Scientists Make Plants“Fall Asleep”

Cici

Sometimes doctors give people medicine so they wont feel pain. Certain drugs block1 pain or make people fall asleep. But people and other animals are not the only living things that these drugs work on. They can “knock out”2 plants， too.

Scientists studied a plant called the Venus flytrap （捕蠅草）. It closes its leaves to catch bugs. When these plants received sleep medicine， they were unable to close their leaves for a few minutes. Another kind of plant moves its leaves when coming in contact with an object. But the drug kept the plants from moving for several hours.

Scientists are not sure how this kind of medicine works in people or plants. But they think studying plants will help them find out.

植物也能被麻醉

有時，醫生會使用麻醉劑幫助人們擺脫疼痛。這些藥劑或是阻斷痛覺，或是讓人昏睡。 如今研究發現，植物對麻醉劑的反應類似于動物和人類，它們一樣會被“放倒”。

研究人員對捕蠅草進行了實驗。這類植物通過閉合葉片來捕捉昆蟲。當被麻醉劑作用后，它們的“捕蟲陷阱”在幾分鐘內就會失去作用。另一種被實驗的植物是具備閉葉反應的含羞草。在麻藥影響下，它們會好幾個小時喪失對觸摸刺激的反應。

盡管科學家們尚不清楚麻醉劑如何對人和植物產生作用，但他們希望未來植物可以用來輔助研究。