Three scientists in the United States won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry on Wednesday. The three won for their discovery of quantum dots, a technology widely used today to make displays for electronic devices and medical imaging.
美国的三名科学家周三赢得了诺贝尔化学奖。 这三个人的获奖是因为发现了量子点，这是一项当今广泛运用于电子设备和医学成像显示的技术。
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the prize to Moungi Bawendi of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Louis Brus of Columbia University in New York, and Alexei Ekimov of Nanocrystals Technology.
瑞典皇家科学院将该奖项授予了麻省理工学院的蒙吉·巴文迪，纽约哥伦比亚大学的路易斯·布鲁斯和美国纳米晶体科技公司的阿列克谢·伊基莫夫。
The academy said the three were honored for their work with particles that "have unique properties and now spread their light from television screens and LED lamps."
瑞典皇家科学院说，这三个人受到表彰是因为他们所研究的粒子“具有独特特性，现在它们从电视屏幕和LED灯中散发出了光”。
LED lights are electronic lights used all over the world, which use energy very effectively.
LED灯是世界各地使用的电子灯，它们非常节能。
Pernilla Wittung Stafshede, a member of the Nobel committee that awarded the prize, said, "We have displays on TVs, in your cellphone, that use quantum dots inside..."
负责颁发该奖项的一名诺贝尔委员会成员佩尔尼拉·维通·斯塔夫斯戴德说：“电视、手机的显示在其内部利用了量子点...”
What are quantum dots?
什么是量子点？
Quantum dots are extremely small particles, called nanoparticles. They are said to be about 1/10,000 the width of a human hair. The dots glow blue, red, green or other colors when exposed to light. The color they give off depends on the size of the particles. Larger dots look red, and smaller dots look blue. The color change is caused by the behavior of electrons in these small spaces.
量子点是极小的颗粒，称为纳米颗粒。 据说它们大约是人头发粗细的一万分之一。 当它暴露于光线时会发出蓝色、红色、绿色或其他颜色。 它们散发的颜色取决于颗粒的大小。 较大的点看起来是红色的，较小的点看起来是蓝色。 颜色变化是由这些小空间中电子的行为引起的。
Physicists had predicted these color-change properties as early as the 1930s. However, it took 50 years of research and development to control the size of quantum dots correctly.
物理学家早在上世纪三十年代就预测了这些变色的特性。 但是，正确控制量子点的大小花了50年的研究和开发。
Ekimov and Brus were the early researchers of the technology. Bawendi is credited with developing the production of quantum dots being used today.
伊基莫夫和布鲁斯是该技术的早期研究人员。巴文迪被认为开发了当今正在使用的量子点的生产。
Bawendi used the words, "very surprised, sleepy, shocked, unexpected and very honored," to describe his feelings. Bawendi added he was not thinking about the possible uses of his work when he started researching quantum dots.
巴文迪使用了“非常惊讶，瞌睡，震惊，出乎意料和非常荣幸”等词语来描述他的感受。 巴文迪补充说，当他开始研究量子点时，他并没有考虑这项工作的可能用途。
"The motivation really is the basic science. A basic understanding, the curiosity of how does the world work? And that's what drives scientists and academic scientists to do what they do," he said.
他说：“我的动机确实是基础科学。基本理解就是对世界如何运作的好奇心？这就是促使科学家和学术科学家做他们所做事情的原因。”
Brus of Columbia University said he did not answer the phone call from the Swedish academy. He finally saw the news online when he got up in the morning.
哥伦比亚大学的布鲁斯说，他没有接到瑞典学院的电话。 早上起床时，他最终是在网上看到这一消息。
Brus said the practical uses of quantum dots, like creating the colors in TV screens, are something he was hoping for when he started the work many years ago.
布鲁斯说，量子点的实际用途，例如在电视屏幕上创建颜色，这是他多年前开始这项工作时所希望的。
"Basic research is extremely hard to predict exactly how it's going to work out," Brus said. "It's more for the knowledge base than it is for the actual materials. But in this case, it's both."
布鲁斯说：“基础研究很难准确地预测它将产生什么效果。它更多是用于知识基础，而不是用于实际材料。但是在这个案例中，这两者兼而有之。”
Ekimov is the former chief scientist at Nanocrystals Technology, a company based in New York where he started working in 1999. The Swedish academy credited him with showing how the size of nanoparticles affected the colors in glass.
伊基莫夫是美国纳米晶体科技公司的前任首席科学家，他于1999年开始为这家总部位于纽约的公司工作。瑞典皇家科学院认为他证明了纳米颗粒的大小如何影响玻璃中的颜色。
The three will receive 11 million Swedish crowns, about $1 million, and a gold medal when they collect their Nobel Prizes at the award ceremonies in December.
这三个人将在12月的颁奖典礼上领取诺贝尔奖时获得1100万瑞典克朗（约合100万美元）和一枚金牌。
I'm Dan Friedell.
我是丹·弗里德尔。(51VOA.COM原创翻译，请勿转载，违者必究！)