欢迎各位 Well, thank you for coming today
今天我想谈谈最臭的生物的成功问题 I'd like to talk today about the success of the smelliest
以及进化论 and the way that I've been inspired by evolution
对我在信息素研究方面的启发 in my research on pheromones
我只想谈论信息素的一个方面 I want to focus on just one aspect of pheromones
与性吸引相关 which relates to sexual attraction
这方面达尔文可是相当熟悉 and this is one of the things, that Darwin was very much aware of
这是达尔文的塑像 Now, that's Darwin's statue
在学校博物馆的楼下 from downstairs in the university museum here
他为我们引入了自然选择的理论 and he introduced the idea of natural selection
以及个体之间存在差异的机制 and the possible mechanism, that there are variations between individuals
这些差异导致有些物种会更易于生存 that some individuals would survive better in the struggle for life
以及它们的后代会继承这种差异 and that their offspring will inherit these variations
这就是进化 and that will lead to evolution
他还指出 有些雄性物种具备某种优势 But he also recognized, that some males do better than others
这是雄性为争夺雌性而进行的斗争 and there's a struggle between males for females
这就是自然选择中的物种选择 and that was sexual selection that fits into natural selection
在他1871年的 So in his book
《人类的由来及性选择》一书中 The descent of man and selection in relation to sex, in 1871
说到了以上内容 he took up these things
幻灯片的右侧是两头公马鹿 and what we have on the right is a pair of red deer stags
为壮大自己的后宫而争斗 fighting for access to females in a harem
左边的例子很经典 众所周知 And on the left we have the classic example you're all familiar with
由于雌性孔雀的喜好 导致雄孔雀具备 a female choice, which in the peacock has lead to the extraordinary
非凡而又奢侈的尾羽 这是为了迎合雌孔雀 and extravagant tails in the males and this is all due to female choice
在书中 他非常明了 But in the book, he was very well aware
化学信号和气味可能也非常重要 that chemical signals and smells might well be important
所以在《人类的由来及性选择》一书中 So in The descent of man and selection in relation to sex
他在性选择中提到了气味 he includes smells in sexual selection
正如拿孔雀的尾羽 In just the same kind of way
和争斗的马鹿为例 as the peacock's tail or the fighting red deer
他又采取同种方式 他又举了个很有意思的例子 and he's got a lovely example where he writes
在求爱季节 鳄鱼的腺体 During the season of love, a musky odor is emitted
排出一种气味 这种气味就在它们的栖息地弥漫 by the glands of the crocodile, and pervades their haunts
勾勒出一幅美妙的臭气熏天的图画 So wonderful smelly images
然后他又描述了繁殖季节难闻的公象 but he goes on to describe smelly male elephants in the breeding season
还有雄性蟒蛇 飞蛾 甚至还有雄性鸟类 male pythons, male moths and even male birds
他还详细描述了澳大利亚麝香鸭 He's got a wonderful account of the Australian musk duck
不用看见这鸭子 你就能闻见它 that smells even before you see it
然后他还描述了山羊 He also goes on to describe goats
公山羊可算是臭名昭著 The rank effluvium of the male goat is well known
而山羊的拉丁学名 And indeed the Latin name of the goat
用的就是和臭气有关的词 has given its name to a couple of smelly apathy acids up there
这些词也用在了人类身上 稍后大家会听到 which we also find in humans, which we'll hear about later
如果咱们的嗅觉像视觉那么灵敏 And if only our noses were as good as our eyes
可能在繁殖季咱们会更加领会这一点 perhaps we'd appreciate goats more in the breeding season
所以达尔文对此作了深入研究并且说道 So he actually develops this idea and says
在雄性哺乳动物身上 how do we get these elaborate odor glands
为什么有这些精致的发射气味的腺体呢 in male mammals
他说道 从性选择可以明白这一点 and he says, it's intelligible through sexual selection
如果说臭气最重的雄性物种 if the most odoriferous
在获取雌性芳心方面是最成功的 that is the smelliest males are most successful in winning the females
