原汁原味的Sci & Tech News weekly
Volume 6 19年6月12日
Editor: Dr. Collin F. Hu
卷首語：本期在Health領域，將給大家介紹一篇關於人體精力消耗存在一個極限的新聞報導，可以給將要高考，考研或者準備來一次「人生難得一回搏」的朋友提供了一個參考。
這篇新聞報導了對法國一次超長跑的研究，研究人員發現，在持續數天，數周或數月的體育運動中，人類只能以其安靜時新陳代謝率的2.5倍燃燒卡路裡（或者按照普通人一天大概消耗4000卡路裡來計算），這個極限同樣適用於世界上最快的超級馬拉松運動員。如果一旦超過這個門檻，身體開始分解自身組織，以彌補熱量不足。這個發現告訴我們，如果你長期缺少睡眠，長期努力拼搏，那麼，最後的結果是你身體的自身組織會分解以應對能量的虧空，從而引起健康問題。當然，事情並非那麼嚴重。據我的親身經驗，對於很多同學來說，有一個更聰明的辦法解決這個問題，拿起書本就開始打瞌睡或者神遊萬裡。看來這種應對方法是有科學道理的。
以前總是被認為「心有多大，舞臺就有多大」，而且現實生活中，就在這幾天高考，全國不是又有不少目光被衡水一中吸引嗎？據電視臺報導，那兒的學生都是早上五點甚至更早起床，規定晚上10點（實際上更晚）睡覺，甚至連上廁所也被計劃的按時間和節奏進行。但要知道人的體力支配是有一個極限的，2.5倍的新陳代謝率的塑料天花板就在那兒，連世界上最訓練有素的馬拉松選手都難以突破。如果你妄圖忽視這個極限的存在，一年內不停的透支自己的精力，也許你要用大學的四年就會來平衡你的透支。
另一個有趣的發現是懷孕的女人的身體消耗，其新陳代謝率也總是在這個極限左右（確切說是2.2倍），也容易想像，畢竟有另外一個生命在她們的體內孕育。我猜想，因為新陳代謝率接近人體的極限了，那麼她們的各種心理情緒也會是一種極端化的狀態，對她們多一點體諒吧！
在物理學領域，為大家介紹了非常有名的拉普拉斯妖，它誕生於18世紀。1687年誕生的牛頓力學震撼了歐洲的知識分子。牛頓在歐洲的知識界中的地位像神一樣，法國的哲學家伏爾泰對他就頂禮膜拜。牛頓力學的一個特點就是他的決定論，告訴你了宇宙中所有質點的位置和它的運動狀況（速度，受力狀況）。那麼這個宇宙中將來所有的一切，甚至過去，都是已經確定的。這就是所謂的決定論。
物理學隨後的發展就給了決定論三個打擊，遑論其它的學科了。熱力學與統計物理的發展發現了時間的不可逆性，時間永遠向前，將來和過去並不是像牛頓方程中一樣是對稱的；在20世紀30年代產生的量子力學，告訴我們微觀粒子（如電子）的位置和動量的乘積要大於一個很小的值，即所謂的不確定性原則，而粒子力學量的計算結果是一個概率分布；隨後在60到70年代發展出的混沌理論告訴我們，長期的結果不可預測。一個有名的比喻是，巴西的蝴蝶扇一下翅膀會引起紐約的一場風暴。這些物理中的發展，把決定論送到了歷史博物館中。
Health：
Is there a limit to human endurance? Science says yes
By Robin A. Smith ScienceDaily June 5 2019
[What is it？] When it comes to physical activities lasting days, weeks and months, the researchers found, humans can only burn calories at 2.5 times their resting metabolic rate. Not even the world's fastest ultra-marathoners managed to surpass that limit, the researchers found.
Beyond the threshold of 2.5 times a person's resting metabolic rate, researchers found, the body starts to break down its own tissues to make up for the caloric deficit.
「comes to」當談到某個話題時，常用這種表達，大家可以在考試作文中用到。
2.5 讀作two point five 或者 two and a half.
threshold: 閾值，比如說討論相對論現象時閾值是光速。
deficit：缺失,缺少
「Not even the world's fastest ultra-marathoners managed to surpass that limit, the researchers found.」 【翻譯：研究人員發現，即使是世界上最好的馬拉松運動員也沒法超過這個極限。】
surpass that limit：超過這個極限
[How to do it?] For the study, the team measured daily calories burned by a group of athletes who ran six marathons a week for five months as part of the 2015 Race Across the USA, a 3,000-mile race from California to Washington, D.C. The team also considered other feats of human endurance, including punishing 100-mile trail races and pregnancy.
