厲害了，小蜜蜂！

Zero is an extremely hard concept to understand. Quantities of things—whether they are bundles of fruit, communities of people, or blocks of wood for construction—are vital to our livelihood. But nothing, as far as the brain is concerned, is far different than something.

“0”其實是個很難理解的概念。事物的數(shù)量 - 無論是水果，人群還是建材 - 都對我們的生計至關(guān)重要。但就大腦而言，“沒有東西”遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)不同于“某種東西”。

Humans have had a hard time coming to terms with this concept. But our ability to grasp zero as a distinct numerical value is a vital part of modern mathematics, engineering, and technology. In recent years, we’ve learned that other animals have also developed an understanding of nothingness. Several species of non-human primates and birds, like the rhesus monkey and the African grey parrot, can all identify “none” as “something.” And, according to a report out this week in the journal Science, honey bees, apparently, belong to that math club as well.

人類很難接受這個概念。但是，我們把零作為一個獨(dú)特數(shù)值的能力是現(xiàn)代數(shù)學(xué)，工程和技術(shù)的重要組成部分。近年來，我們了解到其他動物也開始了解“0”。非人靈長類和鳥類，如獼猴和非洲灰鸚鵡可以理解“0”，而根據(jù)本周在《科學(xué)》雜志上發(fā)表的一篇報道，蜜蜂很可能也可以理解“0”。

We already knew that the honeybee is no dummy. In previous studies, researchers have found that stingers have the intellectual wherewithal to count and discriminate objects in quantities of up to four. That’s already pretty impressive for a species that has far fewer neurons in their brains than any other animal with similar mathematical counting skills. In this new study, scientists at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia wanted to know if the buzzers could also prove their understanding of zero as a quantitative value. The team was surprised to find that the critters can, indeed: The bees could discriminate a value of one from zero with moderate ability, and that success increased when higher values were compared to zero.

我們已經(jīng)知道蜜蜂不傻。在以前的研究中，研究人員發(fā)現(xiàn)帶刺的蜂種擁有智力資源來計數(shù)和辨別最多4個物體。對于動物來說，這已經(jīng)相當(dāng)令人驚嘆，它們大腦中的神經(jīng)元數(shù)量遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)低于其他具有相似數(shù)學(xué)計數(shù)技能的動物。在這項新研究中，墨爾本皇家理工大學(xué)的科學(xué)家們想知道蜜蜂是否也能證明他們對“0”的理解。團(tuán)隊驚訝地發(fā)現(xiàn)，這些小動物確實可以：蜜蜂的平均能力可以把一個數(shù)值從“0”區(qū)分開來，而當(dāng)較數(shù)值與“0”差別更大時，成功率會增加。

To keep the bees interested in counting (a rather boring task), the researchers used sugar water as a reward. They taught the bees that when presented with cards with varying amounts of symbols, sugar water would sit behind the card with the least amount of symbols. The bees understood and would always fly to the low-symbol card—an impressive feat. Then, the researchers presented the bees with another set of two cards: This time, one had nothing on it and the other had either one symbol or more. When judging between zero or one, the bees flew to the card with nothing on it more than the card with one thing, showing that they understood that “nothing” was less than one on the numerical scale. As a whole, the bees were even better at distinguishing zero or nothing from larger numbers like four or five, showing that they understood how a numerical scale works, and where zero sits on it.

