阅读理解-第三十四篇 病毒电池.doc

*第三十四篇Batteries Built by Viruses What do chicken pox,the common cold, the flu(流感) , and AIDS have in common? Theyre all disease caused by viruses , tiny microorganisms that can pass from person to person. It s no wonder that when most people think about viruses , finding ways to steer clear of viruses is what s on peopies minds. Not everyone runs from the tiny disease carriers,though. In Cambridge, Massachusetts,scientists have discovered that some viruses can be helpful in an unusual way. They are putting viruses to work , teaching them to build some of the worlds smallest rechargeable batteries. Viruses and baatteries may seem like an unusual pair,but theyre not so strange(陌生) for engineer Angela Belcher, who first came up with the idea. At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology(MIT) in Cambridge , she and her collaborators bring together different areas of science in new ways. In the case of the virus-built batteries , the scientists combine what they know about biology ,technology and production techniques. Belcher s team includes Paula Hammond , who helps put together the tiny batteries , and YetMing Chiang , an expert on how to store energy in the form of a battery. Were working on things we traditionally dont associate with nature, says Hammond. Many batteries are already pretty small. You can hold A, C and D batteries in your hand. The coin-like batteries that power watches are often smaller than a penny. However, every year, new electronic devices like personal music players or cell phones get smaller than the year before. As these devices shrink , ordinary batteries wont be small enough to fit inside. The ideal battery will store a lot of energy in a small package. Right now , Belchers model battery , a metallic disk completely built by viruses , looks like a regular watch battery. But inside , its components(零件) are very small - so tiny you can only see them with a powerful microscope. How small are these battery parts? To get some idea of the size , p