科技动态:杀菌油漆取代消毒水?

Hospitals around the world spend billions of dollars each year to maintain sterile¹ environments. Every surface, especially in operating rooms, must be kept bacteria-free to prevent the spread of disease and the risk of infection. Scientists at Rensselaer Polytechnic² Institute in New York have come up with a new approach, instead of constantly cleaning surfaces, that would apply a coat of bacterial-killing³ paints.

全世界的医院每年花费几十亿美元来维护医院的无菌环境。医院的每处表面，尤其是手术室必须保持无菌，这样才能避免传染疾病。纽约伦斯勒理工学院的科学家们最近发现了新方法，与其不断地清洁表面，不如应用一种杀菌涂料。

The researchers have developed a coating that combines enzymes⁵ with nanoparticles. Enzymes occur naturally in all living organisms to regulate their chemical processes, like digestion⁶ or the killing of disease-causing micro-organisms such as bacteria.

研究人员发明了一种含有纳米颗粒的酶。酶天然存在与人类器官中以保持器官内的化学反应平衡，如人类的消化过程和机体消灭致病微生物——细菌的过程。

"Our focus has been on looking at a technology that allows us to have essentially⁷ any surface and make it anti-bacterial or antimicrobial in general, and what we wanna do is essentially use what nature uses."

“我们努力的方向是找到一种常见的，能够消灭大多数细菌的抗菌剂，我们要做的是在自然环境中找到这种药物。”

Dordick says that by attaching enzymes to nanoparticles and then adding them to paint, the researchers have been able to create a bacterial-resistant surface, the team's lab test showed that anti-bacterial paint is far more effective in sterilizing⁸ a surface than conventional cleaning.

Dordick表示，将酶中附上纳米粒子，并把他们加到涂料中，研究人员已经将防菌涂料刷到墙上。这一实验室的研究结果表明，杀菌涂料消灭细菌的效果明显高于传统的消毒水的作用。

"Obviously everything has been done in a lab so far. So there is still a translation to commercial side. But in the laboratory, it's quite effective so, for example, if you take this enzyme⁴ on the nanomaterial and you contact it with a million cells per milliliter, which is a pretty good concentration, within several hours, you are down to zero. I mean it kills them all."

“很明显，能在实验室中尝试的我们都试了。但用于出售的版本还是和我们实验出的样品不尽相同。在实验室中，这种涂料效果极强，举个例子，如果你用高浓缩的细菌液体，每毫升1百万个细菌细胞接触含有纳米粒子的酶，不出几小时，细菌数量就变为0。也就是说，细菌全部被杀死了。”

Dordick believes that commercialization of bacteria-resistant paint is a realistic possibility. The enzymes are naturally occurring, so are easily produced. As for attaching the enzymes to nanopartices on a commercial scale, Dordick says that advances in nanotechnology research should make it possible in about five years. Dordick believes the ability to apply these anti-bacterial paints in coatings will have applications far beyond the world of healthcare; he says the food processing industry where hygiene⁹ and cleanliness are essential to food safety could also benefit from this technology.

Dordick相信用于出售的除菌涂料是最适合实际应用的版本。酶在自然界中广泛存在，所以容易生产。Dordick表示，未来5年，纳米技术的进步将使工业生产附有纳米粒子的酶成为现实。Dordick认为，使用除菌涂料的不仅仅局限于医疗卫生，他说对于食品业来说，清洁卫生的环境同样重要。

Ben Gruber, Reuters.

Ben Gruber报道，路透社消息。

enzyme 酶

nanoparticle 纳米粒子

hygiene 卫生

1 sterile   

adj.不毛的，不孕的，无菌的，枯燥的，贫瘠的

参考例句：

• This top fits over the bottle and keeps the teat sterile.这个盖子严实地盖在奶瓶上，保持奶嘴无菌。
• The farmers turned the sterile land into high fields.农民们把不毛之地变成了高产田。

2 polytechnic   

adj.各种工艺的，综合技术的；n.工艺(专科)学校；理工(专科)学校

参考例句：

• She was trained as a teacher at Manchester Polytechnic.她在曼彻斯特工艺专科学校就读，准备毕业后做老师。
• When he was 17,Einstein entered the Polytechnic Zurich,Switzerland,where he studied mathematics and physics.17岁时，爱因斯坦进入了瑞士苏黎士的专科学院，学习数学和物理学。

3 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。

4 enzyme   

n.酵素，酶

参考例句：

• Above a certain temperature,the enzyme molecule will become unfolded.超过一定温度，酶分子将会展开。
• An enzyme that dissolves the fibrin of blood clots.能溶解血凝块中的纤维的酶。

5 enzymes   

n. 酶，酵素

参考例句：

• It was said that washing powders containing enzymes remove stains more efficiently. 据说加酶洗衣粉除污更有效。
• Among the enzymes which are particularly effective are pepsin, papain. 在酶当中特别有效的是胃朊酶、木瓜酶。

6 digestion   

n.消化，吸收

参考例句：

• This kind of tea acts as an aid to digestion.这种茶可助消化。
• This food is easy of digestion.这食物容易消化。

7 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

8 sterilizing   

v.消毒( sterilize的现在分词 )；使无菌；使失去生育能力；使绝育

参考例句：

• The nurse is sterilizing the surgical instruments. 护士在把外科手术器具消毒。 来自辞典例句
• By testing, steam is the ble sterilizing method for herbal medicine. 这些方法难以保证药性，或有残留，要不然就是费用昂贵。 来自互联网

9 hygiene   

n.健康法，卫生学 （a.hygienic）

参考例句：

• Their course of study includes elementary hygiene and medical theory.他们的课程包括基础卫生学和医疗知识。
• He's going to give us a lecture on public hygiene.他要给我们作关于公共卫生方面的报告。