?Bees suddenly fell silent when the sun disappeared during last year's solar eclipse—perhaps because they were tricked into night mode. Christopher Intagliata reports.當(dāng)去年日全食太陽消失的時(shí)候,蜜蜂突然安靜下來——這可能是因?yàn)?/span>它們被騙入了夜間模式??死锼雇懈?/span>·因塔利亞塔報(bào)道。
? Last summer's total solar eclipse?sliced right through Columbia, Missouri. "It was remarkable. As a biologist I generally reserve that word 'remarkable' for biological phenomena." Candace Galen is based at the University of Missouri, in Columbia. And, being a biologist, she thought, why not use this?astronomical?phenomenon to study a?biological?one? Specifically: as the skies darkened, would daytime pollinators,?like bumblebees and honeybees, call it quits?? 去年夏天的日全食席卷了密蘇里州的哥倫比亞。“這是不同凡響的。作為一名生物學(xué)家,我通常對(duì)生物現(xiàn)象保留“不同凡響”這個(gè)詞。”” 坎迪斯·蓋倫就職于哥倫比亞的密蘇里大學(xué)。作為一個(gè)生物學(xué)家,她想,為什么不利用這個(gè)天文現(xiàn)象來研究一個(gè)生物學(xué)現(xiàn)象呢?具體來說:隨著天空變暗,像大黃蜂和蜜蜂這樣的日間傳粉者會(huì)就此罷休嗎? "What better activity during an eclipse than to go out with a recorder and record the bees??" “在日食期間,有什么比帶著錄音機(jī)去記錄蜜蜂的活動(dòng)更好的呢?” So Galen asked 400 citizen scientists—including young students—to place audio recorders in 16 flower patches along the path of totality, in Oregon, Idaho and Missouri. When they analyzed the audio, they found that during partial eclipse, bee buzzing continued. But when totality hit, the bees went silent…and only the conversational buzz of human observers could be heard. Then, as the moon passed and the sun again lit up the sky, the bees regained their buzz. The full write-up is in the?Annals of the Entomological Society of America. [Candace Galen et al.,?Pollination on the Dark Side: Acoustic Monitoring Reveals Impacts of a Total Solar Eclipse on Flight Behavior and Activity Schedule of Foraging Bees] 所以蓋倫讓400名包括青年學(xué)生在內(nèi)的民間科學(xué)家在俄勒岡州、愛達(dá)荷州和密蘇里州全食區(qū)的16片花叢中放置錄音機(jī)。當(dāng)他們分析音頻時(shí),他們發(fā)現(xiàn)在日偏食期間,蜜蜂的嗡嗡聲還在繼續(xù)。但是當(dāng)日全食襲來的時(shí)候,蜜蜂就沉默了……只能聽到人類觀察者的談話聲。然后,當(dāng)月亮過去,太陽再次照亮了天空,蜜蜂再次嗡嗡地叫了起來。這篇完整的文章發(fā)表在《美國昆蟲學(xué)會(huì)年報(bào)》上(Annals of the Entomological Society of America.)。[Candace Galen et al.,?Pollination on the Dark Side: Acoustic Monitoring Reveals Impacts of a Total Solar Eclipse on Flight Behavior and Activity Schedule of Foraging Bees] Galen and her colleagues did notice one strange detail: the individual buzzes lasted longer than normal during the partial eclipse periods. Perhaps, Galen says, because the bees were flying more slowly to navigate darker conditions. Or maybe they were returning to their nests, thinking the day was through. It's hard to tell from the recording, she says. Which is why, come the next American total solar eclipse in 2024, she'll be back out listening once again.? 蓋倫和她的同事還注意到了一個(gè)奇怪的細(xì)節(jié):在日偏食期間,個(gè)體的嗡嗡聲比正常情況下持續(xù)的時(shí)間更長。蓋倫說,也許是因?yàn)槊鄯湓诤诎档沫h(huán)境中飛行的速度更慢;或者是因?yàn)樗鼈?/span>可能正在回巢,以為這一天已經(jīng)過去了。她說,從錄音中很難將原因分辨出來。這就是為什么,在2024年下一次美國日全食的時(shí)候,她又會(huì)回來再聽一次。 "I'm a scientist, my curiosity is never satisfied, right?" “科學(xué)家的好奇心沒有止境,對(duì)吧?”