VOA慢速英语2011--Will Physicists Have to Rewrite The Spec

EXPLORATIONS - Will Physicists¹ Have to Rewrite The Special Theory of Relativity?

DOUG JOHNSON: Welcome to EXPLORATIONS, in VOA Special English. I’m Doug Johnson.
This week, we hear about developments in physics that, if proven correct, could have scientists rewriting physics textbooks. Scientists in Switzerland say they have measured a kind of subatomic particle traveling faster than the speed of light. Physics and the special theory of relativity say that is impossible.
We also hear about an American scientist who is developing easy-to-use technology to harvest electrical energy from the simple act of walking. Tom Krupenkin hopes the technology can provide an environmentally friendly way to power mobile electronic devices anywhere.
But first, we hear about a research center where scientists are busy studying the many forms of life that call the tropical rainforest home. Hundreds of scientists are working at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama. This year, the Research Institute is celebrating its one hundredth anniversary.
(MUSIC)
MARIO RITTER: Light barely reaches the ground of the dense² rainforest on Barro Colorado Island in Panama.
(SOUND)
In the early morning hours, two researchers are looking for monkeys. Anthropology³ Professor Stephanie Ramirez is an expert on spider monkeys.
STEPHANIE RAMIREZ: “…I’m interested in is how fruit affects their reproductive potential, because spider monkeys mostly consume fruit. And we’ve noticed that during times when fruit is not abundant or available they can’t conceive.”
MARIO RITTER: There are only thirty-nine spider monkeys on the island. Eight have radio transmitters around their necks.
Stephanie Ramirez and Lauren Mills are using a radio receiver to follow the movement of the animals. But they are not alone.
Tony Coates is with the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama.
TONY COATES: “The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute here in Panama is something of a Mecca for all biologists in the world who are interested in the tropics and in tropical biology.”
MARIO RITTER: The Institute was started there 100 years ago. Abby Bruning came from South Dakota to study ants.
ABBY BRUNING: “We manipulate their diets. So either they will be on a high carbohydrate⁴ or a high protein diet and at the end we run analyses to see how well they fight off infection, death rates and things like that.”
MARIO RITTER: Bruning studies a single species of ant. High above the ants, pink flowered almendro trees brighten the forest’s canopy⁵. Worker ants carry the flowers to their home. An Azteca ant colony is a big structure that takes more than a year to build. The ants they shelter are the favorite meal of anteaters.
Scientists say there are about 100 kinds of mammals and nearly as many reptiles⁶ on the island.
Tony Coates says tropical areas are a sea of life.
TONY COATES: “The vast majority of all species of plants and animals live in the tropics. The vast majority of all the technical knowhow, political will, education and financing is in the temperate⁷ world. How to get those two realms together is one of the great issues facing global conservation.”
MARIO RITTER: The headquarters of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute is in Panama City. Its library on tropical biology is considered one of the world’s best.
TONY COATES: “It follows the same system as the Library of Congress.”
MARIO RITTER: In nearby Culebra, a Smithsonian educational center is open to the public. Thousands of children visit each year.
(SOUND)
TONY COATES: “That is our biggest educational contribution to our host country, Panama.”
MARIO RITTER: The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama is celebrating its hundredth year. It is also launching a new research center in Gamboa.
Private donors⁸ want the institute to study subjects of growing concern today. These include how forest's control erosion and capture carbon from the air. They also want to know how to protect this important ecosystem⁹.
(MUSIC)
FAITH LAPIDUS: Scientists at the CERN physics laboratory in Geneva, Switzerland, made news last month. They said they measured a subatomic particle, called a neutrino, traveling faster than the speed of light. If this is correct, it violates a main idea of Albert Einstein’s special theory of relativity.
Patrick Fox works at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, or Fermilab, near Chicago, Illinois. He knows a lot about the theory of relativity.
PATRICK FOX: “I have been studying that for years. It is something you use day-to-day.”
FAITH LAPIDUS: Patrick Fox explains the reason there is a speed limit for all matter in the universe.
PATRICK FOX: “The only objects that can travel at the speed of light are mass-less things, like light.”
