◎陳成良

MIT researchers say they’ve combined nanotechnology with genetically engineered viruses to build batteries that could power hybrid cars and cell phones.

麻省理工學院（MIT）研究人員表示，他們已結合奈米科技與基因工程病毒，製造出能為油電混合動力車及手機提供電力的電池。

The batteries, according to MIT, have the same energy capacity and power performance as state-of-the-art rechargeable batteries that are being considered to power plug-in hybrid cars and personal electronic devices.

據MIT表示，這款電池與目前考慮用在插電式油電混合動力車及個人化電子裝置中的最先進充電電池，有相同的電容量與效能。

They changed two genes in the virus, called M13, and got it to do two things： build a shell made out of a compound called iron phosphate, and then attach to a carbon nanotube to make a powerful and tiny electrode.

他們改造了M13病毒中的兩個基因，並引導這種基因產生兩個作用，首先在一種叫做磷酸鐵的化合物上聚合成一個包膜，然後依附在奈米碳管上，形成微小但強大的電極。

Such an electrode could conceivably make more powerful memory devices such as MP3 players or cellular telephones, and are far more environmentally friendly than current battery technologies, said Angela Belcher, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology materials scientist who led the research.

這樣的電極想當然耳能製成比較強大的記憶裝置，諸如MP3播放器和手機，而且遠比目前的電池技術合乎環保要求，領導這項研究的MIT材料科學家貝契說。

"We could run an iPod on it for about three times as long as current iPod batteries. If we really scale it, it would be used in a car," she added.

「它若裝入iPod，那麼使用時間大約是目前iPod電池的3倍長。如果真的將這種電池按比例放大，也可裝在汽車上」，她補充說。

《新聞辭典》

hybrid：混合體、（動植物的）雜種，如The hybrid from a donkey and a horse is called a mule.（驢和馬的雜交種稱為騾子。） hybrid car則指使用一種以上動力的車輛，如氣電混合車或油電混合車。

state-of-the-art：（科技、機電等產品）最先進的、最高級的。用法如 「state-of-the-art technology」（ 尖端科技）。

scale：動詞，按一定比例製作。例句： Scale the model to be one tenth of actual size. （製作這個模型為實際大小的1/10。）

自由時報-980411

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