在生活中，我们通常会洗澡来清除汗垢油污，除此之外，洗澡还能消除疲劳、舒筋活血、改善睡眠、提高皮肤新陈代谢功能和抗病力。而且通过温水的浸泡，能够治疗某些疾病。但是洗澡的次数也不宜太多，因为次数太多会把皮肤表面正常分泌的油脂。可是美国有位科学家竟然12年不洗澡，这是为什么呢?

In a bid to prove that showering is overrated, an American scientist hasn’t had a bath in 12 years. Instead, he sprays his skin with a mist containing live bacteria, which he claims has kept him clean all these years!

　　为了证明洗澡是小题大做，一位美国科学家12年没洗澡。他把一种含有活性微生物的喷雾喷洒在皮肤上，以代替洗澡。他声称，这些年他就是靠这来保持清洁的!

　　Dave Whitlock, a chemical engineer and MIT graduate, says that there is no basis for assuming that bathing is a healthy practice. “No one did clinical trials on people taking showers every day,” he said. “I have not taken a shower in 12 years.” In fact, he says that the chemicals in our soaps and shampoos have destroyed all the friendly bacteria that once inhabited our skin and kept us clean.

　　戴夫·惠特洛克是一位化学工程师，也是麻省理工学院(MIT)毕业生。他说，没有理论证明洗澡是一种健康的日常活动。“没有人就每天洗澡进行过临床实验。”他说，“我已经12年没洗澡了。”事实上，他认为，我们使用的沐浴露和洗发水中的化学成分，杀死了生活在我们皮肤上并保持我们清洁的有益微生物。

　　Whitlock first started thinking about good bacteria when a woman he was dating asked him why horses liked to roll around in the dirt during summer. “The only way that horses could evolve this behavior was if they had substantial evolutionary benits from it,” Whitlock explained. That’s when he realised that for the horses, this was actually a way of keeping clean.

　　惠特洛克第一次想到有益微生物，是在和一位女士约会时。她问他，为什么夏天的时候，马喜欢在泥里打滚?“马之所以进化出这种习性，唯一的可能，就是它们能从中获得很大益处。”惠特洛克解释道。那时他想到，这对于马来说，实际上是一种保持清洁的方式。

　　Until then, no one had considered that skin bacteria was important and could be helpful to the body. “I didn’t have a biology degree – I wasn’t at an institution that was renowned for its biological research,” Whitlock said. “And I was proposing something completely off the wall.” But he went ahead and invented a one-of-a-kind spray – called ‘Mother Dirt AO+ Mist’ – consisting of ‘good’ bacteria.

　　在那之前，没有人意识到我们皮肤上的微生物有多么重要，并且可能对身体有益。“我没有生物学学位，我并不是待在以生物学研究著称的单位。”惠特洛克说，“我那时正在做一项完全出格的研究。”但他继续下去了，发明了一种富含有益微生物的，叫“Mother Dirt AO+ Mist”的喷雾剂。

　　According to Whitlock, the bacteria in the spray can serve as personal groomers, eating through sweat and oil on our skin. They feed off urea and ammonia in the sweat from the skin, turning them into nitric oxide, which is very good for the body. Nitric oxide molecules dilate blood vessels and help regulate blood pressure, along with a host of other benits.

　　据惠特洛克说，喷雾剂里的微生物，能充当私人美容师，在我们的皮肤表面，依靠汗水和油脂生存。它们从皮肤的汗水中吸收尿素和氨，将其转化为对身体有益的氧化氮。氧化氮分子会扩张血管，有利于调节血压，还带来许多好处。

　　The spray is manufactured through AOBiome, a company that Whitlock helped found. According to the company, “Modern hygiene has selectively depleted the natural balance of the skin microbiome particularly affecting AOB. By restoring the appropriate AOB levels, we believe a range of human health conditions could be impacted.”

　　这种喷雾剂由AO生物(AOBiome)公司生产，这是一家惠特洛克帮助建立的公司。该公司称：“现代卫生保健，很大程度上破坏了皮肤微生物的平衡，尤其影响了氨氧化细菌。我们相信，通过恢复氨氧化细菌的水平，很多种健康问题会得到改善。”

　　“We’ve confused clean with sterile,” added AOBiome’s consumer products general manager Jasmina Aganovic. “We’ve taken the dirt out of our lives. We don’t spend as much time outdoors as we used to, even little children.”

　　该公司的消费产品总经理亚斯米娜·阿甘诺维科补充道：“我们错把清洁等同于无菌。我们将泥土从生活中赶出去。我们不像过去那样，在户外待那么长时间，即使小孩子也一样。”

　　Mother Dirt Mist helps us reclaim the connection we once had with good bacteria. It’s odorless and feels just like water, and can be sprayed all over the skin twice a day to avoid bathing. But for those who simply cannot do without showering, the company is now planning to launch a bacteria-friendly shower gel and shampoo. The mist costs $99 a bottle, while the gel and shampoo are priced at $15 each.

　　这种喷雾剂帮助我们和有益微生物重新建立起联系。它没有任何气味，像水一样，每天可以在皮肤上喷两次，那样就不用洗澡。但对于那些没法不洗澡的人，该公司正计划发售一种不会伤害微生物的沐浴露和洗发水。这种喷雾每瓶售价99美元，沐浴露和洗发水每瓶售价15美元。

　　Vocabulary

　　urea: 尿素

　　ammonia: 氨

　　nitric oxide: 氧化氮

　　microbiome: 菌群

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