時(shí)差N小時(shí):蝙蝠的唾液 Bat Spit
讀過(guò)哥特小說(shuō)的人都會(huì)說(shuō)吸血蝙蝠是個(gè)討厭的東西。
People who read modern medical journals,however,might disagree-in fact, they think vampiresjust might help savelives.
而那些讀現(xiàn)代醫(yī)學(xué)雜志的人也許不同意這樣的觀點(diǎn)，他們認(rèn)為吸血蝠能幫助拯救生命。
The kind of vampire I'm talking about is Desmodusrotundus, commonly known as the “vampirebat.”
我說(shuō)的是圓形葉口蝠，俗稱“吸血蝙蝠”。
Yep, these little creatures are real; and even though they almost never turn into suaveRomanian counts to drool over, they do drool a lot themselves.
是的，這些小家伙是真實(shí)的，盡管它們幾乎沒(méi)有垂涎于溫雅的羅馬利亞人，但它們卻經(jīng)常流口水，
That's because their saliva is anessential part of their dining habits.
因?yàn)橥僖菏撬鼈冿嬍沉?xí)慣中的必不可少的一部分。
When a vampire bat latches onto, say, a steer, it needs to keep the blood flowing from thepuncture made by its teeth.
當(dāng)吸血蝙蝠纏在，比如一直公牛身上時(shí)，必須保持血液從牙齒咬開(kāi)的孔流過(guò)。
That's achieved by a natural anti-coagulant in the vampire bat'ssaliva.
這是通過(guò)蝙蝠唾液里一種天然的抗凝血?jiǎng)﹣?lái)實(shí)現(xiàn)的。
Despite what you see in the movies, vampire bats almost never drink human blood.
盡管你會(huì)在電影里看到，吸血蝙蝠幾乎從來(lái)不吸人的血。
But people do suffer from other blood problems-a leading one being stroke.
但人類患有其它血液疾病—最重要的就是中風(fēng)。
Stroke is caused by a clotting in the blood which stops the flow and can starve areas of thebrain of oxygen.
中風(fēng)是由于血液凝結(jié)成塊阻礙其流動(dòng)，從而導(dǎo)致大腦部分缺氧。
Doctors have generally broken up clots with a compound called tPA.
醫(yī)生們已經(jīng)找到了分解血液凝塊的化合物，就是tPA。
TPA works okay,but it has dangerous side effects, and can even hurt brain cells.
TPA很有效，但具有危險(xiǎn)的副作用，甚至?xí)p傷腦細(xì)胞。
A better idea?
有更好的主意嗎?
Bring in the bats, says researcher Robert Medcalf, a biochemist from Australia.
澳大利亞生物化學(xué)家，Robert Medcalf對(duì)蝙蝠進(jìn)行研究。
Vampire bat spit contains a different compound, DSPA, which does the good things tPA doeswithfar fewer side-effects.
吸血蝙蝠的唾液中含有一種不同的化合物，DSPA，它能夠幫助減少tPA引起的副作用，
DSPA is now being tried on patients who have suffered a stroke; the datashould be in within ayear.
DSPA現(xiàn)在正在患有中風(fēng)病人身上測(cè)試，結(jié)果將于一年內(nèi)揭曉。
If it works, doctors might have found an unlikely friend–the vampire bat.
如果有效的話，醫(yī)生們也許多一位意想不到的朋友—吸血蝙蝠。
