精子生命大赛跑（2009）

Some that are more abnormal in the shapes of their heads etc, won’t be
有些是它们的头的形状太异常等
able to fit into these channels,to be able to swim up as easily.
将不能适应这个渠道，能够更容易的游泳
Back in our people-sized sperm world,
返回我们人尺寸的精♥子♥世界
what would this fitness test compare to?
什么来比较体能测试呢
Well, what if your life depended on climbing a ladder…
那么，如果你的命运取决于爬梯子…
..a ladder stretching over a mile into the sky?
…一个梯子延绵一英里的天空
It’s a long, gravity-defying climb,
这是一个很长，反抗重力的攀爬
but only a tiny fraction ofsperm will be able to manage.
但是只有一小部分精♥子♥能够完成
For the 60,000 or so that do, it’s out of the frying pan
做60000次，就像是从煎锅中出来
and into the fire.
又进入了火中
Now they must endure stage two of their quest… the cervix.
现它们必须忍♥受任务的第二阶段…子♥宫♥颈
The objective here,to push four centimetres
它的目的是推动4厘米到另一边
to the other side and reach the wide open space of the uterus.
开阔的子♥宫♥里
Sounds simple, until we take a closer look at the terrain.
听起来很简单，我们近距离观察了地形后
The cervix is, quite simply, sperm hell.
发现子♥宫♥颈就是精♥子♥的地狱
It’s lined with tens of thousands of tiny branching tunnels,
它的几十个微小的分支隧♥道♥内衬
most roads to nowhere and some just a single sperm head wide,
大部分路都走不通，有的只有一个精♥子♥脑袋宽
where the vast majority, if not all of Glen’s sperm, will get crushed,
不是所有的Glen的精♥子♥，其中大部分会被杀死
trapped and ultimately face a slow death.
被困住然面对缓慢的死亡过程
Nature does have a selection process in the cervix.
大自然在宫颈管有一个选择的过程
It is selecting sperm that are well made.
选择那些很好的精♥子♥
It would be a bit like me,
这就有点像我
dressed as a sperm, trying to climb a staircase that’s a kilometre high.
打扮成精♥子♥，试图爬上一公里高的楼梯
I’m defying gravity,I’m going against the flow,
我不削重力，我逆流而上
and when I get to the top,
当我到顶的时候
I find that I’ve gone down the wrong staircase
我发现我走错了楼梯
and I should’ve gone down another one.
我应该走另一个楼梯
Our sperm must fight their way,crushed among thousands of others,
我们的精♥子♥必须自寻出路，击败成千上万的其他精♥子♥
up through a twisted,nightmarish urban environment.
通过扭曲，噩梦般的艰苦环境
Only 1% of sperm that make it into the cervix
只有1%的精♥子♥能进入子♥宫♥颈
have any chance of making it out alive.
不惜任何机会活着出去
But could the performance of Glen’s sperm be affected by his performance
但是Glen精♥子♥的质量
between the sheets?
会被他的表现影响吗
This woman thinks so.
这个女人是这样认为的
As Dr Joanna Ellington knows,an average fertile, healthy couple,
正如Joanna Ellington博士知道的那样，健康的夫妇，平均生育
has just a one in five chance of conceiving every month.
一个月只有1/5的受孕机会
And for her, success depends on the quality of the sex they’re having.
对于她，成功与否取决于他们的性质量
The better the sex, the better your chance of conception.
更好的性质量，更高的受孕机会
One of the things that a lot of men don’t realise
有一件很多男人不知道的事情
is that the more excited they are,
他们越兴奋
the further back in the testicl they’re gonna draw on reserves.
越能进一步驱使他们动用储存的精♥子♥
So if you have what I like to call gourmet sex, where you really spend
所以如果你有我们称之为愉快的性♥交♥，你就会花时间
time and you really make it fun for both partners, that is gonna make
你会真正让其变成双方的兴趣
the man more excited,more stimulated,
这会让一个男人更兴奋，更刺♥激♥
and he’s gonna ejaculate more sperm,
他就会射出更多
and they’re healthier sperm.
更健康的精♥子♥
Research shows that men enjoying ‘gourmet sex’
研究表明，男性享受“愉快性♥交♥”
can ejaculate up to 50% more sperm.
会射出超过50%的精♥子♥
Good news for Glen.
对Glen来说是一个好消息
But what about Emily?
但是Emily呢
Could more fun in bed for her help the chances of conception?
躺在床上能有更多的乐趣以帮助她受孕吗
Nineteenth century evolutionary psychologists believed the purpose
19世纪的进化心理学家认为
of female orgasms was to keep a woman lying down longer after sex,
女性性高♥潮♥的目的是在性行为后让其躺更长的时间
keeping sperm in the body
保持精♥子♥在体内
and increasing her probability of conception.
增加她受孕的可能
More recently, it’s been suggested the female orgasm evolved to create
最近，提出了女性性高♥潮♥的演化
a stronger bond between lovers, increasing the chances of the couple
在恋人之间创造一个更强的纽带
staying together after a child is born.
增加孩子出生之后夫妇住在一起的机会
Nice theories but there’s never been any actual evidence
Nice的理论从来没有实际证据来支持
to support the idea that female orgasm
女性性高♥潮♥
had any functional relevance whatsoever… until now.
与任何功能毫不相干的观点，直到现在
I happen to be a fan of female orgasm myself
碰巧我自己对女性性高♥潮♥很着迷
and that’s from a physiological standpoint as well as a personal one.
从个人以及生理角度来看
What happens during female orgasm is the pH in the vagina
实际上女性在性高♥潮♥时阴♥道♥的PH
actually is elevated some,
会升高一些
there’s some changes in the ion concentration and there
会发生一些离子浓度的改变
are contractions that help pull the sperm up into the female’s body.
