SSS 2011-11-03
时间：2019-01-08 作者：英语课 分类：Scientific American(十一)月
英语课
This is Scientific American's 60-Second Science. I'm Karen Hopkin. This will just take a minute.
They say what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. But sometimes what makes you stronger can kill you, at least when it comes to blood clotting 2. Because the stickiness that allows platelets to heal your wounds also raises your risk of heart attack.
All mammals use platelets to help prevent blood loss after traumatic injury. But birds don't have 'em, nor do reptiles 3 or fish. Instead, these critters have blood cells called thrombocytes, which are about twice the size of platelets. But is bigger necessarily better when it comes to clotting? Scientists took thrombocytes from parakeets and put them to the test. The work appears in the journal Blood.
They focused their attention on birds because our feathered friends have a cardiovascular system much like our own, in that blood exerts pressure on the blood vessel 4 walls.
The results: parakeet thrombocytes don't stick together like platelets do. They also don't block blood flow in the birds' arteries 5 the same way that platelets do when they form clots 6 in mice.
Which means that mice may be more likely to survive a bloodletting-pecking. But birds are far less likely to suffer from the clot 1 forming economy class syndrome—despite being frequent fliers.
Thanks for the minute. For Scientific American's 60-Second Science, I'm Karen Hopkin.
n.凝块；v.使凝成块
- Platelets are one of the components required to make blood clot.血小板是血液凝固的必须成分之一。
- The patient's blood refused to clot.病人的血液无法凝结。
v.凝固( clot的现在分词 )；烧结
- The study was also based only on the one anti-clotting drug. 所用抗血栓药物也仅限于一种。 来自互联网
- A plasma protein that is converted into thrombin during blood clotting. 凝血原酶一种血浆蛋白质，在血液凝聚时转化成凝血''。'酵'。''''。'素'。''。 来自互联网
n.爬行动物，爬虫( reptile的名词复数 )
- Snakes and crocodiles are both reptiles. 蛇和鳄鱼都是爬行动物。 来自《简明英汉词典》
- Birds, reptiles and insects come from eggs. 鸟类、爬虫及昆虫是卵生的。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
n.船舶；容器，器皿；管，导管，血管
- The vessel is fully loaded with cargo for Shanghai.这艘船满载货物驶往上海。
- You should put the water into a vessel.你应该把水装入容器中。
n.动脉( artery的名词复数 )；干线，要道
- Even grafting new blood vessels in place of the diseased coronary arteries has been tried. 甚至移植新血管代替不健康的冠状动脉的方法都已经试过。 来自《简明英汉词典》
- This is the place where the three main arteries of West London traffic met. 这就是伦敦西部三条主要交通干线的交汇处。 来自《简明英汉词典》