When you hear the word “electricity”, thoughts of power lines or household appliances are probably conjured up in your mind. But electricity is not just a modern human phenomenon – it was around long before us and, in fact, long before planet Earth.
到“”字，可能心中出力或家用器。不，不只是一代人的可察物。其早在人之前就存在，事上，早在地球之前。
“Electricity” simply refers to the interactions between any electrically charged objects, not just human-made ones, and these interactions are commonly found in the natural world among many animals and plants.
地，“”是因於，任何物之的交互作用，不只是人造物。因此，在自然界的多、植物中，普遍被。
At the small scale, these electrical interactions involve negatively charged electrons and/or positively charged protons – opposite charges attract and like charges repel. But each of these tiny particle interactions can add up, and contribute to creating effects which we can see at the much larger ecological scale in the interactions between animals, plants and their environment.
在小模上，些的相互作用涉及，的子及/或正的子。 相反的荷相吸而相同的荷相排斥。不，此些交互作用的每一微小粒子能加起，而有助於生，咱能在物、植物其境之的交互作用中，具有更大生模的效果。
In a lot of cases, what we are seeing in the natural world is static electricity, which is what you experience when you rub a balloon on your hair and it becomes statically charged. The exact same thing can happen to animals.
在很多情下，於自然界中看到的是。是在上摩擦球所生的，也就是出荷。正是能生於物的相同事。
As animals run, crawl or fly, their body parts rub on objects in their environment – or even just the air – and this charges them up, just like the balloon rubbing on your head. The amount of charge animals can build up this way is surprisingly high, with many different species accumulating charges that when measured as voltages can be in the region of many hundreds or thousands of volts.
物奔跑、爬行或行，身各部位摩擦其境中的物(或甚至只是空)。因此，使其荷，就如同球在上摩擦一。在此方式中，物能聚的荷，人的高。有多聚荷的物，被以量，有在百或千伏的。
That’s more than the voltage that comes out of your plug sockets at home. We wanted to review whether this static electricity helps animals live their lives. The answer is a resounding “yes”. Because statically charged objects can attract and repel each other, many different kinds of ecological interactions are affected by them.
那比家插插座出的高。我想探究，是否有助於物其生活。答案是亮的“是”。因，的物能相吸及相排斥。因此，多不同的生交互作用，皆受到其影。
The static charges on the feet of geckos help them stick to surfaces, so they can wall-run with ease. Spiders also love a bit of static electricity; not only are their webs electrostatically attracted towards charged flying insects, but they also use electricity to fly.
壁虎上的荷有助於它黏附在表面上，因此它能地在上奔跑。蜘蛛也需要有，不只是它的，性地被吸往的，而且也利用行。
Several species of spider exhibit a behaviour called “ballooning”, where they let out strands of silk that lift them up into the air like a balloon, and carry them away to disperse and find new homes.
若干蜘蛛物表出一，被“乘球”的行。它放出，使它像球般提升到空中走它，以便分散及找新家的。
It turns out that static electricity in the atmosphere, the type that causes thunderstorms in extreme cases, actually helps spiders in their aviation efforts by statically attracting the charged silk strands upwards into the atmosphere. It is not just animals that take advantage of these invisible electric forces either.
事明，大中的，在端情下，致雷暴的，透的向上吸到大中，上有助於蜘蛛在其行上的。也利用此些看不之的，不只是物。
Pollen has actually been shown to jump from flower to insect or bird pollinator without any contact between the two. The static charges of insects and hummingbirds are strong enough to pull pollen through the air, even over several centimetres in some cases.
上，花粉已被，花朵跳越到昆或粉者身上，而在者之有任何接。昆及蜂的荷大足以，由空得花粉。在某些情下，甚至超厘米。
1. 由於荷，蜂吸引花粉。
Because naturally occurring electricity permeates the environment and lives of so many organisms – and has clear ecological value – it seemed likely that some animals may have evolved sensory systems to detect it.
因，自然生的透到如此多生物的境及生命中(且具有明的生值)。因此，一些物可能已演化出感知系察它，似乎很可能。
Recent research has discovered that many animal species can indeed detect electricity when it is relevant to their natural ecology. We call this “aerial electroreception”.
最近的研究已，多物物其自然生相，能察。我此“空中接收”
Bumblebees and hoverflies can sense the electricity that exists around flowers, and use this information to learn which flowers might have the best nectar stocks. Similarly, part of the “waggle dance”, a series of movements performed by honeybees to communicate to each other where to forage, is also transmitted electrically by the detection of the statically charged bee body shaking around.
大蜂及食蚜能感知花朵周遭存在的，利用此信息解，哪些花朵可能具有最佳的花蜜藏。同地，由蜜蜂相互交流食地方，行之一系列作的“舞”部分，也是透察晃之蜜蜂身周遭的行。
It has also now been shown that those flying spiders I mentioned earlier can detect how strong the local atmospheric electrical conditions are, and can then use this information to decide when to attempt take-off.
目前也已被，那些我早提及的行蜘蛛，能察地大有多，然後能利用此信息，定何起。
We are only just beginning to uncover the multiple strands of this newly discovered sense. There are likely hundreds, if not thousands, more species capable of aerial electroreception, and in many more ecological contexts; perhaps a prey animal can detect its approaching predators by the static charge on the predator, or vice versa. There is so much more to be discovered.
我才始揭露，此新之感的多物。倘若不是千，可能也有百多，能行空中接收的物。而在更多的生境中，也物透捕食者身上的荷，能察接近的捕食者，反之亦然。因此，有很多待。
Possibly even more important though, is to assess to impact of human activity on this electric ecology. The magnitude of many human-made electricity sources are comparable, if not greater, than the natural sources of electricity.
不，可能更重要的是，估人活於生的影。倘若不是更大，多人造的模，比自然的源，是有可比的似。
We might be swamping the electrical senses of key pollinators or interfering with the natural world in other, as yet unknown, ways. While the discovery of this electrical sense is incredibly exciting, it also highlights how little we really know about the ways in which we could be hurting and disturbing the natural world.
我可能正在重要粉者的感，或以其他尚未知的方式干自然界。管感的以置信地令人，不也凸了，有我真正知多少，我可能害及自然界的方式。
址：https://theconversation.com/electric-ecology-were-discovering-how-animals-and-plants-use-electricity-in-ingenious-ways-171627
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