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科学美国人60秒 SSS 你的头骨塑造了你的听力

时间:2020-08-25 01:18:03

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(单词翻译)

This is Scientific American's 60-second Science, I'm Christopher Intagliata.

这里是科学美国人——60秒科学系列,我是克里斯托弗·因塔格里塔。

Certain concert venues1, like Boston's Symphony Hall, are known to beautifully reflect the sounds of an orchestra. It turns out there's a similar process at play in your cochlea, deep inside your ear—where a tiny bony cavity houses the organ that allows you to hear.

波士顿交响音乐厅等音乐会场地,以能完美地反射管弦乐队的声音而闻名。结果表明,你耳朵深处的耳蜗中也发生着类似的过程,那里有微型骨腔,容纳着让我们听到声音的器官。

"It's like its own tiny little acoustics2 chamber3, if you will. So anything and everything you hear is going into our ear and then going into this little bony chamber."

“如果你愿意这样说的话,它就像自已的小型声乐室。你听到的任何声音都会进入耳内,然后进入这个小骨室。”

Mike Gordon, a psychologist at William Paterson University in New Jersey4. But while studying this process, he also found there's actually a lot of variability in the way people hear. Some frequencies can appear tens of decibels5 louder or quieter than average—based on the resonant6 properties of a person's skull7.

新泽西州威廉·帕特森大学的心理学家迈克·戈登说到。但在研究这一过程的同时,他还发现,人们的听觉方式实际上有很多变化。根据个人头骨的共振特性,有些频率会比平均值高或低数十分贝。

"We were shocked. My first version of the draft had exclamation8 points all over the place, but we eventually removed those from the final copy."

“我们非常震惊。我的初稿到处都是感叹号,但我们的终稿最终删除了这些感叹号。”

First, Gordon's team gave 30 volunteers a hearing test—the standard type, where different frequencies of tones are played at varying loudness. Then they did a "bone conduction" hearing test, where vibrations9 are transmitted directly onto the skull, from behind the ear.

首先,戈登的研究团队让30名志愿者进行了一项听力测试——这是一种标准的听力测试,以不同音量播放不同频率的音调。然后,他们做了一个“骨传导”听力测试,振动直接从耳朵后面传到头骨上。

Finally, they projected white noise like this...

最后,他们像这样播放白噪音,

(CLIP: White noise sample)

(音频剪辑:白噪音样本)

... through the skull, from behind the ear, and recorded what came out at the forehead. This is that white noise...

让声音从耳朵后面通过头骨,并记录下从前额传出的声音。这就是白噪音……

(CLIP: White noise sample)

(音频剪辑:白噪音样本)

... filtered through Gordon's skull:

通过戈登头骨后的声音

(CLIP: White noise sample 2)

(音频剪辑:白噪音样本2)

With those filtered samples, they were able to see the unique spectral10 fingerprints11 each volunteer's skull left on the white noise, amplifying12 some frequencies and damping down others. And those ups and downs actually correlated to each volunteer's ability to perceive certain frequencies in the bone-conduction hearing test. Which means:

通过这些过滤后的样本,他们能够看到每名志愿者留在白噪音上的头内独特光谱指纹,有些频率放大了,另外一些频率则减弱了。这些起伏实际上与每名志愿者在骨传导听力测试中感知特定频率的能力有关。意思是:

"The skull itself, because it's such an intimate and personal thing, is going to shape your experience of the world, perceptually."

“因为头骨本身是如此亲密和个人的东西,它将在感知上塑造你对世界的体验。”

The findings appear in the Journal of the Acoustical13 Society of America.

研究结果发表在《美国声学协会期刊》上。

Although the research is just preliminary, Gordon says there might be some intriguing14 therapeutic15 uses of this new insight. "What if we could cheaply and easily run broadband noise through someone's skull and look at how it filtered—and then do it again later. Would it show us an injury? Well, it might if the skull changed dramatically, which could indicate a head injury."

戈登说,虽然这只是初步研究,但这一新发现可能产生某些有趣的治疗用途。“如果我们可以廉价且轻松地让宽带噪音通过某人的头骨并观察其过滤方式,然后再重复一次。这是否会显示出受伤之处?如果头骨发生巨大变化,这可能意味着头部受伤了。”

And, more trivially, he says, perhaps it could explain why you really can't stand that one singer everyone else loves. Just blame it on the resonant properties of your skull.

他说,更具体来说,这或许可以解释为何你真的无法忍受一个所有人都喜欢的歌手。这只能怪你头骨的共振特性。

Thanks for listening for Scientific American's 60-second Science. I'm Christopher Intagliata.

