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BBC总结天才养成6条攻略
添加时间:2018-08-09 08:54:12 浏览次数: 作者:未知
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  • Lesson one: New challenges require new ways of thinking

    1.面对新挑战,要有新思路

    Part car, part jet fighter, part spaceship, Bloodhound SSC aims to be the first land vehicle to break the 1,000mph barrier. One of the key challenges has been to design the wheels. How do you create the fastest wheels in history, make them stable and reliable at supersonic speeds, and with limited resources?

    部分汽车、部分喷气式飞机、部分宇宙飞船,猎犬号超级汽车的目标是做世界上第一辆时速突破1000英里的汽车。而这面临的一项关键挑战是车轮的设计。如果换做是你,你会如何在有限的资源下发明出超音速汽车上用的轮子呢?

    After much deliberation, and devising ideas that pushed the boundaries of material technology, Mark Chapman, chief engineer of the Bloodhound project said the team decided1 to take a step back and change the way they were trying to solve problems. “There’s very little we’ve actually developed that’s new,” he says, “what’s unique is how we apply technologies.”

    猎犬号项目的总工程师马克·查普曼思来想去,觉得材料还是不够好。最后他和他的团队决定退回一步、换个角度看有没有别的办法。“我们实际创新的东西并不多”,马克说:“我们的独特之处在于应用技术的方式别具一格。”

    They adopted an approach called the design of experiments – a mathematical technique of problem solving through doing lots of little experiments and then looking at the statistics all glued together. “All of a sudden, where we’d been knocking our head against the wall for maybe two, three, four months, we came up with a wheel design that would hold together and was strong enough,” he says.

    他们采用实验设计的方法做了很多的小实验,综合所得的数据再得出精确设计。“花了三四个月绞尽脑汁做尽各种实验之后,很突然地我们做出了一个大胆的设计:把各种可用的(飞机、飞船所用的)技术都融合在一辆车上,从而使它足够强大。”马克说。

    Lesson two: Let evidence shape your opinion

    2.观点要用证据来证明

    Like his peers, geophysicist Steven Jacobsen from Northwestern University believed that water on Earth originated from comets. But by studying rocks, which allow scientists to peer back in time, he discovered water hidden inside ringwoodite, which lies in the Earth’s mantle2, and which suggests that the oceans gradually made its way out of the planet’s interior many centuries ago.

    美国西北大学地球物理学家史蒂文·雅各布森曾认为,地球上的水源于彗星。但通过对岩石的研究,他发现地幔的林伍德石里面也藏有水,这一发现表明或许在N个世纪之前,海洋是从地球内部自己慢慢溢出来的。

    “I had a pretty hard time convincing others,” he admits. Yet two key pieces of evidence uncovered this year seem to support his point of view. Time will tell whether the new theories are true, and there may be further twists to the tale. “But thinking about the fact that you may be the first person to see something for the first time doesn’t happen very often,” he says. “When it does it’s thrilling.”

    “那时候我难说服别的学者相信这个。”史蒂文说。但是今年新发现的两个关键证据似乎支持了他的理论。所以,一个新理论的正确与否可能需要时间来慢慢印证,在被世人接受前可能会经历很多曲折。“但是如果你发现你是第一个发现这个规律的人,且时间又证明你是对的之后,你会倍受鼓舞的。”史蒂文说。

    11.jpg

    Lesson three: It really is 99% perspiration3

    3.天才的99%确实是汗水

    Sheila Nirenberg at Cornell University is trying to develop a new prosthetic device for treating blindness. Key to this was cracking the code that transmits information from the eye to the brain. “Once I realised this, I couldn’t eat, I couldn’t sleep – all I wanted to do was work,” says Nirenberg.

    康奈尔大学希拉·尼伦伯格正在研究治疗失明的新型假体,其中破解眼睛与大脑的信息交流密码是最关键的。“我意识到这一点之后,就吃不下饭、睡不着觉,只想全身心投入工作。”尼伦伯格说。

    “Sometimes I’m exhausted4 and I get burnt out,” she adds. “But then I get an email from somebody in crisis or somebody who’s getting macular degeneration, and they can’t see their own children’s faces, and it is like, ‘How can I possibly complain?’ It gives me the energy to just go back and keep doing it.”

    “每次觉得筋疲力尽、江郎才尽的时候,我都会收到一些到正处于危险状态马上要失明的、或是患有黄斑部退化症的病人的邮件,这些人将没办法看清自己孩子的长相、无法看这五颜六色的世界。每当这个时候,我就跟自己说‘我怎么能够抱怨呢’,然后就又动力十足的继续工作。”

    Lesson four: The answer isn’t always what you expect

    4.结果并不总是和预想的一样

    Sylvia Earle has spent decades trying to see the ocean with new eyes. Her “dream machine” is a submarine that could take scientists all the way to the bottom of the deepest ocean floor. What sort of material could best withstand the types of pressure you would encounter thousands of miles below the ocean surface? “It could be steel, it could be titanium, it could be some sort of ceramic6, or some kind of aluminium7 system,” says Earle. “But glass is the ultimate material.” By her estimates, a glass sphere about four-to-six inches (10-15cm) thick should be able safely explore the ocean depths she dreams of exploring.

