SSS 2009-04-14
时间：2019-01-08 作者：英语课 分类：Scientific American(四)月
This is Scientific American's 60-Second Science. I'm Christie Nicholson . Got a minute?
Altruism 1 poses a problem for the theory of “survival of the fittest.” If we help others at a cost to ourselves, nice-guy behavior should die out, because we are giving others a leg up in competition.
But a team at M.I.T. published a paper in Nature that shows one loophole that gives the nice guy a benefit over exploiters. Their experiments were done with yeast 2. With no yeast emotions to take into account, scientists can get a clear biological look at the workings of benevolence 3.
Yeast eat table sugar, but they need to secrete 4 an enzyme 5 to break it down into simple sugars, like glucose 6, their preferred food. Through this process the simple sugars become freely available for other yeast to consume. So, the best strategy might be to never secrete the enzyme—just let your benevolent 7 brothers do all the work..
Scientists showed, however, that the helpful yeast get special access to a small amount of the sugars produced. And this benefit outweighs 8 the cost of helping 9 their neighbors. Good to hear there’s something in it for the good guy, even if the guy’s just yeast. Let’s raise a beer to that.
Thanks for the minute for Scientific American's 60-Second Science. I'm Christie Nicholson.
- An important feature of moral behaviour is altruism.道德行为一个重要特点就是利他主义。
- Altruism is crucial for social cohesion.利他主义对社会的凝聚是至关重要的。
- Yeast can be used in making beer and bread.酵母可用于酿啤酒和发面包。
- The yeast began to work.酵母开始发酵。
- We definitely do not apply a policy of benevolence to the reactionaries.我们对反动派决不施仁政。
- He did it out of pure benevolence. 他做那件事完全出于善意。
- The pores of your body secrete sweat.身上的毛孔分泌汗液。
- Squirrels secrete a supply of nuts for winter.松鼠为准备过冬而藏坚果。
- Above a certain temperature,the enzyme molecule will become unfolded.超过一定温度，酶分子将会展开。
- An enzyme that dissolves the fibrin of blood clots.能溶解血凝块中的纤维的酶。
- I gave him an extra dose of glucose to pep him up.我给他多注射了一剂葡萄糖以增强他的活力。
- The doctor injected glucose into his patient's veins.医生将葡萄糖注入病人的静脉。
- His benevolent nature prevented him from refusing any beggar who accosted him.他乐善好施的本性使他不会拒绝走上前向他行乞的任何一个乞丐。
- He was a benevolent old man and he wouldn't hurt a fly.他是一个仁慈的老人，连只苍蝇都不愿伤害。
- Her need to save money outweighs her desire to spend it on fun. 她省钱的需要比她花钱娱乐的愿望更重要。 来自《简明英汉词典》
- Its clarity in algebraic and analytical operations far outweighs any drawbacks. 文化代数和解析运算中的清晰性远远胜过任何缺点。 来自辞典例句