow­.

  • And if you just want to keep getting smarter with us, you ca go to youtube.com/scishow and subscribe!

    想跟我們一起變聰明,請訂閱 youtube.com/scishow !

Mosquitoes suck. And not just literally, their bites are also itchy and annoying, and certain

蚊子超討厭,不只說說,被蚊子咬很癢又很煩,某些

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