科学美国人60秒 SSS 海狸牙齿的奥秘
时间：2019-01-20 作者：英语课 分类：2018年科学美国人1月
Ah yes.The ol' fluoride rinse 1 at the dentist. Not pleasant. But hey, good for your teeth, right?
没错，这是牙医洗牙用的含氟漱口水。确实够闹心的。但毕竟对你的牙齿有益不是吗?
Well now materials scientists have been able to figure out why—by mapping the nanostructure of tooth enamel 2. If you zoom 3 way in, tooth enamel looks almost like the weave of a basket."Where each thread is made from thousands of nanowires."Derk Joester, of Northwestern University.
现在材料科学家们通过绘制牙釉质的纳米结构已经知晓其中的原因。如果放大牙釉质，它与篮子的纹理非常相近。每条线都由成千上万的纳米线条组成。西北大学德克·乔斯特尔说道。
And in between those crystalline nanowires,Joester and his colleagues discovered a sort of amorphous 4 glue.And that's where the fluoride hangs out, helping 5 to stave off an acid attack of the enamel—in other words, a cavity.But the researchers found something that works even better than fluoride: iron.And they found it in beaver 6 teeth.
而在这些晶状纳米线中，乔斯特尔和同事们发现了一种非固定形状的胶质。而氟化物就在这里聚集，帮忙延缓阻挡牙釉质的酸蚀—换句话说抑制蛀牙。但研究人员发现了一样比氟化物效果更好的物质：那就是铁。他们是在海狸的牙齿中发现了它。
"Beavers 7 don't get caries. Chewing through wood is a very good way to clean your teeth."But another reason, they say, is the iron-enriched glue in beaver enamel—which was even more acid-resistant than fluoride-treated enamel.
海狸不会患上龋齿。咀嚼木头是一种很好的清洁牙齿的方式。但他们称另一个原因则是海狸牙釉质中富含铁的胶质—相比氟这种牙釉质在耐酸性上更胜一筹。
The findings are in the journal Science.
这项研究已经在《科学》杂志上发表。
Of course iron-rich enamel comes with an unfortunate side effect: reddish-brown teeth But Joester says future human dental treatments that employ iron might find a way around that.
当然富含铁的牙釉质有着副作用：那就是会使牙齿变成红褐色。但乔斯特尔表示未来牙齿治疗方面会采用铁进行，应该可以找到相关解决办法。
"We have the entire periodic table to play with minus a few things that are not too healthy. So I'm sure we can come up with a way to do what the beaver does but do it better and do it in a way that still maintains a nice smile."
我们有整个周期可以解决那些并不健康的治疗手段。所以我相信我们能想出办法像海狸那样，而且在继续保持洁白笑容这方面会做得更好。
- Give the cup a rinse.冲洗一下杯子。
- Don't just rinse the bottles. Wash them out carefully.别只涮涮瓶子，要仔细地洗洗里面。
- I chipped the enamel on my front tooth when I fell over.我跌倒时门牙的珐琅质碰碎了。
- He collected coloured enamel bowls from Yugoslavia.他藏有来自南斯拉夫的彩色搪瓷碗。
- The airplane's zoom carried it above the clouds.飞机的陡直上升使它飞到云层之上。
- I live near an airport and the zoom of passing planes can be heard night and day.我住在一个飞机场附近，昼夜都能听到飞机飞过的嗡嗡声。
- There was a weakening of the intermolecular bonds,primarily in the amorphous region of the polymer.分子间键合减弱，尤其在聚合物的无定形区内更为明显。
- It is an amorphous colorless or white powder.它是一种无定形的无色或白色粉末。
- The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
- By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。
- The hat is made of beaver.这顶帽子是海狸毛皮制的。
- A beaver is an animals with big front teeth.海狸是一种长着大门牙的动物。