Three scientists in the United States won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry on Wednesday.
周三,三名美国科学家获得了诺贝尔化学奖。
The three won for their discovery of quantum dots, a technology widely used today to make displays for electronic devices and medical imaging.
这三名科学家因发现量子点而获奖,量子点技术目前被广泛用于制造电子设备和医学影像设备的显示器。
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项授予麻省理工学院的蒙吉·巴文迪、纽约哥伦比亚大学的路易斯·布鲁斯和美国纳米晶体科技公司的阿列克谢·叶基莫夫。
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."
瑞典皇家科学院表示,这三位科学家之所以获奖,是因为他们研究的粒子“具有独特的性质,这些粒子如今可以通过电视屏幕和LED灯传播它们的光。”
LED lights are electronic lights used all over the world, which use energy very effectively.
LED灯是全世界都在使用的电子灯,它能非常有效地利用能源。
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..."
颁发该奖项的诺贝尔委员会成员佩妮拉·维通·斯塔夫谢德说:“电视、手机都有使用量子点的显示器……”
Quantum dots are extremely small particles, called nanoparticles.
量子点是极小的颗粒,称为纳米颗粒。
They are said to be about 1/10,000 the width of a human hair.
据说它们的宽度大约是人类头发的万分之一。
The dots glow blue, red, green or other colors when exposed to light.
量子点在光照下会发出蓝色、红色、绿色或其他颜色的光。
The color they give off depends on the size of the particles.
它们发出光的颜色取决于粒子的大小。
Larger dots look red, and smaller dots look blue.
较大的量子点显示为红色,较小的量子点显示为蓝色。
The color change is caused by the behavior of electrons in these small spaces.
颜色变化是由这些小空间中的电子运动引起的。
Physicists had predicted these color-change properties as early as the 1930s.
物理学家早在20世纪30年代就预测到了这些颜色变化特性。
However, it took 50 years of research and development to control the size of quantum dots correctly.
然而,要正确控制量子点的大小需要50年的研发时间。
Ekimov and Brus were the early researchers of the technology.
叶基莫夫和布鲁斯是这项技术的早期研究人员。
Bawendi is credited with developing the production of quantum dots being used today.
巴文迪因开发了目前使用的量子点而受到赞誉。
Bawendi used the words, "very surprised, sleepy, shocked, unexpected and very honored," to describe his feelings.
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。
Bawendi added he was not thinking about the possible uses of his work when he started researching quantum dots.
巴文迪补充说,当他开始研究量子点时,他并没有考虑他的研究成果的可能用途。
"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.
他说:“真正的动机是基础科学。对世界如何运转的基本理解和好奇心?这就是驱使科学家和学术科学家去做他们所做的事情的原因”。
Brus of Columbia University said he did not answer the phone call from the Swedish academy.
哥伦比亚大学的布鲁斯说,他没有接到瑞典皇家科学院的电话。
He finally saw the news online when he got up in the morning.
早上起床后,他终于在网上看到了这则新闻。
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研究时的希望。
"Basic research is extremely hard to predict exactly how it's going to work out," Brus said.
布鲁斯说:“很难准确预测基础研究将会如何发挥作用。”
"It's more for the knowledge base than it is for the actual materials. But in this case, it's both."
“它更多的是用于知识基础,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.
叶基莫夫是美国纽约纳米晶体科技公司的前首席科学家,他从1999年开始在那里工作。
The Swedish academy credited him with showing how the size of nanoparticles affected the colors in glass.
瑞典皇家科学院因他展示了不同尺寸的纳米颗粒如何影响玻璃颜色而表彰他。
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.
这三人将会在12月的诺贝尔颁奖典礼上领取到1100万瑞典克朗(约合100万美元)的奖金和一枚金牌。
I'm Dan Friedell.
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