重新定义生死？科学家成功复活死亡猪脑

美国科学家恢复断头猪脑部分功能

Yale study keeps pig brains active 10 hours after decapitation

英国《金融时报》

克莱夫•库克森

Scientists have restored some brain functions in pigs four hours after the animals were decapitated, a ­breakthrough that could advance ­neuroscience but which raises ethical questions about the line between life and death.

科学家在猪被杀4小时后恢复了猪脑的一部分功能，这一突破有望推进神经科学，但引发了关于生与死之间界线的伦理问题。

作动词，表示“杀头，斩首”，英文解释为“If someone is decapitated, their head is cut off”，如：a decapitated body 一具无头尸体。

同义词：

· behead：表示“斩首”，英文解释为“If someone is beheaded, their head is cut off, usually because they have been found guilty of a crime”举个🌰：

At least one hostage was beheaded in that room.

至少有一名人质在那个房间被斩首。

/ˈnjʊərəʊˌsaɪəns/ 表示“神经系统科学（对神经系统的解剖学、生理学、生物化学和药理学的研究）”，英文解释为“the study of the anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, and pharmacology of the nervous system”。

The experiment at Yale University infused artificial blood into the pig brains, restarting some circulation and electrical activity, according to a study published yesterday in the journal Nature.

根据昨日发表在《自然》(Nature)期刊上的一项研究，耶鲁大学(Yale University)的实验将人造血液注入猪脑，重启了一些循环和脑电活动。

此处表示在医学上的“输注（药物等）”，英文解释为“to slowly put a drug or other substance into a person's vein”；infuse本身还有“使充满（某种感觉）；向…灌输（某一品质，某一特性）”，英文解释为“to fill something or someone with a particular feeling or quality  be infused with sth”，举个🌰：

Her books are infused with humour and wisdom.

她的书充满了幽默和智慧。

“This line of research could lead to a whole new way of studying the postmortem brain,” said Andrea Beckel-Mitchener, team lead at the National Institutes of Health brain initiative in the US, which funded the research.

“这一研究方向可能为研究死后的大脑带来一种全新方式，”资助此项研究的美国国立卫生研究院(NIH)大脑研究倡议的团队负责人安德烈•贝克尔-米钦纳(Andrea Beckel-Mitchener)表示。

It might eventually be possible to use reactivated brains for experiments that would not be possible on live subjects or preserved specimens, the Yale researchers said. Those studies might include testing new drugs or examining the effects of brain injuries.

耶鲁大学的研究人员表示，最终可能会使用被重新激活的大脑来进行无法在活对象或保存的标本上开展的实验。这些研究可能包括测试新药，或检查脑伤的影响。

表示“（用于测试或检验的）样品，样本；标本”，英文解释为“a small amount or piece that is taken from something, so that it can be tested or examined”，如：a blood specimen 血样。

Nenad Sestan, professor of neuroscience at Yale University and the project leader, said the methods used to restore the pigs brains might one day lead to new stroke treatments.

耶鲁大学神经科学教授、项目负责人内纳德•塞斯坦(Nenad Sestan)表示，用来恢复猪脑的方法，有朝一日可能带来新的中风治疗方法。

The findings also raise moral questions and challenge “longstanding assumptions about what makes an animal — or a human — alive”, several ethicists wrote in Nature.

一些伦理学家在《自然》杂志上写道，这些研究结果也引发了伦理问题，并挑战“关于动物或人类‘活着’的定义的长期假设”。

Prof Sestan's team worked with the brains of 32 pigs killed at a slaughterhouse. Four hours after the animals were decapitated, a system of computer-controlled pumps called BEX began to infuse the blood substitute into the brains. The BEX fluid, which is laden with compounds designed to protect and nourish neurons, preserved and revived neural structures and cells.

