2015考研英语阅读理解精读P25—工学类2015考研英语阅读理解精读P25—工学类.docVIP

2015考研英语阅读理解精读P25—工学类 　Passage 25 　　Many people think that information technology and biotechnology will rule the 21st century. Robert Birge, a chemist at the University of Connecticut, is trying to combine them, by making computer memories out of protein. 　　The protein in question is bacteriorhodopsin (bR), a molecule that undergoes a structural change when it absorbs light. By using genetic engineering to tweak wild bR from a bacterium called Halobacterium salinarum, Dr Birge and his colleagues have made a variety of the molecule that they claim is well-suited to act as an element of a computers memory. Hit with a green light, it adopts one shape. Hit subsequently with a red light, it twists itself into another. Then, if hit with blue light, it resets itself into its original state. 　　To make a memory from the protein, Dr Birge suspends elements made from it in a transparent plastic cube known as a cuvette. A pair of lasers arranged at right angles to one another write data into the cuvette by shining in turn on slices through the plastic matrix. The first laser, which produces green light, sweeps the whole cuvette, causing its protein contents to take on a shape that (in binary code) is designated as zero. The second laser, which produces red light, then stimulates particular sites to take the second shape. This corresponds to one in binary code. Once the lasers are switched off, data recorded this way will, according to Dr Birge, remain stable for more than 12 years. 　　To read the stored data, a low-powered red laser is shone slice by slice through the cuvette. This does not disturb the conformation of the protein molecules; but those in state zero absorb light at this wavelength. A machine placed behind the cuvette detects this absorption pattern and translates it into the appropriate string of ones and zeroes. Once the contents have been read into a more conventional storage device, the cuvette can be wiped clean and reset by illuminating it with a blue las