【Native Speaker每日综合训练—32系列】【32-18】科技

zxppx

Official Weibo: http://weibo.com/u/3476904471
大家好! 胖胖翔来了! 这几次我都发的比较晚，sorry! 下次恢复正常哈，I promise! 今天的科技文有涉及一点点艺术方面的dancing and painting, I like them~ 当然少不了universe and health, enjoy~

Part I：Speaker

【Rephrase1】
Article 1
For Those Unable To Talk, A Machine That Speaks Their Voice

[Dialog, 4: 43]

Source:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2014/02/25/280708234/for-those-unable-to-talk-a-machine-that-speaks-their-voice
公益申请名额，每月一名

zxppx

Part II：Speed

【Time 2】
Article 2
Making Virtual Humans Dance

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS—The motion capture technology that sent Na'vi prancing through Pandora with lifelike accuracy in the film Avatar has another use in the lab: creating fine-scale, highly personalized models of how a body moves. Computer scientist Nadia Magnenat Thalmann of the University of Geneva in Switzerland and colleagues have been working to design virtual replicas of athletes’ bodies—not just their general shape and movement, but also dynamics hidden within the joints that bear the strain. Their first test subjects: a group of professional ballerinas from the Grand Theater of Geneva. Due to the unusual stress on their joints as they dance, many ballerinas need hip replacement surgery in their early teens, says Thalmann, who described the ongoing modeling project here today at the annual meeting of AAAS, which publishes Science. The case study used MRI to generate a model of each dancer’s muscles, cartilage, and bone, slice by slice. Then, by adding data from a motion sensor suit (like the one in the photo above), the researchers watched how stress was distributed within the tissues (colored joint models, left) as she performed. The results have helped each dancer understand which movements put her at risk of long-term damage, Thalmann says, and predict the need for future surgery. This technology is still young, Thalmann points out, and the process of analyzing personalized data takes about a month. But she predicts that doctors will someday use the method to quickly model strain and injury in the clinic … even for those who don’t regularly subject their bodies to high kicks and splits.


Source:
字数[262]
http://news.sciencemag.org/technology/2014/02/scienceshot-making-virtual-humans-dance


【Time 3】
Article 3
Acetaminophen use in pregnancy linked to kids’ slightly higher risk of ADHD


Women who take acetaminophen during pregnancy are more likely to have a child with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder than are women who don’t, according to an analysis of nearly 41,000 pairs of mothers and children in a Danish birth registry.

Researchers found that more than half of the women, who gave birth between 1996 and 2002, had used the pain reliever during pregnancy.  Calls to the women when the children were 7 years old revealed that children whose moms used any acetaminophen during pregnancy were 37 percent more apt to be diagnosed with ADHD or a related disorder than children whose moms didn’t use the drug. If the women used it in all three trimesters, the apparent risk for offspring was 61 percent higher than for children whose mothers didn’t use the drug. Out of nearly 41,000 children, fewer than 1,000 were diagnosed with ADHD and related disorders.

The data establish an association and not cause and effect. But the researchers note that acetaminophen, also sold as Tylenol or Panadol, can cross the placental barrier and may affect hormones in a fetus.


字数[180]
Source:
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/acetaminophen-use-pregnancy-linked-kids%E2%80%99-slightly-higher-risk-adhd


【Time 4】
Article 4
Cosmic light could close quantum-weirdness loophole
Distant quasars would decide whether quantum entanglement is an illusion.

Do you ever feel like the Universe is plotting against you? Strange as it may sound, physicists are planning to test whether a cosmic conspiracy could lie behind one of the weirdest phenomena in quantum physics, in which particles appear to influence each other, no matter how far they are separated. The experiment, proposed in a paper due to be published in Physical Review Letters, would use light from distant quasars to verify that this 'entanglement' is real. The test could also help cosmologists to distinguish between rival models of the early Universe.

Entanglement is a peculiarly quantum effect that links the states of separate objects, such as elementary particles, so that when one of the states is measured the properties of its twin are immediately affected. The notion that the particles influence each other faster than the speed of light famously galled Einstein, who argued instead that there could be some 'hidden variables' that influence the particles' behaviour in experiments, in line with classical physics.

Entanglement has been demonstrated in countless experiments starting in the 1970s, but a loophole could still invalidate the conclusion that the quantum explanation is correct: if hidden variables exist, then it is possible that they could influence the testing apparatus to give the illusion that correlations are more common than they are. This would require the history of the Universe to be pre-ordained to give scientists the illusion that they have complete freedom in how they set up their measurement, whereas in fact they do not.

In 2010, quantum physicist Anton Zeilinger of the University of Vienna and colleagues carried out a test that ruled out the possibility that hidden variables created during the experiment could have conspired with the detection apparatus. “But that left open the possibility that a conspiracy was set up further back in time, even just a few milliseconds before the experiment began,” says Andrew Friedman, a cosmologist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge and a coauthor of the current paper.


