2021年经济学人 上海交大出世新型义肢（1）

Science & technology

科技板块

Prosthetics

义肢

A new prosthetic hand

一种新型假手

It gives users the sensation of touch, and is cheaper than alternatives, too

它能赋予使用者触感，而且比其它替代品便宜

Prosthetic limbs have been around for a long time.

假肢已经有很长的历史了。

The oldest known, a piece of wood carved and painted to replace the lost toe of an Egyptian noblewoman, dates back more than 3,000 years.

已经最古老的假肢可以追溯至3000多年前，是一块经过雕刻和涂漆的木头，用来代替一位埃及贵妇人失去的脚趾。

But prosthetics which behave like the real thing as well as looking like it are still very much a work in progress.

不过，外形和功能都像真肢体的假肢基本上仍在研发中。

And a group at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, in China, have just come up with what looks to be a significant advance—an affordable¹ prosthetic hand

不久前，中国上海交通大学的一个研究小组取得了一项重大进展，他们发明了一种造价低廉的假手，

that not only responds like a real one to signals from the wearer's brain, but is also able to signal back to the brain what it is touching² and doing.

它不仅能像真手那样响应佩戴者的大脑发出的信号，还能向大脑发回有关它的动作和物品触感的信号。

Gu Guoying and his colleagues describe their invention in Nature Biomedical Engineering.

谷国迎和他的同事在《自然生物医学工程》上对他们的发明作出了描述。

Its fingers are made of rigid³ tubes connected by soft joints⁴.

这只假手的手指由软关节连接的刚性管制成，

These are similarly connected to a 3D-printed plastic palm.

通过相似的方式连接到一个3D打印的塑料手掌上。

The whole is covered with a flexible elastomer layer to mimic⁵ skin and is attached to the user's residual⁶ limb via a customised plastic socket⁷.

整只假手上覆盖着一层柔性弹性体，模拟皮肤，并通过定制的塑料接口连接到用户的残肢上。

In contrast to current models, which are electrically powered, Dr Gu's hand is powered pneumatically by a pump held in a waist bag, with the connecting air lines running under the user's clothes alongside communication cables.

与目前的电动假手不同，谷国迎的气动假手通过装在一个腰包里的气泵驱动，连接气泵与假手的充气线和通讯电线藏在使用者的衣服里面。

This reduces its weight below 300 grams—half that of some current models, and less, indeed, than the weight of a real hand—though the waist bag adds a further 444 grams.

这使假手的重量减少到了300克以下，重量只有目前一些型号的一半，实际上比真手还要轻。不过，装有气泵的腰袋还有444克的重量。

1 affordable   

adj.支付得起的，不太昂贵的

参考例句：

• The rent for the four-roomed house is affordable.四居室房屋的房租付得起。
• There are few affordable apartments in big cities.在大城市中没有几所公寓是便宜的。

2 touching   

adj.动人的，使人感伤的

参考例句：

• It was a touching sight.这是一幅动人的景象。
• His letter was touching.他的信很感人。

3 rigid   

adj.严格的，死板的；刚硬的，僵硬的

参考例句：

• She became as rigid as adamant.她变得如顽石般的固执。
• The examination was so rigid that nearly all aspirants were ruled out.考试很严，几乎所有的考生都被淘汰了。

4 joints   

接头( joint的名词复数 )； 关节； 公共场所（尤指价格低廉的饮食和娱乐场所） （非正式）； 一块烤肉 （英式英语）

参考例句：

• Expansion joints of various kinds are fitted on gas mains. 各种各样的伸缩接头被安装在煤气的总管道上了。
• Expansion joints of various kinds are fitted on steam pipes. 各种各样的伸缩接头被安装在蒸气管道上了。

5 mimic   

v.模仿，戏弄；n.模仿他人言行的人

参考例句：

• A parrot can mimic a person's voice.鹦鹉能学人的声音。
• He used to mimic speech peculiarities of another.他过去总是模仿别人讲话的特点。

6 residual   

adj.复播复映追加时间；存留下来的，剩余的

参考例句：

• There are still a few residual problems with the computer program.电脑程序还有一些残留问题。
• The resulting residual chromatism is known as secondary spectrum.所得到的剩余色差叫做二次光谱。

7 socket   

n.窝，穴，孔，插座，插口

参考例句：

• He put the electric plug into the socket.他把电插头插入插座。
• The battery charger plugs into any mains socket.这个电池充电器可以插入任何类型的电源插座。