FAITH LAPIDUS: Robert Plunkett is a scientist with the Minos Neutrino Experiment at Fermilab. He says even subatomic particles like neutrinos have a speed limit.
ROBERT PLUNKETT: “The speed of light is the absolute cosmic speed limit for the travel of particles.”
FAITH LAPIDUS: But scientists at CERN say they have recorded a neutrino particle that broke the cosmic speed limit. They carried out an experiment that fired a beam of neutrinos from CERN to Italy’s INFN Gran Sasso Laboratory. The researchers said they observed about fifteen thousand neutrino events. And they said their observations appear to show that the neutrinos traveled faster than light. Light travels at about three hundred thousand kilometers a second.
If this is true, the scientists will have to rethink the laws governing mass and motion.
But Robert Plunkett thinks more work is needed.
ROBERT PLUNKETT: “Skepticism is something we always bring to the table anytime there is a revolutionary claim like this.”
FAITH LAPIDUS: Patrick Fox notes that other researchers have yet to confirm the results.
PATRICK FOX: “Before we throw away a cherished principle we have to, of course, check that this result, which is a very interesting result, is confirmed by other sources.”
FAITH LAPIDUS: The MINOS experiment at Fermilab will perform similar experiments to the one at CERN. They also will measure the speed of neutrinos.
Robert Plunkett says the MINOS experiment, with an upgrade, can provide a more exact measurement.
ROBERT PLUNKETT: “Our plans are to upgrade this equipment using a system of atomic clocks, much like what they had in the European experiment, to in fact do a measurement that is more precise than theirs, in many ways.”
FAITH LAPIDUS: The MINOS experiment may also measures neutrinos traveling faster than the speed of light. If that happens, scientists like Patrick Fox may have to rebuild the laws of physics from the ground up.
(MUSIC)
BOB DOUGHTY¹⁰: Scientists in the United States are working on a technology that uses human energy to power devices like cell phones, laptop computers, and GPS systems. Tom Krupenkin teaches electrical engineering at the University of Wisconsin. He and his team want to reduce dependence¹¹ on costly¹² and polluting batteries. Instead of using batteries for power, they have turned to human beings.
TOM KRUPENKIN: “We humans are actually very powerful machines.”
BOB DOUGHTY: Professor Krupenkin and his team have placed a device in a shoe that collects and stores energy from human motion and turns it into electricity. One part of this device is an energy harvester. It has two small containers filled with thousands of very small drops of liquid. These droplets¹³ get pushed back and forth¹⁴ as a person walks.
TOM KRUPENKIN: “So it is essentially¹⁵ a flow of a fluid through flexible plastic tubes with embedded¹⁶ electrodes which are covered by a special material that we invented. These actually directly convert it into electric power. Now, output of this energy is stored in a regular rechargeable tiny battery of the style that we have in cell phones.”
BOB DOUGHTY: The team has also developed a system to permit use of the stored energy by common mobile devices. It does not require connections with wires, and can be used to create a wireless¹⁷ signal. A cell phone that uses the wireless “hotspot” from the shoe would use much less power than if connected to a wireless telephone network.
The devices are about the size of a credit card. Professor Krupenkin says the system is always powered. So unlike a traditional battery, this energy harvester never needs to be recharged.
The professor says he does not expect this invention to replace traditional batteries. But it will help reduce dependence on them. He says there are a huge number of possible uses for this technology. Professor Krupenkin thinks the technology would be useful for people in rural areas where there is no electrical power.
He notes that it makes a lot of sense for people who depend on devices like mobile phones and laptop computers. And he says the technology could be used by soldiers who must carry battery-powered electronic devices into difficult territory.
Capturing human energy to power globally popular mobile devices could be both a technological¹⁸ and business success. Professor Krupenkin expects to have a commercial product on the market within the next two years.
(MUSIC)
DOUG JOHNSON: This program was produced by Mario Ritter. Our announcers were Faith Lapidus, Bob Doughty and Mario Ritter. I’m Doug Johnson. You can watch a captioned¹⁹ video about the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama and find links to other science stories at our website, voanews.cn.
And follow us on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and iTunes. Join us again next week for more Explorations in VOA Special English.
_____
This Feature was based on stories by Zulima Palacio, Kane Farabaugh, Rosanne Skirble and Dana Demange.