    西尔维亚·厄尔花了几十年的时间试图让人们用新的方式亲近海底,她的“梦想号”潜艇可以让科学家潜入到最深的海底。那种材料才能够承受住深海的巨大压力呢?厄尔说:“我想过用钢、钛、陶瓷等,但最终发现其实玻璃才是终极王者。”根据她的预计,一块10-15厘米厚的玻璃板就能让她进入梦寐以求的那片深海世界。

    Glass is the oldest material known to man and one of the least understood, says Tony Lawson, Earle’s engineering director at Deep Ocean and Exploration Research Marine5. “It has a higgledy-piggledy molecular8 structure a bit like a liquid, rather than the ordered lattices often found in other solids. As a result, when glass is evenly squeezed from all sides – as it would be under the ocean – the molecules9 cram10 closer together and form a tighter structure.

    厄尔的项目技术总监称,虽然玻璃是人类已知的最古老材料,但是我们对它的了解却甚少。“玻璃的分子结构有点像是液体,排列方式没有一般固体的有规律。因此,当玻璃被海洋里的压力从四面八方压迫时,它的分子会被压在一起,形成更紧密的结构。”

    Lesson five: A little luck goes a long way

    5.偶尔的一点好运也可以维持很久

    It was hailed as one of the biggest success stories in the history of space exploration – 20 years of planning ended earlier this year with the Philae lander rendezvousing11 with Comet 67P over 300 million miles (480 million kilometres) away from Earth.

    菲莱探测器被誉为太空探索史上最大跨越之一,历经20年的策划期终于在年初发射并成功在离地球四亿八千万公里的67P彗星上着陆。

    The biggest challenge, says Stephan Ulamec, manager of the Philae lander programme, was how to design a probe to land on a body whose makeup12 they had little knowledge about. “We had no idea of the size, we had no idea of the day-night cycle, which influences the thermal13 design, we had no idea of the gravity, so how fast would the lander impact, we had no idea how the surface looked,” he says.

    据菲莱项目的负责人斯蒂芬介绍,在这20年里遇到的最大挑战是对彗星构造了解较少,不知道该如何设计这个探测器。“我们不知道彗星的昼夜循环情况会影响保热设计,不知道彗星的重力也无法预测探测器着陆后对转速的影响,甚至不清楚彗星表面的样子。”

    They needed to create design parameters14 that could cope with an extremely wide range of possible comet structures – but banked on the comet being a relatively15 even potato shape with enough flat surfaces for the probe to land on. Even then, not everything went to plan, and two decades of meticulous16 planning could have failed within minutes at touchdown. Philae's anchoring harpoons17 didn't fire as planned, and it bounced off the comet before settling onto its icy surface and successfully beaming data back to its relieved creators.

    科学家们需要建立尽可能符合多种彗星结构的设计参数,但是还是得寄希望于彗星的表面要够平坦。可即便是花了20年设计、缜密计划过的菲莱还是在着陆的几分钟里有点小失败:“鱼叉”系统未如计划打开,无法准确钉入彗星表面。不过幸运的是,菲莱还是成功地把数据发回了地球。

    Lesson six: Genius is indefinable

    6.“天才”定义不明

    “It’s a funny word: the word ‘genius’,” says Nirenberg. “I just sort of ignore it and just go on with life. You just do what you do independent of whatever label’s attached to you. I don’t know really how else to explain it.”

    “天才这个词很有趣”,尼伦伯格说,“我常常忽略这个标签继续走自己的路。只需要抛掉别人在你身上贴的各种标签做自己想做到的事就好了。因为所谓天才真是判断标准不一、无法解释的事情。”

