◎魏國金
The first naturally fluorescent frog was discovered recently in Argentina － almost by chance, a member of the team of researchers said.
第一種天然螢光蛙近期在阿根廷被發現—幾乎是意外發現的，研究團隊的一名成員說。
Argentine and Brazilian scientists at the Bernardino Rivadaiva Natural Sciences Museum made the discovery while studying the metabolic origin of pigments in a tree-frog species common to South America.
阿根廷與巴西的科學家在貝納狄諾．里瓦達維亞自然科學博物館發現這種天然螢光蛙，當時他們對一種南美常見的樹蛙進行色素代謝來源的研究。
Under normal light the frog’s translucent skin is a muted yellowish-brown color with red dots, but when the scientists shone an ultraviolet light on it, it turned a celestial green. According to one of them, Carlos Taboada, the case is "the first scientific record of a fluorescent frog."
在正常光線下，這種蛙的半透明皮膚呈現柔和的黃棕色，上面佈有紅點，但當科學家以紫外線燈照射時，牠的皮膚便轉成螢光綠。研究團隊成員塔沃阿達說，這件案例是「螢光蛙的第一件科學紀錄」。
"We were very excited," said his fellow researcher Julian Faivovich. "It was quite disconcerting." He said the discovery "radically modifies what is known about fluorescence in terrestrial environments."
「我們非常興奮」，他的研究同僚費沃維奇說。「這也令人相當困惑。」他說，這項發現「徹底改變了有關陸棲環境的螢光性認知。」
The team studied some 200 more examples to ensure the phenomenon was not due to the frog’s captivity, and detected the fluorescent properties in all the specimens.
該團隊研究200多件樣本，以確定該現象不是因為青蛙在封閉環境中飼養，並在所有的樣本中監測到螢光屬性。
Maria Lagorio － an independent researcher and expert in fluorescence － said that the trait is common in aquatic species and seen in some insects, "but has never been scientifically reported in amphibians." The finding was recently published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
獨立研究者與生物螢光性專家拉戈里歐說，這種特性在水生物種身上頗為常見，也可見於一些昆蟲，「但兩棲動物從未有過相關的科學報告。」這項發現近期刊登於美國「國家科學院院刊」。
新聞辭典
fluorescent：螢光的、容光煥發的。例如：a fluorescent youth.（容光煥發的青年。）
muted：柔和的、溫和的。例句：On the whole, criticism was muted.（整體而言，批評算是溫和的。）
disconcerting：令人困惑或不安的。例句：She tried to break the disconcerting silence.（她試圖打破這令人不安的沉默。）
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