双语新闻：三位美国科学家因发现量子点获诺贝尔化学奖

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.

周三，三名美国科学家获得了诺贝尔化学奖。三人因发现量子点而获奖，量子点是一种如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项授予了麻省理工学院的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，三人因他们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，它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..."

诺贝尔奖委员会成员Pernilla Wittung Stafshede说：“我们在电视和手机上都有显示器，里面使用量子点……”

What are quantum dots?

什么是量子点？

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.

量子点是一种极小的粒子，称为纳米颗粒。据说它们的宽度约为人类头发的1/10000。当暴露在光下时，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粒子的大小。较大的点看起来是红色的，较小的点看起来则是蓝色的。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，物理学家就预测到了这些颜色变化特性。然而，要正确控制量子点的大小，需要50年的研发。

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是这项技术的早期研究者。巴文迪被认为开发了当今使用的量子点的生产。

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、昏昏欲睡、震惊、出乎意料、非常荣幸”来形容自己的感受。巴文迪补充说，当他开始研究量子点时，他并没有考虑自己的工作可能的用途。

"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。对世界如何运作的基本理解和好奇心？这就是驱使科学家和学术科学家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. He finally saw the news online when he got up in the morning.

哥伦比亚大学的布鲁斯表示，他没有接听瑞典学院的电话。他终于在早上起床时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.

Brus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."

布鲁斯说：“基础研究很难准确预测结果。”“这更多的是为了知识库，而不是为了实际材料。但在这种情况下，两者兼而有之。”

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是纳米晶体技术公司的前首席科学家，该公司总部位于纽约，他于1999年开始工作。瑞典科学院认为他展示了纳米颗粒的大小如何影响玻璃中的颜色。

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.

在12月的颁奖典礼上，三人将获得1100万瑞典克朗（约合100万美元）和一枚金牌。