双语科学新闻 | 远紫外光可用于对抗冠状病毒 | 心脏虚拟三维重建揭示神经细胞网络…

This week’s important news

　　1.- Far-UVC light could be used against coronavirus without harming people.

　　远紫外光可用于对抗冠状病毒且对人安全

　　A joint study from the University of St. Andrews and Ninewells Hospital in Dundee used computer simulations to study a type of ultraviolet light known as far-UVC, which could be safely used to disinfect air in public places to help in the fight against coronavirus.

　　圣安德鲁斯大学（University of St.Andrews）和敦提的Ninewells医院（Ninewells Hospital）进行一项联合研究——利用计算机模拟研究了一种被称为远紫外光（far-UVC）的紫外线，这种紫外线可以安全地用于公共场所的空气消毒，帮助对抗冠状病毒。

　　UVC light from special germicidal lamps with wavelengths in the range 200nm to 280nm kills germs such as bacteria and viruses, and has been used for decades to disinfect hospital wards and operating.

　　波长在200nm到280nm之间的特殊杀菌灯发出的UVC光可杀死细菌和病毒等病原菌，几十年来一直被用于医院病房和手术室的消毒。

　　However, while studying the impact of far-UVC disinfectant lamps on human skin, researchers found that far-UVC lamps that emit at wavelengths around 222nm may be safer because proteins in the skin efficiently absorb this light and provide a natural protective barrier.

　　然而，研究人员在研究远紫外光消毒灯对人体皮肤的影响时发现，波长在222nm左右的远紫外光灯可能更安全。因为皮肤中的蛋白质能有效吸收这种光，并提供天然的保护屏障。

　　Therefore, lamps that are engineered to filter out ultraviolet wavelengths longer than 230nm are safer than existing germicidal lamps. These special UVC lamps are now being investigated around the world as a means to help eliminate the virus responsible for the current pandemic.

　　因此，设计能过滤波长超过230nm的紫外光灯比现有的杀菌灯更安全。这些特殊的UVC灯目前正在全世界范围内进行检测，作为帮助消除目前流行病毒的手段。

　　参考链接：

　　https://www.sciencefocus.com/news/far-uvc-light-could-be-used-against-coronavirus-without-harming-people/

　　2.-Virtual 3D recreation of the heart reveals nerve cells network.

　　心脏虚拟三维重建揭示神经细胞网络

　　The heart has a network of nerve cells known as the ‘intrinsic cardiac nervous system’ (ICN). Now for the first time, a virtual 3D heart has been created that showcases the ICN on a cellular level.

　　心脏有一个被称为“心内神经系统”(ICN) 的神经细胞网络。现在，科学家们首次创建了一个虚拟的三维心脏，在细胞水平上展示ICN。

　　The 3D model was based on a rat’s heart, to do so scientists combined a variety of different techniques, taking thin slices through the length of the heart, obtaining microscope images and tissue samples throughout the process.

　　这个3D模型是基于大鼠的心脏，为了实现这个目的，科学家们在整个过程中结合各种不同的技术，通过采集心脏长度的切片，获得显微镜图像和组织样本。

　　They also extracted individual nerve cells rat hearts, as well as genetic information; the data was then fitted onto the 3D model, allowing the scientists to understand the role played by each nerve cell.

　　他们还提取了大鼠心脏单个神经细胞，以及遗传信息；然后，将这些数据安装到3D模型上，让科学家们了解每个神经细胞的作用。

　　While the research was based on rat hearts, the team says that it should have an impact on human medicine.

　　虽然这项研究是基于老鼠的心脏设计，但研究人员表示，它应该会对人类医学产生一定的影响。

　　参考链接：

　　https://www.sciencefocus.com/nature/neurons-mapped-out-in-virtual-rat-heart/

　　3.-Half the matter in the universe was missing. Scientists found it hiding between galaxies.

　　宇宙中有一半的物质消失了，科学家们发现它隐藏在银河系之间

　　In the late 1990s, cosmologists and astronomers made a prediction about the amount ordinary matter in the universe, but when they counted up everything they could see they came up short by a lot.

