时差N小时 蜘蛛丝是什么?

What's five times as strong as steel, twice as tough as Kevlar,and can be stretched over thirty percent in length withoutbreaking?

什么东西的强度是钢的5倍？什么东西的韧性是凯夫拉的2倍？什么东西能够拉长到自身长度的30%却不会断裂？

The answer is spider silk.

答案是蜘蛛丝。

Spiders make at least six different types of silk which they use for locomotion¹, protecting eggs,wrapping prey², and gluing pieces of web together.

蜘蛛能生产至少6种不同类型的蛛丝用以移动、护卵、捕食和结网。

Silk is not only strong, it's biodegradable andproduced at low temperatures and pressures, unlike many man made polymer fibers⁴.

蛛丝不仅结实，而且在低温低压下可生物降解和再生。这有别于许多人造纤维。

Why don't we use spider silk to make things?

为什么我们不利用蜘蛛丝来制作产品呢？

Unlike silk worms, spiders can't produce much silk at a time.

蜘蛛无法像蚕那样在短时间内产生大量的丝。

It took eighty weavers⁵ and a milliongolden orb⁶ spiders five years to make a spider silk rug a little over twelve feet square.

制作12平方英尺多点的蛛网地毯，需要80名织工，使用100万只金球蜘蛛，花费5年时间才能完成。

Scientists decided⁷ to work on the silk quantity problem.

科学家们决定研究蛛丝的数量问题。

And, no, they didn't create giant spiders.

当然他们不会去创造巨型蜘蛛。

First, they identified soft and crystalline components⁸ in the silk protein sequences that make it bothstretchy and strong.

首先，他们在蛛网蛋白序列中识别出使蛛网具备延展性和强韧性的柔软又透明的成份。

Once they identified these elements, they located the gene⁹ that codes forspider silk.

一旦科学家们成功识别出这些成份，他们就能锁定形成蛛网的基因。

With the gene in hand, scientists decided to use a common intestinal¹⁰ bacteria named Escherichiacoli to help them.

基因到手后，科学家们决定使用一种普遍的肠道细菌—大肠杆菌—作为辅助。

They inserted the spider gene into the bacteria.

他们要把蜘蛛基因嵌入大肠杆菌。

Because the protein was large,they had to do some metabolic¹¹ engineering to enable the bacteria to produce it.

不过蜘蛛的蛋白很大，所以科学家们需要做一些代谢工程使得大肠杆菌能够生产蜘蛛蛋白。

In the end, they made spider silk, but it wasn't as fine as the real thing.

最后，大肠杆菌产出蛛网，但其质量不如真正的蛛丝那么理想。

That's because spidersenhance the uniformity of their silk as they pull it from their spinnerets.

原因在于蜘蛛是从吐丝器官里把蛛丝拉出来的，这加强了蛛丝的均匀性。

The pulling process wasn't replicated¹² in the lab until scientists developed a device to mimic¹³ thefiber-pulling step.

在科学家们开发出一种模拟拉出蛛丝的设备之前，这种拉丝过程无法在实验室里复制。

They have now created a thread rivaling natural silk.

不过科学家们现已创造出一种与织线媲美的天然丝。

This great fiber³ could soon be used for violin strings¹⁴ as well as bullet proof vests.

这种优质的纤维预计很快就能用于小提琴琴弦或者防弹背心上了。

1 locomotion   

n.运动，移动

参考例句：

• By land,air or sea,birds are masters of locomotion.无论是通过陆地，飞越空中还是穿过海洋，鸟应算是运动能手了。
• Food sources also elicit oriented locomotion and recognition behavior patterns in most insects.食物源也引诱大多数昆虫定向迁移和识别行为。

2 prey   

n.被掠食者，牺牲者，掠食；v.捕食，掠夺，折磨

参考例句：

• Stronger animals prey on weaker ones.弱肉强食。
• The lion was hunting for its prey.狮子在寻找猎物。

3 fiber   

n.纤维，纤维质

参考例句：

• The basic structural unit of yarn is the fiber.纤维是纱的基本结构单元。
• The material must be free of fiber clumps.这种材料必须无纤维块。

4 fibers   

光纤( fiber的名词复数 )； （织物的）质地； 纤维，纤维物质

参考例句：

• Thesolution of collagen-PVA was wet spined with the sodium sulfate as coagulant and collagen-PVA composite fibers were prepared. 在此基础上，以硫酸钠为凝固剂，对胶原-PVA共混溶液进行湿法纺丝，制备了胶原-PVA复合纤维。
• Sympathetic fibers are distributed to all regions of the heart. 交感神经纤维分布于心脏的所有部分。

5 weavers   

织工，编织者( weaver的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Navajo are noted as stockbreeders and skilled weavers, potters, and silversmiths. 纳瓦霍人以豢养家禽，技术熟练的纺织者，制陶者和银匠而著名。
• They made out they were weavers. 他们假装是织布工人。

6 orb   

n.太阳；星球；v.弄圆；成球形

参考例句：

• The blue heaven,holding its one golden orb,poured down a crystal wash of warm light.蓝蓝的天空托着金色的太阳，洒下一片水晶般明亮温暖的光辉。
• It is an emanation from the distant orb of immortal light.它是从远处那个发出不灭之光的天体上放射出来的。

7 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

8 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。

9 gene   

n.遗传因子，基因

参考例句：

• A single gene may have many effects.单一基因可能具有很多种效应。
• The targeting of gene therapy has been paid close attention.其中基因治疗的靶向性是值得密切关注的问题之一。

10 intestinal   

adj.肠的；肠壁；肠道细菌

参考例句：

• A few other conditions are in high intestinal obstruction. 其它少数情况是高位肠梗阻。 来自辞典例句
• This complication has occasionally occurred following the use of intestinal antiseptics. 这种并发症偶而发生在使用肠道抗菌剂上。 来自辞典例句

11 metabolic   

adj.新陈代谢的

参考例句：

• Impressive metabolic alternations have been undergone during embryogenesis.在胚胎发生期间经历了深刻的代谢变化。
• A number of intoxicants are associated with metabolic acidosis.许多毒性物质可引起代谢性酸中毒。

12 replicated   

复制( replicate的过去式和过去分词 )； 重复； 再造； 再生

参考例句：

• Later outplant the seedlings in a replicated permanent test plantation. 以后苗木出圃栽植成重复的永久性试验林。
• The phage has replicated and the donor cells have lysed. 噬菌体已复制和给体细胞已发生裂解。

13 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。

14 strings   

n.弦

参考例句：

• He sat on the bed,idly plucking the strings of his guitar.他坐在床上，随意地拨着吉他的弦。
• She swept her fingers over the strings of the harp.她用手指划过竖琴的琴弦。