字神帝國英語天地

今日主題：MacArthur Genius Grant Winner Probes the Pruning Brain
修理你的大腦

洪欣老師推薦：托福聽力最好的課外教材：60-Second Science
康康精選托福會考的主題，堅持每天精聽一定會進步的哦!!

建議方法：
1. 先聽兩三遍 (不看文稿)
2. 再一句一句聽寫 (每句都要聽寫數遍，直到寫出85%以上的字)
3. 最後check文稿，看哪聽不出來，單字沒背過，還是發音不熟。
4. 堅持天天聽，就能每天進步哦。

MP3音檔 (按右鍵可下載聽)：喜歡的同學，幫忙推或按讚哦~~
http://online1.tingclass.net/voaspe/…/20151015sa_science.mp3

只有音檔怎夠，聽不懂地方，不用怕，康康幫你準備好中英文稿了：

中英文稿：
“They’re like the Pac-Man of our brain.”
這就像我們大腦中的吃豆人的遊戲。

Harvard neuroscientist Beth Stevens, talking about glia cells, which make up more than half the human brain. This week Stevens got a MacArthur Fellowship, the so-called genius grant, for her studies of glia.
哈佛大學的神經科學家貝斯•史蒂文斯，談論到神經膠質細胞時那樣說道。這些膠質細胞佔據了人腦中的一大部分。本周史蒂文斯因為研究膠質細胞獲得了麥克亞瑟獎，也就是所謂的天才獎。

“These cells are incredibly responsive to damage or injury. They can protect our brain by, for example, clearing bacteria or debris in the brain in the case of injury and disease…
這些膠質細胞對受傷和損害非常的敏感。它們可以通過，在大腦受傷或生病時大腦中的細菌和殘骸，來保護我們的大腦。

“Until about 10 years ago, almost all of the research devoted to these cells was in these contexts. We discovered that there was another role for these cells in the normal healthy brain, in particular during development…
10年前，幾乎所有關於這方面的研究都是有關上述的問題。我們發現這些細胞在正常健康的人腦內，尤其是在大腦發育的過程中，還有其他的功能。

“So a synapse is the junction of communication between two neurons, it’s how neurons talk to each other…we’re actually born with an excess of synaptic connections…and through this normal developmental process called pruning, a large number of these extra synapses get permanently removed or eliminated while others get strengthened and maintained.
“所以，神經元突觸是兩個神經元之間的交通樞紐，這就是神經元交流的方式...實際上我們有很多的突觸聯繫...並且通過這個叫做prunning正常的發育過程，在這個過程中，大量的這些額外的神經元被永久性的移除或者刪除，而其他的一些神經元則被加強和鞏固。”

These microglial cells were in fact engulfing or eating these extra synapses. So these cells are necessary to do this and now of course we’re trying to better understand how it is that they know which synapse to prune and which synapse to leave alone.
實際上，這些微神經膠質細胞會吞噬或者吃掉這些額外的神經元。所以，這些細胞需要這樣做。當然，我們試圖更加透徹的理解這些微神經膠質細胞是如何是識別哪些神經元需要修飾，哪些不需要管理。

“A hallmark of many neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease, is the early loss of synaptic connections or synapses…And what’s most striking about this is, it’s thought that the synapse loss happens years before you see signs of cognitive impairment or pathology.
很多神經退行性疾病，例如，阿耳茨海默氏病，的特點，是突觸連接或者突觸的早期損失。但是，最突出的是，人們認為在認知障礙或者病理條件的症狀顯示之前，這些神經元缺失已經發生了。

“That means it’s critical that we understand how these synapses are lost—what makes synapses vulnerable. And that’s a major question my lab is addressing. So recent work in the lab suggests that these normal pruning mechanisms that I’ve just described that are relevant to development get reactivated to drive or mediate this early synapse loss in the adult brain in these diseases.
這意味著，我們理解這些神經元是如何丟失是非常重要的——是什麼讓這些神經元如此的脆弱。這就是我實驗室正在解決一個重大的問題。現象實驗室的研究表明我 剛才描述的這些正常的修復機理與和發育過程有關，並且被啟動行使或者說介導這種疾病條件下成年人大腦中的早期突觸損失現象。

This is very exciting because it allows us to think about the potential that intervening with this pruning pathway could lead to new insight into therapeutics.”
這是一項令人激動的發現。因為這是很令人激動的發現，因為這使我們想到潛在的干預這種修剪途徑能夠導致開發出治療措施方面的應用。

For the complete list of this year’s 24 MacArthur Fellows, including about 10 science and medicine people depending on how you define their activities, go to macfound.org, for MacArthur Foundation.
本年度的全部24名麥肯亞瑟成員名單，根據你們如何定義他們的行為這些成員中包括了大約10名科學家和醫藥人士，可以去麥肯亞瑟基金會網站macfound.org查看詳細內容。