中国的科学家们发明了一种口罩，可以检测空气中常见的呼吸道病毒，包括流感和冠状病毒，并在10分钟内通过移动设备向佩戴者发出警报。

 

A group of Chinese scientists have developed a face mask that can detect viral exposure.

中国的科学家团队研发出一款口罩，可以检测空气中的呼吸道病毒。

 

Respiratory pathogens that cause COVID-19 and influenza¹ spread through small droplets² and aerosols³ released by infected people when they talk, cough, and sneeze.

诱发新冠肺炎和流感的呼吸道病原体，可通过受感染者说话、咳嗽和打喷嚏时释放的小飞沫和气溶胶传播。

 

The wearable bioelectronic mask designed by the researchers from Tongji University can detect common respiratory viruses, including influenza and the coronavirus, in the air in droplets or aerosols, and then alert the wearers via their mobile devices.

这款可穿戴生物电子口罩由同济大学的研究人员设计，可以检测空气中飞沫或气溶胶中含有的常见呼吸道病毒，包括流感病毒和冠状病毒，然后通过移动设备提醒佩戴者。

 

The highly sensitive face mask is capable of measuring trace-level liquid samples of 0.3 microliters and gaseous⁴ samples at an ultra-low concentration of 0.1 femtograms per milliliter, according to the study published this week in the journal, Matter.

根据本周发表在期刊《Matter》上的一项研究，这款高灵敏度的口罩能对0.3微升的含有病毒蛋白质的液体做出反应，该口罩还能检出超低浓度（0.1fg/ml，即1ml空气中的1000万亿分之一克）的气体介质样本。

 

The detection benchmark for liquid containing viral proteins in an enclosed chamber⁵ is "about 70 to 560 times less than the volume of liquid produced in one sneeze and much less than the volume produced by coughing or talking," said the paper's corresponding author Fang⁶ Yin, a professor at Tongji.

该论文通讯作者、上海同济大学教授方寅说，封闭室内对含有病毒蛋白的微量液体的检测基准“是一个喷嚏产生液滴的约1/70至1/560，比咳嗽或说话产生的液滴小得多。”

 

Fang's team designed a small sensor⁷ carrying three types of synthetic⁸ molecules⁹ that can simultaneously¹⁰ recognize surface proteins on SARS-CoV-2, H5N1, and H1N1.

该团队设计了一个携带三种合成分子的小型传感器，可以同时识别新冠病毒、甲型H5N1流感病毒和甲型H1N1流感病毒的表面蛋白。

 

Once those molecules click onto the target proteins, an ion-gated transistor¹¹ integrated into the mask will amplify¹² the signal and alert the wearers, according to the study.

一旦这些分子与目标蛋白结合，口罩中的离子门控晶体管将放大信号，并提醒佩戴者。

 

The designers said they can easily update the wearable device to detect novel respiratory viruses.

设计者称，将来如果出现新的呼吸道病毒，可以很容易地更新传感器设计，以检测新的病原体。

点击收听单词发音