2022年经济学人 焊接伤口(1)

Science & Technology

科技版块

Medical technology

医学技术

Heat treatment

加热处理

Soldering¹ offers a new better way to treat wounds.

焊接提供了一种新的更好的处理伤口的方法。

If you cut yourself, your options are to reach for a plaster or, if the cut is nasty, to go to a doctor to have it stitched or glued.

如果你割伤了自己，你可以选择用创可贴，或者如果伤口比较严重，就去看医生缝合或粘合。

That seems a rather limited choice.

这似乎是一个相当有限的选择。

Medical researchers have been trying to develop another way to join the edges of a wound, inspired by something routinely done to gas pipes and electronics: soldering.

医学研究人员一直在尝试开发另一种连接伤口边缘的方法，灵感来自于对天然气管道和电子产品的常规操作：焊接。

And an innovation developed at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (eth) in Zurich, in co-operation with the Swiss materials-science institute Empa, suggests this might soon become a practical reality.

苏黎世的瑞士联邦理工学院(ETH)与瑞士材料科学研究所Empa合作开发的一项创新表明，这可能很快就会成为现实。

In soldering, an intermediate material is heated until it melts and bonds with the two surfaces that are to be joined.

在焊接过程中，中间材料被加热，直到它熔化，并与要连接的两个表面粘合。

The material of these edges has a higher melting point and remains² solid (otherwise it would count as welding).

这些边缘的材料要具有较高的熔点并保持固态(否则将被算作熔化)。

For tissue, the intermediate material is not a metal alloy³, but a paste of biocompatible material, such as albumin, a protein that is an important constituent⁴ of blood.

对于组织来说，中间材料不是金属合金，而是生物相容性材料的糊状物，例如白蛋白，血液的重要组成部分之一。

When heated, the paste develops chemical bonds with living tissue on both sides.

当受热时，糊状物与两侧的活组织形成化学键。

As healing progresses, the two sides reconnect and the paste is removed by the body's natural cleaning procedures.

随着愈合的进行，两边重新连接，糊状物通过身体的自然清洁程序将糊状物去除。

Closing wounds by soldering has several important advantages, says Oscar Cipolato, a phd candidate at eth, who presented preliminary results on April 5th at the Photonics Europe conference in Strasburg, France.

4月5日，在法国斯特拉斯堡举行的欧洲光子会议上，ETH的博士生Oscar Cipolato展示了初步结果，并提到通过焊接来缝合伤口的几个重要的优势。

The bond it produces is strong and watertight, something that cannot be guaranteed with stitches.

它产生的粘合物坚固而防水，这是缝针无法保证的。

If a wound is interna -- after surgery, for instance -- a leak could cause an infection.

如果伤口是内部的--例如，手术后--渗漏可能会导致感染。

But soldering tissue has turned out to be difficult in practice, which means it is not commonly done.

但事实证明，焊接组织在实践中很困难，这意味着它并不常见。

Heating the soldering paste is done by shining a laser onto it, from which the paste absorbs energy.

加热焊接糊状物的方法是用激光照射，糊状物从中吸收能量。

But controlling the heating precisely⁵ is tricky⁶.

但精确控制加热温度是一件棘手的事情。

The paste needs to reach about 80°c to work.

糊状物需要达到约80°C才能工作。

If the temperature is too low, the soldering material will not fully⁷ melt and the bond will be weak.

如果温度太低，焊接材料就不会完全熔化，粘结力就会变弱。

But if it is too high, it risks burning the surrounding tissue.

但如果太高，就有烧毁周围组织的风险。

1 soldering   

n.软焊；锡焊；低温焊接；热焊接v.（使）焊接，焊合( solder的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Care must be exercised in attaching the lead wires to the soldering tabs. 在往接线片上焊导线时必须非常小心。 来自辞典例句
• I suggest posing me with a soldering wand over my head like a sword. 我想让自己这样像把剑一样把电焊杆举过头顶。 来自电影对白

2 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

3 alloy   

n.合金，(金属的)成色

参考例句：

• The company produces titanium alloy.该公司生产钛合金。
• Bronze is an alloy of copper and tin.青铜是铜和锡的合金。

4 constituent   

n.选民；成分，组分；adj.组成的，构成的

参考例句：

• Sugar is the main constituent of candy.食糖是糖果的主要成分。
• Fibre is a natural constituent of a healthy diet.纤维是健康饮食的天然组成部分。

5 precisely   

adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地

参考例句：

• It's precisely that sort of slick sales-talk that I mistrust.我不相信的正是那种油腔滑调的推销宣传。
• The man adjusted very precisely.那个人调得很准。

6 tricky   

adj.狡猾的，奸诈的；(工作等)棘手的，微妙的

参考例句：

• I'm in a rather tricky position.Can you help me out?我的处境很棘手，你能帮我吗？
• He avoided this tricky question and talked in generalities.他回避了这个非常微妙的问题，只做了个笼统的表述。

7 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。