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，对这个生物，毕加索称之为一坨屎。

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

但有弥漫脑细胞构成神经网络，而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体中产生。

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

所以这些再生形态更加畸形，通常具有个身体轴——比如两个嘴和两个脚。

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

相反，它们是扁平管状结构， 有口， 曾经容纳了触手型群体，有像今天珊瑚生活方式。

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

看看，身体非常简单：一个头部和一个足部沿着单一身体轴线排列。

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.

而与蝴蝶不同是，如果受伤或者生存条件恶劣，灯塔母们可以回到之前阶段，在状况改善之前变回它们非成熟期时类似虫样子。

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-肌球蛋白纤维排列构成了一种结构，这种结构会被继承到新生身体中。

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数做不到事情。

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，还有一些属淡小动物，它们看起来一也没有走向衰老痕迹。

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

在生命周期中，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.

但最重要因素可能是不断产生新干细胞。

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

他们研究年龄在零到41岁之间，观察期长达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.

另一方面，呈闭合环状切片折叠得不好， 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.

身体里每一个细胞每隔三到四周就会被全新干细胞产生新细胞替换。

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.

几个世纪以来一直让科学家着迷，当他们在2010年对其基因组进行测序时， 他们发现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，也它们能神奇地修复导致阿尔茨海默病神经退行， 这正是我们目前对期望。

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。

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，珊瑚与海葵和母有亲缘关系，其肉质体具有名为刺细胞恶毒刺胞， 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。