与“树顶芭比”一起探索雨林

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Support for NPR and the following message come from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, investing in creative thinkers and problem solvers who help people, communities, and the planet flourish.

更多信息请访问hewlett.org。

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去年夏天的某一天，我有机会参观了一片雨林。

One day this past summer, I got to visit a rainforest.

好的。

Okay.

那是甘草蕨。

That's licorice fern.

也就是说，它的学名是Palapodium vulgari。

That is, the scientific name is, Palapodium vulgari.

嗯嗯。

Uh-huh.

我当时和生态学家纳利尼·纳德卡尼在一起。

I was there with ecologist, Nalini Nadkarni.

这叫 Saladinoa。

This is called Saladinoa.

这叫卷柏。

This is called this is a club moss.

它实际上是一种非常原始的植物。

It's actually a very primitive plant.

纳利尼已经研究和探索这样的生态系统三十五年了。

Nalini has been studying and exploring ecosystems like this for thirty five years.

好的。

Okay.

这叫 Dicranum。

So that is called Dicranum.

这是另一种苔藓。

That's another species of moss.

我喜欢叫它绒毛苔藓，嗯。

I like to call it plushy moss Mhmm.

就是因为它太柔软、太蓬松了，简直像个小枕头一样。

Just because it's so soft and so plushy, so much like a little pillow.

这是Hyliacomium flindens。

Here's Hyliacomium flindens.

这是Rhacometrium。

This is Rhacometrium.

那里就有三四种不同的苔藓物种。

There's, like, three, four different species of moss right there.

关于这片雨林，还有几件事要说。

Couple other things about this rainforest.

你可能在想，雨林，热带地区。

You're probably thinking rainforests, tropics.

不是的。

Nah.

我们其实是在太平洋西北部，华盛顿州的奥林匹克国家森林。

We were in the Pacific Northwest, Olympic National Forest in Washington state.

这被称为温带雨林，之所以叫雨林，是因为这里降雨量非常大。

And it's called a temperate rainforest, a rainforest because we get it's characterized by having a lot of rainfall.

每年大约有120英寸的降雨量。

There are about a 120 inches of rain a year.

这次森林之旅的另一点是，所有这些植物

The other thing about this trip to the forest is that all these plants

你看这些苔藓有多柔软吗？

So see how soft these mosses are?

是的。

Yes.

你难道不想躺在上面睡一觉吗？

Don't you just wanna sleep on them?

我的意思是，对啊。

I mean, yeah.

纳利尼数十年的工作，好吧。

All of Nalini's decades long work Okay.

我要和你并排走上去。

I'm gonna come up side by side with you.

所有这些都在离地大约60英尺的高处。

All of it is about, wow, 60 feet off the ground.

好的，梅迪。

Alright, Maddie.

这太棒了。

This is awesome.

真的太棒了。

It's really awesome.

这个

This

这被称为树冠层。

is called the canopy.

基本上，从森林地面以上一直到树顶的所有部分。

Pretty much everything above the forest floor all the way up to the tops of the trees.

好的。

Alright.

现在跟我一起上来吧，小绳子。

Come up with me now, little rope.

这里的树冠层是一片令人眩晕的茂密植被，由明亮的绿叶、苔藓和蕨类组成，全部沐浴在阳光下，而我们对它知之甚少。

The canopy here is a dizzying thicket of bright green leaves and mosses and ferns all bathed in sunlight, and we knew very little about it.

因为树冠层 literally 被称为最后一个生物前沿。

Because the canopy is literally called the last biotic frontier.

它一直被研究得非常少。

It's been so poorly studied.

真正研究树冠层的人其实非常少。

There really aren't very many people who study the canopy.

我觉得当你说到‘最后一个生物前沿’的时候，你应该望向远方。

I feel like when you say the last biotic frontier, you should look off into the distance.

你知道吗

You know what

什么意思？

mean?

好的。

Okay.

你准备好练习了吗？

You ready to practice?

好的。

Okay.

