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水螅，对这个生物，毕加索称之为一坨屎。

In addition to their characteristics, in these cnidarians, there's the leap of the formation of a third layer of tissue during development, from the polyp state to certain jellyfish, such as some that belong to the taxon of hydromedusae.

除了它们特征，在这些刺胞动物之间，在发育过程中，还有第三层组织形飞跃，从息肉状态到某些水母，比如一些属于水螅纲水母。

In the case of the immortal jellyfish, after it reaches its mature adult stage it can revert back to the polyp stage before growing into an adult once again.

以永生水母为例，在达到性熟段后，它可以转化回水螅体段，然后再次长水母。

As far back as 1968, researchers found that hydra use neurotransmitters like glutamate to activate neurons and orchestrate eating, which sounds like something an organism with a brain would do.

早在1968，研究人员就发现水螅会利用谷氨酸等神经递质来激活神经元并协调进食，这听起来就像有大脑有机体会做事情。

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.

像一些巨型龟寿命能活到将近两百岁，还有一些水螅属淡水小动物，它们看起来一点也没有走向衰老痕迹。

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.

蝶不同是，如果受伤或者生存条件恶劣，灯塔水母们可以回到之前段，在状况改善之前变回它们非熟期时类似水螅虫样子。

These polyparies were sticking to rocks, shells of mollusks, and even the stalks of water plants.

这些水螅丛附在岩石上，软体动物介壳上，并且附在蛇婆茎上。

This attaches to a rock or another solid surface where it continues to grow, becoming a polyp.

幼体水母附在岩石或者其他坚硬表面上继续生长，为水螅体。

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

但水螅有弥漫脑细胞构神经网络，不像我们有一个密集器官。

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

这是因为它们是从海底水螅体中产生。

Once a polyp finds a nice rock to settle down on, it starts to transform.

一旦一个水螅找到了一块合适岩石安家，它就开始发生变化。

No trace of any vertebrate had been found there; only starfish, shell-fish, polyps, or trilobites whose kindly descendants he had often bathed with, as a child on the shores of Quincy Bay.

那里没有发现任何脊椎动物踪迹。只有海星、贝类、水螅虫或三叶虫，他小时候在昆西湾岸边经常和它们善良后代一起洗澡。

Siphonophores are perhaps the most spectacular  in this regard, and amount to a rare beauty in a world otherwise populated by, let's be  honest, some pretty horrific creations.

水螅虫或许在这方面最为壮观，它们在这个世界中堪称罕见美丽，这个世界其他地方则充满了些相当恐怖生物。

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重大突破关键。

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

相反，它们是扁平管状结构， 有许多开口， 曾经容纳了触手型水螅群体，有点像今天珊瑚生活方式。

Instead of a brain, hydras have nerve nets, the most basic nervous systems in nature.

水螅没有大脑，是拥有神经网络 ，这是自然界中最基本神经系统。

Can humans learn the secrets of longevity from the hydra, a tiny aquatic creature capable of indefinite self-renewal?

人类能否从水螅这种具有无限自我更新能力微小水生生物身上学到长寿秘诀呢？

Even the tops of the mountains are blessed with flowers, -dwarf phlox, polemonium, ribes, hulsea, etc.

就连山顶也开满了鲜花——矮福禄考、极地菊、葶苈、水螅等。

If the mortality rates observed in this study continued, that means that in 3000 years, 5% of those hydras would still be alive, if they were kept safe in the lab.

如果本研究中观察到死亡率持续下去，这意味着在3000后， 仍有5%水螅存活， 前提是它们在实验室里得到妥善保护。

This year, a group of Japanese scientists demonstrated that hydras sleep.

今，一群日本科学家 证明了水螅睡觉。