(单词翻译:单击)
听力文本
This is Scientific American — 60-Second Science. I'm Steve Mirsky.
"Parkinson's is the second-most common neurodegenerative disease."
Neuroscientist Todd Sherer, CEO of the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research. Fox, of course, is the actor who has become the public face of Parkinson's.
"And mostly its symptoms are characterized by motor symptoms. So patients or people who have Parkinson's will have a slowness of movement, they could have a tremor in their arms, a lot of trouble walking and they can also have rigidity, so it's hard to really bend and flex their muscles and limbs. That's the predominant symptoms that people have."
April 11th is World Parkinson's Day. So designated because it's the birthday of Dr. James Parkinson, who described the condition 200 years ago, in 1817. I spoke to Sherer April 10th.
"I think one of the things that has changed a lot about, in Parkinson's disease in the last decade and I do think a lot of this is because of the work of Michael J. Fox, is really raising awareness about this disease. Parkinson's disease is something that people live with. It's part of their life, but they are able to live with this and be productive and make great contributions to the world and also the contributions that they can make towards the search for a cure. So I think by raising awareness it can help people who have the disease today and their families deal with the disease, get the right information and the right treatments, and then also draw more attention on the need that we have for research and funds to support research, and the direction that we're moving in that research."
SM: And how many people in America and/or worldwide, what's a best guess estimate?
"The best guess is that there's about a million people in the United States with Parkinson's and probably about four to five million worldwide...the greatest risk factor for getting Parkinson's is being 60 years of age...so I think it's also important to shine a light on these age-related neurological diseases because we do have an aging population and now is the time to really invest in the research to try to get out in front of that challenge and develop new treatments, particularly transformative therapies."
The full conversation with Sherer will appear as a Science Talk podcast in the coming days. And look for an essay by Sherer on the Scientific American website scheduled for publication at noon on April 12th, as well as the April 10th article on the site titled Cell Therapy 2.0: Reprogramming the Brain's Own Cells for Parkinson's Treatment.
For Scientific American — 60-Second Science Science. I'm Steve Mirsky.
参考译文
这里是科学美国人——60秒科学。我是史蒂夫·米尔斯基。
“帕金森症是第二大常见的神经退行性疾病。”
迈克尔·J·福克斯帕金森症研究基金会的首席执行官、神经系统科学家托德·谢勒说到。当然，福克斯就是那位公开自己患帕金森病的男演员。
“通常，帕金森病的特征是运动症状。患者或者那些患有帕金森症的人会行动缓慢，他们的手臂可能会颤抖，行走不便，他们的身体也会出现僵硬，难以弯曲和活动肌肉与肢体。这些是帕金森病患者的主要症状。”
4月11日是世界帕金森症日。因为这一天是詹姆斯·帕金森医生的生日，帕金森医生在200年前的1817年就描述了这种疾病。我在4月10日采访了谢勒。
“我认为帕金森病的情况在过去10年有了很大改变，而且我确实认为这些改变大部分要归功于迈克尔·J·福克斯的努力，他的努力极大地提高了公众对帕金森症的认识。帕金森病是人们会患的疾病。它是人们生活的一部分，但是患帕金病的人也可以有所成就，可以为世界做出巨大的贡献，也能为治愈帕金森病的研究做出巨大贡献。所以我认为通过提高公众对帕金森病的认识，可以帮助现在的患者及其家人应对疾病，获取正确的信息和正确的治疗，同时对我们研究该疾病的需求、研究经费以及研究方向给予更多关注。”
史蒂夫·米尔斯基：至于美国和（或）全世界帕金森病患者的人数，最佳的猜测是多少？
“对于美国国内帕金森病的患者数量，最佳猜测是100万人，而全世界大约有400万到500万患者。患帕金森病最危险的发病年龄是60岁以上。因此，我认为阐明与年龄相关的神经系统疾病同样重要，因为人口老龄化问题日益严重，现在是时候对疾病研究进行投资，勇于面对这种挑战，开发新的治疗方法，尤其是变革性的治疗方法。”
我和谢勒的完整对话将于近日在“科学对话”播客上线。谢勒的文章定于4月12日中午在科学美国人官网发布，而他的另一篇文章《细胞治疗2.0：重编程脑细胞以治疗帕金森病》将于4月10日发布。敬请阅读。
谢谢大家收听科学美国人——60秒科学。我是史蒂夫·米尔斯基。
译文为可可英语翻译，未经授权请勿转载！
重点讲解
重点讲解：
1. because of 因为；由于；
例句：Because of the law in Ireland, we had to work out a way of getting her over to Britain.
由于爱尔兰的法律所限，我们不得不想办法把她弄到英国去。
2. be able to do sth. 可以…的，能够…的；
例句：He is able to bear down all difficulties in his studies.
他能够克服学习中所出现的一切困难。
3. invest in 投资；
例句：He invested all our profits in gold shares.
他把我们所有的收益都投资在黄金股上了。