最后一个生物前沿。

The last biotic frontier.

所以今天在节目中，我们请到了先锋科学家纳利尼·纳德卡尼，谈谈树冠层。

So today on the show, pioneering scientist Nalini Nadkarni on the canopy.

此外，稍后在节目中，我们会讲到纳利尼数十年来为让更多女性进入科学领域所做的努力，以及她如何意外地找到了芭比娃娃这个盟友。

Plus, a little later on in the episode, Nalini's decades long fight to get more women into science and how she found an unlikely ally in Barbie.

是的。

Yeah.

我觉得这也很奇怪。

I thought it was weird too.

不过也没那么奇怪。

It's not that weird though.

请继续关注。

Stick around.

我是马迪·萨菲亚，您正在收听NPR的Shortwave节目。

I'm Maddie Safia, and you're listening to Shortwave from NPR.

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Be smart.

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Support for NPR and the following message come from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, investing in creative thinkers and problem solvers who help people, communities, and the planet flourish.

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好的。

Alright.

那我们倒回去一点。

So let's back up, down.

回到奥林匹克国家森林的地面上，纳利尼告诉我，从宏观角度来看，树冠科学其实还很新。

Back on the ground in Olympic National Forest, Nalini told me that in the grand scheme of things, canopy science is actually pretty new.

你知道，人们研究森林已经几个世纪了，但直到最近二三十年，才有人真正爬上树冠，去了解树顶上方的环境。

You know, people have been studying forests for centuries, but it's only been in the last twenty, twenty five, thirty years that people have actually climbed up into the forest canopy to understand the environment up in in the tree tops.

科学家面临的一个难题，仅仅是弄清楚如何到达树顶。

One of the hurdles for scientists was literally just figuring out how to get up to the tops of the trees.

所以纳利尼和几位朋友想出了一种方法，将一些登山技术改造用于进入树冠层，这意味着要把绳子射到树上。

So Nalini and a few friends figured out a way to adapt some mountain climbing techniques to get up into the canopy, and that means shooting ropes into the trees.

所以我发明了一个叫‘主投掷器’的东西，它就是一根金属杆，我们焊接时在上面留了一个小孔用来穿线。

So I invented this thing called the master caster, which is just a metal rod, and we welded it so it has this little hole here for the line.

基本上，这个主投掷器既像钓鱼竿，又像弹弓。

Basically, this master caster thing is part fishing rod, part slingshot.

纳利尼，这看起来像是个跳蚤市场。

Nalini, this looks like a garage sale.

确实像。

It does.

一个14岁男孩的梦想——既能用弹弓，又能钓鱼。

A 14 year old boy's dream in which you could both slingshot and cast.

于是，把钓鱼铅坠装进弹弓里

And so with the fishing weight loaded into the slingshot

所以我正想着就在那儿。

So I'm thinking right up there.

是的。

Yeah.

纳利尼娴熟地投出了它。

Nalini cast it masterfully.

哦，对。

Oh, yeah.

什么？

What?

天哪。

Oh my god.

我有告诉过你它会飞到哪里吗？

Did I tell you where it was gonna go or what?

我们把绳子设好了。

We set the ropes.

现在把全部重量压在这上面。

Now put all your weight on this.

已经系好安全带了。

Got harnessed in.

对。

Right.

往下踩。

Step down.

然后开始艰难地一点一点向上攀爬绳子。

And then started the long hard process of inching up the rope.

你要蹲下，把腿抬起来。

You're gonna go into a crouch and lift your legs up.

对，就是这样。

That's it.

好的。

Okay.

有点像毛毛虫那样，然后站起来。

Kind of like a caterpillar and then stand.

没错。

Exactly.

你明白了。

You got it.

嗯，你知道的，

Well, you know,

我大概懂了。

I've got it kind of.

在她的职业生涯中，纳利尼研究了太平洋西北地区以及哥斯达黎加森林的树冠层，记录了树冠层的种种现象。

Over the course of her career, researching canopies in the Pacific Northwest as well as in the forest of Costa Rica, Nalini has documented all kinds of things about the canopy.

