SSS 2012-08-21
时间：2018-12-24 作者：英语课 分类：Scientific American(八)月
英语课
This is scientific American sixty seconds science. I'm Christopher Intagliata. Got a minute?
Worldwide, we know of enough uranium to power today's nuclear reactors 1 for another hundred years according to the nuclear energy agency. But scientists say there may be a thousand times as much uranium lurking 2 in the oceans, dissolved in seawater.
Problem is, how to harvest it? Some attempts have been made with plastic threads that attract the mineral. But better way might be to fish it out with nano fibers 4 of chitin-the stuff shrimp 5 and lobster 6 shells are made of. Rather than start from scratch, researchers spun 7 threads of chitin from liquified shrimp shells. They chemically modified the nano fibers to make them stick to uranium and dropped them in uranium-spiked water. After three days, they found that the shrimp shell fibers had indeed collected uranium from the solution. They presented that research at a meeting of the American Chemical Society.
It is still too early to know how efficient the process is. But researchers say the nano fiber 3 huge surface area should allow for more harvesting power than current plastic thread method. And chitin's biodegradable, thus more environmentally friendly, which is after all nuclear power's selling point in a warming world.
Thanks for the minute for scientific American sixty seconds science. I'm Christopher Intagliata.
1 reactors
起反应的人( reactor的名词复数 )； 反应装置； 原子炉； 核反应堆
- The TMI nuclear facility has two reactors. 三哩岛核设施有两个反应堆。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法
- The earliest production reactors necessarily used normal uranium as fuel. 最早为生产用的反应堆，必须使用普通铀作为燃料。
2 lurking
潜在
- Why are you lurking around outside my house? 你在我房子外面鬼鬼祟祟的，想干什么？
- There is a suspicious man lurking in the shadows. 有一可疑的人躲在阴暗中。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
3 fiber
n.纤维，纤维质
- The basic structural unit of yarn is the fiber.纤维是纱的基本结构单元。
- The material must be free of fiber clumps.这种材料必须无纤维块。
4 fibers
光纤( fiber的名词复数 )； （织物的）质地； 纤维，纤维物质
- Thesolution of collagen-PVA was wet spined with the sodium sulfate as coagulant and collagen-PVA composite fibers were prepared. 在此基础上，以硫酸钠为凝固剂，对胶原-PVA共混溶液进行湿法纺丝，制备了胶原-PVA复合纤维。
- Sympathetic fibers are distributed to all regions of the heart. 交感神经纤维分布于心脏的所有部分。
5 shrimp
n.虾，小虾；矮小的人
- When the shrimp farm is built it will block the stream.一旦养虾场建起来，将会截断这条河流。
- When it comes to seafood,I like shrimp the best.说到海鲜，我最喜欢虾。