塞斯坦教授的团队用屠宰场(slaughterhouse)宰杀的32头猪的大脑进行了这项实验。在这些动物被斩首4小时后，被称为BEX的电脑控制泵系统开始将血液替代品注入大脑。BEX液体含有旨在保护和滋养神经元的化合物，起到了保存和恢复神经结构和细胞的作用。

表示“泵；唧筒；抽水机；打气筒”，英文解释为“a machine for forcing liquid or gas into or out of something”，如：water pump 抽水机，air pump 抽气机（for moving water/air）；petrol pump/gas pump（=for putting petrol into cars）汽油泵。

其实在上个月的#KuToo：日本女性抗议被迫穿高跟鞋一文中就出现过这个词，pumps 常用复数形式，表示“高跟鞋（高跟无带女鞋）”，英文解释为“a type of plain shoe with a raised heel and no way of fastening it to the foot, worn by women”，为了更好的记住这个词，看看Google Images中搜索「pumps」的结果：

表示“装满的，满载的”，英文解释为“heavily loaded with something, or containing a lot of something”，如：snow-laden branches 积满雪的树枝，举个🌰：

The tables were laden with food.

那些桌子上摆满了食物。

和上文提到的infuse类似，laden也不一定专指装满物理上的各种“实物”，也可以指“充满（某种品质、东西等）的”（having a lot of a particular quality, thing etc, particularly something bad），如：a debt-laden company 一家负债累累的公司，be laden with guilt 满怀内疚。举个🌰：

She was laden with doubts about the affair.

她心中对此事充满疑问。

The technique restored the brains' circulation and metabolism, as well as electrical and chemical activity at synapses, the junctions between neurons.

这种方法恢复了猪脑的循环和新陈代谢，以及神经元之间突触的电学和化学活动。

表示“新陈代谢”，英文解释为“Your metabolism is the way that chemical processes in your body cause food to be used in an efficient way, for example to make new cells and to give you energy.”

看似日常生活中不常见的一个词，其实它的出镜频率是非常高的，例如，这个月月初我们就在男女痛觉差异大，多数止痛药对女性不管用一文中接触到：The medical community—including pharmaceutical companies—didn't appreciate the variation between men and women, including in their metabolisms, immune systems, and gene expression.

Researchers sustained these reanimated functions for six hours (10 hours after decapitation), far longer than had been achieved before. Scientists said the next step in the research would be to try to sustain the functions for much longer.

研究人员将这些复苏的功能维持了6小时（即斩首后10小时），远远超过之前的成就。科学家们表示，研究的下一步将是试图大幅延长维持这些功能的时间。

The researchers stressed that there were no indications of “perception, awareness, or consciousness” in the brains. If they had detected these signs, the scientists said they were prepared to administer anaesthetics or cool the brains to reduce their activity.

研究人员强调，没有迹象显示这些猪脑中存在“感知、知觉或意识”。科学家们表示，如果他们检测到这些迹象，他们曾准备施用麻醉剂或冷却大脑，以减弱其活动。

administration应该都不陌生，administer作动词，用来表示“管理，治理”（to manage the work or money of a company or organization），或者是表示“执行，实施；给予”，英文解释为“to provide or organize something officially as part of your job”举个🌰：

It is not the job of the police to administer justice; that falls to the courts.

司法不是警方的职责，而是法院的职责。

然而，此处并不是这个含义，算是熟词僻义，指的是“施用（药物），给予（治疗），派发（药物）”，英文解释为“to give someone a medicine or medical treatment”举个🌰：

Painkillers were administered to the boy.

已给那个男孩服了止痛药。

“This is not a living brain but it is a cellularly active brain”, said a scientist at Yale who worked on the experiment.

“这不是一个活的大脑，而是一个在细胞层面活跃的大脑，”参与这项实验的一位耶鲁科学家表示。

Still, the results raise a host of ethical questions. Stuart Youngner and Insoo Hyun, two bioethicists at Case Western Reserve University who commented on the study in Nature, urged medical standards associations to set guidelines that balance the need for donor organs against the interests of people who appear to have just died but might be brought back to life.

话虽如此，研究结果还是引发了许多伦理问题。凯斯西储大学(Case Western Reserve University)的两名生物伦理学家斯图尔特•扬纳(Stuart Youngner)和玄仁洙(Insoo Hyun)在《自然》上对这项研究发表了评论。他们敦促医学标准协会制定相关指引，在需要捐赠器官与看似刚刚死亡、但可能被救活的人的利益之间取得平衡。

译者/和风

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