研究生 英语阅读教程 第三版 课文 lesson 11.docxVIP

研究生 英语阅读教程 第三版 课文 lesson 11 Lesson 11 Mind over machine Carl zimmer Some monkey business in a Duke University lab suggests we’ll soon be able to move artificial limbs, control robotic soldiers, and communicate across thousands of miles―using nothing but our thoughts. [1] Something incredible is happening in a lab at Duke University,s Center for Neuroengineering―though ,at first ,it is hard to see just what it is. A robot arm swings from side to side, eerily lifelike, as if it extends its mechanical hand. The hand clamp shuts and squeezes for a few seconds , then relaxes its grip and pulls back to shoot out again in a new direction. OK ,nothing particularly astonishing here―robot arms , after all , do everything from building our cars to sequencing our DNA . But those robot arms are operated by software ; the arm at Duke follows commands of s different sort. To see where those commands are coming from, you have to follow a tangled trail of the lab and down the hall to another, smaller room. [2] Inside this room sits a motionless macaque monkey. [3] The monkey is strapped in a chair ,staring at a computer screen . On the screen a black dot moves from side to side ; when it stops ,a circle widens around it. You would not know just from watching , but that dot represents the movement of the arm in the other room . The circle indicates the squeezing of its robotic grip ; as the force of the grip increase ,the circle widens . In other words , the dot an the circle are responding to the robot arm’s movements . And the arm ? It is being directed by monkey . [4] Did i mention the monkey is motionless? [5] Take another look at those cables : They snake into the back of the computer and then out again ,terminating in a cap on the monkey’s head ,where they receive signals from hundreds of electrodes buried in its brain. The monkey is directing the robot with its thoughts. [6] For decads scientist have pondered ,speculated on ，and pooh-poohe