評論
打印
A messy science lab harbors a miracle drug.
一間凌亂的科學實驗室藏有一種神奇的藥物。
In the summer of 1928, Scottish physician Alexander Fleming was in such a rush to go on vacation
1928年夏天，蘇格蘭醫生亞歷山大·弗萊明急著去度假，
that he accidently left a stack of dirty petri dishes in his laboratory sink.
他不小心把一疊臟培養皿留在了實驗室的水池里。
As if this weren’t already gross, the dishes were smeared with staphylococcus, a bacterium that causes boils, sore throats, and food poisoning.
好像這還不夠惡心似的，盤子上涂滿了葡萄球菌，一種能引起癤子、喉嚨痛和食物中毒的細菌。
(Let’s hope the doctor at least washed his hands before he left.) When Dr. Fleming returned weeks later,
(希望醫生在離開前至少洗了他的手。）當弗萊明醫生幾周后回來后，
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.
他在臟亂的水池里發現了有趣的東西：其中一個培養皿到處都是細菌，除了一些霉菌生長的地方。
The area around it was clear, as if protected by an unseen barrier.
它周圍的區域很清楚，好像有一道看不見的屏障保護著。
Upon closer inspection, Dr. Fleming realized that the mold, a rare form of Penicillium notatum,
近距離檢查后，弗萊明醫生發現霉菌這種罕見的青霉菌，
had secreted a “mold juice” that killed several strands of deadly bacteria.
分泌出了一種“霉菌汁”，殺死了幾股致命的細菌。
Dr. Fleming published his remarkable discovery—and almost no one noticed.
弗萊明博士發表了他的驚人發現，但幾乎沒有人注意到這一點。
In fact, years later, Howard Walter Florey, an Australian pathologist, found Fleming’s paper by accident while leafing through old medical journals.
實際上，幾年后，澳大利亞病理學家霍華德·沃爾特·弗洛里在翻閱舊醫學雜志時偶然發現了弗萊明的論文。
Along with biochemist Ernst Boris Chain, Dr. Florey began to explore the therapeutic effects of the mold juice,
與生物化學家恩斯特·鮑里斯·錢恩一起，弗洛里博士開始探索霉菌汁的治療效果，
and by 1941 they had collected enough penicillin to use on the first human subject,
到1941年，他們已經收集了足夠的青霉素用于第一個人體實驗，
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歲的警察在自家花園的玫瑰叢上刮傷了自己，患上了終末期細菌感染。
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.
實驗結果是令人震驚的：病人的燒退了，食欲恢復了，用于治療他的青霉素被認為是特效藥。
Unfortunately, when supplies ran out, the officer’s infection returned and he died.
不幸的是，當補給用完后，這名軍官的感染又復發了，然后死去了。
Still, Dr. Fleming shared the Nobel Prize with Dr. Florey and Chain for their work on the magic med.
盡管如此，弗萊明博士還是與弗洛里博士和錢恩博士分享了諾貝爾獎，以表彰他們在神奇藥物方面的工作。
“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.”
我當然不打算通過發現世界上第一種抗生素來革新所有的醫學，”他說，“但我想這正是我所做的。”
A dog gives the world Velcro. Swiss engineer George de Mestral was a natural inventor.
狗給世界帶來尼龍搭扣。瑞士工程師喬治·德·梅斯特拉是一位天生的發明家。
When he was 12, he designed and patented a toy airplane.
12歲時，他設計了一架玩具飛機并申請了專利。
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.
隨著年齡的增長，他認為大自然是這個星球上最偉大的發明家，所以他一直留意著科學可以模仿的自然現象。
That’s where his faithful Irish pointer came in.
這就是他忠實的愛爾蘭獵犬的用處所在。
After a day hiking in the Swiss mountains, de Mestral noticed that his dog was covered with spiky burs, as were his own pants.
在瑞士山脈徒步旅行一天之后，德·梅斯特拉注意到他的狗身上布滿了尖刺，就像他自己的褲子一樣。
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.
他把這些毛刺放在顯微鏡下，發現它們的鬃毛末端有微小的“鉤”，它們似乎可以鉤住幾乎任何一種毛皮或衣服。
Since de Mestral was no fan of zippers— they tended to freeze in the Alpine winter—
因為德·梅斯特拉不喜歡拉鏈-它們在阿爾卑斯山的冬天往往會被凍住-
he spent the next ten years trying to duplicate the burs’ irresistible attraction to his hiking partner.
所以他用接下來十年的時間來復制尖刺對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:
經過無數次的嘗試和揉肚子，德·梅斯特拉找到了適合他的發明的材料：
nylon, which was strong enough for the hooks to hold but pliable enough to be separated with the right tug.
尼龍，它足夠結實，可以讓鉤子鉤住，但也足夠柔韌，可以用恰當的拉拽把它分開。
De Mestral submitted his patent in 1952, and it was approved three years later.
德·梅斯特拉于1952年提交了專利申請，三年后獲得批準。
He named his invention Velcro, a combination of velvet and crochet, the French word for “hook.”
他將自己的發明命名為尼龍搭扣，這是天鵝絨和鉤針的結合，在法語中是“鉤”的意思。
