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Science and technology
科學技術
Art and the animal kingdom
藝術和動物王國
Of mice and Manet
老鼠和馬奈
On the murine appreciation of paintings
關于老鼠對繪畫的欣賞
THE humble mouse is a doughty workhorse of science.
地位卑微的老鼠是科學界勇敢的勞模。
Every day, in laboratories around the world, the little critters are subjected to all manner of carefully controlled insults, from electric shocks to the induction of cancer, all in the name of research.
在世界各地的實驗室里，這些小生命每一天都受到各種各樣、精確檢驗的攻擊，從電擊到癌癥誘導，全部以研究的名義進行。
But the mice in the lab of Shigeru Watanabe, a psychologist at Keio University in Japan, have a more enjoyable life than most.
但是日本慶應義塾大學心理學家Shigeru Watanabe實驗室里的老鼠們，要比它們的大多數同類過的日子更加愉快。
For Dr Watanabe is interested not in their bodies but in their minds.
因為Watanabe博士感興趣的不是它們的身體而是大腦。
Specifically, he is exploring their taste in fine art.
具體來說，他在探索老鼠對美術作品的鑒賞。
As he describes in a paper published this month in the Public Library of Science, Dr Watanabe was curious to see whether his mice had a preference for certain painters.
在Watanabe博士本月于公共科學圖書館上發表的論文中，他非常好奇他的老鼠是否偏愛某些畫家。
He put them in a chamber, one at a time, and showed each a pair of paintings by different artists.
他每次把一只老鼠放在一個房間中，給每只老鼠展示一對不同畫家的作品。
Since science lacks a way to read mouse minds, he measured how long the animals remained near one or other of the pictures.
由于科學界無法閱讀老鼠的思想，Watanabe博士計算出老鼠在每幅作品前逗留的時間。
His mice expressed no particular preference between a picture by Wassily Kandinsky, a Russian abstract painter, and another by Piet Mondrian, a Dutch artist famous for his simple compositions of black, grid-like lines filled with primary colours.
他的老鼠對于俄國抽象畫家Wassily Kandinsky的作品與荷蘭藝術家Piet Mondrian的作品并無特殊偏好。
Similar indifference greeted pictures by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, a French impressionist, and Pablo Picasso, the Spanish father of Cubism.
對于法國印象派畫家Pierre-Auguste Renoir和西班牙立體派畫家之父Pablo Picasso的作品也是如此。
That is, perhaps, not a very surprising result.
或許這個結果并不很令人吃驚。
But things got more interesting when Dr Watanabe added morphine to the mix.
但是當Watanabe博士對這群老鼠注射嗎啡后，結果變得更加有趣。
The mice were injected with the drug when viewing one picture, and with an inactive saline solution when viewing another.
當老鼠們觀看一幅作品時，Watanabe博士給其注射嗎啡，當它們觀看另一幅作品時，Watanabe博士再給其注射惰性鹽溶液。
After a few repetitions, they began to associate one of the paintings with the morphine high, and would spend longer standing next to it.
如此反復幾次之后，當老鼠們體內嗎啡含量高時，會跑到其中一幅作品前，并且在這幅作品旁邊待的時間更長。
This implies that the mice were able to tell one painting from another, when given an incentive to do so.
這就意味著，當給老鼠們獎勵時，它們能夠區別每一幅作品。
Nor was that the limit of their artistic abilities.
老鼠們的藝術能力遠不止如此。
Dr Watanabe found evidence that, as well as simply telling one picture from another, his mice might be able to appreciate individual style.
博士發現，除了簡單地區分每一幅作品，老鼠們可能還會欣賞不同的個體風格。
When they were shown a number of paintings by a single artist after being given morphine, they showed a preference for other works by the same artist that they had never seen before.
在給老鼠注射嗎啡后，當展示給它們同一位畫家的多個作品時，其對此畫家另外幾幅它們從未見過的作品表示喜愛。
A similar result was obtained with an experiment that used milk, rather than drugs, as the reward.
在使用牛奶而不是藥品作為獎勵的一個實驗中，獲得了類似的結果。
Dr Watanabe has form with animals and art.
博士提出動物和藝術的構想。
He has previously shown that Java sparrows are able to distinguish cubist paintings from impressionist and Japanese ones, and that pigeons can tell a Chagall from a Van Gogh, as well as discriminating between the Japanese school and the impressionist.
他此前表示，爪哇島的麻雀能夠區分印象派和日本的立體派作品，鴿子可以分辨出Chagall和Van Gogh的作品，并且可以區分日本派和印象派。
The point of such experiments is that an animal's ability to discriminate between different kinds of art is a plausible proxy for how complex and sophisticated its vision is.
這些實驗旨在說明，動物區分不同種類藝術作品的能力或許可以證明其視覺的復雜性。
Dr Watanabe's latest results are surprising in that, though birds are known to have excellent eyesight, mice are thought to rely much more heavily on smell and touch to make their way in the world.
博士最新實驗結果的驚人之處在于，雖然我們知道鳥類具有極佳的視覺，但是人們認為老鼠更多地依賴嗅覺和觸覺在世界上生存。
And it suggests that one way to improve the lot of laboratory mice around the world might be to brighten up their cages with a nice Manet or two.
此實驗結果還表明，用幾幅莫奈的名畫裝飾一下老鼠們的籠子，或許是改善世界上實驗室中老鼠們命運的一種方法。
