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Now as engineers, we think of this as straight-up miniaturization.
作為工程師，我們認為這個就是直接微型化。
You took a big thing and you made it little.
你帶來一個大東西并且把它變小。
But what I told you before about computers was that they transformed our lives
但是我之前提到了電腦改變了我們的生活，
when they became small enough for us to take them everywhere.
它們小到我們可以隨身攜帶。
So what is the transformational equivalent like that in medicine?
那么在藥物領域，等效的轉換會是什么樣的呢？
Well, what if you had a detector that was so small that it could circulate in your body,
如果你有一個探測器，它小到可以在你的體內循環，
find the tumor all by itself and send a signal to the outside world?
自己找到腫瘤并向外面的世界傳送信號會怎樣呢？
It sounds a little bit like science fiction.
這聽起來有點像科幻小說。
But actually, nanotechnology allows us to do just that.
但是實際上，運用納米技術就能實現。
Nanotechnology allows us to shrink the parts that make up the detector
納米技術可以讓我們縮小探測器組成部分的尺寸，
from the width of a human hair, which is 100 microns,
從到發絲的寬度的大小，也就是100微米
to a thousand times smaller, which is 100 nanometers.
到再小1000倍的尺度，也就是100納米。
And that has profound implications.
這就極大的擴展了應用范圍。
It turns out that materials actually change their properties at the nanoscale.
實際上在納米級別尺寸的時候，材料的性質會發生改變。
You take a common material like gold,
你拿一個常見的金屬比如金，
and you grind it into dust, into gold nanoparticles,
把它研磨成灰，研磨成納米顆粒，
and it changes from looking gold to looking red.
它就會從金色外表變成紅色。
If you take a more exotic material like cadmium selenide forms a big, black crystal
如果你拿一個比較稀有的材料比如硒化鎘，會形成一塊大的黑色晶體，
if you make nanocrystals out of this material and you put it in a liquid,
如果你用這種材料做成納米結晶，然后把它放入液體中，
and you shine light on it, they glow.
用光照一下，它們就會發光。
And they glow blue, green, yellow, orange, red, depending only on their size.
它們可以發出藍綠黃橙紅不同的光，僅僅根據尺寸的不同而變化。
It's wild! Can you imagine an object like that in the macro world?
這太瘋狂了！你可以想象宏觀世界有這種材料么？
It would be like all the denim jeans in your closet are all made of cotton,
這就像你衣櫥里所有的棉質牛仔褲
but they are different colors depending only on their size.
依據尺寸不同，顏色也會不一樣。
So as a physician, what's just as interesting to me
作為一位醫生，讓我感興趣的
is that it's not just the color of materials that changes at the nanoscale;
不僅僅是材料的顏色在納米尺寸會改變，
the way they travel in your body also changes.
它們在人體內運動的方式也將改變。
And this is the kind of observation that we're going to use to make a better cancer detector.
這也是一種我們即將使用的觀察方式，用來制造更好的癌癥檢測裝置。
So let me show you what I mean.
下面我來解釋一下。
This is a blood vessel in the body.
這是一條人體的血管。
Surrounding the blood vessel is a tumor.
包裹著血管的就是腫瘤。
We're going to inject nanoparticles into the blood vessel
我們將要把納米顆粒注射進血管，
and watch how they travel from the bloodstream into the tumor.
并觀察它們如何隨著血流進入腫瘤。
Now it turns out that the blood vessels of many tumors are leaky,
事實證明有許多腫瘤的血管是有漏洞的,
and so nanoparticles can leak out from the bloodstream into the tumor.
所以納米顆粒，可以從血流滲漏到腫瘤中。
Whether they leak out depends on their size.
它們是否能滲透出去取決于它們的尺寸。
So in this image, the smaller, hundred-nanometer, blue nanoparticles are leaking out,
在這張圖中，較小的百納米尺寸的藍色納米顆粒正在滲漏至血管外，
and the larger, 500-nanometer, red nanoparticles are stuck in the bloodstream.
大一點的500納米的紅色顆粒被困在了血管中。
So that means as an engineer,
所以這對于工程師來說，
depending on how big or small I make a material,
取決于我所制造的材料的大小，
I can change where it goes in your body.
我可以控制它能夠去你身體里的哪一部分。
