丰田推出神奇新型电动车，发出的噪音能让植物生长？

As we try to find the answer to climate change, each eco-innovation may spur even more questions about their overall effects.

在我们尽力想找到气候变化的解决方法之际，每一项生态创新都可能引发更多关于其整体效果的问题。

Could the noise from wind turbines cause cancer? (Science says no.)

风力涡轮机的噪音是否会致癌？（科学否认了这一说法。）

Could the sound from an electric car stimulate plant growth, regenerating the environment we’ve helped destroy? Science says . . . maybe? Or at least, that’s the hope of Ayax Toyota.

电动汽车的声音能刺激植物生长，重建被我们破坏的环境吗？科学表明……可能会有效果，或者至少丰田Ayax公司希望如此。

Within the next two years, the U.S. and Europe will require electric cars to emit a noise in order to warn pedestrians of their approach, or else these quiet vehicles can take pedestrians and bikers by surprise.

未来两年内美国和欧洲将要求电动汽车发出声音，让行人能够听到有车经过，否则这些静音车辆会吓到行人和骑自行车的人。

Instead of just installing a sound that mimics non-electric vehicles, Ayax, an independent, Uruguay-based manufacturer and distributor of Toyota vehicles, has partnered with digital innovation agency The Electric Factory, a sound designer and a “smart cities expert,” to create an audio that they say could go further to benefit the environment.

乌拉圭的丰田汽车独立制造商和经销商Ayax和数字创新机构The Electric Factory公司合作，这家公司设计声音，也是“智能城市专家”。他们不是仅仅安装模仿非电动汽车的声音，而是要创造出一种他们认为能进一步保护环境的声音。

Called the HY Project (short for “harmony”), the sound is inspired by several amusing studies that have looked into the effects of audio frequencies on plants.

这种声音被称为HY项目（是单词“harmony和谐”的缩写），灵感来自几个有趣的研究，它们研究了音频频率对植物的影响。

In one out of India, researchers placed mung bean plants in soundproof chambers, one of which remained silent, another which had ancient chants piped in, and a third which scolded the beans with “discouraging words.”

在印度的一项研究中研究人员把绿豆放在隔音室里，其中一间保持安静，另外一间演奏古老的圣歌，还有一间用“令人沮丧的话”责骂豆子。

The chanted-to plants saw the “maximum elongation of the shoot,” showing, the scientists claim, that the mung beans picked up the audio vibrations.

听圣歌的绿豆“豆芽长得最长”，科学家说这表明绿豆接收了声音的震动。

In another, South Korea researchers compared different types of plants’ responses to a variety of frequencies and magnitudes, noting reactions like root-tip bending, an increase in the expression of “defense-related genes,” and a higher yield for crops from cotton to rice to tomatoes.

另外一项研究中，韩国研究人员对比了植物对各种频率和音量的不同反应，他们注意到了一些反应，如根尖弯曲、“与防御相关的基因”表达增加，以及棉花、水稻和西红柿等农作物的产量提高。

They concluded though sound may be a “potential new trigger” for plant protection, there are still “some major concerns about the use of sound treatment in plant science,” including the fact that we still don’t know just how plants perceive sound.

他们总结说虽然声音可能是植物保护的“新的潜在触发器”，但仍有“一些主要的关于声音疗法在植物科学中使用的担忧”，比如我们仍然不知道植物是如何感知声音的。