第1972期:Three Win Nobel Prize in Chemistry for Quantum Dots Discovery

Three scientists in the United States won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry on Wednesday. The three won for their discovery of quantum dots, a technology widely used today to make displays for electronic devices and medical imaging. 周三，美国三名科学家荣获诺贝尔化学奖。 三人因发现量子点而获奖，量子点是一种当今广泛用于制造电子设备和医学成像显示器的技术。 The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the prize to Moungi Bawendi of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Louis Brus of Columbia University in New York, and Alexei Ekimov of Nanocrystals Technology. 瑞典皇家科学院将该奖授予麻省理工学院的 Moungi Bawendi、纽约哥伦比亚大学的 Louis Brus 和纳米晶体技术公司的 Alexei Ekimov。 The academy said the three were honored for their work with particles that “have unique properties and now spread their light from television screens and LED lamps.” 该学院表示，这三人因其在粒子方面的工作而受到表彰，这些粒子“具有独特的特性，现在可以从电视屏幕和 LED 灯中传播光线”。 LED lights are electronic lights used all over the world, which use energy very effectively. LED灯是世界各地使用的电子灯，其能源利用效率非常高。 Pernilla Wittung Stafshede, a member of the Nobel committee that awarded the prize, said, “We have displays on TVs, in your cellphone, that use quantum dots inside...” 诺贝尔奖颁奖委员会成员佩尼拉·维通·斯塔夫谢德 (Pernilla Wittung Stafshede) 表示：“我们在电视、手机上都有显示屏，里面使用了量子点……”Quantum dots are extremely small particles, called nanoparticles. They are said to be about 1/10,000 the width of a human hair. The dots glow blue, red, green or other colors when exposed to light. The color they give off depends on the size of the particles. Larger dots look red, and smaller dots look blue. The color change is caused by the behavior of electrons in these small spaces. 量子点是极小的颗粒，称为纳米颗粒。 据说它们的宽度约为人类头发的 1/10,000。 当暴露在光线下时，这些点会发出蓝色、红色、绿色或其他颜色的光。 它们发出的颜色取决于颗粒的大小。 较大的点看起来是红色的，较小的点看起来是蓝色的。 颜色的变化是由电子在这些小空间中的行为引起的。 Physicists had predicted these color-change properties as early as the 1930s. However, it took 50 years of research and development to control the size of quantum dots correctly. 早在 20 世纪 30 年代，物理学家就预测了这些变色特性。 然而，人们花了50年的研发时间才正确控制量子点的尺寸。 Ekimov and Brus were the early researchers of the technology. Bawendi is credited with developing the production of quantum dots being used today. Ekimov 和 Brus 是该技术的早期研究人员。 巴文迪因开发了当今使用的量子点的生产而受到赞誉。 Bawendi used the words, “very surprised, sleepy, shocked, unexpected and very honored,” to describe his feelings. Bawendi added he was not thinking about the possible uses of his work when he started researching quantum dots. 巴文迪用“非常惊讶、困倦、震惊、意外和非常荣幸”来形容他的感受。 巴文迪补充说，当他开始研究量子点时，他并没有考虑他的工作的可能用途。 “The motivation really is the basic science. A basic understanding, the curiosity of how does the world work? And that’s what drives scientists and academic scientists to do what they do,” he said. “动机确实是基础科学。 对世界如何运作的基本了解和好奇心？ 这就是驱使科学家和学术科学家去做他们所做的事情的动力，”他说。 Brus of Columbia University said he did not answer the phone call from the Swedish academy. He finally saw the news online when he got up in the morning. 哥伦比亚大学布鲁斯表示，他没有接听瑞典科学院的电话。 早上起床的时候，他终于在网上看到了这条新闻。 Brus said the practical uses of quantum dots, like creating the colors in TV screens, are something he was hoping for when he started the work many years ago. 布鲁斯说，量子点的实际用途，比如在电视屏幕上创造颜色，是他多年前开始这项工作时所希望的。 “Basic research is extremely hard to predict exactly how it’s going to work out,” Brus said. “It’s more for the knowledge base than it is for the actual materials. But in this case, it’s both.” “基础研究很难准确预测其结果，”布鲁斯说。 “这更多的是为了知识库而不是实际材料。 但在这种情况下，两者都是。” Ekimov is the former chief scientist at Nanocrystals Technology, a company based in New York where he started working in 1999. The Swedish academy credited him with showing how the size of nanoparticles affected the colors in glass. Ekimov 是纽约 Nanocrystals Technology 公司的前首席科学家，他于 1999 年开始在纽约工作。瑞典科学院称赞他展示了纳米颗粒的尺寸如何影响玻璃的颜色。The three will receive 11 million Swedish crowns, about $1 million, and a gold medal when they collect their Nobel Prizes at the award ceremonies in December. 三人在 12 月的颁奖典礼上领取诺贝尔奖时将获得 1100 万瑞典克朗（约合 100 万美元）和一枚金质奖章。