     9级    双语 


    点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

    1 decided [dɪˈsaɪdɪd] lvqzZd   第7级
    adj.决定了的,坚决的;明显的,明确的
    参考例句:
    • This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents. 这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
    • There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting. 英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。
    2 mantle [ˈmæntl] Y7tzs   第9级
    n.斗篷,覆罩之物,罩子;vt.&vi.罩住,覆盖,脸红
    参考例句:
    • The earth had donned her mantle of brightest green. 大地披上了苍翠欲滴的绿色斗篷。
    • The mountain was covered with a mantle of snow. 山上覆盖着一层雪。
    3 perspiration [ˌpɜ:spəˈreɪʃn] c3UzD   第9级
    n.汗水;出汗
    参考例句:
    • It is so hot that my clothes are wet with perspiration. 天太热了,我的衣服被汗水湿透了。
    • The perspiration was running down my back. 汗从我背上淌下来。
    4 exhausted [ɪgˈzɔ:stɪd] 7taz4r   第8级
    adj.极其疲惫的,精疲力尽的
    参考例句:
    • It was a long haul home and we arrived exhausted. 搬运回家的这段路程特别长,到家时我们已筋疲力尽。
    • Jenny was exhausted by the hustle of city life. 珍妮被城市生活的忙乱弄得筋疲力尽。
    5 marine [məˈri:n] 77Izo   第7级
    adj.海的;海生的;航海的;海事的;n.水兵
    参考例句:
    • Marine creatures are those which live in the sea. 海洋生物是生存在海里的生物。
    • When the war broke out, he volunteered for the Marine Corps. 战争爆发时,他自愿参加了海军陆战队。
    6 ceramic [səˈræmɪk] lUsyc   第8级
    n.制陶业,陶器,陶瓷工艺
    参考例句:
    • The order for ceramic tiles has been booked in. 瓷砖的订单已登记下来了。
    • Some ceramic works of art are shown in this exhibition. 这次展览会上展出了一些陶瓷艺术品。
    7 aluminium [ˌæljəˈmɪniəm] uLjyc   第7级
    n.铝 (=aluminum)
    参考例句:
    • Aluminium looks heavy but actually it is very light. 铝看起来很重,实际上却很轻。
    • If necessary, we can use aluminium instead of steel. 如果必要,我们可用铝代钢。
    8 molecular [mə'lekjələ(r)] mE9xh   第9级
    adj.分子的;克分子的
    参考例句:
    • The research will provide direct insight into molecular mechanisms. 这项研究将使人能够直接地了解分子的机理。
    • For the pressure to become zero, molecular bombardment must cease. 当压强趋近于零时,分子的碰撞就停止了。
    9 molecules ['mɒlɪkju:lz] 187c25e49d45ad10b2f266c1fa7a8d49   第7级
    分子( molecule的名词复数 )
    参考例句:
    • The structure of molecules can be seen under an electron microscope. 分子的结构可在电子显微镜下观察到。
    • Inside the reactor the large molecules are cracked into smaller molecules. 在反应堆里,大分子裂变为小分子。
    10 cram [kræm] 6oizE   第8级
    vi. 狼吞虎咽地吃东西;死记硬背功课 vt. 填满,塞满;死记硬背;猛吃 n. 死记硬背;极度拥挤
    参考例句:
    • There was such a cram in the church. 教堂里拥挤得要命。
    • The room's full, we can't cram any more people in. 屋里满满的,再也挤不进去人了。
    11 rendezvousing ['rɒndɪvu:zɪŋ] 9b77a64d332075684783d0a9aec6e788   第9级
    v.约会,会合( rendezvous的现在分词 )
    参考例句:
    • Instead, they would go into around Mars, rendezvousing with one of its moons. 作为代替,他们可以绕火星环行,与其一个卫星相遇。 来自互联网
    12 makeup ['meɪkʌp] 4AXxO   第7级
    n.组织;性格;化装品;补充;补考
    参考例句:
    • Those who failed the exam take a makeup exam. 这次考试不及格的人必须参加补考。
    • Eyeliner: Makeup used to outline the eyes. 眼线笔:用来加强眼的轮廓的化妆品。
    13 thermal [ˈθɜ:ml] 8Guyc   第7级
    adj.热的,由热造成的;保暖的
    参考例句:
    • They will build another thermal power station. 他们要另外建一座热能发电站。
    • Volcanic activity has created thermal springs and boiling mud pools. 火山活动产生了温泉和沸腾的泥浆池。
    14 parameters [pə'ræmɪtəz] 166e64f6c3677d0c513901242a3e702d   第7级
    因素,特征; 界限; (限定性的)因素( parameter的名词复数 ); 参量; 参项; 决定因素
    参考例句:
    • We have to work within the parameters of time. 我们的工作受时间所限。
    • See parameters.cpp for a compilable example. This is part of the Spirit distribution. 可编译例子见parameters.cpp.这是Spirit分发包的组成部分。
    15 relatively [ˈrelətɪvli] bkqzS3   第8级
    adv.比较...地,相对地
    参考例句:
    • The rabbit is a relatively recent introduction in Australia. 兔子是相对较新引入澳大利亚的物种。
    • The operation was relatively painless. 手术相对来说不痛。
    16 meticulous [məˈtɪkjələs] A7TzJ   第9级
    adj.极其仔细的,一丝不苟的
    参考例句:
    • We'll have to handle the matter with meticulous care. 这事一点不能含糊。
    • She is meticulous in her presentation of facts. 她介绍事实十分详细。
    17 harpoons [hɑ:ˈpu:nz] 251647187a14e257f7d35de0729d6da4   第11级
    n.鱼镖,鱼叉( harpoon的名词复数 )v.鱼镖,鱼叉( harpoon的第三人称单数 )
    参考例句:
    • Greenpeace hopes to position its boats between the harpoons and the whales. 绿色和平希望他们的船能开到港口与鲸鱼群之间的地方。 来自互联网
    • NIV Can you fill his hide with harpoons or his head with fishing spears? 7[和合]你能用倒钩枪扎满它的皮,能用鱼叉叉满它的头吗? 来自互联网

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