The Two Ancient Roman Techs Could Disrupt Modern Industry
两大可能颠覆现代工业的古罗马科技
It’s a popular hubris that we live in an age of unprecedented technological innovation – that our ancestors lived in a time where there were fewer technological advances, blinded as they were by their primitive superstitions and lack of access to the resources we have today.
白驹过隙
我们普遍持有一种傲慢的想法：自己生活在一个前所未有的科技创新时代，而我们的先人们则生活在技术进步更少的蒙昧时代，受原始迷信所蒙蔽，并因为缺少如今我们获取资源的各种渠道而不开化。
While we certainly live in an era of amazing technology, it’s not necessarily true that our level of innovation is unprecedented. The fact of the matter is that our ancestors were just as smart as we are (in fact, given the human brain size has been shrinking for centuries, they might have been smarter.) And as archaeologists uncover more about the past, they’v
e also learned that many technologies we take for granted today were first developed centuries or even millennia ago, only to be lost.
尽管我们生活在令人惊叹的科技时代，但我们的创新水平未必就是空前仅有的。真相是，我们的祖先像我们现在一样聪明（实际上，鉴于几个世纪以来人类的大脑一直在不断缩小，他们可能比我们更加聪明）。随着考古学家对过去的发现越来越多，他们也已得知许多在我们今天看来理所当然的技术是在几个世纪前甚或几千年前最先开发出来的，只是中途失传了而已。
Take, for example, plastic surgery. It’s something we think of as a relatively new technology, right? But in fact, plastic surgery was practiced in India centuries before the birth of Christ. It continued to be practiced for thousands of years, but wasn’t “discovered” in Europe until the 18th century, when British doctors learned about it from India.
例如，整形手术。我们认为这是一种相对较新的技术，对吗？但事实上，在公元前几百年，印度就有了整形手术。它延续了几千年，并非直到鲟鱼汤18世纪才被欧洲医生所“发现”，那时一些英国医生从印度了解到了这项技术。
Recently, there have been two recent engineering discoveries from Ancient Rome that have the potential to shake up some major areas of industry – discoveries that show we still have a lot to learn from our ancestors.
近来，有两大源自古罗马时代的工程发现，有可能会震撼一些重要的工业领域——这些发现显示我们要从老祖宗身上学习的还有很多。
The first finding is rather astonishing. As noted earlier this month by Zeeya Merali, a 1, 600 year old chalice known as the Lycurgus Cup have proved to be more than just a stunning work of art. It’s also an example of one of the earliest forms of nanotechnology.月季花期
第一个发现令人瞠目结舌。正如本月初齐亚秋天唯美的句子•梅拉里（Zeeya Merali）所指出的那样，事实已经证明，一只1,600年前的出土文物莱克格斯杯（励志文章Lycurgus Cup）不仅仅是一件美妙绝伦的艺术品，还是纳米科技的最初形式之一。
The cup, as Merali notes, was actually a mystery for centuries. That’s becau it appears green when lit from one angle, but red when lit from a different angle. It wasn’t until the 1
990s, after decades of study in the 20th century, that it was determined how it was created. As it turns out, the glass itlf was infud with particles of silver and gold that were only about 50 nanometers in diameter. The particular ratio of the mixture was definitely known, as other similar cups have been discovered.
正如梅拉里所说，实际上几个世纪以来，这只杯子都是一个谜。这是因为当从一个角度打光时，它呈现为绿色，而从另一个角度打光时它又是红色的。20世纪经过了数十年研究，直到90年代才确定它是如何制作的。其实，这只杯子的材料是由直径大约只有50纳米的银粒子和金粒子混合而成的。随着其他类似杯子的发现，材料的配比终于被重新发现。
In a paper from 2007, scientists who have studied the cup noted that “[e]ven using modern powerdriven tools, this type of vesl takes a great deal of time to complete.” But more than that, this technology might turn out to revolutionize the pharmaceutical industry.
在2007年的一篇论文中，研究这个杯子的科学家们指出“就算运用现代电动工具，完成制作这件器皿仍需花费大量时间。”但该技术的伟大之处不仅是如此，它可能还会在制药业中引
起革命。
That’s becau rearchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, using the same techniques the Romans ud, earlier this year developed a device that enables them detect DNA and proteins without having to chemically modify them first. That lowers the overall costs and helps resist errors that occur in the process. The team estimates that their device is about “ 100 times better nsitivity” than any other similar product.
这是因为今年年初，伊利诺伊大学乌尔班纳-香槟分校的研究者们采用与古罗马人相同的技术开发出了一种设备，可使他们无需先进行化学改性就能检测到DNA文言名句和蛋白质。这不但有助于降低整体成本，还有助于避免化学改性过程中出现的错误。该团队估计，他们的设备“其灵敏度比其他任何类似设备高百倍”。
In their paper, published in Advanced Optical Materials, the rearch teams says that “We envisage extensive u of the device for DNA microarrays, therapeutic antibody screening for drug discovery and pathogen detection in resource poor tting and a low cost, higher nsitive alternative to existing SPR/LSPR instruments.”摩登天师
在他们这篇发表于《先进光学材料》（Advanced Optical Materials）的论文中，研究团队表示“我们预见该设备将应用广泛：制作DNA微阵列、在资源匮乏的条件下做用于新药研发的治疗性抗体筛查，以及成为目前表面等离子体共振（SPR）/局域表面等离子体共振（博物馆设计LSPR）仪器的一种更加灵敏的低成本替代品。”
But the Ancient Romans aren’t content to only revolutionize medicine. Soon, you may be living or working on a building or road that’s built with the same materials that the Romans built their own with – materials that, when created, also produce fewer carbon emissions.
