60秒科学:Teen Inventors Fight Tinnitus

Teen Inventors Fight Tinnitus
Irish teenagers Eimear OCarroll and Rhona Togher developed a treatment they hope will help people with tinnitus, an unpleasant ringing in the ears. Cynthia Graber reports

Ever get a ringing in your ears after a loud blast of music on your iPod? That’s one example of the usually temporary condition called tinnitus, the sensation of sound even when no sound is being produced. But a new invention—created by high school students—may help.

The cochlea in the ear converts sound waves to electrical impulses that the brain processes as sound. Thousands of tiny hairs in the cochlea bend when exposed to the original sound vibrations¹. But those hairs can get stuck in a bent² position. Which is why we hear the sound even when it’s gone.

Two young women in Ireland were studying the problem in physics class. They thought that a low hum might straighten out those bent cochlear hairs. So they developed a minute-long therapy using the hum and tested it on 250 subjects.

Ninety-nine percent of the tinnitus sufferers said the treatment got rid of the disturbing phantom³ sound. The two 18-year-olds and their physics teacher have now launched a company called Restored Hearing. Good news for the iPod generation from two of their own, who fought fire with fire. Or rather, sound with sound.

—Cynthia Graber

 

1 vibrations   

n.摆动( vibration的名词复数 )；震动；感受；（偏离平衡位置的）一次性往复振动

参考例句：

• We could feel the vibrations from the trucks passing outside. 我们可以感到外面卡车经过时的颤动。
• I am drawn to that girl; I get good vibrations from her. 我被那女孩吸引住了，她使我产生良好的感觉。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 bent   

n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的

参考例句：

• He was fully bent upon the project.他一心扑在这项计划上。
• We bent over backward to help them.我们尽了最大努力帮助他们。

3 phantom   

n.幻影，虚位，幽灵；adj.错觉的，幻影的，幽灵的

参考例句：

• I found myself staring at her as if she were a phantom.我发现自己瞪大眼睛看着她，好像她是一个幽灵。
• He is only a phantom of a king.他只是有名无实的国王。