科学家创造出比沙粒还小的机器人

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🤔️小作业：

1. Which of the following best summarizes the central challenge the article presents before introducing the new robots?

A. The lack of practical applications for nanorobotics

B. The difficulty of making small robots durable in liquid environments

C. A long-standing technological bottleneck in achieving true autonomy at sub-millimeter scale

D. The inability of current robots to communicate measurable data

无注释原文：

Scientists Create Robots Smaller Than a Grain of Sand

From: The Wall Street Journal

In robotics, as in so many things, small is beautiful. The trouble is that making them really small is very nearly impossible. “Building robots that operate independently at sizes below one millimeter is incredibly difficult,” says roboticist Marc Miskin at the University of Pennsylvania. “The field has essentially been stuck on this problem for 40 years.”

Now researchers at Penn and the University of Michigan have created the world's smallest, fully programmable, autonomous robots, packing significant capacities into a device smaller than a grain of salt. These are parsimonious little things, barely visible to the naked eye yet able to sense their environment, respond to it and move around in complex patterns. As described in a new paper in the journal Science Robotics, they run on infinitesimally small quantities of energy and gain power from light.

“These are the smallest programmable autonomous robots that I have seen,” said Kevin Chen, an MIT roboticist who wasn't involved. “This is an exciting advance for the nanorobotics community.”

Miskin's team at Penn provided the propulsion system. The robots work in liquid environments and move by generating a tiny electrical field that pushes on nearby water molecules. Lacking tiny arms and legs, which are hard to make and easy to break, the robots are quite durable and can swim for months as long as they have an energy source.

In discussing the breakthrough, the roboticists often mention the 1966 film “Fantastic Voyage” as a frame of reference. In the movie, a team of scientists is temporarily shrunk to microscopic size to enter and repair the body of a fellow scientist struggling to survive an assassination attempt.

Tiny robots do have potential medical functions, said Miskin, such as precisely reporting local temperatures inside the body or retrieving tissue from the base of a tooth for testing. Robots on voyages in our bodies (inserted by injection, perhaps) could even be powered by light since some kinds of light can pass through human tissue. But ultrasound could also work, said Miskin.

David Blaauw's lab at Michigan created the minuscule onboard computer that permits the robots to be programmed by light pulses to respond autonomously to their environment. Each robot, equipped with its own brain, could be given different orders so that different robots could undertake different parts of a larger task, such as pathfinding or mapping a small space. 

“We designed a special computer instruction that encodes a value, such as the measured temperature, in the wiggles of a little dance the robot performs,” said Blaauw. “We then look at this dance through a microscope with a camera and decode from the wiggles what the robots are saying to us.” The wiggles become data that can be analyzed “to automatically extract the value that the robot is communicating,” Blaauw said.

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注：完整题目见本文开头；中文文本为华尔街日报官方译文，仅供参考

含注释全文：

Scientists Create Robots Smaller Than a Grain of Sand

From: The Wall Street Journal

In robotics, as in so many things, small is beautiful. The trouble is that making them really small is very nearly impossible. “Building robots that operate independently at sizes below one millimeter is incredibly difficult,” says roboticist Marc Miskin at the University of Pennsylvania. “The field has essentially been stuck on this problem for 40 years.”

在机器人领域，和许多其他事物一样，小即是美。问题在于，把它们做得非常小几乎是不可能的。“制造能在小于一毫米的尺寸下独立运行的机器人是极其困难的，”宾夕法尼亚大学(University of Pennsylvania)的机器人专家马克·米斯金(Marc Miskin)说。“这个领域基本上被这个问题困扰了40年。”

表示“毫米”，英文解释为“a unit of length that is equal to 0.001 meters”

Now researchers at Penn and the University of Michigan have created the world's smallest, fully programmable, autonomous robots, packing significant capacities into a device smaller than a grain of salt. These are parsimonious little things, barely visible to the naked eye yet able to sense their environment, respond to it and move around in complex patterns. As described in a new paper in the journal Science Robotics, they run on infinitesimally small quantities of energy and gain power from light.

