[官网博文][Minecraft.net| DEEP DIVES] 本月方块：菌核

DEEP DIVES

The Sun is a magical thing. It powers all of Minecraft’s plant life. But there’s no Sun in the Nether, and that means there are no plants either. Instead, you’ll find an array of fungal organisms like shroomlights, netherwarts, and huge fungi – which produce our block of the week: hyphae .
太阳可真是个神奇的玩意。它为 Minecraft 中所有的植物提供生命的活力。但是在下界中可没有太阳，这也意味着那儿并没有植物。然而，你将在这里发现各种各样的菌类，比如菌光体，地狱疣，以及一些巨型的真菌 —— 通过它们可以找到我们的本月方块：菌核[sup][1][/sup]。

Switch off your brain while I talk about terminology for a moment. Hyphae is actually a plural, and the singular is hypha, which refers to the long branching, filamentous structures that make up some fungi. Collectively, hyphae are usually called mycelium . But we already had mycelium in the game. So we called these blocks hyphae instead.
当我谈论那些冗长的术语时，你可以把大脑暂时关上一会儿。"hyphae"这个单词实际上是复数形式，它的单数形式是"hypha"，它指的是构成一些真菌的长分支、丝状结构。一般来说，"hyphae"通常被称为菌丝。但是游戏中早已有了"菌丝"这种东西，所以我们改叫它“菌核”。

Hyphae appeared in Minecraft in the Nether Update in 2020 – which totally overhauled the nether, turning it from a wasteland into... slightly less of a wasteland.
菌核于2020年的下界更新登陆 Minecraft —— 这次更新把下界改了个底朝天，把它从一片废土改成了……不那么废的土。

There are two variants of hyphae – crimson and warped, which you’ll find in the crimson and warped forest biomes respectively. Chop down a huge mushroom and you’ll get stems – then you can convert that into hyphae by crafting four stems together, just like turning logs into wood. You’ll get three hyphae out.
菌核有两种变体——绯红菌核和诡异菌核，你可以分别在绯红森林以及诡异森林群系找到它们。放倒一棵巨大的蘑菇之后你将获得一些菌柄——随后通过合成便可以把菌柄变成菌核。只需把四个菌柄像原木合成木头一样放在合成格里，你便能得到三个菌核。

Hyphae serve as an equivalent to wood – and can be used in place of it in most recipes, with the exception that it doesn’t catch fire. This means that you also can’t use it as fuel in furnaces. Like wood, you can turn it into planks by putting it into a crafting grid, and you can also use an axe on it to turn it into the “stripped” variant, removing the bark.
菌核基本上和木头差不多——基本上可以替代大部分合成配方中木头的位置，唯一的不同在于菌核是一种不可燃物。这也代表着你不能把它丢进熔炉里当柴火。和木头相似的是，把它们放进合成格之后，你可以把它们变成对应的木板，你也可以对着它们使用斧头以削掉它们的树皮，转变成“去皮”后的变种。

Image credit: Y_tambe // CC BY-SA 3.0
图片来源： Y_tambe // 知识共享 署名-相同方式共享 3.0

In the real world, hyphae grow as a part of a larger fungus too. Each hypha is about 10 micrometres in width, which is about the same as a strand of spider web silk, and about a tenth as wide as a human hair. They grow from the tip, and often form huge networks below the surface of forests, transferring water and nutrients, which are sometimes known as the “wood wide web”.
在真实世界中，菌丝也是大型真菌结构中的一部分。每一根菌丝的直径约为 10 微米，几乎和蜘蛛丝一样细，或者大概是人类头发丝直径的十分之一。它们从菌体的尖端开始生长，并往往在树林之下形成巨大的一张网，以便传输水份和营养物质，这有时也被称为“树联网”。

We’re only beginning to understand how important these networks are to the natural world. A forest with a strong network of hyphae grows faster and is more resilient to pests and other damage. There are even some species of plant that can’t get energy from the sun, and rely instead on hyphae to deliver the nutrients they need.
人类最近才开始开始理解这些网络对自然界的重要性。一个拥有强大菌丝网络的森林将会生长得更快，并且能耐受更多的虫害或其他的伤害。甚至有些植物不直接从太阳获取能量，而是依靠菌丝网络来传输它们所需的营养物质。

Some researchers even suggest that plants can communicate in a limited way between each other over these networks. They point to experiments showing plants releasing defensive chemicals when a nearby plant is under attack, or sharing water and other nutrients in drought conditions.
有的研究者认为，植物之间甚至可以通过有限的方式在这些网络上进行交流。他们通过实验发现，当附近的植物受到攻击时，植物们会释放出防御性的化学物质，或者在干旱条件下，植物们会互相分享水和其他养分。

We need to do more research to figure out whether this is true “communication” or just a response to a signal. But that’ll take a while, so go play some Minecraft and then check in again on the science in a few years' time.
为了弄清这到底是真正意义上的“交流”还是对信号的简单反应，我们还有许多需要研究的地方。但那还得要等上好一阵子，所以不如去玩玩 Minecraft 然后过几年再去和那些科学的玩意打交道吧！

[1]:原文为“本周方块”，考虑到与标题的一致性，改为“本月方块”


【cutemiku 译自官网 2022 年 10 月 07 日发布的 Block of the Month: Hyphae；原作者 Duncan Geere】
【本文排版借助了：SPXX v2.4.13】