VOA常速英语:The Year in Science: 2018

For the residents of the English city of Salisbury, 2018 will be remembered as the year the nerve agent Novichok came to town. Professor Andrea Sela calls it a uniquely devastating poison.The nervous system just fires wildly and so you get all these bizarre symptoms of paralysis and convulsions at the same time.
对于英国城市索尔兹伯里的居民来说，2018年将被铭记为神经毒剂诺维乔克进城的一年。安德里亚·塞拉教授称它为一种独特的毁灭性毒药。神经系统会极度亢奋，与此同时你会出现瘫痪和抽搐这些奇怪的症状。

Russian operatives are suspected of using the nerve agent and they attempted poisoning of a former Russian spy and his daughter.The incident frayed relations between Europe and Russia. 2018 will also be remembered as the year that genetic engineering made significant advances.From the techniques modest beginning with Dolly the sheep in 1997. This year, scientists cloned pigs, dogs, mules and monkeys and gene editing techniques are now being used to create designer animals
俄罗斯特工涉嫌使用这种神经剂，他们企图毒害一名前俄罗斯间谍和他的女儿，这一事件破坏了欧洲和俄罗斯之间的关系。2018年也被认为是遗传工程取得了重大进展的一年。从1997年的绵羊多莉开始之前，这些技术并不多见。然而今年，科学家们已经克隆了猪、狗、骡子和猴子，现在基因编辑技术正在用来创造设计动物。

like these Holsteins genetically engineered to be hornless.Dairy cows like Holsteins grow horns and they’re quite dangerous for human workers and also for their fellow cows. Scientists also uncovered some odd behavior in an ancient species of the humble but painful wasp. X-rays uncovered a 30million year-old species of parasitic wasps about the size of a grain of rice that even way back then was feeding on ancient flies.Either the host is paralyzed or it continues to feed and and breathe in and live relatively normally but with this parasitoid thing, living and growing inside it and eventually of course it kills the host.
比如把这些毫斯坦奶牛基因改造成没有角的。像这样长角的毫斯坦奶牛对人类工人和其他奶牛来说都是相当危险的。科学家们通过观察古老物种黄蜂的体内，揭开了这种低等的令人生厌的昆虫一些奇怪行为的面纱。X射线发现了一种有着3000万年历史的寄生黄蜂，其大小相当于一粒米。这种黄蜂从那时候甚至更早就以苍蝇为食。宿主要么会瘫痪，要么继续喂食寄生虫，呼吸和生活也相对正常，但这种寄生虫长期生活并在其体内生长，最终它肯定会杀死宿主。

Another puzzle the natural world was solved when scientists figure out how the annoying dandelion manages to be so good at spreading through the air.Scientists are using this new information as a possible way to create micro flying objects that could stay afloat on wind currents for extended periods of time.And finally using The Very Large Telescope in Chile,scientists were able to monitor a small star passing close to a black hole
另一个自然界让人费解的谜团也被解开了。科学家们弄明白了恼人的蒲公英是怎么做到在空气中很好的传播的。科学家们正在利用这项技术作为可操作的方法来制造微型飞行物。它们可以在风海流中保持长时间的漂浮。最终通过使用智利的大型望远镜，科学家们能够监测到一颗靠近黑洞的小恒星

and see how its light was distorted and warped by the black holes super gravity.The observation confirmed one of the basic predictions of Einstein’s theory of relativityThe universe is not just made up of space, but a bizarre combination of space and time that can be affected by gravity.Now that was a busy year.
并看到它的光是如何被黑洞的超强引力扭曲和变形的。这一观察证实了爱因斯坦相对论中的一个基础理论。宇宙不是仅仅由空间组成的，而是由空间和时间构成的奇异组合。而且它还受到引力的影响。这就是过去的忙碌的一年。

Kevin Unix, VOA news
凯文·尤尼克斯，美国之音新闻