现在，宾夕法尼亚大学和密歇根大学(University of Michigan)的研究人员创造了世界上最小、完全可编程的自主机器人，将强大的功能集成到一个比一粒盐还小的设备中。这些小东西非常精巧，肉眼几乎看不见，却能够感知环境、对环境做出反应，并以复杂的模式四处移动。正如Science Robotics杂志上一篇新论文所描述的，它们以极微量的能量运行，并从光中获取能量。

programmable /prəʊˈɡræm.ə.bəl/ 表示“可编程设计的，程序控制的”，英文解释为“able to be programmed”

grain /ɡreɪn/ 1）表示“（尤指像稻谷、小麦等像草一样的植物的）谷粒，颖果，谷（物）”，英文解释为“a seed or seeds from a plant, especially a plant like a grass such as rice or wheat”如：grains of wheat/rice 麦/米粒。

2）表示“细粒，颗粒”，英文解释为“a very small piece of a hard substance”如：grains of sand 沙粒。

3）表示“一点儿；微量，少量”，英文解释为“a very small amount of a particular quality”举个🌰：There wasn't a grain of truth in anything she said. 她无论说什么都没有半句实话在里面。

parsimonious /ˌpɑː.sɪˈməʊ.ni.əs/ 表示“吝啬小气的，过度节俭的”，英文解释为“not willing to spend money or use a lot of something”举个🌰：She's too parsimonious to heat the house properly. 她太节省了，甚至都舍不得给房子供足暖气。

在这个语境下，它并非指“吝啬”，而是采用了其更专业、更积极的引申义，可以理解为：简洁高效的、设计精巧的、极其节省的。

“These are the smallest programmable autonomous robots that I have seen,” said Kevin Chen, an MIT roboticist who wasn't involved. “This is an exciting advance for the nanorobotics community.”

未参与该研究的麻省理工学院(MIT)机器人专家Kevin Chen说：“这是我见过的最小的可编程自主机器人。”他还说：“这对纳米机器人界来说是一个激动人心的进步。”

Miskin's team at Penn provided the propulsion system. The robots work in liquid environments and move by generating a tiny electrical field that pushes on nearby water molecules. Lacking tiny arms and legs, which are hard to make and easy to break, the robots are quite durable and can swim for months as long as they have an energy source.

米斯金在宾夕法尼亚大学的团队提供了推进系统。这些机器人在液体环境中工作，通过产生一个微小的电场来推动附近的水分子移动。由于没有微小的手臂和腿（这些部件很难制造且容易损坏），这些机器人相当耐用，只要有能源，就可以游动数月。

propulsion /prəˈpʌl.ʃən/ 表示“推进；推动力”，英文解释为“a force that pushes something forward”如：wind propulsion 风力推进，a propulsion system 推进系统。

liquid /ˈlɪk.wɪd/ 可以作形容词，也可以作名词，表示“液体”，英文解释为“a substance, such as water, that is not solid or a gas and that can be poured easily”举个🌰：Mercury is a liquid at room temperature. 水银在室温下为液体。

molecule /ˈmɒl.ɪ.kjuːl/ 表示“分子”，英文解释为“the smallest unit, consisting of a group of atoms, into which a substance can be divided without a change in its chemical nature”举个🌰：A molecule of water consists of two atoms of hydrogen and one atom of oxygen. 水分子由两个氢原子和一个氧原子构成。

形容词性：

📍molecular /məʊˈlɛkjʊlə/ 表示“分子的”，英文解释为“Molecular means relating to or involving molecules.”如：the molecular structure of fuel 燃料的分子结构。

In discussing the breakthrough, the roboticists often mention the 1966 film “Fantastic Voyage” as a frame of reference. In the movie, a team of scientists is temporarily shrunk to microscopic size to enter and repair the body of a fellow scientist struggling to survive an assassination attempt.

