科学家发明出可自动愈合的人造皮肤

Artificial flesh is growing ever closer to the real thing. Scientists in Australia have now created a new jelly-like material which they claim has the strength and durability of actual skin, ligaments, or even bone.
人造皮肤越来越像真的皮肤了。澳大利亚的科学家最近发明了一种新型果冻状材料，他们表示，这种材料具有真正的皮肤、韧带甚至骨骼的强度和耐用性。

"With the special chemistry we've engineered in the hydrogel, it can repair itself after it has been broken like human skin can," explains chemist Luke Connal from the Australian National University.
澳大利亚国立大学化学家卢克·康纳尔解释道：“我们研发的这种水凝胶拥有特殊的化学性质，它就像人类的皮肤那样，在受损后可以自行修复。”

"Hydrogels are usually weak, but our material is so strong it could easily lift very heavy objects and can change its shape like human muscles do."
“水凝胶通常是很脆弱的，但我们研发的这种材料很强大，它可以轻松地举起特别重的物体，而且可以像人类的肌肉那样改变形状。”

Having a squishy material with such remarkable properties could be huge for the development of next-generation soft robotics and biomedical devices. Creating a shape-changing hydrogel that has multiple functions has proved an ongoing challenge for scientists, even with natural inspiration from jellyfish, sea cucumbers, and Venus fly traps.
这种松软的材料拥有如此卓越的特性，或许会对下一代软体机器人和生物医学设备的发展产生重要影响。尽管科学家们从水母、海参和捕蝇草等生物身上获得了灵感，但要开发一种拥有多项功能且能改变形状的水凝胶对他们而言依然是一项挑战。

While some hydrogels can withstand mechanical stress, others have self-healing properties, and a few more have the abilities to memorise shapes or change colours.
有的水凝胶可以承受住机械压力，其他的水凝胶具有自愈特性，还有的水凝胶可以记住形状或改变颜色。

As far as the ANU researchers know, no one else has been able to incorporate all these functions into one all-encompassing gel. At least, not at the speed and efficiency they've achieved.
澳大利亚国立大学的研究人员表示，据他们所知，还没有人能将所有的这些功能整合到一种凝胶上。至少，还达不到他们现在的速度和效率。

Putting their material through multiple tests, the authors claim to have created the first dynamic hydrogel that is strong, tough, fatigue resistant, self-healing and able to change shapes and 'remember' them afterwards.
研发者表示，对他们的材料进行了多次测试后，他们已经创造出第一款动态水凝胶，这种水凝胶强健且坚韧，能抗疲劳，且可以自愈，还能改变形状，而且之后还能“记住”它们的形状。