　　20世纪90年代末，宇宙学家和天文学家对宇宙中普通物质的数量进行了预测，但当他们计算出他们所能看到的一切时，却发现它们的数量少了很多。

　　The sum of all the ordinary matter that cosmologists measured only added up to about half of the 5% what was supposed to be in the universe. This is known as the “missing baryon problem” and for over 20 years cosmologists have been looking for the missing matter without success.

　　宇宙学家估量的所有普通物质的总和，加起来只有宇宙中本该存在5%的一半。这被称为“失踪重子问题”，20多年来，宇宙学家一直在寻找缺失物质，但没有成功。

　　It took the discovery of a new celestial phenomenon and entirely new telescope technology, but earlier this year scientists from the department of Astronomy & Astrophysics at the University of California –Santa Cruz, and the department of Astrophysics of Curtin University, finally found the missing matter.

　　解决这个问题需要发现一种新的天体现象和全新的望远镜技术，但在今年早些时候，来自加州大学圣克鲁斯分校天文与天体物理学系和科廷大学天体物理学系的科学家们终于发现了失踪的物质。

　　Through a collaborative project called CRAFT, the scientists began using the Australian Square Kilometer Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) radio telescope in the outback of Western Australia to look for FRBs.

　　通过一个名为CRAFT的合作项目，科学家们开始使用位于西澳大利亚内陆的澳大利亚平方公里阵列探路者（ASKAP）射电望远镜来寻找FRBs。

　　The telescope can watch huge portions of the sky, about 60 times the size of a full moon, and it can simultaneously detect FRBs and pinpoint where in the sky they come from.

　　这台望远镜可以观测到太空的很大一部分，大约是满月的60倍大，它可以同时精确探测到FRB并定位它们来自太空的何方。

　　Using this technology scientists were able to detect the missing baryons in full, solving this cosmological riddle and putting to rest two decades of searching.

　　利用这项技术，科学家们能够完全探测到失踪的重子，解开了这个宇宙之谜，圆满结束长达20年的探索。

　　参考链接：

　　https://www.popsci.com/story/science/missing-matter-whim-fast-radio-bursts/

　　4.- Huntington’s disease can be detected in the brain 24 years before symptoms show.

　　亨廷顿病可在症状出现前24年在大脑中检测到

　　Huntington’s disease is a hereditary neurodegenerative disorder that causes the progressive breakdown of nerve cells in the brain, deteriorating a person's physical and mental abilities; there is currently no cure for it.

　　亨廷顿病是一种遗传性神经退行性疾病，它会导致大脑神经细胞的进行性破坏，使人的身体和精神能力恶化；目前尚无治愈方法。

　　A Well-come funded study developed by researches from the Huntington’s disease Centre and the Queen Square Institute of Neurology of the University College London’s (UCL), the University of Cambridge, and the University of Iowa, suggested that the earliest brain changes due to Huntington’s disease can be detected 24 years before clinical symptoms show.

　　由亨廷顿病中心和伦敦大学学院（UCL）皇后广场神经病学研究所、剑桥大学和爱荷华大学的研究人员的一项基金资助研究表明，亨廷顿病引起的早期大脑变化可以在临床症状出现前24年被发现。

　　Sixty-four people with the mutation took part alongside 67 others without the mutation who served as control subjects for comparison.

　　64名有基因突变的人和67名被作为对照组比较的没有基因突变的人一起参加了实验。

　　The study found mutation carriers were, on average 24 years ahead of the predicted disease onset, based on their age and a genetic test.

　　研究发现，根据年龄和基因测试，突变携带者平均比预测的发病提前24年。

　　These subjects showed no changes in thinking, behavior or involuntary movements commonly found in the disease, but researchers did detect a subtle increase in the spinal fluid of a neuronal protein called neurofilament light (NfL), which is often the product of nerve cell damage.

