He's also a polyp, bristling and squishy, a creature Picasso himself called a turd.

他本人则像只竖着刚毛粘乎乎的水螅，对这生物，毕加索称之为坨屎。

But hydra have neural nets of diffuse brain cells, rather than a dense organ-like we have.

但水螅有弥漫的脑细胞构成的神经网络，而不像我们有密集的器官。

This is because they are spawned from polyps on the seabed.

这是因为它们是从海底的水螅体中产生的。

So these regenerated hydra were more deformed, and usually had multiple body axes – like two mouths and two feet.

所以这些再生的水螅形态更加畸形，通常具有多身体轴——比如两嘴和两脚。

Instead, they're flattened tubes with many openings that once hosted colonies of tentacled  polyps, kind of like how coral lives today.

相反，它们是扁平的管状结构， 有许多开口， 曾经容纳了触手型水螅的群体，有像今天的珊瑚的生活方式。

See, hydra bodies are really simple: one head and one foot lined up along a single body axis.

看看，水螅的身体非常简单：头部和足部沿着单身体轴线排列。

But unlike butterflies, if Turritopsis get wounded or if times get tough, they can morph backwards, reverting to their immature polyp form until conditions improve.

而与蝴蝶不同的是，如果受伤或者生存条件恶劣，灯塔水母们可以回到之前的阶段，在状况改善之前变回它们非成类似水螅虫的样子。

The alignment of actomyosin fibers in the spheroid lays out a structure that gets inherited throughout the new hydra’s body.

球状体中肌动蛋白-肌球蛋白纤维的排列构成了种结构，这种结构会被继承到新生水螅的身体中。

And even though hydra regeneration is a little more extreme, it’s similar to how we humans heal wounds and develop as embryos.

尽管水螅的再生能力有极端，但它类似于我们人类如何愈合伤口和胚胎如何发育的过程。

And THAT is what I have been able to do that most hydras can’t.

而那就是我能做到而大多数水螅做不到的事情。

Like some giant tortoises that can reach near 200 years and some small freshwater animals of the genus Hydra that appear not to age at all.

像些巨型龟的寿命能活到将近两百岁，还有些水螅属的淡水小动物，它们看起来也没有走向衰老的痕迹。

No decline in fertility, or increase in mortality, was observed at any point in the hydra life cycle.

在水螅的生命周中，任何阶段都没有观察到生育力下降或死亡率上升。

But the most important factor is most likely that hydras constantly produce new stem cells.

但最重要的因素可能是水螅不断产生新的干细胞。

The hydras they studied were between zero and 41 years old, and they observed them over a period of 8 years.

他们研究的水螅年龄在零到41岁之间，观察长达8年。

On the other hand, slices of hydra shaped like closed rings didn’t fold so well, and formed spheroids with different regions of actomyosin aligned in different ways.

另方面，呈闭合环状的水螅切片折叠得不好， 形成了肌动蛋白-肌球蛋白纤维排列方式不同的球状体。

Every cell in a hydra’s body is replaced every three to four weeks, by fresh cells produced by brand new stem cells.

水螅身体里的每细胞每隔三到四周就会被全新干细胞产生的新细胞替换。

The hydra has fascinated scientists for centuries, and when they sequenced its genome back in 2010, they discovered that it had the same number of genes as humans.

水螅几世纪以来直让科学家着迷，当他们在2010年对其基因组进行测序， 他们发现水螅的基因数量与人类相同。

Because, like, maybe they can magically repair the neurodegeneration that leads to Alzheimer’s, that would pretty much be exactly what we would expect from hydras at this point.

因为，也许它们能神奇地修复导致阿尔茨海默病的神经退行， 这正是我们目前对水螅的望。

What we now know about hydras suggests that they could hold the keys to big breakthroughs in research on stem cells, aging, and diseases like Alzheimer’s.

我们现在对水螅的了解表明，它们可能掌握着干细胞、衰老以及阿尔茨海默病等疾病研究的重大突破的关键。

Plus, corals are related to anemones and jellyfish, and the fleshy polyps have nasty stinging cells called , which resemble tiny harpoons that spear prey or potential attackers and can inject chemicals.

此外，珊瑚与海葵和水母有亲缘关系，其肉质的水螅体具有名为刺细胞的恶毒刺胞， 这些刺胞类似于微型鱼叉， 可以刺穿猎物或潜在攻击者， 并注入化学物质。