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It seems like every workplace has that one person who swears that the potted spider plant sitting on their desk
似乎每家公司总有那么一个人，他们坚称自己桌上的盆栽吊兰
has an almost magical ability to purify the air in the office. Are they actually onto something?
有着净化办公室空气的神奇功效。它们真的有那么神奇吗？
There is evidence to show that plants can remove pollutants from indoor air. But a single potted plant probably won't go the distance.
有证据表明植物可以清除室内空气中的污染物。但是仅靠一盆吊兰可能没啥用。
If you've heard that bringing plants into your home or office will improve your indoor air quality,
如果你听说房间或办公室里放一盆吊兰可以改善室内空气质量
you probably have a study conducted back in 1989 by NASA to thank for that.
那么你可能要感谢1989年NASA做的一项研究。
The goal was to test whether a variety of types of indoor plants could be used for air purification, both on Earth and in space.
该研究目标在于测试各种室内植物是否能够净化地球和太空中的空气。
The plants were put into sealed containers, and the air pumped full of chemicals including benzene and formaldehyde.
这些植物被放进密封容器中，空气中充满了各种化学物质，如苯和甲醛。
Those chemicals fall under the broader umbrella of volatile organic compounds, or VOCs.
这些化学物质都属于挥发性有机物（ VOCs）的范畴。
Some VOCs are known to cause health issues like headaches or liver and kidney damage.
已知一些VOCs会导致头痛或肝脏和肾脏损害等问题。
And they're noteworthy as indoor pollutants because household products and building materials can give them off.
它们是值得引起大家关注的室内污染物，因为日用品和建筑材料会释放这些物质。
The plants were kept under controlled conditions, with plenty of light and water and the air quality was measured over a 24 hour period.
放置这些植物的环境是经过控制的，有充足的光线，且每24小时就要测量空气质量。
The study found the majority of the plants included in the experiment removed much of the benzene and formaldehyde from the containers.
该研究发现实验中的大部分植物清除了容器内的大量苯和甲醛。
Plants are thought to remove pollutants from the surrounding air by absorbing the gases through their leaves and roots
植物被认为可以通过叶子和根部吸收周围空气所释放出的污染物
with some possible help from the microorganisms in the soil. So that's it, right? Houseplants help clean the air? Well, not quite.
土壤中的微生物可能也起到了些作用。原来如此。室内盆栽可以帮助净化空气？不完全是。
Later studies doing similar experiments have yielded mixed results.
后来的研究做了相似的试验却产生了不同的结果。
A 2009 study tested 28 varieties of indoor plants and found four that were best at capturing every VOC the researchers threw at them.
一项2009年的研究测试了28种室内植物并发现其中有四种最善于捕获研究人员扔给它们的每一种VOC。
So plants definitely can remove some pollutants in a laboratory test chamber.
所以植物绝对可以净化实验室试验箱中的一些污染物。
But these idealized lab conditions don't exactly represent the air in your office -
但是这些理想的实验室环境并不完全代表办公室中的空气 —
stuff like the amounts of light, water, and air circulation are all going to be different.
光线量、水以及空气循环等因素都不一样。
On top of that, the lab plants were purifying the air in a small area.
除此以外，实验室中的植物净化了小范围内的空气。
Some of the chambers in the NASA study were less than a cubic meter in volume.
NASA研究中的一些试验箱体积不足一立方米。
That means for the same amount of purification to happen in your house, you would need an indoor rainforest.
这意味着要净化你家中的空气，你将需要一个室内热带雨林。
One critic of the NASA study suggested that to get the same effect in a typical home you'd need about 680 separate plants.
NASA研究的一名批评者认为要在家中获得同样的效果，你需要约680颗植物。
There have been a handful of other studies investigating the effects of plants on indoor air quality,
也有少量调查植物对室内空气质量影响的研究，
but at least one review, published in 2014, has attempted to take stock of the existing research.
但至少一篇发表于2014年的审查试图估量已有的相关研究。
And it concluded that, while lab-based studies generally show some effect, not many have been performed in living spaces,
其结果是，虽然以实验室为基础的研究通常表明有一些效果，但在生存空间内进行的研究并不多，
and the ones that have been done haven't yielded a consensus. So don't count on your poor desk fern to fix all of your indoor air problems.
并且那些已进行的研究并没有得出一致意见。所以不要指望你桌面那可怜的植物可以解决室内空气问题了。
Thanks for watching this episode of SciShow, and thanks to Emma Hulton for asking.
感谢收看本期《科学秀》，感谢Emma Hulton的提问。
To find out how to maybe get your questions answered, head over to patreon.com/scishow.
想知道如何投稿问题，请登录patreon.com/scishow。
