Biologists are enlisting citizen scientists to poke around under the sink and behind the curtains, for wildlife living in the "great indoors." Karen Hopkin reports.

生物学家正在招募民间科学家，让他们在水槽下面和窗帘后面四处寻找生活在“家中”的野生动物。卡伦·霍普金报道。

播音撰文：卡伦·霍普金（Karen Hopkin）

翻译：邱燕宁

审校：郭晓

Interested in studying exotic life forms…maybe even identifying new species? Well, forget about buying a plane ticket. Just take a look in your basement, bathroom, or boudoir. Because researchers in North Carolina aim to document the critters that live among us in the Great INDOORS.

对研究奇异的生命形式感兴趣？或许还喜欢发现新的物种？好的，并不需要买机票。看看你的地下室、浴室或闺房。因为北卡罗来纳州的研究人员打算记录在“家中”，生活在我们周围的动物。

Ten years ago, biologists led by Rob Dunn at North Carolina State began to explore the biodiversity of insects in 50 homes in the Raleigh area. Though they expected to uncover a couple dozen bugs, they turned up more than a thousand distinct species. And when they expanded their studies to other cities, they found lots more…some entirely new to science.

十年前，北卡罗莱纳州的Rob Dunn带领生物学家们开始研究罗利地区50个住宅里的昆虫生物多样性。虽然他们一开始预计会发现几十种虫子，可结果是他们发现了一千多种不同的物种。当他们把研究扩展到其他城市时，他们发现了更多的物种，其中一些物种在科学界是全新的。

Now they’re enlisting an intrepid brigade of citizen scientists to carry the work further. That means you. Simply explore your immediate environment. Poke around under the sink, behind the curtains, the back of the pantry. And snap a pic of what you find. Then upload your images to the social networking app iNaturalist. The observations you post will be shared with a global community of experts who can identify the creepy crawlies you’ve encountered.

现在，他们正在招募一支勇敢的民间科学家队伍来进一步开展这项工作。说的就是你们。只需要探索一下你周围的环境。在水槽下面、窗帘后面、食品储藏室后面闲逛。然后拍一张你发现的生物的照片，并把你的照片上传到社交网络应用iNaturalist上。你发表的观察报告将与全球专家群体分享，他们可以识别你遇到的令人毛骨悚然的爬虫。

To participate in Dunn’s effort, just tag your image to his project, which is titled: Never Home Alone: The Wild Life of Homes. 

想参与Dunn的工作，只需在他的项目中添加你的照片，该项目的标题是:《永不孤单的家:家中的野生动物》

And if you happen to be in Raleigh on November 15, pop by the celebration the publication of the book Never Home Alone…in which Dunn reveals what he and his colleagues have discovered so far. There, Dunn will present the 20 people who identify the most indoor animal species a trophy adorned with a bedbug. Not a real bedbug. I assume.  

如果你在11月15日碰巧在Raleigh，欢迎来参加《永不孤单的家》一书的出版庆典。在那里，邓恩将向20位识别最多室内动物物种的人颁发一个装饰着臭虫的奖杯。不是真的臭虫，我猜。