Six things we learned from the Fantastic Beasts – The Wonder of Nature book 我们从《神奇动物在哪里》这本书中学到了六件事

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 A new book has been published to coincide with an exhibition at the Natural History Museum that explores the wonders of nature, science and adventure alongside their counterparts from Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts. 英国自然历史博物馆将举办一场展览,与《哈利波特》和《神奇动物在哪里》一样,探索自然、科学和冒险的奇妙之处。
Fantastic Beasts – The Wonder of Nature is bursting with detailed information on the marvels of our natural world and an urgent message about what we need to do to preserve them during the current climate emergency.

神奇动物《大自然的奇迹》提供了大量关于我们自然世界的奇迹的详细信息,以及在当前的气候紧急情况下我们需要做些什么来保护它们的紧急信息。

Full of gorgeous imagery of real-world creatures alongside illustrations of the fantastic beasts we have come to love from the imagination of J.K. Rowling, we are led through the book by the curators and experts of the Natural History Museum and a host of other writers who specialise in the creatures – great and small – of this planet. 充满了真实世界生物的华丽图像,以及神奇动物的插图,我们从想象中喜欢上了它们。J.K.在罗琳的带领下,自然历史博物馆的馆长和专家们以及其他许多专门研究这个星球上大大小小的生物的作家们带领我们阅读了这本书。
We learned an awful lot reading the book: about everything from insect-collecting equipment to Zouwu toys. But we’ve managed to whittle it down to the six biggest things. 我们读这本书学到了很多东西:从昆虫收集设备到走屋玩具。但我们已经把它精简到了六件大事
So, put on your explorer’s boots. We’re going in…

穿上你的探险靴,我们进去

1. Conservation is a painstaking business

保护环境是一项艰苦的工作

In a fascinating section written by Lorraine Cornish, the Head of Conservation at the Natural History Museum, we come to understand the behind-the-scenes work that preserves both the amazing objects on display and those stored away in the museum’s archives. 在自然历史博物馆的保护主管LorraineCornish写的一个引人入胜的章节中,我们逐渐了解了这些幕后工作,它们既保存了展出的令人惊叹的物品,也保存了博物馆档案馆中的那些物品。
Take missing tiger whiskers: Nikki, one of the museum’s conservators, created false whiskers by inserting a thick nylon thread into catheter tubing, then used a heated spatula to flatten them into a whisker shape, cut them to various lengths with a scalpel, and painted them so they looked like the real thing. 取失踪的虎须:博物馆的管理员之一Nikki通过将一根粗尼龙线插入导管管制造了假胡须,然后用一个加热的刮刀把它们压扁成胡须状,用手术刀切成各种长度,然后涂上颜色,使它们看起来像真的一样。 Different sizes were created to mirror the real whiskers on the other side of the tiger’s face. The attention to detail is pretty jaw-dropping. 不同的尺寸被创造出来,以反映老虎脸的另一侧的真胡须。对细节的关注令人瞠目结舌。
Conservation is also a job with some risks. We see Cheryl, another member of Lorraine’s team, working on a scary-looking Colombian lesserblack tarantula, dating back to 1875! The spider hairs are potentially hazardous as they can cause swelling and itching of the skin, so when Cheryl was repairing one of its legs, gloves and tweezers were a must-have. 保育也是一项有一定风险的工作。我们看到Cheryl,Lorraine团队的另一名成员,正在研究一只看起来吓人的哥伦比亚lesserblack狼蛛,它的历史可以追溯到1875年!蜘蛛毛有潜在的危险,因为它们会导致皮肤肿胀和瘙痒,所以当谢丽尔修理它的一条腿时,手套和镊子是必须的。
2. There’s a dinosaur named after Hogwarts! 有一种恐龙以霍格沃茨命名!
In a delightful case of life imitating art, scientists named a dinosaur Dracorex Hogwartsia in celebration of Hogwarts itself. Unlike the magical Hungarian Horntail, this huge beast was probably a plant eater and lived in a small herd, like the other pachycephalosaurs of its kind that roamed the Earth between 66 million and 140 million years ago. You can see a reconstruction of its magnificent head in the book and forthcoming exhibition.

在一个令人愉快的生活模仿艺术的例子中,科学家们把一只恐龙命名为德拉克雷克斯霍格瓦茨亚(DracorexHogwartsia),以庆祝霍格沃茨本身。与神奇的匈牙利树蜂不同,这种庞然大物很可能是食草动物,生活在一个小兽群中,就像其他种类的粗头龙一样,它们生活在6600万到1.4亿年前的地球上。你可以在这本书和即将到来的展览中看到它宏伟的头部的重建。

