新加坡的夜晚将不复存在

Light pollution is so bad in Singapore that people's eyes never fully adapt to the dark when looking at the sky after sunset.

新加坡的光污染非常严重，太阳落山后的夜空,他们的眼睛从未适应过黑暗。

It's pretty bad elsewhere too. A recent study, published in Science Advances, created an atlas of artificial night-sky brightness that measures and compares sky luminance around the world. A full one-third of humanity lives under skies where you can't see the Milky Way.

别处的情况也很糟糕。最近发表在《科学进步》的一项研究创造了人为夜空亮度的地图集，测量并比较世界各地天空的亮度。有三分之一的人生活在不能看到银河的天空之下。

In the map below, white spots show where people's eyes never adapt to darkness - when eye rods take over from eye cones. Red shows where people can't see the Milky Way. Anything but black shows some level of light pollution.

在下面的地图上，白色斑点表示这个地方的人们的眼睛从来没有适应黑暗 - 视网膜杆代替视锥。红色的点显示这里的人们无法看到银河系。除黑色之外的颜色显示受到光污染的不同水平。

And a chart of the most light-polluted countries. Again, white shows the population living under skies that never get dark enough to cause eyes to adapt to night.

有一张受到光污染最严重的地区的图表。再一次显示了白代表这个地方的人的天空从来没有足够的黑暗来使眼睛适应夜间生活。

Light pollution is problematic for several reasons.

造成光污染是有很多原因的。

In addition to making astronomic research difficult, it can impact biological circadian rhythms, altering the behavior of birds, reptiles and even humans. A recentstatement from the American Medical Association also warned against the dangers of LED lights, which are increasingly replacing street lamps due to their energy efficiency. The blue light emitted by LED bulbs is more disruptive than traditional warmer-looking lighting.

光污染不仅会使天文研究变得困难，还会影响到生物昼夜变化的规律，改变鸟类，爬行动物甚至人类的行为。最近，美国医学协会一项声明中还警告人们LED灯的危险性，由于能源效率LED灯越来越多地取代路灯。LED灯泡发出的蓝色光比传统暖光灯光更具破坏性。

But in a Quora thread about the absence of stars in Singapore's night sky, local contributors have a few tips about how to find glimpses of them. User Ryan Phung suggests traveling to remote places in the city, like Tanjong Beach or Pulau Ubin. And Akshay Mamidi suggests looking up long enough for your to eyes adjust, then using a star chart to make sure you look in the right places.

但在Quora上关于新加坡的夜空没有星星的提问，当地志愿者对如何找到它们踪迹给出了的一些建议。用户瑞安奉建议行驶到离城市偏远的地方，像丹戎海滩或乌敏岛。阿克沙伊麦迪建议仰视足够长的时间使你的眼睛适应，然后看星图确保你看的是正确的地方。

Residents of Singapore are not alone in their struggles to see the stars. According to the study, 99% of US and European populations live with some level of light pollution, and 80% of North Americans can't see the Milky Way either.

新加坡的居民在找星星的过程中不是孤军奋战。这项研究表明美国和欧洲的99％的人口生活在一定程度的光污染下，北美80％的人也不能看到银河系。

Other countries plagued by high levels of light pollution include Kuwait, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and South Korea. The world's least light-polluted countries are Chad, Central African Republic, and Madagascar, where more than 75% of the population has pristine views of the starry night.

其他光污染困扰严重的国家还包括科威特，卡塔尔，阿联酋，沙特阿拉伯和韩国。世界上光污染最少的国家是乍得，中非共和国和马达加斯加，那里75％以上的人口可以很容易看到星星。

In the report, the researchers write that they hope their data will aid others who study the impacts of light pollution as cities inevitably continue to get brighter.

在报告中，研究人员写道，他们希望他们的数据将帮助其他研究光污染的影响的人，因为城市的夜晚不可避免地在继续变亮。