Časoris is an online newspaper aimed at children. Each week we’ll take an article and post it here as a Slovene-English dual text.
Zakaj so medvedi po prespani zimi še vedno fit?
Why are bears still fit after a sleepy winter?
Written by Urša Adamič, translated by JL Flanner & G Translate
Predstavljajte si, da bi celo zimo prespali.
Imagine sleeping all winter long.
Mišice bi izgubile svojo moč, na koži bi se pojavile odrgnine in verjetno bi bili sestradani. No, grizliji s tem nimajo težav.
[Your] muscles would lose their strength, there would be bruises on the skin and you’d probably be starving. Well, grizzlies have no problem with all that.
Grizli je podvrsta rjavega medveda, ki živi v Severni Ameriki. V nedavno objavljeni raziskavi so znanstveniki razkrili, kaj grizlijem pomaga, da ohranijo mišice tudi po prespani zimi.
Grizzlies are a subspecies of brown bear living in North America. In a recent study, scientists revealed what helps grizzlies retain their muscles after a sleepy winter.
V času zimskega spanja oziroma hibernacije medvedi izgubijo skoraj tretjino telesne mase.
During the winter sleep, or hibernation, bears lose almost a third of their body weight.
Zaradi upočasnjenega dihanja in srčnega utripa se upočasnita tudi prebava in nastajanje urina. Med zimskim spanjem medvedi kar nekaj mesecev ne izločajo urina in blata, zato pa se v njihovem telesu kopiči dušik.
Due to slow breathing and heart rate, digestion and urine production are also slowed down. During the winter sleep, bears do not excrete urine and faeces for several months, which is why nitrogen builds up in their bodies.
Dušik je ključna sestavina aminokislin, iz katerih so zgrajeni proteini, iz njih pa so sestavljene mišice.
Nitrogen is a key component of the amino acids that proteins are made of, which muscle is made of.
Znanstveniki so ugotovili, da medvedi med zimskim spanjem dušika ne izločijo iz telesa z urinom, pač pa se ta vgradi nazaj v mišice in tako prepreči njihovo razgradnjo.
Scientists have found that bears do not excrete nitrogen from the body during the winter sleep with urine, but that it goes back into the muscles to prevent their breakdown.
Izguba mišične mase je problematična pri ljudeh, ki zaradi bolezni dolgo časa ležijo.
Muscle loss is problematic for people who are lying down for a long time due to illness.
Tudi pri astronavtih, ki mišic v breztežnostnem prostoru v vesolju ne morejo uporabljati, se te postopoma začnejo razgrajevati.
Also in astronauts who are unable to use their muscles in the weightlessness of space they gradually begin to break down.
S poznavanjem mehanizma ohranjanja mišične mase bi lahko olajšali tako življenje v vesolju kot tudi na Zemlji.
Knowing the mechanism of preserving muscle mass could make life easier in space as well as on Earth.
Slovar / Dictionary
Proteini (oziroma beljakovine) so sestavljeni iz aminokislin in imajo v telesu zelo različne vloge, med drugim so pomembni tudi pri izgradnji mišic.
Proteins (or proteins) are made up of amino acids and play very different roles in the body, including being important in muscle building.
Aminokisline so molekule iz dušika, vodika, kisika in ogljika, ki predstavljajo osnovno gradbeno enoto proteinov.
Amino acids are molecules of nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen and carbon, which are the basic building blocks of proteins.
Dušik je kemijski element, ki se nahaja v ozračju in je pomemben gradnik v vseh živih bitjih. Iz telesa ga izločamo s sečnino oziroma urinom.
Nitrogen is a chemical element that is found in the atmosphere and is an important building block in all living things. It is excreted in the body with urea or urine.
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