经济学人458:制造计算机存储器的新奇方法

 　　Science and technology.

　　科技。

　　Nanotechnology.

　　纳米技术。

　　A fab result.

　　生物工厂。

　　A novel way of making computer memories, using bacteria.

　　制造计算机存储器的新奇方法：使用细菌。

　　FOR half a century, the essence of progress in the computer industry has been to do more with less. Moore's law famously observes that the number of transistors¹ which can be crammed² into a given space doubles every 18 months. The amount of data that can be stored has grown at a similar rate. Yet as components³ get smaller, making them gets harder and more expensive. On May 10th Paul Otellini, the boss of Intel, a big American chipmaker, put the price of a new chip factory (known as a fab) at around $10 billion.

　　半个世纪以来，计算机产业发展的本质就是花钱更少，成事更多。摩尔定律的著名论断是：能够放入某空间内的晶体管数量每18个月翻一番。。储存的数据也有着类似的增长速率，但是随着部件越来越小，它们的制造难度和成本也逐渐增加。5月10日，美国芯片巨头因特尔总裁兼CEOPaul Otellini宣布将花费上百亿美元建设新工厂。

　　Happily for those that lack Intel's resources, there may be a cheaper option-namely to mimic⁴ Mother Nature, who has been building tiny devices, in the form of living cells and their components, for billions of years, and has thus got rather good at it. A paper published in Small, a nanotechnology journal, sets out the latest example of the technique. In it, a group of researchers led by Sarah Staniland at the University of Leeds, in Britain, describe using naturally occurring proteins to make arrays of tiny magnets, similar to those employed to store information in disk drives.

　　对于不像因特尔那么有钱的厂家的好消息是，他们或许可以选择更便宜的方式——模拟大自然。对于大自然来说，她建造微小"设备"已经有数十亿年了，所以自然是信手拈来，当然，这些"设备"都是以活细胞和其组份的形式呈现。发表在纳米技术期刊《微小》的一篇论文描述了这一新技术的示例，该技术团队由英国利兹大学的Sarah Staniland领导，他们用自然生成的蛋白质让微型磁性材料进行排列，这与磁盘驱动器上储存信息的磁性材料排序是类似的。

　　The researchers took their inspiration from Magnetospirillum magneticum, a bacterium⁵ that is sensitive to the Earth's magnetic field thanks to the presence within its cells of flecks⁶ of magnetite, a form of iron oxide⁷. Previous work has isolated⁸ the protein that makes these miniature compasses. Using genetic⁹ engineering, the team managed to persuade a different bacterium-Escherichia coli, a ubiquitous critter that is a workhorse of biotechnology-to manufacture this protein in bulk.

　　研究人员从趋磁细菌上获得了灵感，由于该细菌内部存在磁性颗粒（氧化铁的一种），所以对地球磁场非常敏感。他们先要把制造这种微型"罗盘"的蛋白质分离出来，并采用基因工程技术设法让另一种细菌——大肠杆菌来批量生产这种蛋白质，而大肠杆菌在生物体内普遍存在，是生物工程中的常用"苦力"。

　　Next, they imprinted¹⁰ a block of gold with a microscopic¹¹ chessboard pattern of chemicals. Half the squares contained anchoring points for the protein. The other half were left untreated as controls. They then dipped the gold into a solution containing the protein, allowing it to bind¹² to the treated squares, and dunked the whole lot into a heated solution of iron salts. After that, they examined the results with an electron microscope. Sure enough, groups of magnetite grains had materialised on the treated squares, shepherded into place by the bacterial¹³ protein. In principle, each of these magnetic domains¹⁵ could store the "one" or the "zero" of a bit of information, according to how it was polarised.

　　然后他们用化学方法绘制微小的棋盘图案，并把图案的每一块染成金黄色，每块区域的一半用该蛋白质做固定点，另一半不做任何处理作为对照，再把这些金黄色的"棋盘"浸入含蛋白质的溶液中，并允许溶液中的蛋白质与棋盘上的固定蛋白质结合，最后把该"棋盘"全部浸入加热的铁盐溶液中。他们再用电子显微镜观察实验结果，果然，"棋盘"上的固定蛋白质区域产生了成群的磁铁颗粒，并由细菌蛋白质控制在相应位置。基本上每个磁域都能按极化的方式存储一个字节信息的"1"或"0"。

　　Getting from there to a real computer memory would be a long road. For a start, the grains of magnetite are not strong enough magnets to make a useful memory, and the size of each domain¹⁴ (20 microns across) is huge by modern computing¹⁶ standards. But Dr Staniland reckons that, with enough tweaking, both of these objections could be dealt with.

　　但是要制成真正的计算机存储器还有很长的路要走，首先对于可用的存储器来说，那些磁铁颗粒的磁性还不够强大，并且每个区域的尺寸（20微米的跨度）对现在计算机标准来说太大了。但Staniland认为，只要做些足够的调整，那些困难都将不是问题。

　　The advantage of this approach is that it might not be so capital-intensive as building a fab. Growing things does not need as much kit¹⁷ as making them. If the tweaking could be done, therefore, the result might give the word "biotechnology" a whole new meaning.