在高达60英尺的这棵巨大的枫树上，她给我展示了其中一些更有趣的发现。

60 feet up this giant maple tree, she shows me one of the cooler ones.

看看这些苔藓的底部，就像这里有树冠土壤一样。

Just looking at the underside of these mosses, like, there's this canopy soil.

让我在这儿挖一些出来。

Let me dig some out over here.

纳利尼从树的枝条上揭下一大把厚厚的苔藓。

Nalini peels back a thick fistful of moss from the branch on the tree.

我们看到的不是树皮，而是一层紧密堆积的棕色泥土。

Instead of bark, we're looking at a tightly packed bed of brown dirt.

我的意思是，这确实是真正的土壤，主要由生活在这里的死亡并正在分解的苔藓组成。

I mean, that is actual soil that is basically composed of the dead and decomposing mosses that live up here.

而且这里还有蚯蚓生活着。

And there are, like, earthworms that live up here.

地面有土壤，但这里也是一样的。

There are soil that on the ground, but up Exactly.

这被称为树冠土壤。

It's called it's a canopy soil.

太神奇了。

Wow.

看看这个。

Look look at that.

这太奇怪了。

And it's so weird.

你知道吗？

You know?

你在这里闻着土壤的气息，但你其实是在离森林地面60英尺高的地方。

You're here smelling the soil smell, but you're, you know, you were up 60 feet above the forest floor.

所以，树冠创造了一个完整的生态系统。

So it's it's this sort of whole world that the canopy creates.

这些都是活的植物。

They're living plants.

它们是苔藓。

They're mosses.

它们是蕨类。

They're ferns.

它们是土壤，里面生活着各种无脊椎动物，还有鸟类会来这里觅食这些生活在树冠土壤中的无脊椎动物。

They're soil, and it's all kinda invertebrates that live here, birds that forage for these invertebrates that live in the canopy soil.

所以这就像一个微型生态系统，独立于森林地面运行，但同时又与整个森林相互作用。

So it's like this microcosm, this mini ecosystem that's going on kind of independent of the forest floor, but at the same time interacting with the forest as a whole.

当然，如今全球的树冠层正面临气候变化、砍伐、火灾和森林砍伐的威胁，纳利尼现在的许多工作就是试图弄清楚，如果我们失去了这样一个复杂而相互关联的生态系统，会发生什么。

Of course, today, canopies all over the world face threats from climate change, from logging, fire and deforestation, and a lot of Nalini's work now is about trying to figure out what would happen if we lost such a complex interconnected ecosystem.

我认为树冠层尽可能保持完整非常重要，因为它们孕育了惊人的生物多样性，一棵树上就能有多达70种苔藓。

I think it's important for canopies to be as intact as possible because they do foster so much diversity that you can get 70 species of mosses on a single tree.

而每一种苔藓都在独自生活，伴随着它们的昆虫和无脊椎动物，并为鸟类提供支持。

And each of those mosses is sort of living its life with its insects and invertebrates and supporting birds.

因此，这仅仅是构成原始森林重要性的整个循环中的一部分。

And so it's just part of this sort of whole cycle of what makes a primary forest important.

这是纳利尼刚开始从事树冠研究时发现的另一件事。

Here's another thing Nalini discovered when she was first getting started in canopy research.

当时从事这类工作的女性科学家非常少，于是她决心改变这一状况。

There were very few women scientists doing this kind of work, and so she set out to change that.

事实上，那天在我的实验室发生了一件特别棒的事。

And actually, this was this was just a fabulous day that happened in my lab.

我有一个森林树冠实验室。

I had this forest canopy lab.

本科生们会在那里工作。

Undergraduates would work there.

我的研究生和我一起工作，我们只是随意讨论一些想法，比如：我们如何能让森林树冠对的不只是其他科学家，还有普通人更有意义？

My graduate students would work with me, and we were just kicking around ideas like, how could we make the forest canopy more meaningful to not just other scientists, but to regular people?

