新奇事件簿 頂拳比握手更衛(wèi)生

A new(ish) and alternative form of greeting and showing respect has been found to be more hygienic than shaking hands. We have all seen it on TV. Basketball and baseball players do it after a teammate scores. Rock stars and actors do it onstage at awards ceremonies. Even U.S. President Barack Obama does it. What is it? Well, it's fist bumping. It's kind of like a high five, except the hand is clenched into a ball and the other person's fist is given a gentle nudge, knuckles to knuckles. Researchers at the University of Aberystwyth in Wales have discovered that this twenty-first-century greeting spreads one-twentieth of the germs than a traditional handshake does and around one-tenth of the germs in a high five.

研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，一種新的可選擇的打招呼、表示尊重的方式，要比握手更加衛(wèi)生。我們在電視上都曾見到過。籃球和棒球運動員在隊友得分之后會那樣做。搖滾明星和演員在頒獎儀式的舞臺上也那樣做過。甚至美國總統(tǒng)奧巴馬也做過。是什么呢?那就是頂拳。這種方式有點像擊掌，但是手指是緊握成球狀的，然后另一個人輕輕用拳頭頂一下，關節(jié)對關節(jié)。威爾士阿伯里斯特威斯大學的研究人員發(fā)現(xiàn)，這種21世紀的打招呼的方式傳播的細菌是傳統(tǒng)握手禮節(jié)的1/20，是擊掌方式的1/10。

An article on Wikipedia explains that the fist bump originated with American motorcycle gangs in the 1940s. It was easier and safer to fist bump another rider than to shake hands when two bikes were side by side at traffic lights. It achieved global exposure 70 years later when in 2008, President Obama and his wife Michelle fist bumped during a televised presidential campaign speech. There is less skin-to-skin contact during a fist bump so the chance of spreading germs is lower. A researcher said: “People rarely think about the health implications of shaking hands, but if the general public could be encouraged to fist bump, there is a genuine potential to reduce the spread of infectious diseases.”

維基百科中的一篇文章解釋說，頂拳起源于20世紀40年代美國的摩托幫。當摩托車手在交通燈前并排等著的時候，頂拳比握手更加簡單、安全。這一方式在70年之后，也就是2008年受到了世界的關注，奧巴馬總統(tǒng)在一次電視總統(tǒng)競選演說的時候，與妻子米歇爾使用了頂拳的方式。在頂拳的過程中，皮膚之間的接觸更少，這樣細菌傳播的可能就更小。一名研究人員稱，人們基本不會想到握手對于健康的影響，但是如果能夠鼓勵人們使用頂拳的方式，那么就有降低傳染性疾病傳播的可能。