并把这些逐渐完善的腺体和气味 and in leaving offspring to inherit their gradually
遗传给下一代 perfected glands and odors
他把这当作一件非常美妙的事物 So he sees them as a thing of beauty
虽然达尔文没这么 但是我想说 Now I would say, although he didn't
这就是气味最重的物种的成功 that this is the success of the smelliest
所以我今天的目的就是说服大家 and that's my aim today to persuade you
这有可能是真的 that this could be happening
那么次要选择信号有什么特征呢 So what are the characteristics of secondary selected signals
也就是动物的性选择信号 sexually selected signals in animals
达尔文说 Well, he said
只有一个性别精心准备并表达这种信号 elaboration or expression of the signals in only one sex
比如雌孔雀并没有雀尾 like the peacocks tail, the female doesn't have that
而且这种特征只存在于繁殖季节的成年物种间 Developed in only the adults often only in the breeding season
就像鳄鱼 散发着麝香味 so like the crocodiles, smelling at musk
往往只发生在繁殖季 often only in the breeding season
最后 问题是 and then finally, the question is
这种做法主要为了交配还是只是为了交配？ is it used primarily or exclusively in mating
从实际来看 and for all of these it does seem to be
气味信号以及制造气味的腺体 the odor signals and the glands
都展现这些特点 that produce them show all of these characteristics
所以要研究这些看不见的气味信号真的是种挑战 So there really is a challenge though, of these invisible odor signals
尼可•廷伯根是牛津大学的动物学教授 Niko Tinbergen, who's professor of zoology here
他来自荷兰 他是众多研究者之一 came over from the Netherlands, was one of the people among many
他在研究蝴蝶的求爱过程中气味的作用 who studied courtship in butterflies, that involves smell
雌性蝴蝶在求爱的最后阶段 The female butterfly in the final stages of courtship
会把自己的触须放在雄性蝴蝶的翅膀之间 puts her antennae between the wings of the male
把它们抵在雄性蝴蝶翅膀上的香鳞上 and touches them against specialized scent scales on the wings
廷伯根教授曾在这栋楼里工作 He worked actually in this building
因此在1971年以前牛津大学的动物学就在这栋楼里 zoology was based here until 1971
当然他也和别人共同获得了诺贝尔奖 and of course he shared the Nobel prize
是为了奖励他在1973年创造了人类文化学 for his work in creating the field of ethnology in 1973
但对于廷伯根教授和其他人来说这实在是个问题 But there really was a problem for Tinbergen and everybody else
对他们这些几个世纪以来研究气味的人来说 who had worked on smell through the centuries
虽然气味确实起着某种作用 Surely there were something to do with smells
虽然有化学物质 但是还没有确凿的证据 there were chemicals, but there was no proof
因为数量非常非常小 the quantities were vanishingly small
所以知道1959年 我们才第一次确认了信息素 and it wasn't until 1959, that we have the first pheromone identification
第一次确认了 the first chemical identification
雌性家蚕的信息素的化学成分 of the female sex pheromone of the silk moth Bombyx Mori
这种化学成分也由此得名蚕蛾性诱醇 And this gives the name of course to Bombykol
诺贝尔奖获得者 化学家阿道夫•布泰南特 It was by Adolf Butenant, a Nobel prize winning chemist
和他的大型团队利用30余年的辛劳才有此发现 and a very large team working over something like over 30 years
现在他创造了识别信息素的黄金标准 Now he created the gold standard for how you identify pheromones
如果你要进行研究 入手点是活体鉴定 and what you always have to start with is the bioassay
在这种情况下 就是雄性蝴蝶煽动的翅膀 and in this case it's the flattering of the wings by the males
当他们受到雌性蝴蝶的信息素刺激而变兴奋时 when they get excited by the female sex pheromone
有了活体生物 当时他需要一百万雌性蝴蝶 Having got your bioassay, in his case he needed half a million females
以获取足够的也就是12毫克原料来做化学鉴定 to get enough material, just 12 mg to do the chemical identification
而今天 要完成这个任务一个雌性蝴蝶就够了 Today you can do some of those tasks with a single female
然后就能识别这种合成化学物质 That leads then to the identification of the chemical, the syntheses
