VOA慢速英语2019 科学家让水母游得更快

Researchers have used very small electronic devices to make jellyfish stronger and faster.

研究人员使用非常小的电子设备使水母变得更强壮、更快。 

The scientists say they developed these electronic jellyfish in the hopes of sending them to study and explore the worlds oceans.

科学家们说，他们改进了这些电子水母，希望把它们送到世界各地的海洋中去研究和探索。 

A report on the experiment was published in the journal Science Advances.

这项实验的报告发表在《科学进展》杂志上。 

Jellyfish are unusual creatures.They move through seawater by contracting,or reducing the size of, their muscles.

水母是一种不寻常的生物。它们通过收缩肌肉或缩小体积在海水中移动。 

For the experiment, the researchers put an electronic device, about 2 centimeters in length, inside a moon jellyfish, a common kind of jellyfish.

在实验中，研究人员将一个大约2厘米长的电子设备放入月亮水母(一种常见的水母)体内。 

The researchers said the device caused the creatures to move their bodies more often.They swam around three times faster than usual.These jellyfish use " 10 to 1000 times less external power per mass than other aquatic¹ robots reported in literature ,"noted² Nicole Xu and John Dabiri, the two lead authors of the report.

研究人员表示，该设备能让这些生物更频繁地活动身体。它们游得比平常快三倍。“这些水母每单位使用的外部能量比文献中其他水生机器人要低10到1000倍。”该报告的两位主要作者 尼科尔·徐和约翰·达比利 指出。

Jellyfish are known to release mucus at times when they are tense or feeling stressed.No such reaction was noted during the study.The jellyfish swam normally after the electronic device was removed,the researchers said.

众所周知，水母在感到紧张或压力大的时候会分泌粘液。目前在研究中还没有发现这样的反应。研究人员说，在移除电子设备后，水母可以正常游泳。

" Care is taken not to harm the jellyfish, " Dabiri explained.

达比利解释说：“实验中大家分外注意不伤害水母。” 

The next step will be to test ways to control where the jellyfish go.Another possible step: to develop small sensors³ that could take long-term measurements of ocean conditions, added Xu and Dabiri.

下一步将是测试控制水母去向的方法。另一个可能的研究方向是:开发可以长期测量海洋状况的小型传感器，徐和达比利补充道。

"Its very sci-fi futuristic ,"said Xu, a bioengineer at Stanford University in California."We could send these bionic jellyfish to different areas of the ocean to monitor signs of climate change or observe natural phenomena⁴ ."

“这是非常科幻的未来主义，”加州斯坦福大学的生物工程师徐说。“我们可以把这些仿生水母送到海洋的不同区域去监测气候变化的迹象或观察自然现象。”

One of the first goals will be deep dives, added Dabiri,who studies mechanical engineering and serves as a professor at the California Institute of Technology.Deep dives are important because of a major gap in human understanding of the deep oceans.

达比利补充说，首要的目标之一将是深潜。达比利是加州理工学院教授，机械工程专业研究学者。深海潜水很重要，因为人类对深海的认识有很大的差距。

"Basically, wed⁵ release the bionic jellyfish at the surface,have it swim down to increasing depths,and see just how far we can get it to go down into the ocean and still make it back to the surface with data ,"he said.

他说:“基本上，我们在海面上释放这种仿生水母，让它游到越来越深的地方，然后看看我们能让它潜到多深的海洋，同时还能把数据传回海面。”

Jellyfish have existed for over 500 million years,and over that time,their body structure has remained largely unchanged, said Xu."So its interesting to figure out what makes them so special and how we can learn from them."

水母已经存在了5亿多年，在这漫长的岁月里，他们的身体结构基本保持不变，徐说。“所以弄清楚是什么让它们如此特别，以及我们能从它们身上学到什么是很有趣的。”

She added, "Because we use animals with natural swimming motions,the hope is that they wont⁶ disturb the environment in the same way that a submarine might,so we can expand the types of environments we can monitor. "

她补充说，“因为我们使用的是有自然游泳动作的动物，希望它们不会像潜水艇那样干扰环境，这样我们就可以增加我们可以监控的环境类型。”

1 aquatic   

adj.水生的，水栖的

参考例句：

• Aquatic sports include swimming and rowing.水上运动包括游泳和划船。
• We visited an aquatic city in Italy.我们在意大利访问过一个水上城市。

2 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

3 sensors   

n.传感器，灵敏元件( sensor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• There were more than 2000 sensors here. 这里装有两千多个灵敏元件。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Significant changes have been noted where sensors were exposed to trichloride. 当传感器暴露在三氯化物中时，有很大变化。 来自辞典例句

4 phenomena   

n.现象

参考例句：

• Ade couldn't relate the phenomena with any theory he knew.艾德无法用他所知道的任何理论来解释这种现象。
• The object of these experiments was to find the connection,if any,between the two phenomena.这些实验的目的就是探索这两种现象之间的联系，如果存在着任何联系的话。

5 wed   

v.娶，嫁，与…结婚

参考例句：

• The couple eventually wed after three year engagement.这对夫妇在订婚三年后终于结婚了。
• The prince was very determined to wed one of the king's daughters.王子下定决心要娶国王的其中一位女儿。

6 wont   

adj.习惯于；v.习惯；n.习惯

参考例句：

• He was wont to say that children are lazy.他常常说小孩子们懒惰。
• It is his wont to get up early.早起是他的习惯。