谢谢大家收听科学美国人——60秒科学。我是克里斯托弗·因塔利亚塔。


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点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 venues c277c9611f0a0f19beb3658245ac305f     
n.聚集地点( venue的名词复数 );会场;(尤指)体育比赛场所;犯罪地点
参考例句:
  • The band will be playing at 20 different venues on their UK tour. 这个乐队在英国巡回演出期间将在20个不同的地点演出。
  • Farmers market corner, 800 meters long, 60 meters wide livestock trading venues. 农牧市场东北角,有长800米,宽60米的牲畜交易场地。 来自互联网
2 acoustics kJ2y6     
n.声学,(复)音响效果,音响装置
参考例句:
  • The acoustics of the new concert hall are excellent.这座新音乐厅的音响效果极好。
  • The auditorium has comfortable seating and modern acoustics.礼堂里有舒适的座椅和现代化的音响设备。
3 chamber wnky9     
n.房间,寝室;会议厅;议院;会所
参考例句:
  • For many,the dentist's surgery remains a torture chamber.对许多人来说,牙医的治疗室一直是间受刑室。
  • The chamber was ablaze with light.会议厅里灯火辉煌。
4 jersey Lp5zzo     
n.运动衫
参考例句:
  • He wears a cotton jersey when he plays football.他穿运动衫踢足球。
  • They were dressed alike in blue jersey and knickers.他们穿着一致,都是蓝色的运动衫和灯笼短裤。
5 decibels 05e497be99c28b77edff352bf9305209     
n.分贝( decibel的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • The typical lawn mower makes about 90 decibels of noise. 典型的割草机发出的声响约为90分贝。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • A normal conversation reaches 55 decibels. 普通的谈话即可达55分贝。 来自《简明英汉词典》
6 resonant TBCzC     
adj.(声音)洪亮的,共鸣的
参考例句:
  • She has a resonant voice.她的嗓子真亮。
  • He responded with a resonant laugh.他报以洪亮的笑声。
7 skull CETyO     
n.头骨;颅骨
参考例句:
  • The skull bones fuse between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five.头骨在15至25岁之间长合。
  • He fell out of the window and cracked his skull.他从窗子摔了出去,跌裂了颅骨。
8 exclamation onBxZ     
n.感叹号,惊呼,惊叹词
参考例句:
  • He could not restrain an exclamation of approval.他禁不住喝一声采。
  • The author used three exclamation marks at the end of the last sentence to wake up the readers.作者在文章的最后一句连用了三个惊叹号,以引起读者的注意。
9 vibrations d94a4ca3e6fa6302ae79121ffdf03b40     
n.摆动( vibration的名词复数 );震动;感受;(偏离平衡位置的)一次性往复振动
参考例句:
  • We could feel the vibrations from the trucks passing outside. 我们可以感到外面卡车经过时的颤动。
  • I am drawn to that girl; I get good vibrations from her. 我被那女孩吸引住了,她使我产生良好的感觉。 来自《简明英汉词典》
10 spectral fvbwg     
adj.幽灵的,鬼魂的
参考例句:
  • At times he seems rather ordinary.At other times ethereal,perhaps even spectral.有时他好像很正常,有时又难以捉摸,甚至像个幽灵。
  • She is compelling,spectral fascinating,an unforgettably unique performer.她极具吸引力,清幽如鬼魅,令人着迷,令人难忘,是个独具特色的演员。
11 fingerprints 9b456c81cc868e5bdf3958245615450b     
n.指纹( fingerprint的名词复数 )v.指纹( fingerprint的第三人称单数 )
参考例句:
  • Everyone's fingerprints are unique. 每个人的指纹都是独一无二的。
  • They wore gloves so as not to leave any fingerprints behind (them). 他们戴着手套,以免留下指纹。 来自《简明英汉词典》
12 amplifying 29631b8f34f8b755bf579c2bef5e2907     
放大,扩大( amplify的现在分词 ); 增强; 详述
参考例句:
  • Often they use borrowed funds, amplifying their gains and losses. 他们通常会用借贷的资金交易,从而放大收益或损失。
  • An amplifying type (or analog) device, as opposed to digital device. 放大器类(或模拟)器件,相对于数字器件而言的。
13 acoustical acoustical     
adj. 听觉的,声学的,音响学的
参考例句:
  • This system can set up acoustical resonances. 这种系统能产生共鸣。
  • The relevance of acoustical principles is by no means limited to sound and hearing. 声学原理并不仅仅适用于声音和听觉。
14 intriguing vqyzM1     
adj.有趣的;迷人的v.搞阴谋诡计(intrigue的现在分词);激起…的好奇心
参考例句:
  • These discoveries raise intriguing questions. 这些发现带来了非常有趣的问题。
  • It all sounds very intriguing. 这些听起来都很有趣。 来自《简明英汉词典》
15 therapeutic sI8zL     
adj.治疗的,起治疗作用的;对身心健康有益的
参考例句:
  • Therapeutic measures were selected to fit the patient.选择治疗措施以适应病人的需要。
  • When I was sad,music had a therapeutic effect.我悲伤的时候,音乐有治疗效力。

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