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Scientists have come up with answers to the age-old question of why eyelashes are the length they are. Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology conducted a variety of tests on the lashes of 22 different mammals. One was to create a special wind tunnel and an artificial eye to provide mathematical models of how the wind blew over lashes. The conclusion of head researcher David Hu is that the function of eyelashes is to help protect the eyes from drying out and that the optimal eyelash length for this to happen is one-third as long as the eye is wide. Professor Hu found that across a wide variety of mammals, the ratio of eyelash length and eye width was consistently one-third.
* come up with ~ = (해답,돈 등을) 찾아내다(내놓다)/ age-old = 아주 오래된/ eyelash(주로 복수로) = 속눈썹/ length = 길이/ conduct a test on ~ = ~에 관한 시험을 하다/ a variety of ~ = 여러 가지의 ~/ mammal = 포유동물/ wind tunnel = 풍동(공기의 흐름을 시험하기 위한 인공 장치)/ dry out = 메말라지다/ ratio = 비율, 비
Dr Hu started his investigation after the birth of his newborn daughter. He wondered why his baby kept on batting her eyelids. He told the International Business Times that: "Eyelashes that rim the eyes in mammals have been a mystery for a long time as to what their function was. There were a lot of hypotheses, from dust catchers to triggering the blink reflex….What we did was the first aerodynamic study of eyelashes. We showed using three independent means that eyelashes reduce evaporation of the eye by 70 per cent, and they reduce [the deposits] of small airborne particles." A colleague said Hu had a talent for, "looking at what everybody has looked at, and seeing what nobody has seen."
* bat an eyelid = 눈썹을 까딱(깜짝)하다/ rim = 가장자리(테)를 이루다(두르다)/ hypothesis = 가설; 추정, 추측/ as to ~ = ~에 관해서는[~은]/ dust = 먼지/ blink reflex = 눈깜박반사/ aerodynamic = 공기 역학의/ evaporation = 증발 (작용); 발산/ deposit = 침전물/ airborne = 공기로 운반되는/ have a talent for ~ = ~한 재주가 있다
