(单词翻译:单击)
听力文本
This is Scientific American — 60-Second Science. I'm Steve Mirsky.
"In the United States we spend about $160 billion a year on R&D. And so for the last seven years we've spent about a trillion dollars. With about 250,000 inventions that are sitting on the shelf that have more than 13 years of patent life, and only 0.5 to 0.7 percent of the inventions that are federally funded get out a year. So, what does that mean, get out? That they're actually commercialized—they're found and then they're commercialized."
Rosemarie Truman, founder and CEO of the Center for Advancing Innovation, a Washington D.C.–based nonprofit. She spoke at the first "Science Meets Congress" event on November 15th on Capitol Hill. Scientific American and Nature Research partnered with California Congressman Jerry McNerney—he has a doctorate in math, by the way—to host the session, which focused on "Energy Solutions for a Sustainable Future."
"So some of the challenges that we have are, first of all, finding these inventions. I just mentioned the ones that are patented, so you can find them through the USPTO. But there are about five times to 10 times the amount that are not patented that are not disclosed. So the energy efficiencies and tools of the future could be sitting there on the shelf, either patented or not..."
"What are I think our big opportunity is in the United States is to significantly change the way we harness our intellectual property. So when we give out this $160 billion a year to different organizations—universities, hospitals, research institutes across the U.S.—we govern it properly. So the inventions become disclosed and we have a clearinghouse for all the inventions. And we have a systematic approach to harmonizing the data around the inventions so that you can actually mine it, characterizing it, and then making it searchable so that you only have to go to one place."
Listen for more from this session on an upcoming episode of the long-form Scientific American podcast, Science Talk.
For Scientific American — 60-Second 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。
“美国每年用于研究和开发的费用约为1600亿美元。过去7年我们已花费了约1万亿美元。目前有约25万项专利发明被闲置超过13年，每年只有0.5%到0.7%的专利因获得联邦资金而摆脱闲置命运。摆脱闲置状态是什么意思？意思是被商业化，被发现然后变成商品赚钱。”
罗斯玛丽·杜鲁门是推进创新中心的创始人兼首席执行官，该中心是位于华盛顿的一家非盈利机构。11月15日，她在美国国会山举办的首届“科学遇见国会”会议上发表讲话。《科学美国人》、《自然研究》与获得数学博士学位的加州国会议员杰里·麦克纳尼合作主持了会议，会议主题是“可持续未来的能源解决方案”。
“首先，我们所面临的一些挑战是要发现这些发明。我刚才提到的获得专利的发明，大家可以在美国专利商标局官网上找到。而未获得专利、未公开发明的数量是专利发明的5到10倍。所以，未来的能源效率和工具可能正在被闲置着，可能已获得专利也可能尚未获得专利……”
“我认为美国的重要机遇是，显著改变我们利用知识产权的方式。我们每年将这1600亿美元分配给大学、医院、研究所等不同机构时，要妥善管理这笔钱。公开发明项目，为所有发明建立交换中心。我们要用系统方法去协调发明数据，这样我们就能真正地去挖掘发明、描述发明的特征，使其可供搜索，在一个地方就能找到所有信息。”
若想了解会议的详细情况，请收听《科学美国人》即将播出的长篇“科学对话”节目。
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. on the shelf 搁置的；闲置的；没人要的；
例句：I was afraid of getting left on the shelf.
我害怕嫁不出去。
2. focus on 集中(注意力)；关注；
例句：The important step in educating Heather's character is to get her to focus on her values.
希瑟性格教育重要的一步是让她关注自己的价值。
3. either...or... （表示在两者或多者中择其一）或者，要么；
殒：Most single parents are either divorced or separated.
大多数单身父母要么离婚了要么分居了。
4. give out 分发；散发；
例句：You could also host a customer appreciation event and give out a goody bag with a special item.
你还可以组织一次‘消费者答谢活动’，在活动中派发一些装有特殊礼品的小礼包。
