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(单词翻译:双击或拖选)
Others include water on the Moon, gene1 therapy
Art Chimes | Washington 23 December 2009
The prestigious2 journal Science is out with its top 10 breakthroughs of 2009. They include developments in anthropology3, astronomy, and biology.
The breakthrough of the year was 15 years in coming. That's how long it took for an international team of scientists to excavate4 and analyze5 the fossilized skeleton of a 4.4 million year old human ancestor, Ardipithecus ramidus, which was discovered in Ethiopia. Science magazine deputy news editor Robert Coontz said "Ardi," as the creature was nicknamed, was especially surprising to scientists because of how she walked.
"The main thing was that it walked upright, just as we do. But what's unexpected about that is that our closest evolutionary6 relatives, chimpanzees and gorillas7, don't do that. And so there was an assumption that our common ancestor with them would have been something that also walked that way. And it turns out that, no, Ardipithecus was designed for walking in trees or climbing trees."
Several of Science magazine's notable breakthroughs of the past year focused on astronomy and space. The journal cited the astronauts' service call to the Hubble Space Telescope, which gave the orbiting observatory8 a new lease on life. And editor Robert Coontz says the top 10 breakthroughs also included the discovery of water on the moon by the LCROSS mission.
"The poles of the moon have dark craters9 that never see. So if any ice were to wind up there, it really wouldn't go anywhere. So this year NASA sent up a spacecraft and sent the rocket stage right into the moon to 'bomb' the moon, basically, and see what came up. And they looked at it with a spectrometer and they found that the molecules10 that were coming up included water."
In the life sciences, the journal's editors noted11 advances in gene therapy — something that has long seemed on the verge12 of a breakthrough.
"This year, however, there were some very promising13 clinical results that indicate that it may be starting to work the way that people always hoped that it would. There was a form of inherited blindness, and some researchers in Britain injected patients with these viruses attached to genes14. And it turns out that the patients actually did regain15 some of their sensitivity to light."
Coontz says some of the children in the study actually regained16 enough eyesight to be able to play sports normally.
Science magazine reports on these and the rest of its breakthroughs of the year online at ScienceMag.org. You'll have to register, but there's no cost.
At the website you'll also get a hint about areas to watch for breakthroughs in the coming year, including America's human spaceflight program.
"NASA is going to have to decide what it's going to do about the human space program. It will determine the whole direction that the future space program of the United States is going to take, and so that's something that we'll be looking at very closely."
Science magazine editor Robert Coontz says other areas to watch in 2010 include stem cell research and possible new cancer treatments.
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1
gene
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n.遗传因子,基因 | |
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2
prestigious
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adj.有威望的,有声望的,受尊敬的 | |
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3
anthropology
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n.人类学 | |
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4
excavate
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vt.挖掘,挖出 | |
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5
analyze
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vt.分析,解析 (=analyse) | |
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6
evolutionary
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adj.进化的;演化的,演变的;[生]进化论的 | |
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7
gorillas
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n.大猩猩( gorilla的名词复数 );暴徒,打手 | |
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8
observatory
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n.天文台,气象台,瞭望台,观测台 | |
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9
craters
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n.火山口( crater的名词复数 );弹坑等 | |
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10
molecules
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分子( molecule的名词复数 ) | |
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11
noted
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adj.著名的,知名的 | |
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12
verge
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n.边,边缘;v.接近,濒临 | |
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13
promising
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adj.有希望的,有前途的 | |
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14
genes
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n.基因( gene的名词复数 ) | |
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15
regain
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vt.重新获得,收复,恢复 | |
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regained
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复得( regain的过去式和过去分词 ); 赢回; 重回; 复至某地 | |
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