第1513期:One step closer to cyborgs

I am a massive science fiction geek. Ever since I was young, I’ve been captivated by tales of interstellar adventure, aliens, robots, and cutting-edge technology. I always loved the concept of cyborgs. That’s a human-robot hybrid. They are ordinary humans who have been enhanced in some way by technology; more intelligence, faster speed or better resilience to disease and damage. Great ideas, but I never thought I’d see them in my lifetime. 我是一个庞大的科幻极客。从小，我就被星际冒险、外星人、机器人和尖端技术的故事迷住了。我一直很喜欢电子人的概念。那是人机混合体。他们是被科技以某种方式增强的普通人；更多的智慧、更快的速度或更好的抵抗疾病和伤害的能力。伟大的想法，但我从没想过我会在有生之年看到它们。Well, I stand corrected. Integrated biology and technology is already here and people have wasted no time utilising it to re-engineer their bodies. Take, for example, Neil Harbisson, who has an antenna protruding from his head that allows him to hear colour, or Moon Ribas, who has an implant that allows her to sense seismic activity. Now, neither are abilities that I particularly covet, but it's a start.好吧，我的立场是正确的。综合生物学和技术已经出现，人们没有浪费时间利用它来重新设计他们的身体。例如，Neil Harbisson 的头部伸出一根天线，可以让他听到颜色，或者 Moon Ribas，她的植入物可以让她感知地震活动。现在，我特别渴望的能力也不是，但这是一个开始。And it doesn’t end there. As technology increases so too will our ability to enhance ourselves through it. One of the latest developments is the graphene tattoo. Not an actual tattoo at all, but more like a patch, the graphene tattoo could revolutionise biomedical monitoring.它并没有就此结束。随着科技的进步，我们通过科技提升自我的能力也会随之提升。最新的发展之一是石墨烯纹身。根本不是真正的纹身，而是更像一个补丁，石墨烯纹身可以彻底改变生物医学监测。It looks much like a transparent plaster, but with a gold coloured circuit board contained within it. This circuit is the graphene. Graphene is a form of carbon, but it’s 200 times stronger than steel and conducts electricity better than gold, which is the component typically used in electronics.它看起来很像透明的石膏，但里面有一块金色的电路板。这个电路就是石墨烯。石墨烯是碳的一种形式，但它的强度是钢的 200 倍，导电性能也比金更好，金是电子产品中常用的成分。The human body is basically an electrical machine. When in contact with the skin, the graphene in the plaster is able to read and conduct the electricity – allowing it to easily be used as a medical monitor for heart-rate and pulse, among other things. And even more, graphene tattoos can be used as bioelectronic controllers, as demonstrated by one engineer who attached them to his eyelids in order to direct which way a drone flew, just by looking with his eyes!人体基本上是一台电机。当与皮肤接触时，膏药中的石墨烯能够读取并传导电流——使其可以轻松用作心率和脉搏等医疗监测器。更重要的是，石墨烯纹身可以用作生物电子控制器，正如一位工程师所展示的那样，他将纹身贴在眼睑上，以便通过眼睛观察无人机的飞行方向！I know that biotechnology is a long way from allowing humans to be able to lift a car or run half-way around the world in a single day, like I wanted to be able to do when I was a child. But, it’s improving all the time and once the price of graphene falls, who knows what else we’ll be able to do? I’ll see you in the future!我知道生物技术距离让人类能够在一天内举起汽车或绕半个地球跑，就像我小时候想做的那样，还有很长的路要走。但是，它一直在改善，一旦石墨烯的价格下降，谁知道我们还能做些什么呢？我会在未来见到你！词汇表geek 呆子，极客interstellar 星际的cutting-edge 前沿的cyborg 半机械人hybrid 混合体enhanced 强化的，增强的integrated 合成一体的re-engineer 重建，重新组合antenna 触角protrude 伸出implant 植入seismic 地震的，造成严重破坏的covet 渴望，贪求    graphene 石墨烯patch 贴布，贴片transparent 透明的circuit board 电路版carbon 碳conduct 传导（电）component 零部件，组成部分bioelectronic 生物电子的

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