If you were bringing friends home to visit, you could show them the way. You know the landmarks - a big red house or a bus-stop sign. But what if you were swimming in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean? Could you still find your way home? A loggerhead turtle could.
如果你带朋友回家，你可以给他们带路。你知道那些地标——一座红色的大房子或公交站标志。但是如果你在大西洋中部游泳呢？你还能找到回家的路吗？红海龟能。
According to Dr. Ken Lohmann, loggerheads have a magnetic sense based on Earth's magnetic field. It helps them locate the best spots for finding food and their home beaches.
根据肯·洛曼博士的说法，红海龟具有基于地球磁场的磁场感，可以帮助它们定位寻找食物的最佳地点和家园海滩。
Scientists already know that several other animals, such as whales and honeybees, can detect magnetic fields. The difference between them and loggerheads, however, is the way they learn to use their magnetic sense. Young whales and honeybees can learn from adults. Loggerheads are abandoned as eggs.
科学家已经知道，其他几种动物，如鲸鱼和蜜蜂，也能探测到磁场。然而，它们和红海龟的区别在于它们学习使用磁感应的方式。幼鲸和蜜蜂可以向父母学习，而红海龟出生后还是蛋时就被丢弃。
As newborn loggerheads have no adults to learn from, what helps them figure out how to use their magnetic sense? Lohmann thinks one of the cues was light on the sea.
由于新生的红海龟没有父母可以学习，是什么帮助它们弄清楚如何使用它们的磁感应？洛曼认为其中一个线索是海上的光线。
Baby loggerheads hatch only at night. However, a small amount of light reflects off the ocean. The light makes that region brighter. Heading toward the light helps them get quickly out to sea, where they can find food. Lohmann tested whether newborn loggerheads use this light source to set their magnetic "compasses". He and his team put some newborns in a water tank and recorded which way they swam. Around the tank, the scientists created a magnetic field that matched the Earth's. They set a weak light to the east of the magnetic field. Then they let the newborns go.
红海龟蛋只在晚上孵化。然而，少量的光从海洋反射出去，光线使该区域更亮。朝着光的方向前进有助于它们快速出海，在那里它们可以找到食物。洛曼测试了新生的红海龟是否使用这种光源来设置它们的磁性“罗盘”。他和他的团队把一些新生儿放在一个水箱里，并记录他们游泳的方式。在水箱周围，科学家们创造了一个与地球磁场相匹配的磁场。他们在磁场的东侧设置了一个弱光，然后让新生儿离开。
At first, the newborns swam toward the light. After the scientists turned off the light, the turtles that had seen the light in the east always swam toward east. When the researchers reversed the magnetic field, these turtles turned around and swam toward the new "east".
一开始，新生儿朝着光游去。科学家们关上灯后，在东边看到光的海龟总是向东边游去。当研究人员反转磁场时，这些海龟转身向新的“东边”游去。
This and the follow-up experiments all showed that loggerheads use light from the outside world to set their magnetic "compasses" and then remember the "correct" direction. If a turtle hatches on a brightly-lit beach, that would damage its magnetic sense forever and make survival hard for the turtle.
这项实验以及后续实验都表明，红海龟利用来自外部世界的光来设置它们的磁性“罗盘”，然后记住“正确”的方向。如果海龟在明亮的海滩上孵化，将永远损害它的磁感应，使海龟难以生存。
Lohmann's work has led others to protect the habitat of this endangered species. Yet many questions about these creatures remain unanswered, and researchers have a lot to study.
洛曼的工作促使其他人保护这种濒危物种的栖息地。然而，关于这些生物的许多问题仍然没有答案，研究人员还有很多要研究。
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