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【Time 5】


Cosmic light

To minimize the risk of a conspiracy, both Zeilinger’s and Friedman’s teams are looking to the skies — in particular at light coming from energetic cosmic objects known as quasars. The plan is to set up a standard entanglement test in the laboratory. While it is running, the researchers will also measure light coming from two quasars on opposite sides of the sky. On the basis of, for instance, whether the light from the first quasar hits their telescope at an even or an odd nanosecond, they would then make a decision about which two properties of their first entangled particle to observe. They would similarly decide what measurements to make on the second entangled particle, on the basis of the arrival time of the light from the second quasar.

Quasars far enough apart would have formed in regions that have never been able to influence each other since the first fractions of a second after the Big Bang, some 13.8 billion years ago. If the results once again favour the quantum interpretation, the experiment would push the point in time at which any hidden-variable conspiracy could have occurred “far further back than it ever has been before”, says Zeilinger: to the beginning of the Universe itself.

Not everyone is convinced by the strategy, however. “It’s a cool idea to use light that originated a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far way, to make choices in your experiment,” says Richard Gill, who studies quantum statistics at the University of Leiden, the Netherlands. “The trouble is, they must detect this light signal using apparatus on the ground, so there’s still the opportunity for a conspiracy to arise in those detectors today.”

Friedman acknowledges Gill’s concern and says that it is up to them to minimize this possibility. Meanwhile, Zeilinger’s group is setting up the cosmic conspiracy test using telescopes in the Canary Islands, and the two teams hope to now collaborate.

As far as the outcome goes, Zeilinger is placing his bets on quantum weirdness: “I do not think we will see anything unexpected,” he says. Friedman agrees, but he adds, “You never know what you will see. Maybe quantum mechanics is wrong.”

If classical physics does prevail, Friedman notes, this could open the door to testing rivals models for the Universe’s history. The point at which the quantum correlations break down in the lab could be related to the duration of the period of exponential expansion thought to have occurred in the first instants of the Big Bang, known as cosmic inflation, says Friedman. “This quantum lab experiment could one day be used as a test of cosmology,” he says.


字数[443]
Source:
http://www.nature.com/news/cosmic-light-could-close-quantum-weirdness-loophole-1.14771



【Time 6】
Article 5
A Mineral Mystery in the Driest Place on Earth

During his travels in South America in 1835, Charles Darwin came to the point where “the desert of Atacama commences, where nothing can exist.” Considered the driest place on Earth, the Atacama Desert receives less than 1 to 2 mm of rainfall each year. The only thing growing, it seems, is one of the world’s strangest mineral deposits (pictured). They appear as endless salt-encrusted desert basins, and their chemical composition makes them so unusual that some geologists say these minerals couldn’t exist in nature if the deposits weren’t right before their eyes. For instance, nitrate salts, like saltpeter, could be made by bacteria, except none have been detected in the desert. Other salts made from ions like dichromate are found nowhere other than the Atacama Desert. How these mineral deposits were made has puzzled geologists since Darwin, but a new study says that the minerals came from three separate sources. One source was sea spray from the Pacific Ocean, 50 kilometers to the east, bringing chlorine and sulfur, which landed in the desert and dried into salt crystals. Other minerals formed from thin air, as nitrogen in the atmosphere reacts with salts and dust, depositing nitrate minerals on the ground over time. And the last source, researchers report in an upcoming issue of Geology, was rain falling into the Andes Mountains 100 kilometers west of the Atacama, leaching material like dichromate ions into ground water flowing toward the desert; over millions of years, the mountains grew taller and the change in elevation forced more ground water toward the surface. At the same time, the parched desert climate was becoming increasingly drier. This aridity caused dissolved minerals in the ground water to precipitate into the vast mineral deposits seen today, creating a landscape unlike anywhere else in the world.


字数[298]
Source:
http://news.sciencemag.org/chemistry/2014/02/scienceshot-mineral-mystery-driest-place-earth

zxppx

Part III： Obstacle

【Paraphase7】
Article 6
3D Imaging Reveals How Paintings Were Made

There’s more to a painting than meets the eye. Under the surface of a sun-dappled landscape or a scrumptious still life lie dozens of meticulously applied layers of paint, forming a complex 3D structure that is all but invisible to viewers. Now, an imaging technique borrowed from biomedical research promises to let art historians and conservators peer into the depths of paintings without damaging them, providing new insights into how these works were made.