　　这些受试者在这种疾病中常见的思维、行为或不自主运动方面没有表现出变化，但研究人员确实检测到携带者脊髓液中一种叫做神经原纤维素(NfL)的神经蛋白的细微增加，这通常是神经细胞损伤的产物。

　　The researchers said their findings could help with clinical trials by identifying the ideal time to start treating the disease delivering the right drug at the right time to effectively manage it, having as an ultimate goal treating the people before the genetic mutation has caused any functional impairment.

　　研究人员表示，他们的发现可以帮助临床试验，确定开始治疗该疾病的理想时间，在合适的时间使用合适的药物，从而有效治疗该疾病，并把在基因突变造成任何功能损害之前对患者进行治疗作为最终目标。

　　参考链接：

　　https://www.sciencefocus.com/news/huntingtons-disease-can-be-detected-in-the-brain-24-years-before-symptoms-show/

　　5.- Early-stage breast cancers ‘more than doubles’ risk of invasive breast cancer death later in life

　　早期乳腺癌中患浸润性乳腺癌的死亡风险增加“一倍多”

　　A study from the Nuffield Department of Population Health of the University of Oxford and the National Cancer Registration and Analysis Service of Public Health England, published on the British Medical Journal‎ (BMJ), stated that non-invasive breast cancer risk lasts for at least 20 years after diagnosis.

　　牛津大学Nuffield人口健康系和英国公共卫生署国家癌症登记和分析中心在《英国医学杂志》（BMJ）发表的一项研究表明，非浸润性乳腺癌的风险在诊断后至少持续20年。

　　During the study the scientists set out to track women diagnosed with  (DCIS), which is a type of non-invasive breast cancer(meaning it has not spread beyond the milk duct), to see whether they were subsequently diagnosed with breast cancer, or died from breast cancer.

　　在这项研究中，科学家们开始追踪被诊断为导管原位癌（DCIS）的女性，这是一种非侵润性乳腺癌（意味着它没有扩散到乳导管之外），看她们其后是否被诊断出患有乳腺癌，或死于乳腺癌。

　　By December 2014, 13606 women had been followed for up to 5 years, 10998 for 5-9 years, 6861 for 10-14 years, 2620 for 15-19 years, and 939 for at least 20 years.

　　截至2014年12月，共有13606名女性接受了长达5年的随访，10998名女性接受了5至9年的随访，6861名女性接受了10至14年的随访，2620名女性接受了15至19年的随访，939名女性接受了至少20年的随访。

　　Among these women, 2076 of them developed invasive breast cancer (more than double than what was expected from the national cancer incidence rates), 310 women died from breast cancer (70% higher than that expected from national breast cancer mortality rates).

　　在这些女性中，有2076人患浸润性乳腺癌（比预期的全国乳腺癌发病率高出一倍以上），310名妇女死于乳腺癌（比预期的全国乳腺癌死亡率高出70%）。

　　Scientists found that the increased risk lasts for at least 20 years after diagnosis, suggesting that patients who are found to have the earliest form of breast cancer have a higher risk of invasive breast cancer and dying from the disease.

　　科学家发现，一经确诊，这种高风险至少持续20年，这表明被发现患有早期乳腺癌的患者中患浸润性乳腺癌并死于乳腺癌的风险更高。

　　They also found that women who had more intensive treatment for their DCIS had lower rates of invasive breast cancer, women who had breast-conserving surgery had a lower rate of invasive breast cancer if they also had radiotherapy, and the lowest rate was in women who had a mastectomy.

　　他们还发现，对DCIS进行强化治疗的女性患浸润性乳腺癌的几率较低，接受保乳手术的女性患者如果同时接受放射治疗，则患浸润性乳腺癌的几率也较低，而接受乳房切除术的女性患浸润性乳腺癌的几率最低。

　　Therefore, they concluded that a more intensive treatment and larger final surgical margins were associated with lower risks of invasive breast cancer.

　　因此，他们得出结论，更强化的治疗和更大范围的外科手术会使患浸润性乳腺癌的风险较低。