会收缩以帮助精♥子♥进入女性的身体
Strangely, this remarkable theory has been supported by a Danish study
奇怪的是，这一不同寻常的理论被丹麦的一个关于
into the sex lives of pigs, creatures with reproductive
猪的性生活的研究所支持，生物的生殖系统
systems almost identical to ours.
和我们几乎是相同的
We don’t know if a pig’s having an orgasm or not, but we know that if we
我们不知道猪是否有性高♥潮♥，但是我们知道
stimulate their clitoris when they do artificial insemination,
如果猪人工受精时，我们刺♥激♥其阴蒂
we can increase pregnancy rates.
可以提高受孕几率
Some people mistakenly think that female orgasm is bad for conception.
有些人认为女性性高♥潮♥对受孕是不利的
There’s certainly no evidence of that.
这里的确没有证据表明这点
In fact, the evidence would suggest that it’s a good thing to have.
实际上，证据表明这是个很好的事
Luckily for Glenn, 3,000 of his sperm are both fully fit
Glenn幸运的3000精♥子♥能够完全符合
and manage to avoid getting lost.
能够应付避免迷路
But as the female immune system
但是，女性的免疫系统
prepares to mobilise its elite assassins,
准备动用她的精锐刺客
the Great Sperm Race is about to get even tougher.
精♥子♥大♥比♥赛将变得更加严厉
精♥子♥生命大赛跑
Inside an unsuspecting woman, the great sperm race is under way.
在女性不知情的体内，伟大的精♥子♥比赛正在进行
Our army of sperm, unstoppable by sheer force of numbers,
我们的精♥子♥大军，在数量上是势不可挡的
have fought their way through the mountainous terrain of the vagina
通过它们的方式在阴♥道♥的山区地形里战斗
and squeezed through the tight passageways of the cervix.
拥挤的穿过宫颈的紧紧通道
Getting this far has cost many lives.
到达这一步已经死亡了许多精♥子♥
Now just 3,000 sperm remain.
现在只有3000精♥子♥还活着
The adventure continues,thanks largely to the fact
探索还在继续，在很大程度上要归功于
that Emily is ovulating.
Emily正在排卵期这个事实
So, is it a coincidence this couple had sex at the perfect moment
所以这对夫妇在恰当时候发生性关系是不是巧合
during her most fertile and sperm-friendly monthly period?
在她对精♥子♥有利的月经期是最易受孕的
This man doesn’t think so.
但是这个人并不这么认为
For evolutionary psychologist Geoffrey Miller,
进化心理学家Geoffrey Miller
nothing in the great sperm race happens by accident.
他认为在伟大的精♥子♥比赛中没有意外发生
‘The sperm didn’t get there by chance.’
精♥子♥没有到达那里的机会
The woman’s body and brain has arranged for it to be there.
女人的身体和大脑已经在那里为它安排好了
It’s made choices in its life, in its mate search,
这是自己生命，择偶搜索里的选择
in its discrimination between male partners,
区别男性♥伴♥侣♥之间的选择
in its sexual behaviour, that led to the sperm being there.
性行为的选择，决定了精♥子♥在这里
Female choice runs evolution,largely.
主要是女性选择演变的运行
Unlike men, who can produce millions of sperm every day,
不像男性，可以每天产生数百万个精♥子♥
women are born with all the eggs they will ever have…
女性出生将有所有的卵细胞
about a million.
大约有100万
By menopause, that number has fallen to zero,
更年期的时候这一数据已经下降到0
making them the most important commodity in the natural world.
使它们成为自然界中最贵重的商品
A fertile egg from a healthy,intelligent egg donor costs about
$30,000 on the open market.
一个健康的，聪明的卵子捐赠者的受精卵在公开的市场上价格约3万美元
If you take the size of the egg,
如果你需要鸡蛋这么大小的
that adds out to about $1,000 trillion per pound.
其价值增加到了大约每磅1000万亿美元
So, even in strictly economic terms,
所以，即使从严格的经济角度来看
a fertile egg is rare,it’s special, it’s valuable.
一个受精卵是罕见，特殊，很有价值的
Each egg is made even more precious
每个卵子都很珍贵
because one will appear for just a few days per month.
因为一个月内只有短短的几天会出现
Many female animals make the most of ovulation by experiencing oestrus,
许多雌性动物到发♥情♥期的时候排卵
where their physical appearance,scent and behaviour will change
自己的身体外形，气味和行为会发生变化
to advertise their fertility.
以表明她们具有生育能力
Geoffrey Miller believes women do the same thing.
Geoffrey Miller相信女人也是这么做的
It used to be thought that humans uniquely lost oestrus,
以前认为人类是唯一没有发♥情♥期的
that human females don’t go into oestrus when they ovulate,
人类女性在她们排卵时没有进入发♥情♥期
that somehow we have this pair bond that trumps oestrus.
不知为何，我们对债券胜过发♥情♥
But in fact, the new research is showing
但是事实上，新的研究显示
human females do go through oestrus.
人类女性也会有发♥情♥期
It serves exactly the same functions that it does for other mammals.
它和其他哺乳动物一样是相同的
All the same hormones, all the same psychology is still right there
所有相同的激素，相同的心理
under the surface of human culture.
在人类文化表面之下
So, could women effectively go on heat every month?
所有，是否女性每个月都发♥情♥？
Could their reproductive systems be unconsciously controlling their
actions and men’s responses?
她们的生殖系统是否不知觉的限制自己的行为和对男人的反应？
Miller believes so, and to prove it,
Miller也这么认为，为了证明这一点
he and his team at the University of New Mexico have carried out
some extraordinary research…
他和他的团队在新墨西哥大学进行了一些特别的研究…