1 physicists   

物理学家( physicist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• For many particle physicists, however, it was a year of frustration. 对于许多粒子物理学家来说，这是受挫折的一年。 来自英汉非文学 - 科技
• Physicists seek rules or patterns to provide a framework. 物理学家寻求用法则或图式来构成一个框架。

2 dense   

a.密集的，稠密的，浓密的；密度大的

参考例句：

• The general ambushed his troops in the dense woods. 将军把部队埋伏在浓密的树林里。
• The path was completely covered by the dense foliage. 小路被树叶厚厚地盖了一层。

3 anthropology   

n.人类学

参考例句：

• I believe he has started reading up anthropology.我相信他已开始深入研究人类学。
• Social anthropology is centrally concerned with the diversity of culture.社会人类学主要关于文化多样性。

4 carbohydrate   

n.碳水化合物；糖类；(plural)淀粉质或糖类

参考例句：

• You should not have too much carbohydrate in your diet.你日常饮食中不该有过多碳水化合物。
• Cashew nuts are rich in carbohydrate.腰果含丰富碳水化合物。

5 canopy   

n.天篷，遮篷

参考例句：

• The trees formed a leafy canopy above their heads.树木在他们头顶上空形成了一个枝叶茂盛的遮篷。
• They lay down under a canopy of stars.他们躺在繁星点点的天幕下。

6 reptiles   

n.爬行动物，爬虫( reptile的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Snakes and crocodiles are both reptiles. 蛇和鳄鱼都是爬行动物。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Birds, reptiles and insects come from eggs. 鸟类、爬虫及昆虫是卵生的。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

7 temperate   

adj.温和的，温带的，自我克制的，不过分的

参考例句：

• Asia extends across the frigid,temperate and tropical zones.亚洲地跨寒、温、热三带。
• Great Britain has a temperate climate.英国气候温和。

8 donors   

n.捐赠者( donor的名词复数 )；献血者；捐血者；器官捐献者

参考例句：

• Please email us to be removed from our active list of blood donors. 假如你想把自己的名字从献血联系人名单中删去，请给我们发电子邮件。
• About half this amount comes from individual donors and bequests. 这笔钱大约有一半来自个人捐赠及遗赠。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 ecosystem   

n.生态系统

参考例句：

• This destroyed the ecosystem of the island.这样破坏了岛上的生态系统。
• We all have an interest in maintaining the integrity of the ecosystem.维持生态系统的完整是我们共同的利益。

10 doughty   

adj.勇猛的，坚强的

参考例句：

• Most of successful men have the characteristics of contumacy and doughty.绝大多数成功人士都有共同的特质：脾气倔强，性格刚强。
• The doughty old man battled his illness with fierce determination.坚强的老人用巨大毅力与疾病作斗争。

11 dependence   

n.依靠，依赖；信任，信赖；隶属

参考例句：

• Doctors keep trying to break her dependence of the drug.医生们尽力使她戒除毒瘾。
• He was freed from financial dependence on his parents.他在经济上摆脱了对父母的依赖。

12 costly   

adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的

参考例句：

• It must be very costly to keep up a house like this.维修这么一幢房子一定很昂贵。
• This dictionary is very useful,only it is a bit costly.这本词典很有用，左不过贵了些。

13 droplets   

n.小滴( droplet的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Droplets of sweat were welling up on his forehead. 他额头上冒出了滴滴汗珠。 来自辞典例句
• In constrast, exhaled smoke contains relatively large water droplets and appears white. 相反，从人嘴里呼出的烟则包含相当大的水滴，所以呈白色。 来自辞典例句

14 forth   

adv.向前；向外，往外

参考例句：

• The wind moved the trees gently back and forth.风吹得树轻轻地来回摇晃。
• He gave forth a series of works in rapid succession.他很快连续发表了一系列的作品。

15 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。

16 embedded   

a.扎牢的

参考例句：

• an operation to remove glass that was embedded in his leg 取出扎入他腿部玻璃的手术
• He has embedded his name in the minds of millions of people. 他的名字铭刻在数百万人民心中。

17 wireless   

adj.无线的；n.无线电

参考例句：

• There are a lot of wireless links in a radio.收音机里有许多无线电线路。
• Wireless messages tell us that the ship was sinking.无线电报告知我们那艘船正在下沉。

18 technological   

adj.技术的；工艺的

参考例句：

• A successful company must keep up with the pace of technological change.一家成功的公司必须得跟上技术变革的步伐。
• Today,the pace of life is increasing with technological advancements.当今， 随着科技进步，生活节奏不断增快。

19 captioned   

a.标题项下的； 标题所说的

参考例句：

• This paper reviews the production, development and nationalization of the captioned materials. 本文就铜系合金引线框架材料的生产、发展和国产化进程作一论述。
• Please advise other considerable hotels for this captioned group. 请推荐其它一些高级的旅馆给这一群打标语的人。