比如，对年轻女孩们呢？

Like, how about young girls?

她们需要鼓励。

They need encouragement.

有人就说：那芭比娃娃怎么样？

And somebody said, well, what about Barbie?

好吧。

Alright.

暂停。

Pause.

玩芭比时间。

Barbie time.

因为她已经忙于帮助开创一个全新的科学领域，进入21世纪初，纳利尼又在空闲时间决定，试着设计、推广，并让世界各地的小女孩和小男孩都能拿到‘树顶芭比’。

Because she wasn't busy enough helping to basically create an entirely new field of scientific study, in the early two thousands, Nalini decided, you know, in her free time, she would try to create, market, and get into the hands of little girls and boys everywhere, TreeTop Barbie.

如果我们把这款标志性的娃娃——嗯——

What if we took this iconic doll Uh-huh.

它象征着小女孩们所向往的一切，那会怎样呢？

Which is so symbolic of what young girls aspire to?

如果我们只是给她套上一个树冠生物学家的外壳呢？

What if we just put this shell around her, which is a canopy biologist?

于是纳利尼联系了拥有芭比品牌的美泰公司。

So Nalini called Mattel, the company that owns Barbie.

当我提出这个想法时，他们说：不行。

And then when I proposed this idea, they said, no.

不行。

No.

不行。

No.

我们不感兴趣。

We're not interested.

这对我们毫无意义。

That has no meaning to us.

我们自己生产芭比娃娃。

We make our own Barbies.

你知道，你不能这么做。

You know, you can't do this.

算了吧。

Forget it.

算了吧。

Forget it.

所以那时我们就想，既然美泰公司不愿意接手，那我们为什么不自己来做呢？

So that's when we said, well, why don't we just do it ourselves and if Mattel's not gonna take it?

后来我们去了几次救世军商店，买了一些回收的芭比娃娃。

A couple of trips to goodwill later to get some recycled Barbies.

我们开始自己制作树顶芭比。

We began just sort of making our own TreeTop Barbies.

我开始带着树冠芭比四处走动，跟我的同事们说：你们看，我们不仅要做好科学研究，还得开始鼓励科学界之外的人参与进来。

And I started bringing Canopy Barbie along with me and, you know, talking to my fellow scientists and saying, look, you guys, we not only have to do our good science, we need to start encouraging people from outside science in.

这正是我们可能采取的一种方式。

And this is one way that we might do it.

树木是绝佳的发现场所。

Trees are wonderful arenas for discovery.

这是纳利尼2009年的TED演讲，顺便说一句，这对科学家来说是非常令人紧张的事情。

This is Nalini's 2,009 TED Talk, which, by the way, is a hugely nerve wracking thing for scientists.

你得戴着免提式的布兰妮·斯皮尔斯麦克风做演讲，而这场演讲基本上会成为你一生中谷歌搜索的首位结果。

You're hooked up to this hands free Britney Spears mic to give a talk that will basically be your top Google hit for life.

站在那个舞台上，展示一个小小的塑料树顶芭比，这真的意义重大。

To stand on that stage, showing off a little plastic TreeTop Barbie, it was a lot.

我真该花时间做这个吗？

Like, should I really be spending time with this?

人们会不会觉得奇怪，作为一个科学家，作为一个女性科学家，作为一个棕色皮肤的女性科学家，我居然花时间做这种事？

People gonna think it's weird that me as a scientist and me as a woman scientist and me as a brown woman scientist is spending her time doing this?

这背后确实有风险，但我相信，它可能带来的好处——为一个根本不知道树冠层可以被研究的小女孩树立一个真实的榜样——是值得的。

There's sort of a risk that goes along with But I felt that the potential good that could come out of it, of providing a real role model for a little girl who doesn't even know that that can the canopy exists to study.

就像我小时候那样。

You know, like when I was a kid.

所以，如果这件事能发生，我认为冒这个险是值得的。

And so if that can happen, then I think it's worth the risk.