在讨论这项突破时，机器人专家们经常提到1966年的电影《神奇旅程》(Fantastic Voyage)作为参照。在该电影中，一组科学家被暂时缩小到微观尺寸，进入并修复一位遭遇暗杀后挣扎求生的同事的身体。

表示“（某人的行为、看法或决定所依据的）参照准则，观念体系”，英文解释为“a set of ideas or facts accepted by a person that explains their behaviour, opinions, or decisions”

shrink /ʃrɪŋk/ 表示“（使）缩小，（使）变小”，英文解释为“to become smaller, or to make something smaller”举个🌰：Your sweater will shrink if you wash it at too high a temperature. 用温度过高的水洗毛衣，毛衣会缩水。

assassination /əˌsæs.ɪˈneɪ.ʃən/ 表示“暗杀（名人或重要人物）”，英文解释为“the murder of someone famous or important”如：an assassination attempt 暗杀的企图。

Tiny robots do have potential medical functions, said Miskin, such as precisely reporting local temperatures inside the body or retrieving tissue from the base of a tooth for testing. Robots on voyages in our bodies (inserted by injection, perhaps) could even be powered by light since some kinds of light can pass through human tissue. But ultrasound could also work, said Miskin.

米斯金说，微型机器人确实具有潜在的医疗功能，例如精确报告体内的局部温度，或从牙齿根部取出组织进行检测。在我们体内穿行的机器人（或许通过注射植入）甚至可以由光供能，因为某些种类的光可以穿透人体组织。但米斯金说，超声波也可以。

retrieve /rɪˈtriːv/ 1）表示“找回；收回，取回”，英文解释为“to find something and bring it back”举个🌰：It took four days to retrieve all the bodies from the crash. 花了四天时间才找回所有遇难者的尸体。

2）表示“检索数据”，英文解释为“to find and get back data or information that has been stored in the memory of a computer”如：to retrieve information from the database从数据库检索资料。

区分：

📍recover表示“重新获得；寻回”，英文解释为“to get back something that was taken from you, lost, or almost destroyed”举个🌰：Two bodies were recovered from the wreckage. 残骸中找到了两具尸体。

injection /ɪnˈdʒek.ʃən/ 表示“注射”，英文解释为“the act of putting a liquid, especially a drug, into a person's body using a needle and a syringe (= small tube)”举个🌰：Daily insulin injections are necessary for some diabetics. 有些糖尿病患者必须每日注射胰岛素。

ultrasound /ˈʌl.trə.saʊnd/ 表示“超声波（用于人体器官检查、潜艇导航等）”，英文解释为“special sound waves used in such processes as examining organs inside the body and directing the route of submarines”如：ultrasound scanning/imaging 超声波扫描/成像。

David Blaauw's lab at Michigan created the minuscule onboard computer that permits the robots to be programmed by light pulses to respond autonomously to their environment. Each robot, equipped with its own brain, could be given different orders so that different robots could undertake different parts of a larger task, such as pathfinding or mapping a small space. 

密歇根大学的戴维·布劳(David Blaauw)的实验室创造了微型机载计算机，使机器人可以通过光脉冲编程，自主地对环境做出反应。每个机器人都配备了自己的大脑，可以被赋予不同的指令，以便不同的机器人可以承担更大任务的不同部分，例如寻路或绘制小空间的地图。

minuscule /ˈmɪn.ə.skjuːl/ 表示“微小的，极小的”，英文解释为“extremely small”举个🌰：All she gave him to eat was two minuscule pieces of toast. 她只给他吃了两小片烤面包。

“We designed a special computer instruction that encodes a value, such as the measured temperature, in the wiggles of a little dance the robot performs,” said Blaauw. “We then look at this dance through a microscope with a camera and decode from the wiggles what the robots are saying to us.” The wiggles become data that can be analyzed “to automatically extract the value that the robot is communicating,” Blaauw said.

布劳说：“我们设计了一种特殊的计算机指令，将一个值，比如测量的温度，编码到机器人表演的一段小舞蹈的摆动中。”“然后我们用带摄像头的显微镜观察这段舞蹈，并从摆动中解码出机器人想对我们说什么。”布劳说，这些摆动变成了可以被分析的数据，可以“自动提取机器人正在传达的值”。

表示“把…译成电码（或密码）；把…编码”，英文解释为“to change something into a system for sending messages secretly, or to represent complicated information in a simple or short way”

wiggle /ˈwɪɡ.əl/ 表示“扭动；摆动”，英文解释为“a small, quick movement up and down and/or from side to side”

microscope /ˈmaɪ.krə.skəʊp/ 表示“显微镜”，英文解释为“a device that uses lenses to make very small objects look larger, so that they can be scientifically examined and studied”举个🌰：They looked at the blood samples under the microscope. 他们在显微镜下观察血样。

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