然后是生物测定的至关重要的最后一步 of the chemical and then crucially, that final step a bioassay
来确认你创造的合成分子 to confirm that the synthetic molecule you created or molecules
确实可以在有关的动物身上产生相关的行为 actually does generate the behavior in the animals concerned
所以合成信息素确实可以在 So indeed the synthetic pheromone does elicit the same behavior
雄性物种身上起到天然信息素所起到的作用 in the male as the natural one
所以在1959年 人们为觉得得创造一个新词 So also in 1959 a new word had to be created
来代表这种生物学上的活性物质 for this new class of biologically active substances
彼得•卡尔森和马丁•路舍建议用信息素 and Peter Karlson and Martin Lüscher proposed pheromone
它是一种同物种个体之间传递的化学信号 a chemical signal transmitted between individuals of the same species
这是从两个表示刺激和转移的希腊单词派生出的 and they derived this from 2 Greek words transferred excitement
再说回性选择 So back to sexual selection
我们熟悉雄马鹿之间的竞争 We're familiar with contests like the red deer stags
水生生物之间也存在信息素 but it also happens under water with pheromones
龙虾和小龙虾的战斗 Lobsters and crayfish fight
传递信号的方式有身体搏击 and a part of it is physical boxing
还有就是在对方身上喷尿液 But there is also chemical signals in the urine
在尿液中含有化学信号 that they're puffing at each other
在这张照片中 which has been visualized in this photograph
我们通过小龙虾涂上荧光染料 by giving the crayfish a fluorescent dye
这样我们能看到他喷的是什么 so we can see, what he's squirting
雌性小龙虾会选择获胜者 And females chose the winners
而这个问题也可以简单到先到先得 It can also be simply a matter of getting there first
第一个爬到雌性身边的就是获胜者 a scramble to reach the female first
雄性飞蛾就是其中一个例子 And male moths are one of these examples
雌性飞蛾释放的性信息素 The female sex pheromones is released in tiny quantities
微小到每小时只有几pg Just pg per hour
雄性会利用这种信息素去寻找她 and the males compete to find her
我们发现雄性的这种选择 And what we find is that this very heavy selection on males
对信息素具有高灵敏度 且风行速度较快 for high sensitivity to pheromones and fast flight
他们它们的触角就跟分子筛似的 and you get these amazing antennae that are like molecular sieves
在飞行过程中 that flies through the air
它们可以捕捉到雌性信息素分子 catching every molecule of female pheromone that he can
当然也有雌性进行选择的时候 这一点也很重要 But there is also female choice and this is enormously important
孔雀就是个很恰当的例子 It's true in the case of the peacock
涉及到信息素 还有很多物种也是雌性选择 but it's also true in many other animals involving pheromones
这是一个雄性飞蛾 And in this, this is a male moth
他腹部伸出的气球状物是充气结构 and these balloons sticking out of his abdomen are inflatable structures
气球底下有信息素 on which he'll display the pheromone
他会向雌性飞蛾发出信息素 added down in the bottom right to the female
要是他的信息素量不够多 and unless he has enough of the pheromone
雌性飞蛾是不会感兴趣的 the females won't be interested
那么人类呢？ So, what about humans?
嗯 这正是大卫•达特一本书的书名 Well, this was the title
此书出版于1990年 内容相当精彩 of a wonderful book by David Stoddart in 1990
他有个想法 我也同意他这一想法 He had this idea, which I agree with
人类可能是灵长类动物中最臭的物种 that humans are probably the smelliest of the primates
他提出 人类的独特之处在于 And he proposed, that the thing, that's unique about humans
人类的腋窝可能是放射信息素的气味盒 is the armpit and perhaps this was a scent box for giving out pheromones
那么既然哺乳动物 那么我们就应该有信息素 So since we're mammals should we have pheromones
答案是肯定的 well, the answer is yes
达尔文知道这一点后肯定会很高兴 and Darwin would have been pleased with this
因为哺乳动物有气味 而且我们就是哺乳动物 because mammals basically smell and we are mammals
那么人类的性选择信号有什么特点呢? So what are the characteristics of sexually selected signals?