　　这种方法的好处就是不用像因特尔那样如此资源密集地去建造新工厂，在制造不断发展的产品时也不需要同样多的设备，所以，如果这种调整可以成功的话，"生物技术"将会有一个全新的定义。

1 transistors   

晶体管( transistor的名词复数 )； 晶体管收音机，半导体收音机

参考例句：

• In semiconductor receivers transistors take the place of vacuum tubes. 在半导体收音机中晶体管代替了真空管。
• We often turn to this handbook for information on transistors. 我们常从这本手册查阅有关晶体管的资料。

2 crammed   

adj.塞满的，挤满的；大口地吃；快速贪婪地吃v.把…塞满；填入；临时抱佛脚( cram的过去式)

参考例句：

• He crammed eight people into his car. 他往他的车里硬塞进八个人。
• All the shelves were crammed with books. 所有的架子上都堆满了书。

3 components   

（机器、设备等的）构成要素，零件，成分； 成分( component的名词复数 )； [物理化学]组分； [数学]分量； （混合物的）组成部分

参考例句：

• the components of a machine 机器部件
• Our chemistry teacher often reduces a compound to its components in lab. 在实验室中化学老师常把化合物分解为各种成分。

4 mimic   

v.模仿，戏弄；n.模仿他人言行的人

参考例句：

• A parrot can mimic a person's voice.鹦鹉能学人的声音。
• He used to mimic speech peculiarities of another.他过去总是模仿别人讲话的特点。

5 bacterium   

n.(pl.)bacteria 细菌

参考例句：

• The bacterium possibly goes in the human body by the mouth.细菌可能通过口进入人体。
• A bacterium is identified as the cause for his duodenal ulcer.一种细菌被断定为造成他十二指肠溃疡的根源。

6 flecks   

n.斑点，小点( fleck的名词复数 )；癍

参考例句：

• His hair was dark, with flecks of grey. 他的黑发间有缕缕银丝。
• I got a few flecks of paint on the window when I was painting the frames. 我在漆窗框时，在窗户上洒了几点油漆。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 oxide   

n.氧化物

参考例句：

• Oxide is usually seen in our daily life.在我们的日常生活中氧化物很常见。
• How can you get rid of this oxide coating?你们该怎样除去这些氧化皮？

8 isolated   

adj.与世隔绝的

参考例句：

• His bad behaviour was just an isolated incident. 他的不良行为只是个别事件。
• Patients with the disease should be isolated. 这种病的患者应予以隔离。

9 genetic   

adj.遗传的，遗传学的

参考例句：

• It's very difficult to treat genetic diseases.遗传性疾病治疗起来很困难。
• Each daughter cell can receive a full complement of the genetic information.每个子细胞可以收到遗传信息的一个完全补偿物。

10 imprinted   

v.盖印（imprint的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• The terrible scenes were indelibly imprinted on his mind. 那些恐怖场面深深地铭刻在他的心中。
• The scene was imprinted on my mind. 那个场面铭刻在我的心中。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 microscopic   

adj.微小的，细微的，极小的，显微的

参考例句：

• It's impossible to read his microscopic handwriting.不可能看清他那极小的书写字迹。
• A plant's lungs are the microscopic pores in its leaves.植物的肺就是其叶片上微细的气孔。

12 bind   

vt.捆，包扎；装订；约束；使凝固；vi.变硬

参考例句：

• I will let the waiter bind up the parcel for you.我让服务生帮你把包裹包起来。
• He wants a shirt that does not bind him.他要一件不使他觉得过紧的衬衫。

13 bacterial   

a.细菌的

参考例句：

• Bacterial reproduction is accelerated in weightless space. 在失重的空间，细菌繁殖加快了。
• Brain lesions can be caused by bacterial infections. 大脑损伤可能由细菌感染引起。

14 domain   

n.(活动等)领域，范围；领地，势力范围

参考例句：

• This information should be in the public domain.这一消息应该为公众所知。
• This question comes into the domain of philosophy.这一问题属于哲学范畴。

15 domains   

n.范围( domain的名词复数 )；领域；版图；地产

参考例句：

• The theory of thermodynamics links the macroscopic and submicroscopic domains. 热力学把宏观世界同亚微观世界联系起来。 来自辞典例句
• All three flow domains are indicated by shading. 所有三个流动区域都是用阴影部分表示的。 来自辞典例句

16 computing   

n.计算

参考例句：

• to work in computing 从事信息处理
• Back in the dark ages of computing, in about 1980, they started a software company. 早在计算机尚未普及的时代（约1980年），他们就创办了软件公司。

17 kit   

n.用具包，成套工具；随身携带物

参考例句：

• The kit consisted of about twenty cosmetic items.整套工具包括大约20种化妆用品。
• The captain wants to inspect your kit.船长想检查你的行装。