incubator 復習
アメリカのワシントンにあるスミソニアン国立動物園で、ジャイアントパンダのメイシャンが双子の赤ちゃんを産みました。
In more than three decades of trying to breed pandas at the National Zoo, there’s been plenty of heartbreak. More cubs born in Washington have died than survived, and news of a birth has often been greeted warily.
But on Sunday, zoo officials were nearly giddy. They don’t just have an apparently healthy pair of twins, born Saturday night to panda mom Mei Xiang. They have a template to follow that gives the cubs a strong chance of survival.
Pandas won’t usually nurse twins if left to their own devices. They’ll care for one and allow the other to die. But in the past decade, Chinese breeders have come up with a system: Every several hours, they swap out the cubs, giving each one the critical time it needs to nurse and bond with its mother. Meanwhile, the other one is kept in an incubator.
http://the-japan-news.com/news/article/0002376847
今回取り上げるのは、“incubator”という単語です。LDOCEで調べてみると、“a piece of hospital equipment into which very small or weak babies are put to keep them alive and warm”という定義が見つかりました。さらに『ジーニアス英和辞典G4 大修館書店』で確認してみると、「（未熟児の）保育器、孵化器、培養器」といった意味がありました。応用言語学の授業でH. E. Palmerのincubation periodを先生がおしゃっていたことを思い出しました。
現在、メイシャンが2頭同時に世話できるか考慮して、飼育員の手も借りて1頭ずつ交代で世話させているそうです。(ninetails)