3. A different kind of evening wear 一种与众不同的晚礼服
In an essay titled ‘The Naturalist Explorer’, Andrea Hart (Head of Library Special Collections) picks out Maria Sibylla Merian as a hero of hers – she was one of the first European natural explorers to study insects in the field. She set off from Amsterdam to the Dutch colony of Surinam in South America in 1699, accompanied only by her daughter. She wanted to fulfil a lifelong ambition to document and illustrate new species of insects and the plants on which they lived. But the European dress style she wore was ill-suited to the heat and humidity of Surinam, so she had to conduct much of her research at night. It was worth it: she made pioneering discoveries in European eyes, captured in brilliant paintings depicting the life cycle of butterflies and much more. 在一篇名为《自然主义探索者》的文章中AndreaHart(图书馆特别收藏部负责人)挑选出MariaSibyllaMerian作为她的英雄——她是欧洲第一批在野外研究昆虫的自然探索者之一。1699年,她从阿姆斯特丹出发,前往南美洲的荷兰殖民地苏利南,只有女儿陪伴。她想实现一个毕生的抱负,记录并展示新的昆虫物种和它们赖以生存的植物。但是她穿的欧式服装不适合苏里南的炎热和潮湿,所以她不得不在晚上进行大量的研究。这是值得的:她在欧洲人眼中做出了开创性的发现,在描绘蝴蝶生命周期的精彩画作中捕捉到了更多。
4. We are living through an extinction event 我们正在经历一场灭绝事件
In his piece at the beginning of the ‘Endangered Species’ chapter, author and natural history writer Patrick Barkham has a stark warning for us from history. As he points out, a replica of the dodo – known as the Diricawl to those in the wizarding world – is a star exhibit in the Natural History Museum. Barkham describes the dodo as a ‘reproach and a reminder’ from history about how fast extinction can arrive. In the current era, which scientists are calling the Anthropocene because of the dominance of Homo sapiens (i.e. you and me), the Earth is losing its bewitching diversity of life more quickly than in the past many millions of years. Worryingly, this period is what some call the Sixth Great Extinction... 在“濒危物种”一章开头的一篇文章中,作者兼自然历史作家帕特里克·巴卡姆从历史上对我们发出了强烈的警告。正如他所指出的那样,一个名为Diricawl的渡渡鸟复制品,是自然历史博物馆的明星展品。Barkham将渡渡鸟描述为一种“责备和提醒”--从历史上看,灭绝的速度有多快。在当今时代,科学家们称人类世为人类世,因为智人(即你和我)的统治地位,地球正在以比过去几百万年更快的速度失去其迷人的生命多样性。令人担忧的是,这段时期被称为第六次大灭绝.
5. ... but there is still hope! .但还是有希望的!
If that feels pessimistic, fret not, because we can all make a difference – that is the overriding message of the book and exhibition. The large blue butterfly actually became extinct in Britain in 1979. Fortunately, the species clung on in some European countries and was successfully reintroduced to Britain by Professor Jeremy Thomas after he collected caterpillars from Sweden for the task. As Patrick Barkham explains: ‘By learning exactly what made the large blue tick – a fascinating symbiotic relationship with a species of ant – he was able to recreate suitable meadowland habitat.
Today, each June, more large blues fly in south-west England than anywhere else in the world.’ If there was a planetary equivalent of House points, Professor Thomas would get a lot of them. 如果这让人感到悲观,那就不要担心,因为我们都能有所作为--这是这本书和展览最重要的信息。这只蓝色的大蝴蝶实际上于1979年在英国灭绝了。幸运的是,这一物种在一些欧洲国家仍然存在,并被杰里米·托马斯教授从瑞典收集来完成这项任务后成功地重新引入英国。正如帕特里克·巴卡姆(PatrickBarkham)所解释的那样:“通过准确地了解是什么造就了大蓝虱--这是一种与一种蚂蚁的迷人共生关系--他得以重新创造合适的草地栖息地。
如今,每年六月,英格兰西南地区的大布鲁斯都要比世界上任何地方都多。如果有一个相当于House点的行星,那么Thomas教授会得到很多。
6. Be more panda 多一点熊猫
Or rather, be kind to pandas, and everything else. Perhaps even more adorable than Nifflers, giant pandas were poached, and their habitat deforested, so that in the 1980s their numbers were reduced to as few as 1,114. It wasn’t until there were a few hundred left that a global movement started to save them. A panda census is taken every ten to fifteen years to keep track of their numbers. The most recent survey was carried out in 2014 and it estimated that there were 1,864 pandas living in the wild, and about another 300 in zoos and breeding centres around the world. Nearly two-thirds of all wild pandas now live in protected wildlife reserves and a handful of captive-bred pandas has been released into the wild. It’s only with the hard work and cooperation between the Chinese government, local communities and global wildlife organisations like the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) that the giant panda’s future looks brighter. 或者说,善待熊猫,以及其他一切。也许比尼弗勒斯更可爱的是,大熊猫被偷猎,栖息地被砍伐,因此在20世纪80年代,它们的数量减少到了1114只。直到只剩下几百人的时候,一场全球性的运动才开始拯救他们。每十到十五年进行一次熊猫普查,以记录它们的数量。最近的一次调查是在2014年进行的,估计有1864只大熊猫生活在野外,另有约300只生活在世界各地的动物园和繁殖中心。近三分之二的野生大熊猫生活在受保护的野生动物保护区,少数人工繁殖的大熊猫已经被放归野外。只有在中国政府、当地社区和世界野生动物基金会等全球野生动物组织的努力与合作下,(WWF)大熊猫的未来看起来更光明。

And that’s the biggest lesson from Fantastic Beasts – The Wonder of Nature: as we admire the myriad colourful species from the real and wizarding worlds, we are reminded that we can make a massive difference as individuals, but an even greater one if we work together.
Fantastic Beasts – The Wonder of Nature is published as a print book by Bloomsbury and an eBook by Pottermore Publishing (not available in the USA). 这是从《神奇动物在哪里》中学到的最重要的一课:当我们欣赏来自真实世界和魔法世界的无数五颜六色的物种时,我们被提醒,作为个人,我们可以做出巨大的改变,但如果我们共同努力,这将是更大的改变。
神奇动物《自然的奇迹》是由布卢姆斯伯里出版社出版的纸质书和波特莫尔出版社的电子书(美国没有)。

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