“Right now, if an art conservator wants to understand the three-dimensional layering structure of a painting, they almost certainly take a scalpel to it,” removing tiny core samples to study its stratigraphy, says Warren Warren, a chemist and biomedical engineer at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. He spends most of his time developing laser systems used to image human tissue. But when he visited an exhibit on detecting art forgeries in London’s National Gallery a few years ago, he began wondering what art historians and conservators could learn about artwork if they had access to the state-of-the-art imaging technologies like the ones in his lab.

One method Warren works on is called pump-probe microscopy, which uses carefully timed pulses of laser light to electrically excite the molecules in a sample. As the molecules gain and lose energy in reaction to the pulses, they emit signals that serve as identifying “fingerprints” that reveal their chemical makeup. Pump-probe microscopy is especially useful for studying biological pigments like melanin in skin. So Warren wondered: Could it work on other kinds of pigments, too? Like, say, paint?

“We built a laser system that was designed to do a good job of diagnosing skin cancer and then realized that we could use exactly that same laser system to look at Renaissance artwork,” he says. The low-powered laser pulses travel deep into a painting without scattering as conventional light sources do, returning a remarkably clear picture of its subsurface structure as well as chemical fingerprints of the pigments in each layer.

The team initially tested the technique on mock-up paintings made with historically accurate Renaissance pigments, proving that pump-probe microscopy can distinguish between the 3D structures of a purple created by mixing red and blue pigments and a similar shade made by layering red over blue. Then, the researchers turned their laser eye on an actual Renaissance painting: The Crucifixion, painted by Puccio Capanna around 1330. By imaging small sections of the blue robes of the Virgin Mary and one of the flying angels, they revealed that Capanna used very different pigments to create each one, despite their similar colors. Mary’s robe is composed of a thick layer of ground-up lapis lazuli, a deep blue stone that at the time was “more expensive than gold,” Warren says. The blue of the angel’s robe, on the other hand, was created through a complex layering of several less precious pigments, with just a hint of lapis lazuli, the team reports online this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

“Honestly, for me it was like a glimpse into the future,” says Francesca Casadio, a conservation scientist at the Art Institute of Chicago in Illinois who was not involved in the research. Pump-probe microscopy could be especially useful for identifying places on aging paintings where the pigments have started to decay, she says. That could help conservators fine-tune their efforts to halt such deterioration. “Such a boost in technology is what the art conservation and museum fields need to ensure that unique works of art are and remain protected in the best possible manner,” agrees Koen Janssens, an analytical chemist at the University of Antwerp in Belgium who was not involved in the research.

Warren hopes pump-probe microscopy might also aid in the identification of forgeries. If the 3D structure of brushstrokes varies from artist to artist, for example, it could serve as a kind of signature, helping historians distinguish between the work of a master and an imitator.

Casadio is skeptical, however, that such identification will ever be precise enough to supplant the sophisticated techniques historians and appraisers already use. She emphasizes that it will be quite some time before pump-probe microscopy becomes practical for most museums. Not only does it now take hours to analyze a few square millimeters of a painting, but the work also needs to be done in a lab with the help of trained scientists. Museums need a smaller system they can use themselves, she says. Not to worry, Warren says: Biomedical researchers are already shrinking down pump-probe microscopy systems, and it’s only a matter of time before these new eyes start looking at art.


字数[773]
Source:
http://news.sciencemag.org/chemistry/2014/01/3d-imaging-reveals-how-paintings-were-made

风随心动01

来得早不如来得巧~
感谢PPX~

疏离无罪

占~~~~~~~~~
Speaker: the voice bank can save people's voice before they lose their speech and then people can use machine to speak out the words they have recourded before.

01:14
The motion capture technology can creat a model how a body moves and then analysis which action may be a risk to the body.

00:37
Study shows that the use of acetaminophen in pregnancy will raise the rate of getting ADHD of the child.

02:10
Scientists want to test whether a cosmic conspiracy could lie behind one of the weirdest phenomena in quantum physics.

01:40
Describe how scientists make the experiment and avoid possible risk.

01:43
The amazing minerals come from three separate sources:sea spray,thin air and rainfall.

04:56
Main Idea:A new tech that can show how paintings were made and identify paintings.
Traditional method of building a 3D layer structure of a painting may destory the art work.A kind of new tech called pump-probe microscopy uses special laser light and laser system to analyze the pigment by revealing chemical make ups.
One experiment made on a real Renaissance painting found out that robes with the same color in the painting actually painted by different pigments.
This new technology can help museums to protect art works by showing which part of the working starts decay.
It can also be useful in identifying the art work.Since the pigments of the paint reveals the identities.
But it will still be quite a long time before this tech can become practical in museum.Because it take hours to analyze the paintings and it must be used in lab.

sherlock1992

Thx, PPX~.   
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xiaofan0205

Thanks

Time2: 2'15"
The motion capture technology is still young, but doctors will someday use the method to quickly model strain and injury in the clinic.

