读者文摘:改变历史的意外时刻(4)（在线收听）

A messy science lab harbors a miracle drug.

一间凌乱的科学实验室藏有一种神奇的药物。

In the summer of 1928, Scottish physician Alexander Fleming was in such a rush to go on vacation

1928年夏天，苏格兰医生亚历山大·弗莱明急着去度假，

that he accidently left a stack of dirty petri dishes in his laboratory sink.

他不小心把一叠脏培养皿留在了实验室的水池里。

As if this weren’t already gross, the dishes were smeared with staphylococcus, a bacterium that causes boils, sore throats, and food poisoning.

好像这还不够恶心似的，盘子上涂满了葡萄球菌，一种能引起疖子、喉咙痛和食物中毒的细菌。

(Let’s hope the doctor at least washed his hands before he left.) When Dr. Fleming returned weeks later,

(希望医生在离开前至少洗了他的手。）当弗莱明医生几周后回来后，

he found something interesting in the mess in his sink: One of the petri dishes was dotted with bacteria everywhere except for where some mold was growing.

他在脏乱的水池里发现了有趣的东西：其中一个培养皿到处都是细菌，除了一些霉菌生长的地方。

The area around it was clear, as if protected by an unseen barrier.

它周围的区域很清楚，好像有一道看不见的屏障保护着。

Upon closer inspection, Dr. Fleming realized that the mold, a rare form of Penicillium notatum,

近距离检查后，弗莱明医生发现霉菌这种罕见的青霉菌，

had secreted a “mold juice” that killed several strands of deadly bacteria.

分泌出了一种“霉菌汁”，杀死了几股致命的细菌。

Dr. Fleming published his remarkable discovery—and almost no one noticed.

弗莱明博士发表了他的惊人发现，但几乎没有人注意到这一点。

In fact, years later, Howard Walter Florey, an Australian pathologist, found Fleming’s paper by accident while leafing through old medical journals.

实际上，几年后，澳大利亚病理学家霍华德·沃尔特·弗洛里在翻阅旧医学杂志时偶然发现了弗莱明的论文。

Along with biochemist Ernst Boris Chain, Dr. Florey began to explore the therapeutic effects of the mold juice,

与生物化学家恩斯特·鲍里斯·钱恩一起，弗洛里博士开始探索霉菌汁的治疗效果，

and by 1941 they had collected enough penicillin to use on the first human subject,

到1941年，他们已经收集了足够的青霉素用于第一个人体实验，

a 43-year-old police officer suffering from a terminal bacterial infection he’d contracted after scratching himself on rosebushes in his garden.

一名43岁的警察在自家花园的玫瑰丛上刮伤了自己，患上了终末期细菌感染。

The results were astounding: The patient’s fever dropped and his appetite returned, and the penicillin used to treat him was hailed as a wonder drug.

实验结果是令人震惊的：病人的烧退了，食欲恢复了，用于治疗他的青霉素被认为是特效药。

Unfortunately, when supplies ran out, the officer’s infection returned and he died.

不幸的是，当补给用完后，这名军官的感染又复发了，然后死去了。

Still, Dr. Fleming shared the Nobel Prize with Dr. Florey and Chain for their work on the magic med.

尽管如此，弗莱明博士还是与弗洛里博士和钱恩博士分享了诺贝尔奖，以表彰他们在神奇药物方面的工作。

“I certainly didn’t plan to revolutionize all medicine by discovering the world’s first antibiotic,” he remarked, “but I suppose that was exactly what I did.”

我当然不打算通过发现世界上第一种抗生素来革新所有的医学，”他说，“但我想这正是我所做的。”

A dog gives the world Velcro. Swiss engineer George de Mestral was a natural inventor.

狗给世界带来尼龙搭扣。瑞士工程师乔治·德·梅斯特拉是一位天生的发明家。

When he was 12, he designed and patented a toy airplane.

12岁时，他设计了一架玩具飞机并申请了专利。

As he got older, he considered nature the greatest inventor on the planet, so he kept his eyes out for naturally occurring phenomena science could imitate.

随着年龄的增长，他认为大自然是这个星球上最伟大的发明家，所以他一直留意着科学可以模仿的自然现象。

That’s where his faithful Irish pointer came in.

这就是他忠实的爱尔兰猎犬的用处所在。

After a day hiking in the Swiss mountains, de Mestral noticed that his dog was covered with spiky burs, as were his own pants.

在瑞士山脉徒步旅行一天之后，德·梅斯特拉注意到他的狗身上布满了尖刺，就像他自己的裤子一样。

He put the burs under the microscope and found tiny “hooks” at the ends of their bristles that seemingly latched onto most any kind of fur or clothing.

他把这些毛刺放在显微镜下，发现它们的鬃毛末端有微小的“钩”，它们似乎可以钩住几乎任何一种毛皮或衣服。

Since de Mestral was no fan of zippers— they tended to freeze in the Alpine winter—

因为德·梅斯特拉不喜欢拉链-它们在阿尔卑斯山的冬天往往会被冻住-

he spent the next ten years trying to duplicate the burs’ irresistible attraction to his hiking partner.

所以他用接下来十年的时间来复制尖刺对他的登山伙伴的不可抗拒的吸引力。

After countless attempts and belly rubs, de Mestral found the right material for his invention:

经过无数次的尝试和揉肚子，德·梅斯特拉找到了适合他的发明的材料：

nylon, which was strong enough for the hooks to hold but pliable enough to be separated with the right tug.

尼龙，它足够结实，可以让钩子钩住，但也足够柔韧，可以用恰当的拉拽把它分开。

De Mestral submitted his patent in 1952, and it was approved three years later.

德·梅斯特拉于1952年提交了专利申请，三年后获得批准。

He named his invention Velcro, a combination of velvet and crochet, the French word for “hook.”

他将自己的发明命名为尼龙搭扣，这是天鹅绒和钩针的结合，在法语中是“钩”的意思。