听力文本

This is Scientific American — 60-Second Science. I'm Karen Hopkin.
This will just take a minute.
It may sound strange, but scientists are celebrating the survival and spread of tens of thousands of mosquitoes they released in Northeastern Australia. The whole thing makes more sense when you know that these mosquitoes are not just any run-of-the-mill bloodsuckers. They're weaponized—infected with a type of bacteria that prevents the spread of Zika, dengue and other mosquito-borne viruses.
The bacterium, called Wolbachia, is present naturally in nearly two-thirds of all insect species, although it's not usually found in Aedes aegypti, the mosquito responsible for spreading Zika, dengue, yellow fever and chikungunya.
But when researchers introduced Wolbachia into mosquitoes in the lab a decade ago, the bacteria bollixed the skeeters, making them unable to transmit their viruses to humans. Which gives public health experts hope that by releasing big groups of Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes into problem areas, they'll spread Wolbachia to the local populations—making them incapable of transmitting viral diseases to people.

But a big question was, will the weaponized mosquitoes remain contained where they're let loose, or will they move enough to mingle with their wild brethren?
So researchers in Australia ran a test. In 2013, they released some 35,000 Wolbachia-carrying Aedes aegypti at one site, 131,000 at a second site, and 286,000 at a third site, all in the city of Cairns. And they tracked the insects' dispersal. Seems the souped-up skeeters spread outward from the two larger introduction areas at a slow but steady rate of about 100 to 200 meters per year. The mosquitoes in the smaller group stayed put. The study is in the journal PLoS Biology.
The results indicate that Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes could be effective against viral diseases, if—like bug spray—they're applied liberally over larger areas. In the public health community, that finding may cause a real buzz.
For the Scientific American — 60-Second Science Science. I'm Karen Hopkin.

参考译文

这里是科学美国人——60秒科学wu7=bDe=XS][%;v5。我是凯伦·霍普金vKyrKi,MoLXkHIA2O~c。
这期节目只会占用你一分钟时间@ZAds7N^P(Fa。
虽然听起来可能会很奇怪，不过科学家们在澳大利亚东北部释放了数万只蚊子，而现在他们正在庆祝这些蚊子的存活和扩散WLB2yDK%a)vJ!。当你知道这些蚊子不仅是普通的吸血动物时，整件事就说得通了m#o%#,r_[&。这些蚊子都被武器化了，它们感染了一种能阻止寨卡病毒、登革热和其他蚊媒病毒传播的细菌dfD.jXJ!WQv。
这种细菌名为“沃尔巴克氏体”细菌，在所有昆虫种类中，近三分之二的昆虫都天然含有这一细菌，不过埃及伊蚊身上并没有发现这种细菌，而埃及伊蚊会传播寨卡病毒、登革热、黄热病和基孔肯雅热病q@%JwAT7yWyy7T3rp。
但是在10年前，当研究人员在实验室里将沃尔巴克氏体注入蚊子体内时，细菌破坏了蚊子的内部结构，使其无法将病毒传给人类H_;.G8L+SfU。这使公共卫生专家看到了希望：向问题地区释放大量感染沃尔巴克氏体的蚊子，让它们把沃尔巴克氏体传给当地的蚊子，使当地蚊子无法将病毒性疾病传播给人类-CBRo6)_WkmhcqF。
但是重要的问题是，武器化的蚊子在被释放后依然可控吗？还是说它们的活动范围足够使它们与野生蚊子交配？
所以，研究人员在澳大利亚进行了一项测试FhKD5.%0uE#gz|。2013年，他们在凯恩斯市选择了三个地点，分别释放了35000、131000和286000只携带沃尔巴克氏菌的埃及伊蚊KMjX)Cyp3adr_*!8kT。然后对蚊子的扩散情况进行追踪C~av[gqK4sYNQ,。结果发现，在两个较大的引种区，群体数量较大的蚊子以每年约100到200米的速率，缓慢但稳定地向外扩散D[yO]0)5ThhC6gwAGY8R。而规模最小的那组蚊子则没有向外扩散#TsUuzRfu!iXNKiq。这项研究发表于《公共科学图书馆·生物学》期刊上jlVz&e3OWw。
研究结果表明，如果感染沃尔巴克氏菌的蚊子能像杀虫剂那样，在更大的区域广泛应用，那它们就能有效对抗病毒性疾病,(VYK!3o~@。在公共卫生界，这一发现可能引起一场真正的轰动oBYrJA^=2AYfgw。
谢谢大家收听科学美国人——60秒科学l.I[ZDYZCxNCR(84u4。我是凯伦·霍普金y&H]2J[#~+aBle)Ktv。

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. make sense 可以理解；讲得通；
例句：In evolutionary terms, this correlation may make sense.
从进化论角度看，这种说法也是有道理的yXsZYJa*a977Ud+n。
2. run-of-the-mill 普通的；一般的；平凡的；不突出的；
例句：I was just a very average run-of-the-mill kind of student.
我只是一个普普通通的学生l1pgDiF&)I5Uu。
3. be incapable of 无能力的；不能的；
例句：She was a very honest person who was incapable of dissembling.
她是一个非常诚实的人，不会伪装*v2&AfL4#KciM&aCC6-。
4. stay put 固定不动；留在原地；
例句：Nigel says for the moment he is very happy to stay put in Lyon.
奈杰尔说目前他很乐意留在里昂k5&DsSy0Fq-n4*。