仅仅阐述一种性别的信号还不行 Well, elaboration or expression of the signals in one sex doesn't quite work
因为人类无论男女都有腋窝 because both men and women have armpits
男人的味道可能重些 Men may smell more
但那可能是一种洗衣文化(男人不经常换衣服) but that could be a cultural thing about washing
但是我们男人和女人比起来 气味确实不同 but we do also smell slightly different from women, if we're men
人们对这种化学物质进行了了解 And the chemicals have been looked at
但还没有进行全面调查 but not really fully investigated
但我认为非常重要的是 它随着我们成长而出现 But I think the crucial thing is, that it develops in adults
尤其是在青春期 我们的气味发生重大变化 and our smell changes markedly at puberty
而且它和第二性征有关系 And it's ought to do with these secondary sexual characteristics
和腺体也有关系 这些专门的汗腺还在生长 to do with the glands, that are growing, these specialized sweat glands
而那儿的毛发导致细菌茁壮成长 and also the hair for the bacteria to grow on
正是这些细菌使得腋窝极其难闻 that really make the smell
我们还缺乏关于 The thing we're missing is any real knowledge of
在人类交配方面气味的作用的知识 how odor is used in human mating
我们对气味在飞蛾和老鼠交配方面知之甚多 We know a lot about moths, a lot about mice
但即使是马斯特斯和约翰逊的成就之后 but very little, even after Masters and Johnson
我们对于人类方面的知识仍然匮乏 about humans
那么人体可能的气味来源都在哪里呢 So which areas are possible smell sources
事实上 答案就来自冰岛的游泳池 and in fact the answer comes from Icelandic swimming pools
这个是雷克雅未克游泳池的一个标志 This is the sign in Reykjavik swimming pools
这个标志贴在更衣室里 and they give you this sign in the changing rooms
图上标注的是你必须要洗的地方 which is giving you the places, that you really must wash
你会看到 这些地方包括腋窝 头部 And you'll see, that these include the armpits, the head
这些部位有很多气味腺 以及生殖器的周围 which also has lots of scent glands and around the genitalia
对于脚我还不太确定 但游泳时洗脚很重要 I am not so sure about the feet, but that is important for swimming
为避免你看不明白 上边用5种语言解释道 And in case you don't get it, in 5 languages, they explain
每位客人都需要在进入游泳池前 Every guest is required to wash thoroughly
都需要不穿泳衣将以上部位彻底清洗 without a swimsuit before entering the pools
所以这些难闻的部位 So these are the really smelly areas
也许能找到人类的信息素 that probably we should be looking at for human pheromones
如果你用谷歌搜索 人类信息素或者 信息素 Now, if you google human pheromones, or indeed pheromones
你会得到二百多万条结果 you land up with something approaching 2 million hits
很多结果都想向你兜售一些物品 most of them trying to sell you something
然而 到现在人类信息素还没有获得化学鉴定 Sadly, there is no human pheromone chemically identified yet
很多商业网站会试图 A lot of the commercial sites
卖给你Androsta这种物质 will try to sell you this substance, Androsta
虽然一些科学研究也用这个 and some scientific studies use this
但是我觉得他们用的东西不对 but actually, I don't think they're using the right thing
因为虽然从人类腋窝里发现了这种物质 Because although this is found in human armpits
但是男性并不比女性多 there is no more in the male, than the female
因为如果这是吸引伴侣的性选择信号 and if this was a sexually selected signal in mates attraction
我们也希望这样 we would expect that
但关键问题是 还没有人就人类的化合物 But the crucial thing is, that nobody for any human compound
做过科学的以生物实证为目的的试验 has done the scientific bioassay guided evidence
在1959年提出的方法 that to established in 1959
大家可以放心 where you can really be sure
你们正在研究的分子就是信息素 the molecules you're studying really are the pheromone
那么 最臭的会是最成功的吗? So, what about the success of the smelliest?
好东西太多了不见得是件好事 You can perhaps have too much of a good thing
罗纳诗人卡图鲁斯给他的朋友鲁佛斯一些建议 Catullus, the Veronese poet, was giving some advice to his friend Rufus
别感到惊讶 如果没有女人想要鲁佛斯 Don't be surprised that no woman's willing Rufus
他们说你的腋窝下住着一头凶猛的山羊 they say a fierce goat lives in your armpits
但实际上咱们公平点 But actually let's be even handed here
因为稍后奥维德建议妇女说 because Ovid a bit later advises Women
别在你腋窝底下养山羊 Don't keep a goat in the armpits
实际上你发现的那些分子 And it is true, that some of the molecules
那些位于人类腋窝底下的分子 that you find in unwashed human armpits are indeed those
和我早先提到的 that I mentioned earlier
在山羊身上的分子是同种物质 found in goats along with 6 or 7 hundred other molecules
当然这就是难以识别信息素的原因 of course that's what makes it so hard to identify what is the pheromone
所以我试图说服大家的就是 几乎所有的动物 So what I've tried to persuade you is, that almost all animals
包括人类 都使用信息素进行交流 including humans use pheromones for communication
信息素藉由自然选择重点性别选择得以进化 Pheromones evolve by natural selection aided by sexual selection
我确信 人类也具备信息素 and humans surely do have pheromones, I am confident of that
但遗憾的是 这种化学物质还没有被发现 but sadly, the chemicals have yet to be discovered
这些网站上有更详细的信息 希望大家课下读一读 There's more on these websites and do read on
感谢大家收听 Thank you very much for listening