Two or three times a month， Leslie B. Vosshall， the Robin Chemers Neustein Professor in the Laboratory of Neurogenetics and Behavior， at the Rockefeller University， is required to feed the subjects under inquiry in her lab. In order to do so， she rolls up her sleeve and inserts her arm into the netting cage in which the creatures in question， mosquitoes， are kept. It‘s not unusual for her to get two hundred and fifty bites in a few minutes， she explained the other day， with blasé good humor.每個(gè)月都會(huì)有這么兩三次，來(lái)自于Rockfeller大學(xué)神經(jīng)以及行為學(xué)研究實(shí)驗(yàn)室的Lesile B. Vosshall

教授就要喂她的研究對(duì)象食物。她會(huì)怎么做呢？她會(huì)卷起他的袖子把自己的手伸進(jìn)一個(gè)箱子里，這個(gè)箱子里養(yǎng)滿了他們的研究對(duì)象，蚊子。她事后毫無(wú)感情色彩的解釋說(shuō)，對(duì)于她來(lái)說(shuō)幾分鐘之內(nèi)被咬250次其實(shí)很正常。

    Vosshall is attempting to discover why some people seem more attractive to mosquitoes than others. “Some people are mosquito magnets—I think this has been reported anecdotally ever since there have been people，” she said. Vosshall herself is not particularly attractive to mosquitoes， unless she is sticking her arm into a cage of them. But last week， with mosquito season well under way， she visited Brooklyn to discuss the implications of her research for those New Yorkers for whom being made a meal of is an annual blight rather than a professional obligation. Vosshall

的研究目的在于探索為什么有些人就是更容易吸引蚊子一些。她說(shuō)有些人就像蚊子磁鐵一樣，這個(gè)說(shuō)法在有人的時(shí)候就已經(jīng)被傳開(kāi)了。但是Vosshall本人其實(shí)并不是一個(gè)非常惹蚊子的人，除非她把手伸進(jìn)養(yǎng)著蚊子的箱子里。就在上周，Vosshall在蚊子盛行的季節(jié)來(lái)到美國(guó)的布魯克林和紐約客的編輯們一起探討他的研究?jī)?nèi)容，當(dāng)然對(duì)于這些紐約客們，被蚊子饕餮是一年一次的倒霉日子而不是研究必須。

    First stop： the Union Street Bridge over the Gowanus Canal. Vosshall， who is a tall forty-six-year-old with long light-brown hair， was dressed boldly， under the circumstances， in a short black-and-white shift that covered her arms but exposed her legs. Native mosquitoes， Culex pipiens， are more likely to go for the face and the neck， she explained； it‘s the mosquitoes that carry malaria， Anopheles gambiae， that like biting the feet. For illustrative purposes， Vosshall had brought along a test tube containing fetid water in which centimetre-long larvae frantically squiggled.

第一站就是位于Gowanus運(yùn)河之上的聯(lián)合街大橋。Vosshall這位46歲有著一頭棕發(fā)的高個(gè)科學(xué)家穿著非常醒目，她穿著黑白相見(jiàn)的上衣，但是穿著夏季的短褲，因此她的腿是路在外面的。他說(shuō)美國(guó)本地的Culex popiens蚊子更傾向于叮咬臉和脖子；而傳播瘧疾的Anopheles gambiae則更喜歡叮咬腳部。為了進(jìn)一步講清楚事情，Vosshall從英國(guó)帶來(lái)了一個(gè)有大概1厘米左右長(zhǎng)的蚊子幼蟲(chóng)裝載一個(gè)實(shí)驗(yàn)盒子里，這些蟲(chóng)在污穢的水里快速的蠕動(dòng)著。