When they plotted the data over time, they found an L-shaped curve. The athletes' energy expenditure started out relatively high, but inevitably plunged and flattened out at 2.5 times their basal metabolic rate for the remainder of the event.
3,000-mile 大約是4,800 km
feats：本意是盛宴，這兒有幽默的意味，因為後面就談到了100英裡的強制跑步和懷孕過程。
「The team also considered other feats of human endurance, including punishing 100-mile trail races and pregnancy.」 【翻譯：該團隊還考慮了其它人類耐力的成就，比如懲罰性100英裡的越野賽和懷孕。】
「The athletes' energy expenditure started out relatively high, but inevitably plunged and flattened out at 2.5 times their basal metabolic rate for the remainder of the event.」【翻譯：運動員的能量代謝率開始時相對較高，但在剩下的時間裡，這種水平會不可避免地下降，再平展到2.5倍的基礎代謝率的水平。】，這句話描繪的圖像大家可以想像得出嗎？像一個L字嗎？
[Why it matters] All the endurance events followed the same L-shaped curve, whether the athletes were hauling 500-pound sleds across Antarctica for days in sub-freezing temperatures, or cycling the Tour de France in summer.
… Interestingly, the maximum sustainable energy expenditure found among endurance athletes was only slightly higher than the metabolic rates women sustain during pregnancy. This suggests that the same physiological limits that keep, say, Ironman triathletes from shattering speed records may also constrain other aspects of life too, such as how big babies can grow in the womb.
hauling 500-pound sleds across Antarctica： 在南極洲拖動500磅的雪橇
sub-freezing temperatures：零下的溫度裡
注意句子中whether…or…的結構。
suggest: 可以用indicate suggest show assert claim ，語氣逐漸加強。
推薦讀13遍的英語句子：
1. When it comes to physical activities lasting days, weeks and months, the researchers found, humans can only burn calories at 2.5 times their resting metabolic rate. The researchers say their aim is not to make the insects extinct but to help stop the spread of malaria.
2. Beyond the threshold of 2.5 times a person's resting metabolic rate, researchers found, the body starts to break down its own tissues to make up for the caloric deficit.
3. The athletes' energy expenditure started out relatively high, but inevitably plunged and flattened out at 2.5 times their basal metabolic rate for the remainder of the event.
4. Interestingly, the maximum sustainable energy expenditure found among endurance athletes was only slightly higher than the metabolic rates women sustain during pregnancy.
Physics：
Laplace’s demon
From Wiki 7 June 2019
In the history of science, Laplace's demon was the first published articulation of causal or scientific determinism, by Pierre-Simon Laplace in 1814. According to determinism, if someone (the demon) knows the precise location and momentum of every atom in the universe, their past and future values for any given time are entailed; they can be calculated from the laws of classical mechanics.
determinism：決定論者（如我們的拉普拉斯妖）
對於牛頓方程來說，時間是可逆的，當你把時間加入一個負號加到牛頓力學的基本方程F=ma中，一樣成立。最簡單的例子是給你一段小球在彈跳的錄像，如果空氣很稀薄，那麼你能分辨出錄像是正播還是倒播嗎？所以，their past and future values都已經確定好了。
A desire to confirm or refute Laplace's demon played a vital motivating role in the subsequent development of statistical thermodynamics, the first of several repudiations developed by later generations of physicists to the assumption of causal determinacy upon which Laplace's demon is erected.
articulation: (思想感情的) 表達; 說話;
repudiations: 拒絕；
determinacy：確定性；
【翻譯】 證實或證偽拉普拉斯妖的願望在後續的統計熱力學的發展中發揮了重要的推動作用，隨後的物理學家對拉普拉斯妖的因果性假設，發展出一些否定的結論。
推薦讀13遍的英語句子：
1， According to determinism, if someone (the demon) knows the precise location and momentum of every atom in the universe, their past and future values for any given time are entailed; they can be calculated from the laws of classical mechanics.