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科学美国人60秒 SSS 测量凝视的力量

时间:2019-12-10 06:25:10

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This is Scientific American — 60-Second Science. I'm Karen Hopkin.

You're at a party and you suddenly feel someone looking at you. But how can it be possible to feel another person's gaze? I mean, it's not like people shoot actual beams out of their eyes. Yet...a new study suggests that, unconsciously, we actually do believe that looking exerts a slight force on the things being looked at. That eye-opening finding appears in the Proceedings1 of the National Academy of Sciences.

Vision depends on light entering the eye...a form of ocular intromission, if you will. But kids...even those in college...often express a belief in "extramission"...the idea that the eyes emit a form of invisible energy.

To probe this perception, researchers at Princeton asked volunteers to look at a computer screen and gauge2 the angle at which a cardboard tube...shown being slowly tilted4 on its side... would finally topple over. Now, in some of the tests, they included an image of a young man watching the tube as it tilted toward him.

What the researchers found is that, when there was someone staring at the tube, subjects thought that the tube could tilt3 a little further before it toppled toward the fella looking at it. Which means that, unconsciously, the volunteers must have imagined that the guy's gaze exerted a slight force on the tube, keeping it from falling.

But this force was not strong. When the researchers replaced the cardboard tube with a brick, the subjects felt that the Jedi eye beams wouldn't support the added weight...they said the brick would fall at the same angle, whether or not there was someone there to watch it.

Interestingly, when the participants were explicitly5 asked about eyeball extramission, only 5 percent of them fessed up to believing in some sort of force being exerted by the eyes. But deep down, it looks like many of us put stock in the awesome6 power of the stare down. Just don't depend on it if something weighty is about to fall your way.

Thanks for listening for Scientific American — 60-Second Science. I'm Karen Hopkin.


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点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 proceedings Wk2zvX     
n.进程,过程,议程;诉讼(程序);公报
参考例句:
  • He was released on bail pending committal proceedings. 他交保获释正在候审。
  • to initiate legal proceedings against sb 对某人提起诉讼
2 gauge 2gMxz     
v.精确计量;估计;n.标准度量;计量器
参考例句:
  • Can you gauge what her reaction is likely to be?你能揣测她的反应可能是什么吗?
  • It's difficult to gauge one's character.要判断一个人的品格是很困难的。
3 tilt aG3y0     
v.(使)倾侧;(使)倾斜;n.倾侧;倾斜
参考例句:
  • She wore her hat at a tilt over her left eye.她歪戴着帽子遮住左眼。
  • The table is at a slight tilt.这张桌子没放平,有点儿歪.
4 tilted 3gtzE5     
v. 倾斜的
参考例句:
  • Suddenly the boat tilted to one side. 小船突然倾向一侧。
  • She tilted her chin at him defiantly. 她向他翘起下巴表示挑衅。
5 explicitly JtZz2H     
ad.明确地,显然地
参考例句:
  • The plan does not explicitly endorse the private ownership of land. 该计划没有明确地支持土地私有制。
  • SARA amended section 113 to provide explicitly for a right to contribution. 《最高基金修正与再授权法案》修正了第123条,清楚地规定了分配权。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法
6 awesome CyCzdV     
adj.令人惊叹的,难得吓人的,很好的
参考例句:
  • The church in Ireland has always exercised an awesome power.爱尔兰的教堂一直掌握着令人敬畏的权力。
  • That new white convertible is totally awesome.那辆新的白色折篷汽车简直棒极了.

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