2022年经济学人 焊接伤口(1)（在线收听）

Science & Technology

科技版块

Medical technology

医学技术

Heat treatment

加热处理

Soldering 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 remains 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 alloy, but a paste of biocompatible material, such as albumin, a protein that is an important constituent 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 precisely is tricky.

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 fully 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。