能自愈的智能電子皮膚

江蘇 馬秀艷

你有沒有想過，如果有一天，你的皮膚受到傷害了，比如被刀劃傷了，或者被燙傷了，它會自動(dòng)修復(fù)？你肯定會覺得這不可思議。目前科學(xué)家已經(jīng)研發(fā)出新型智能電子皮膚，這種皮膚可以在一秒鐘內(nèi)完成修復(fù)，就像《終結(jié)者》里的機(jī)器人一樣。

題材科技體裁說明文文章詞數(shù) 難度 建議用時(shí)314 ★★★ 6 分鐘

A new smart manmade skin that can repair itself in less than a second like the cyborg （半人半機(jī)器的生物） in the film Terminator has been developed. The electronic skin, or e-skin, is just as strong and sensitive as human skin and could be used to monitor a person's health or the structural condition of an airplane, say scientists.

While it is not the first time scientists have tried to “electronically” copy human skin, previous attempts have fallen short. This e-skin prototype （原型） can sense objects from up to eight inches away, react to things in under one tenth of a second and repair itself more than 5,000 times, according to the researchers.

Study author Dr Yichen Cai, of King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia, said, “The ideal e-skin will imitate the many natural functions of human skin, such as sensing temperature and touch, accurately and in real time. However, making suitably flexible electronics that can perform such delicate tasks in everyday life is challenging, and each material involved must be carefully engineered.”

At the same time, it is highly sensitive, to the point where it can distinguish handwriting written on its surface and withstand 5,000 deformations（變形）, recovering in about a quarter of a second.

Their new invention could help make prosthetics （假體） which monitor a range of biological information, including changes in blood pressure. The information could then be shared and stored on the cloud via Wi-Fi.

Co-author Vincent Tung said, “One remaining obstacle to the widespread use of e-skin lies in scaling up of high-resolution sensors. However, laser-assisted additive manufacturing offers new promise.”

While the first port of call is medical, the e-skin could benefit a wide range of products.

Dr Cai added, “We will see a future for this technology beyond biology. Stretchable sensor tape could one day monitor the structural health of non-living objects, such as furniture and aircraft.”

Reading Check

1. What does the underlined phrase “fallen short” in paragraph 2 probably mean?

A. Ignored the present achievements.

B. Failed to achieve the expected result.

C. Covered the existing mistakes.

D. Misunderstood structural conditions.

2. In Dr Yichen Cai's opinion, what can we infer about the ideal e-skin?

A. It can be as strong as the cyborg.

B. It can be stored on the cloud via Wi-Fi.

C. It contains much biological information.

D. It can copy natural functions of human skin.

3. How does Vincent Tung find the widespread use of e-skin?

A. Very promising. B. Full of difficulties.

C. Extremely hopeless. D. Time-consuming.

4. What field will the e-skin be used first?

A. AI. B. Film. C. Medicine. D. Education.

Language Study

Difficult sentence

However, making suitably flexible electronics that can perform such delicate tasks in everyday life is challenging, and each material involved must be carefully engineered. 然而，制造適當(dāng)靈活的可以執(zhí)行日常生活中如此精密任務(wù)的電子設(shè)備是具有挑戰(zhàn)性的，而且每種材料都必須要進(jìn)行精心設(shè)計(jì)才行。

【點(diǎn)石成金】本句為一個(gè)并列復(fù)合句，and連接兩個(gè)并列句，在第一個(gè)分句中，making suitably flexible electronics是動(dòng)名詞短語作主語，that引導(dǎo)定語從句；在第二個(gè)分句中，involved是過去分詞作后置定語，修飾前面的名詞each material。