纳米技术使老鼠能够看到红外线

This is Scientific American’s 60-Second Science, I’m Karen Hopkin.

这里是科学美国人——60秒科学系列，我是凯伦·霍普金。

Tired of having to reach for your night-vision goggles when you want to track someone’s heat signature after dark?

当你想在天黑后追踪某人的热信号时，你已经厌倦了用夜视镜吗?

Well, biotech may someday come to the rescue for all of you aspiring spies.

好吧，生物技术也许有一天会来拯救想要成为间谍的你们。

Because researchers have developed an injectable, nanoscale antenna, which they’ve used to allow mice to see beyond their normal visual spectrum and into the infrared.

因为研究人员已经开发出了一种可注入的纳米级天线，他们已经用它让老鼠看到了超出正常可见光光谱的红外线。

The work appears in the journal Cell.

这项研究发表在《细胞》期刊上。

Like all mammals, we humans are only able to see light in the visible spectrum, which includes all of the colors of the rainbow.

和所有哺乳动物一样，我们人类只能看到可见光谱中的光，这包括彩虹的所有颜色。

That limitation is due to the photoreceptors in our eyes being only able to detect radiation with a wavelength of around 400 to 700 nanometers.

这种限制是由于我们眼睛里的感光器只能探测到波长在400到700纳米之间的辐射。

Which means we can’t see infrared and near-infrared light, which has wavelengths a little bit longer.

这意味着我们看不到红外光和近红外光，它们的波长要长一些。

And that got scientists thinking.

这引起了科学家们的思考。

“So we always curious on whether we can use any method or technique to allow us to be able to see near-infrared or infrared light.”

“所以我们一直很好奇，我们是否可以使用任何一种方法或技术，让我们能够看到近红外光或红外光。”

Tian Xue of the University of Science and Technology of China.

中国科学技术大学的薛天说。

He reached out to his colleague Gang Han at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, who engineered a teeny tiny device, which he calls an “up-conversion nanoparticle.”

他找到了马萨诸塞大学医学院的同事韩刚，他设计了一种微型设备，他称之为“上转换纳米颗粒”。

“We actually developed nanoparticles, so-called up-conversion nanoparticles, that actually can effectively be activated by this near-infrared light.”

“我们实际上开发了纳米粒子，所谓的上转换纳米粒子，实际上它可以被这种近红外光有效地激活。”

Then they tested their system in mice.

然后他们在老鼠身上测试了他们的系统。

The nanoparticles attach themselves to photoreceptors in the animal’s retina.

纳米颗粒附着在动物视网膜上的感光细胞上。

There, they absorb infrared radiation and convert it to visible green light.

在那里，它们吸收红外辐射，并将其转化为可见的绿光。

“This green light is absorbed by retinal cells.”

“这种绿光被视网膜细胞吸收。”

Which the brain then interprets as regular visible light.

然后大脑将其解释为普通的可见光。

This enhanced super-vision allows the animals to not only see in infrared, but to discriminate between different infrared patterns.

这种增强的视觉不仅能让动物看到红外线，还能区分不同的红外线模式。

So, for example, they could be taught to navigate toward horizontal stripes versus vertical ones—patterns that the researchers, themselves, couldn’t see.

例如，可以教它们辨别水平条纹和垂直条纹——这些图案是研究人员自己看不到的。

Even Xue found that a bit disconcerting.

就连薛天也觉得这有点令人不安。

“When we do the experiment sometime it feels a little bit creepy because if you do not wear night-vision goggles and when we do the testing we show the pattern to the animals, in fact to our own eyes we cannot tell any near-infrared patterns, but injected animal could.

“当我们做实验时，有时会感到有点毛骨悚然，因为如果你不戴夜视镜，当我们做测试时，我们向动物展示图案，实际上，我们自己的眼睛不能分辨任何近红外图案，但注射过的动物可以分辨。

They can use patterns to guide their behaviors very accurately and efficiently.”

他们可以使用图案非常准确和有效地指导自己的行为。”

Han says the enhanced infrared detection did not appear to interfere with, or supersede, the animal’s standard-issue visual abilities.

韩刚说，增强的红外探测似乎没有干扰或取代动物标准的视觉能力。

“The treated mice were able to perceive this light patterns in the daylight conditions, clearly suggesting that nanoparticles working in parallel with conventional visible vision as well.”

“已处理过的老鼠能够在日光条件下感知到这种光图案，这清楚地表明纳米颗粒也与传统的可见视觉并行工作。”

The technology, in addition to its applications in military or law enforcement, might even provide a possible fix for color blindness.

这项技术，除了在军事或执法部门的应用之外，甚至可能为色盲提供一种可能的解决方案。

And best of all, Xue notes, it wouldn’t need batteries.

薛天指出，最重要的是，它不需要电池。

This new nanoparticle technique is stealthy and it do[es] not need external power.

这种新的纳米颗粒技术是隐形的，它不需要外部电源。

The nanoparticles directly activated by the infrared light itself.”

纳米粒子直接被红外光激活。”

The nanoparticles remained active for as long as two months.

纳米颗粒的活性长达两个月之久。

A similar infrared boost could someday allow us humans to break through our natural visual limitations.

某天，类似的红外线增强技术可能会让我们人类突破自然的视觉限制。

And see things in a whole new light.

用全新的光线观察事物。

Thanks for listening for Scientific American's 60-second Science. I'm Karen Hopkin.

谢谢大家收听科学美国人——60秒科学。我是凯伦·霍普金。