評論
打印
You Gotta Have Hearts
你必須得有的心臟
When it comes to weird sea-creatures, octopuses are hard to beat. There's the well-known ink-squirting defense system, the bird-like beak, and the eight tentacles with their double rows of suckers.
說到怪異的海洋生物，那就的非章魚莫屬了。因為他們有聞名的噴墨防御系統，有像鳥兒一樣的嘴巴，以及八條帶著兩行吸盤的觸角。
What's less well known is that octopuses have more than one heart. They have three, to be exact, each one crucial to maintaining the robust blood pressure that allows octopuses to be active hunters and powerful swimmers.
沒那個為人所知曉的是，章魚不只有一個心臟。確切的說，它們有三個！每一個對于章魚擁有強健的血壓都至關重要，因為它們能讓章魚成為敏捷的獵手，成為游泳健將。
Human hearts have two main jobs. One is to pump blood to the lungs, where it dumps carbon dioxide and picks up oxygen. The second is to distribute freshly oxygenated blood to the rest of the body.
人類的心臟有兩大功能。一是將血泵到肺中（肺是排除二氧化碳，吸收氧氣的地方）；二則是將新鮮的含有氧氣的血液傳輸到身體的其它部位。
Making sure enough blood gets to the lungs is so important, in fact, that two of the human heart's four chambers are reserved solely for that task.
事實上，確保有足夠的血進入肺部是很重要的，而這個任務是由人類心臟的4個腔中有兩個來單獨完成的。
Octopus hearts solve the circulation problem a bit differently. They have one main heart, called the systemic heart, and two smaller hearts located near their gills. The two smaller hearts perform the same task as the right side of the human heart.
章魚的心臟解決這個（血液）循環問題就有點不一樣了。它們有一個主心臟叫系統心臟，還有兩個心臟要小點且位于腮附近。這兩個小點的心臟（的功能）就跟人心臟的右邊部分功能是一樣的。
They pump blood to the gills where it dumps waste and loads up on oxygen, then pump the oxygen-rich blood back to the main heart. The main heart then pumps the refreshed blood through the octopus's body.
它們將血泵到排除廢物收集二氧化碳的腮里，在將含有豐富氧氣的血液泵回到主心臟。主心臟接著就會將煥然一新的血液泵到章魚的身體。
Besides having three hearts, the octopus circulatory system differs from the human system in one other way. Human blood contains the protein hemoglobin, which helps it absorb oxygen and causes its red color. The blood coursing through the three hearts of the octopus is blue, thanks to a different protein called hemocyanin.
除了有三個心臟外，章魚的循環系統在另一方面也和人類的不一樣。人類的血液含有含蛋白質的血紅蛋白，它會幫助吸收氧氣，并使血液呈紅色。血液流經章魚的三個心臟就成了藍色，這多虧了一種叫血藍蛋白的蛋白質。
Octopuses are rather shy, so despite their blue blood they are not exactly kings of the sea. But there's no denying that they've got a lot of heart.
章魚是很害羞的，所以盡管它們有藍色血液，卻并不能使之成為真正的海洋之王。但毫無疑問它們是“太有心”了！
