科学美国人60秒 SSS 全球科学要闻

Hi, I'm Scientific American assistant news editor Sarah Lewin Frasier.

大家好，我是《科学美国人》助理新闻编辑莎拉·莱温·弗雷西尔。

And here's a short piece from the July 2020 issue of the magazine, in the section called Advances: Dispatches from the Frontiers of Science, Technology and Medicine.

下面是本杂志2020年7月刊的一篇短文，摘自“进展：科学、技术和医学前沿快报”版块。

The article is titled "Quick Hits," and it's a rundown of some noncoronavirus stories from around the globe.

这篇文章名为《要闻快讯》，汇集了全球各地非新冠病毒报道的摘要。

From Turks and Caicos Islands:

特克斯和凯科斯群岛：

Analysis of anole lizards² collected before and after Hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017, and 18 months later,

人们通过分析2017年飓风“厄玛”和飓风“玛利亚”前后以及18个月后收集的变色龙发现，

revealed that the surviving lizards and their descendants had larger and therefore "grippier" toe pads.

幸存的蜥蜴及其后代的脚掌更大也更有抓握力。

The team examined lizard¹ photographs from natural history collections and 70 years of hurricane data to confirm the trend.

研究团队检查了博物学收集的蜥蜴照片和70年的飓风数据，以证实这一趋势。

From Italy:

意大利：

Sediment³ samples drawn⁴ from the Tyrrhenian Sea revealed hotspots with up to 1.9 million microplastic particles per square meter—

从第勒尼安海采集的沉积物样本揭示出热点，每平方米沉积物中含有多达190万微塑料分子，

the highest concentration ever recorded on the seafloor.

这是有记录以来海底的最高浓度。

Most of this pollution comes from wastewater in sewage systems, researchers say.

研究人员表示，大多数污染物来自下水道系统的废水。

From Antarctica:

南极洲：

Paleontologists found a fossilized 40-million-year-old frog on Seymour Island, near the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula.

古生物学家在南极半岛尖端附近的西摩岛上发现了4000万年前的青蛙化石。

The frog is related to modern ones living in temperate⁵, humid conditions in the Chilean Andes.

这只青蛙与现在生活在智利安第斯山脉温和潮湿环境中的现代青蛙有亲缘关系。

From Iraq:

伊拉克：

Researchers probing the Turkish state archives found the earliest known record of a meteorite⁶ causing a death.

研究人员在调查土耳其国家档案时发现了已知最早的陨石致死记录。

The object struck a hilltop in neighboring Iraq in 1888, killing⁷ one man and paralyzing another.

1888年，这个物体撞击了邻国伊拉克的一座山顶，致一人死亡，另一人瘫痪。

From Japan:

日本：

Results gathered from the Kamioka Observatory⁸, which includes an underground detector⁹ tank filled with 55,000 tons of water,

从神冈天文台（该机构拥有注满5.5万吨水的地下探测罐）收集的结果显示，

suggest an intriguing¹⁰ discrepancy¹¹ in how neutrinos and antineutrinos oscillate, potentially violating symmetry between matter and antimatter.

中微子和反中微子的振荡方式存在着有趣的差异，这可能会破坏物质和反物质之间的对称性。

From Kenya:

肯尼亚：

Scientists identified a malaria-blocking microbe in mosquitoes on the shores of Lake Victoria.

科学家在维多利亚湖畔的蚊子体内发现了阻止疟疾的细菌。

Every mosquito catalogued with this apparently¹² benign¹³ fungus¹⁴ was free of the disease-carrying parasite¹⁵,

每只被这种明显是良性真菌分类的蚊子，都没有携带疾病的寄生虫，而

and experiments show the fungus prevented its transmission.

且实验表明这种真菌阻止了传播。

That was Quick Hits. I'm Sarah Lewin Frasier.

以上是《要闻快讯》，我是莎拉·莱温·弗雷泽。

1 lizard   

n.蜥蜴，壁虎

参考例句：

• A chameleon is a kind of lizard.变色龙是一种蜥蜴。
• The lizard darted out its tongue at the insect.蜥蜴伸出舌头去吃小昆虫。

2 lizards   

n.蜥蜴( lizard的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Nothing lives in Pompeii except crickets and beetles and lizards. 在庞培城里除了蟋蟀、甲壳虫和蜥蜴外，没有别的生物。 来自辞典例句
• Can lizards reproduce their tails? 蜥蜴的尾巴断了以后能再生吗？ 来自辞典例句

3 sediment   

n.沉淀，沉渣，沉积(物)

参考例句：

• The sediment settled and the water was clear.杂质沉淀后，水变清了。
• Sediment begins to choke the channel's opening.沉积物开始淤塞河道口。

4 drawn   

v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的

参考例句：

• All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
• Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。

5 temperate   

adj.温和的，温带的，自我克制的，不过分的

参考例句：

• Asia extends across the frigid,temperate and tropical zones.亚洲地跨寒、温、热三带。
• Great Britain has a temperate climate.英国气候温和。

6 meteorite   

n.陨石；流星

参考例句：

• The meteorite in Jilin Exhibition Hall is believed to be the largest in the world.吉林展览馆的陨石被认为是世界上最大的。
• The famous Murchison meteorite smashed into the Australian ground in 1969.1969年著名的默奇森陨石轰然坠落在澳大利亚。

7 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

8 observatory   

n.天文台，气象台，瞭望台，观测台

参考例句：

• Guy's house was close to the observatory.盖伊的房子离天文台很近。
• Officials from Greenwich Observatory have the clock checked twice a day.格林威治天文台的职员们每天对大钟检查两次。

9 detector   

n.发觉者，探测器

参考例句：

• The detector is housed in a streamlined cylindrical container.探测器安装在流线型圆柱形容器内。
• Please walk through the metal detector.请走过金属检测器。

10 intriguing   

adj.有趣的；迷人的v.搞阴谋诡计(intrigue的现在分词)；激起…的好奇心

参考例句：

• These discoveries raise intriguing questions. 这些发现带来了非常有趣的问题。
• It all sounds very intriguing. 这些听起来都很有趣。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 discrepancy   

n.不同；不符；差异；矛盾

参考例句：

• The discrepancy in their ages seemed not to matter.他们之间年龄的差异似乎没有多大关系。
• There was a discrepancy in the two reports of the accident.关于那次事故的两则报道有不一致之处。

12 apparently   

adv.显然地；表面上，似乎

参考例句：

• An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
• He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。

13 benign   

adj.善良的，慈祥的；良性的，无危险的

参考例句：

• The benign weather brought North America a bumper crop.温和的气候给北美带来大丰收。
• Martha is a benign old lady.玛莎是个仁慈的老妇人。

14 fungus   

n.真菌，真菌类植物

参考例句：

• Mushrooms are a type of fungus.蘑菇是一种真菌。
• This fungus can just be detected by the unaided eye.这种真菌只用肉眼就能检查出。

15 parasite   

n.寄生虫；寄生菌；食客

参考例句：

• The lazy man was a parasite on his family.那懒汉是家里的寄生虫。
• I don't want to be a parasite.I must earn my own way in life.我不想做寄生虫，我要自己养活自己。