Time3: 1'23"
Children, whose mother taked acetaminophen during pregnancy, are more likely to be diagnosed with ADHD and related disorders.

Time4: 3'02"
Scientist are planning to test whether a cosmic conspiracy could lie behind one of the weirdest phenomena in quantum physics no matter how far they are separated.

Time5: 3'04"
The research will measure light coming from two quasars on opposite sides if the sky to minimize the risk of a conspiracy.

Time6: 1'58"
The mineral deposits in the desert of Atacama is a mystery, a new study says that the minerals came from three separate sources.

Obstacle 5'32"
An imaging technique borrowed from biomedical research promises to let art historians and conservators peer into the depths of paintings without damaging them, providing new insights into how these works were made.

捉妖

好久没回来主页了..

别删我》。。正在做，真的 警察叔叔~~~~~~~~


【Time2】Scientists model the dancer's tissues and stress to predict the points at which dancers are at risks.
【Time3】Pregnant women who take Ace. drug would be more likely to give birth to babies with some diseases than those who do not take such drug.
【Time4】???that one particle will be effected by another has been demonstrated, but there is a loophole in this thesis since the test apparatus should be effected too. But a new study ruled out this possibility.
【Time5】du bu dong。。。
【Time6】the driest place in the world is Atacama, where exists a great amount of minerals. The three sources of the minerals is from pacific ocean 、 air、 and the rainfall from its neighbor.

awayawei

占座占座

Speaker
Carol, an ALS patient, has recorded his voice through a speech device. This voice banking can speak their voice for those unable to talk.
This machine not only helps the patients to speak but their family member to feel they're alive.

Speed
Time2 00:01:51.41 262words
Motion capture technology collects the stress data of ballerinas when they are performing. This analysis helps them to understand risks of actions for future surgery.
Although this technoly is just newly developed, it's predicted that it will apply to quickly model strain and injury in the future.

Time3 00:01:46.28 180words
Reserchers have found that women who take acetaminophen are more likely to haven a child with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder than are women who don't.
More data show the association between the medince and the dicease, but not cause and effect.

Time4 00:03:05.61 333words
Recently a experiment has been carried out to verify the entanglement is real.
Entanglement links the states of separate objects.
Although many experiments have showed entanglement, hidden variables may exist to influence the accuracy.
In 2010, a test to rule out hidden variables was carried out. But this test is still challenged as it is possible that conspiracy might happend before the experiment began.

Time5 00:03:34.22 443words
To minimize the risk of conspiracy, a standard entanglement test will be carried out by measuring light.
However, some scientists think this test cannot rule out a conspiracy in the detectors on the ground.
Two teams hope to collaborate. And the test could be used to test universe's history

Time6 00:02:12.09 298words
There're special mineral deposits growing in the Atacama Desert. The minerals came from three seperate sources:sea spray, thin air and rain fall.

Time7 00:06:06.95 773words
Pump-probe microscopy which borrowed from biomedical research uses laser to detect 3D structure of a painting without damanging it.
The team applied this methord first on mock-up paintings then on actual painting.
It's assumed that such technology will apply to art conservation and identification of forgeries.
Although some people doubt whether it is precise enough, biomedical researchers have been improving the system.

MAGGIEHE1993

又木有首页了。。。。。。。谢谢楼主啊~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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Speaker: Researchers have developed a machine that can help ALS patients record their voice. The machine is called voice
         bank.


time2: 1min 44"
       Scientists have designed virtual replicas of athletes' bodies. The design can help doctors to quickly model strain
       and injury in the clinic in the future. The writer made a example of ballerinas.


time3: 1min 10"
       Researchers have found that women who take acetaminophen during pregnancy are more likely to have a child with attention-
       deficit disorder than are women who don't.


time4: 2min 41"
       Physicists are planning to test whether a cosmic conspiracy could lie behind one of the weirdest phenomena in quantum
       physics.


time5: 2min 51"
       Scientists plan to use light coming from energetic cosmic objects known as quasars and conduct a standard entanglement
       test in the laboratory.


time6: 2min
       How the mineral deposits were made in the desert of Atacama has puzzled geologists for many years. A new study suggests
       that the minerals came from three separate sources.


Obstacle: 5min 50"
       An imaging techniqure borrowed from biomedical research promises to let are historican and conservators peer into the
       depth of paintings without damaging them.
       How Warren Warren developed the idea of using laser systems to detect layers of artworks.
       One method Warren works on is called pump-probe microscopy.
       The test results of the pump-probe microscopy on both mock-ups and an actual Renaissance painting.
       Scientists hold positive opinions about the new technique.
       Warren hopes pump-probe microscopy might also aid in the identification of forgeries.
       A scientist raised her concern about the technique but Warren thinks the problem will be solved soon.