為了讓蜜蜂對計數(shù)感興趣(這是一項相當(dāng)枯燥的任務(wù))，研究人員用糖水作為獎勵。他們教導(dǎo)蜜蜂，當(dāng)給出不同數(shù)值符號的卡片時，糖水會以放在其中最小值的符號卡片后面。所以蜜蜂將理解并總是會飛向最低符號卡 - 這是一個令人印象深刻的壯舉。然后，研究人員用另一套的兩張牌向蜜蜂呈現(xiàn)：這一次，一張卡上面沒有任何東西，另一張擁有一個或更多的符號。當(dāng)在0或1之間進(jìn)行判斷時，蜜蜂更多地飛向了什么都沒有的卡片上，這表明他們理解在數(shù)量上“沒有”比“有”更少。總體而言，蜜蜂更擅長區(qū)分0和更大的數(shù)字，比如4或5，表明他們理解數(shù)值是怎么回事，以及零點(diǎn)在哪里。

Why is this achievement so interesting? In an accompanying commentary piece on the paper, Andreas Nieder, an animal physiologist at the University of Tübingen in Germany, points out that the last common ancestor between humans, who can also obviously distinguish zero (starting at around four years old), and honey bees lived more than 600 million years ago with a far less developed brain than either species has now.

為什么這個成就如此有趣? 德國蒂賓根大學(xué)的動物生理學(xué)家 Andreas Nieder 在文章中的評論中指出，人類與蜜蜂的最后一個共同祖先也可以明顯區(qū)分零(從四歲開始)，距今時間超過6億年，其腦部發(fā)育程度遠(yuǎn)低于現(xiàn)在的任何物種。

At that point, humans and bees evolved separately, and bees developed a brain with far fewer neurons than big-brained people. For reference, a bee has fewer than 1 million neurons; a human has 86,000 million. Yet, both species both developed the ability to distinguish nothing. This, Neider suggests, means that numerical competence may be extremely valuable. “Studies examining animals in their ecological environments suggest that numerical competence is beneficial for animals by enhancing their ability to reproduce, navigate, exploit food sources, hunt prey, avoid predation, and engage in social interactions,” Neider says.

此后，人類和蜜蜂分開進(jìn)化，蜜蜂的腦神經(jīng)元數(shù)量比大腦的人少得多。作為參考，一只蜜蜂的神經(jīng)元少于100萬個; 一個人類有86,000萬。然而，這兩種物種都具有辨別0的能力。 Neider認(rèn)為，這意味著數(shù)字能力可能非常有價值。Neider說：“研究表明，通過提高繁殖、導(dǎo)航、開發(fā)食物來源、捕獵獵物、躲避捕食者以及參與社會互動的能力，數(shù)值能力對動物有益。”

But how do these animals with such few neurons in their brains comprehend this hard mathematical concept? Scientists still don’t completely understand, but studies done in corvid songbirds and non-human primates have shown that a group of neurons in the brain dubbed “number neurons” might be the cells responsible for these numerical comprehensions. These cells respond in different ways depending on the number of components presented.

但是，這些動物腦中的如此少的神經(jīng)元如何可以理解這一難以理解的數(shù)學(xué)概念?科學(xué)家們?nèi)匀粵]有完全理解，但是在鴉科和非人類靈長類動物中進(jìn)行的研究表明，大腦中一組稱為“數(shù)神經(jīng)元”的神經(jīng)元可能是負(fù)責(zé)這些數(shù)字理解的細(xì)胞。這些細(xì)胞根據(jù)看到的不同數(shù)量以不同的方式作出反應(yīng)。

Neider writes that while our brains are clearly wired to process stimuli that are something—like a light stimulus triggers our visual neurons in the same way a sound stimulus makes our auditory neurons work—the concept of nothing is just as significant. Understanding better how our brains, and those of other species in the animal kingdom, comprehend “nothing” as a numerical value could help us better explain how we see and interact with the world.

Neider寫道，盡管我們的大腦清楚地連接著處理刺激的東西 - 就像光刺激一樣，觸發(fā)我們的視覺神經(jīng)元的方式與聲音刺激使我們的聽覺神經(jīng)元發(fā)揮作用一樣 - “0”的概念同樣重要。更好地理解我們的大腦以及動物界其他物種的大腦如何理解“沒有”作為數(shù)值可以幫助我們更好地解釋我們?nèi)绾慰创澜绮⑴c世界互動。