我和我的学生们做的，就是从善拾店和价值村购买芭比娃娃。

What we do, my students in my lab and I, is we buy Barbies from Goodwill and Value Village.

我们让女裁缝为她制作衣服，并给她配上一本树冠手册，然后送她出发。

We dress her in clothes that have been made by seamstresses, and we send her out with a Canopy Handbook.

我的感受是，谢谢。

And my feeling is thank you.

我们把这个流行偶像稍微调整了一下，让她成为一位大使，传递这样一个信息：作为一名研究树冠层的女性科学家，这其实是一件非常了不起的事。

That we've taken this pop icon, and we have just tweaked her a little bit to become an ambassador who can carry the message that being a woman scientist studying tree tops is actually a really great thing.

在我们结束之前，我还没告诉你们关于TreeTop Barbie这件事最精彩的部分。

Before we wrap up, I haven't told you the best part about the whole TreeTop Barbie thing.

当TreeTop Barbie开始引起关注后，美泰公司得知了这件事，并给纳利尼打了电话。

Once the TreeTop Barbie started getting some attention, Mattel found out, and they called Nalini.

他们说，哇。

They said, woah.

哇。

Woah.

哇。

Woah.

你们不能自己制作芭比娃娃并出售。

You can't just make your own Barbies and sell them.

停止吧。

Shut it down.

纳利尼说她很抱歉，她真的没有恶意，如果他们想要这个想法，仍然可以继续。

Nalini said she was sorry, that she really didn't mean any harm, and that they could still have the idea if they wanted it.

他们说，不行。

And they said, no.

不行。

No.

不行。

No.

你不能这么做。

You can't do this.

你不能这么做。

You can't do this.

你不能这么做。

You can't do this.

我说，哇。

And I said, wow.

真有意思。

How interesting.

你知道吗，我认识一些记者，他们一定会对Mattel试图打压一位试图激励年轻女孩成为科学家和探险家的棕色皮肤女性这件事非常感兴趣。

You know, I know a number of journalists who'd be really interested in in knowing that Mattel is trying to shut down a small brown woman who's trying to who's trying to inspire young girls to become scientists and explorers.

Nalini，你是不是逼迫了Mattel？

Nalini, did you strong-arm Mattel?

是的，我这么做了。

I did.

他们的回应非常友好。

And they responded very nicely.

他们说，我们会再回复你。

They said, we'll get back to you.

我们向Mattel询问了这件事，但他们没有具体提及与Nalini之前的任何往来。

We asked Mattel about this, and they didn't get into specifics about any past back and forth with Nalini.

但纳利尼说，公司告诉她，好的。

But Nalini says the company told her, okay.

行。

Fine.

你可以继续制作TreeTop芭比，她过去十到十五年里一直默默这么做。

You can keep making TreeTop Barbie, which she did pretty quietly for the last ten or fifteen years.

然后去年，我接到了国家地理频道的电话。

And then And then last year, I got a call from National Geographic.

他们说，纳德卡尼博士，我们认识到您在芭比科学探险家这个项目上开创了先河。

They said, doctor Nadkarni, we recognize that you have, you know, sort of forged the way with this Barbie Science Explorer sort of thing.

我们与美泰合作推出了这五款探险家芭比，您愿意担任顾问吗？

We have partnered with Mattel to make these five Explorer Barbies, and would you be the adviser on this?

我说，太棒了。

And I said, fantastic.

这简直像实现了我的树之梦想。

This is like a tree dream come true.

你刚才说这是关于‘该死的时间’吗？

Did you say it's about stinking time?

啊，我没说‘该死的时间’。

I oh, I didn't say stinking time.

我说的是：时候到了。

I said, it's about time.

你做这件事真是太棒了。

It's so great that you're doing this.

所以，这件事真的发生了。

So So it happened.

现在有了极地海洋生物学家芭比、天体物理学家芭比、野生动物摄影记者芭比、昆虫学家芭比和野生动物保护者芭比。

Now there's a polar marine biologist Barbie, astrophysicist Barbie, wildlife photojournalist Barbie, entomologist Barbie, and wildlife conservationist Barbie.

