Maybe it's happened to you. You go for a walk in the woods and, after wandering around for a few hours trying to find your way back to the car, you realize that you've basically been walking in circles. Well, you're not alone. Because scientists have found that, in the absence of visible landmarks or cues from the sun, people who are lost can't walk a straight line.

The "disoriented traveler walking in circles" is faithfully trotted out in many fictional works. So scientists decided to put the tale to the test. They plopped six people into a German forest and told them to try to walk straight. And they monitored their subjects' progress by GPS.

When the day was cloudy, the wanderers indeed walked in circles, but not by turning consistently in one direction. Instead they veered randomly left and right, repeatedly crossing their own paths. But when the subjects could see the sun, they maintained an almost straight course. And the same was true when volunteers were dropped into the Sahara Desert during the day and at night, results published in the journal Current Biology.

So if you want to walk the straight and narrow, especially after dark, don't count on your conscience to guide you. Get a compass.

迷失方向后我们绕圈走

可能这种情况在你身上发生过，你到树林中散步，四处溜达了几个小时候，你想找回停车的路，而你发现你基本是在转圈。不过，这种事情并非只发生在你身上，因为科学家们发现，在没有可见标志物或者没有太阳提供线索的时候，迷失的人们不会走直线。

在很多虚构的小说中，一直都有"迷失的旅行者绕圈走"的说法。因此科学家们决定验证这个传说。他们把六个人放到德国的一个森林中，告诉他们尝试直着走。科学家们用GPS（全球定位系统）来监测受试者们的行走过程。

在阴天的时候，这些"漫游者"确实绕圈走，但是他们并非一直绕着一个方向走，他们而是随机地左右偏离，重复地穿过他们走过的路。但是当受试者可以看到太阳 的时候，他们几乎能保持走直线。当志愿者们被置于撒哈拉沙漠中的时候，发生了同样的结果，这项研究结果发表在《当代生物学》（Current Biology）杂志上。

因此如果你不想绕圈子走的话，尤其是黑天以后，请不要依靠你的感觉给你指方向，还是找个指南针吧！