Steamy Smooches Share Batches of Bacteria
吻，传递了爱情，也传递了细菌
A 10-second makeout session can also transfer some 80 million oral bacteria. Dina Fine Maron reports
一个10 秒的吻可以传递800万个口腔细菌
撰文 蒂娜西马龙（Dina Fine Maron）
翻译 王宁
审校 李轩
A passionate kiss shares much more than intimacy. A single 10-second smooch can transfer tens of millions of bacteria from one partner to the other. That’s the finding from a study in the journal Microbiome. [Remco Kort et al, Shaping the oral microbiota through intimate kissing]
根据一项在Microbiome.杂志的研究，热吻分享的并不只有爱意，一个仅仅10秒的吻便可在伴侣间传递上千万个细菌。
More than 700 different bacteria are estimated to live in the human mouth. To find out how macking mixes microbes, Dutch scientists asked 21 couples to French kiss.
人类的口腔中生存着至少700种微生物。为了弄清接吻如何交换细菌，荷兰科学家让21对夫妇进行了法式接吻。
Intimate partners already have more of the same bacteria in their mouths than do unrelated individuals, because of the couple’s shared habits and environment. But kissing really expedites the bacterial blending.
由于生活习惯与环境相似，亲密的伴侣的口腔本来就会比一般朋友拥有更多相似的细菌。但是接吻确实加快了细菌的交换。
As part of the study, one member of the couple consumed a probiotic yogurt drink loaded with certain bacteria. Saliva samples and tongue swabs revealed that after the couples puckered up, about 80 million bacteria from the drink moved mouth to mouth.
在研究中，一组夫妇喝了有特定微生物的益生菌酸奶，唾液样本和舌头化验显示，当他们接吻之后，有800万个来自酸奶的细菌在口腔间发生了交换。
The salivary bug exchange was extensive but the work does not yet tell us why certain swapped bacteria either stuck around or were more transient. Answering that question could help with future medical interventions aimed at microbes.
唾液细菌的交换现象非常广泛，但是研究并没有告诉我们为什么有些细菌长期留存了下来而有些细菌则很快消失了。这个问题的答案或许有助于未来的微生物医学干预。
What the research did show: although the bacteria in saliva were easily altered, bacteria living on tongues tended to stay put. Unlike certain frog-princes, those critters were less prone to change because of a mere kiss.
不过这项研究也发现了一些规律：唾液中的细菌很容易改变，而生活在舌头上的细菌似乎将长久定居，而这些小顽固可不会像那个青蛙王子一样仅仅因为一个吻而发生变化。
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