VOA慢速英语2014 进行大脑研究的三位科学家获得诺贝尔奖
时间：2019-01-12 作者：英语课 分类：2014年VOA慢速英语(十)月
Three Scientists Win Nobel Prize for Brain Research 进行大脑研究的三位科学家获得诺贝尔奖
From VOA Learning English, this is Science in the News.
American-born British Scientist John O'Keefe and Norwegians May-Britt Moser and Edvard Moser won the Nobel Prize in medicine. They discovered how the brain knows the body’s location.
The Nobel Assembly at Sweden's Karolinska Institute announced the prize on Monday. According to the assembly, the prize winners answered an important question about the brain: how does it draw a kind of map of the space we are in? This map helps us move through our environment.
Professor John O'Keefe is the director of the Sainsbury Wellcome Center in Neural 1 Circuits and Behavior at University College London. He discovered the mapping ability in 1971. He noticed that certain nerve cells started working in a rat's brain when it was in one part of a room. When the rat was in a different part of the room, other nerve cells were activated 3 in another part of the brain.
The other winners, Edvard and May-Britt Moser, are married to each other. They have worked together since they were college students. They found another nerve cell in a rat's brain that creates a grid 4 system. This grid connects with the mapping cells to make up the brain's positioning system.
Other research suggests that humans have the same kinds of brain cells.
The Nobel panel 5 says the discoveries have opened new ways to understand other mental activities. The work of the award winners helps us to understand more about memory, thinking and planning.
The award comes with a $1.1 million prize. Half goes to Professor O'Keefe. May-Britt and Edvard Moser will divide the other half.
On Tuesday, the Nobel Prize in physics will be awarded, followed by the chemistry prize on Wednesday, literature on Thursday and the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday.
I’m Mario Ritter.
Words in this Story
activate 2 – v. to cause (a chemical reaction or natural process) to begin
environment – n. all surrounding things, conditions and
influences that affect life
grid - n. a pattern of lines that cross each other to form squares on a piece of paper, a map, etc.
nerve – n. a thin piece of tissue that sends information through the body to and from the brain
position – n. a place; the way of holding the body; the way
a thing is set or placed
positioning – adj. providing information on the location of something
- The neural network can preferably solve the non- linear problem.利用神经网络建模可以较好地解决非线性问题。
- The information transmission in neural system depends on neurotransmitters.信息传递的神经途径有赖于神经递质。
- We must activate the youth to study.我们要激励青年去学习。
- These push buttons can activate the elevator.这些按钮能启动电梯。
- In this application,the carrier is used to encapsulate the grid.在这种情况下，要用载体把格栅密封起来。
- Modern gauges consist of metal foil in the form of a grid.现代应变仪则由网格形式的金属片组成。