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Rodents called grasshopper mice have an unusual favorite food.
這種被稱為食蝗鼠的嚙齒動物最喜歡的食物有些不同尋常。
Not grasshoppers. No, they really like scorpions.
可不是蚱蜢。它們真的喜歡的是蝎子。
You can see the problem.
你肯定發現問題所在了。
But the mice shrug off any scorpion stings.
但是老鼠卻免受蝎子蜇傷的危險。
And a new study shows how.
一項新的研究為你揭曉答案。
Researchers injected common house mice with scorpion venom.
研究人員將蝎子毒液注入進常見的家鼠體內。
The mice nursed the injection site for several minutes.
家鼠好需要照料注射部位幾分鐘。
But grasshopper mice injected with venom fussed for only a few seconds.
但注射毒液的食蝗鼠卻只有有幾秒鐘的小騷亂。
In fact,they were more bothered by saline solution.
事實上這些小家伙對鹽溶液更為感到不安。
So what's going on?
那么奧秘究竟在那里?
In the house mouse, a specific type of nerve-cell signaling-channel got activated by the venom.
在家鼠體內,一種特定類型的神經細胞信號通道被毒液激活。
But this same channel in grasshopper mice stayed inactive in the presence of venom—meaning the mice remained blissfully ignorant.
但同樣的通道在食蝗鼠體內毒液刺激下則并不活躍，這就意味著食蝗鼠依然幸福的不疼不癢。
In addition, a separate pathway did react to the scorpion venom—and it actually temporarily blocked pain signals.
此外,一種單獨的通道也對蝎子毒液起了反應,實際上是暫時阻止疼痛信號。
Meaning that for grasshopper mice, scorpion venom is actually an analgesic.
這對于食蝗鼠而言,蝎毒實際上是一種止痛劑。
The work is in the journal Science.
該研究已經在《科學》雜志上發表。
Understanding details of this system could lead to new approaches in the treatment of pain in people,
深入研究這一機制的細節可能會開拓出治療人們對于疼痛的新方法,
so that someday we might ask, Scorpion, where is thy sting?
或許有一天我們可能會問,蝎子的毒鉤在哪里?
