This attaches to a rock or another solid surface where it continues to grow, becoming a polyp.

幼体水母附在岩石或者其他坚硬的表面上继续长，成为水螅体。

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的水螅，对这个物，毕加索称之为一坨屎。

These polyparies were sticking to rocks, shells of mollusks, and even the stalks of water plants.

这些水螅丛附在岩石上，软体动物的介壳上，并且附在蛇婆茎上。

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

水螅有弥漫的脑细胞构成的神经网络，而不像我们有一个密的器官。

This is because they are spawned from polyps on the seabed.

这是因为它们是从海底的水螅体中产的。

This year, a group of Japanese scientists demonstrated that hydras sleep.

今年，一群日本科家 证明了水螅睡觉。

Hydra have thin, parallel actomyosin fibers running throughout their body, like our muscle tissue.

水螅有细而平行的肌动球蛋白纤维遍布全身，就像我们的肌肉组织一。

The polyps provide a home and the basic ingredients the algae need to survive.

水螅体为藻类提供了栖息地和存所需的基本成分。

Coral is made of tiny transparent animals called polyps, with thousands of them in each chunk.

珊瑚由称为水螅体的微小透明动物组成，每个块中有数千个。

Even the tops of the mountains are blessed with flowers, -dwarf phlox, polemonium, ribes, hulsea, etc.

就连山顶也开满了鲜花——矮福禄考、极地菊、葶苈、水螅等。

Instead of a brain, hydras have nerve nets, the most basic nervous systems in nature.

水螅没有大脑，而是拥有神经网络 ，这是自然界中最基本的神经系统。

To get the energy and nutrients they need to grow, the polyps team up with algae called zooxanthellae.

为了获得长所需的能量和营养，水螅体与称为虫黄藻的藻类作。

Can humans learn the secrets of longevity from the hydra, a tiny aquatic creature capable of indefinite self-renewal?

人类能否从水螅这种具有无限自我更新能力的微小水物身上到长寿的秘诀呢？

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

看，水螅的身体真的很简单：一个头和一只脚沿着一个身体轴排成一行。

The alignment of actomyosin fibers in the spheroid lays out a structure that gets inherited throughout the new hydra’s body.

球状体中肌动球蛋白纤维的排列构成了一种结构，该结构在整个新水螅体内得到遗传。

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

在水螅命周期的任何时候都没有观察到育率下降或死亡率增加。

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.

而与蝴蝶不同的是，如果受伤或者存条件恶劣，灯塔水母们可以回到之前的阶段，在状况改善之前变回它们非成熟期时类似水螅虫的子。

And even though hydra regeneration is a little more extreme, it’s similar to how we humans heal wounds and develop as embryos.

尽管水螅的再有点极端，它类似于我们人类治愈伤口和发育成胚胎的方式。

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.

像一些巨型龟的寿命能活到将近两百岁，还有一些水螅属的淡水小动物，它们看起来一点也没有走向衰老的痕迹。

Then, the algae use sunlight and photosynthesis to convert these into more complex nutrients like sugars -- which the polyps then eat too.

然后，藻类利用阳光和光作用将这些转化为更复杂的营养物质， 如糖类——然后水螅体也会吃掉这些营养物质。