你会怎么回应那些人，他们说芭比依然是个不切实际的美丽形象，是吧？

What would you say to people that were saying, like, Barbie is still this unachievable image Yeah.

就是那种女性的美丽标准，对吧？

Of, like, beauty for women Right.

那你应该远离它吗？

And you should stay away from it?

是的。

Yeah.

我经常思考这个问题。

I think about that a lot.

我认为这是一个我们需要自问的重大问题。

I think it's a big question that we need to ask ourselves.

我的感觉是，是的，她是一个塑料娃娃。

My sense is, yes, she's a plastic doll.

是的，她的外形设计体现了所有我们不该用来定义女性应有形态的方式。

Yes, she's configured in all the ways that we should not be thinking of how women are should be shaped.

是的，她看起来如此完美，而你知道，尤其是女性科学家总是觉得必须做到完美。

And yes, she looks so perfect, which, you know, women scientists especially always think, have to be perfect.

我必须表现得很好。

I have to be good.

我必须做得更好。

I have to be better.

我必须更聪明。

I have to be smarter.

我必须更有生产力。

I have to be more productive.

但如今，世界上已经有了这些芭比娃娃——探索者芭比，她们成为小女孩们的榜样，让她们能真正看到自己可以成为自然摄影师或天体物理学家。

But the fact that now there are Barbies out here in the world, these Explorer Barbies that are being role models for little girls so that they can literally see themselves as a nature photographer or an astrophysicist.

这让我感到无比喜悦，因为它让我回想起自己八岁时，独自一人坐在树上，想着 somehow 要帮助树木，虽然我还不知道具体该怎么做。

And that fills me with joy because it brings me back to when I was an eight year old kid all alone up in a tree saying, wanna somehow help trees, I don't quite know how.

没错。

Right.

现在，这些女孩有了实现这一目标的方式。

Now these girls have a way to do that.

我觉得这太棒了。

And I think that's splendid.

纳利尼·纳德卡尼。

Nalini Nadkarni.

我们那次 canopy 之旅有一整个视频。

There's a whole video of our trip to the canopy.

在我们节目的信息中可以找到链接。

Find a link to it in our episode info.

好的，纳利尼。

Alright, Nalini.

好的。

Alright.

我该怎么从这个地方下去？

How do I get down from this place?

嗯，下来有几种方式。

Well, there are a couple ways to go down.

其中一种是绳降。

One of them is repelling.

嗯，三种方式。

One well, three ways.

一种是摔下去，但我们不这么做。

One is falling, which we don't do.

我更喜欢那种。

I prefer that.

另一种就是直接下去。

And the the other one is just to go down.

好的。

Okay.

在我们开始之前，我们这个节目会时不时回答你们关于科学的各种问题。

Before we go, one thing we're gonna do on the show from time to time is answer questions from you about all things science.

所以，如果你有关于科学的问题，发邮件给我们：shortwave@mpr.org。

So if you have a science related question, email us at shortwave@mpr.org.

我们可能会为你解答。

We may answer it for you.

另外，如果您的问题是万圣节主题的，因为万圣节快到了，还有额外奖励。

Also, bonus, if your question is Halloween themed because Halloween is coming up.

再次提醒，shortwave@npr.org。

Again, shortwave@npr.org.

我是马迪·萨菲亚。

I'm Maddie Safia.

感谢收听。

Thank you for listening.

我们下周会带来更多《Shortwave》节目。

We'll be back with more shortwave next week.

NPR及以下内容的支持来自威廉和弗洛拉·休利特基金会，该基金会致力于支持富有创造力的思想者和问题解决者，帮助人们、社区和地球繁荣发展。

Support for NPR and the following message come from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, investing in creative thinkers and problem solvers who help people, communities, and the planet flourish.

更多信息请访问hewlett.org。

More information is available at hewlett.org.