FROM THE EDITOR
編者寄語
How Science Works
科學是如何產生實效的
The heroes of the COVID-19 pandemic are legion: nurses, doctors and others who care for the sick; epidemiologists and public health experts who track the disease and offer clear lifesaving guidance; and everyone who masks up and avoids crowds and protects their own health and the health of their communities. And around the world many scientists are working practically nonstop to understand the virus, how it spreads and what it does to the body.
抗擊COVID-19大流行的英雄群體是龐大的：護士，醫生還有其他照顧病人的人，流行病學家和公共衛生專家追蹤這種疾病並提供了明確的救生指導；每個人都戴著口罩、避開人群，保護自己的健康以及所在社區其他人的健康。在世界各地，許多科學家徹夜不停地研究病毒，了解它是如何傳播的，以及它對身體的影響。
We learned more about the immune system in 2020 than in any year in history. Akiko Iwasaki heads one of the labs leading the global effort to save people from COVID-19. She and grad student Patrick Wong explain how the immune system reacts to the new virus and how that knowledge might lead to new treatments. They describe how their team took on the urgent challenge and how the process of science changed in 2020 .
2020年，我們對免疫系統的了解比歷史上任何一年都要多。巖崎秋子領導著一個引領全球拯救人類免受COVID-19病毒感染的實驗室。她和她的研究生王耀偉解釋了免疫系統對新病毒的反應，以及這些知識如何導致新的治療方法。他們描述了他們的團隊是如何應對這一緊迫挑戰的，以及2020年科學進程是如何變化的。
Understanding the process of science can protect people against misinformation—or at least we hope so. One of the outrageous myths about the pandemic is that the death toll is exaggerated. It’s not. More than a quarter of a million people in the U.S. have died of COVID-19 as of November. Journalist Christie Aschwanden details how we know the disease has become the third leading cause of death in the U.S.
理解科學的過程可以保護人們不受錯誤信息的影響，至少我們希望如此。關於這場大流行的一個荒誕的說法是死亡人數被誇大了。不是的。截至11月，美國已有25多萬人死於COVID-19。記者克裡斯蒂·阿斯奇萬登詳細介紹了我們如何知道這種疾病已經成為美國第三大死因。
One of the most intriguing stages in the process of science is noticing when something is ... weird. Astronomers using new tools to see parts of space that had been shrouded by dust have observed that galaxy clusters formed much faster than anyone expected and that they seem to be too big for our universe. Grad student Arianna S. Long recounts the excitement of rethinking the time line of the early universe and how any unusual discovery is first assumed to be a software bug before it is accepted.
科學過程中最有趣的階段之一是注意到什麼是。。。奇怪的。天文學家利用新的工具觀察被塵埃籠罩的部分空間，發現星系團的形成速度比任何人預期的都要快，而且它們似乎對我們的宇宙來說太大了。研究生阿里安娜S.朗講述了重新思考早期宇宙時間線的興奮，以及有多少不尋常的發現在被接受之前被認為是軟體缺陷的。
We’re in a great age of dinosaur discoveries. fossil experts Matthew A. Brown and Adam D. Marsh show how much has been learned about Dilophosaurus, our cover Dino Star, since it appeared in the film Jurassic Park in 1993. They point out that paleontology is more tedious and less glamorous than how it’s depicted in movies, but understanding the bodies and habitats and behaviors of a 183-million-year-old dinosaur is the next best thing to bringing it back to life.
我們正處在恐龍發現的偉大時代。化石專家馬修A.布朗和亞當D.馬什展示了自1993年在電影《侏羅紀公園》中出現迪洛龍以來，人們對迪洛龍了解了多少。他們指出，古生物學比電影中描述的更乏味，也不那麼引人入勝，但了解一隻1.83億年前恐龍的身體、棲息地和行為，是讓它復活的下一個最佳選擇。
Some data are harder to gather than others. To understand the water cycle that sustains billions of people, mountain hydrologist Walter Immerzeel and his colleagues camp at 5,300 meters elevation (about 17,400 feet) and go higher to set up monitoring stations that have been twisted by winds and knocked over by avalanches. climate change is disrupting ice melt, monsoons and river flows, and the consequences could be catastrophic.
有些數據比其他數據更難收集。為了了解維持數十億人生存的水循環，山體水文學家沃爾特·伊梅爾澤爾和他的同事們在海拔5300米（約17400英尺）的地方紮營，並走得更高，建立了被風扭曲、被雪崩推倒的監測站。氣候變化正在破壞冰川融化、季風和河流流動，其後果可能是災難性的。
Evolutionarily, we are all well-functioning cellular civilizations, according to psychologist and evolutionary biologist Athena Aktipis . Multicellularity has a lot of advantages, and it has led to exquisite cooperation. But when some cells cheat, they can threaten the entire organism. Thinking of cancer cells as cheaters has led to new approaches to treatment.
心理學家和進化生物學家雅典娜·阿克提皮斯認為，在進化上，我們都是功能良好的細胞文明。多細胞性有很多優點，它成就了精巧的合作。但是當一些細胞作弊時，它們會威脅到整個有機體。認為癌細胞是騙子的想法已經形成了新的治療方法。
When things get tumultuous on our planet, it’s a nice escape to look at another one. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has been photographing the Red Planet for 15 years now, and senior editor Clara Moskowitz shares some of the most gorgeous views. They reveal that Mars has dust devils, landslides and asteroid impacts just like Earth does.
當我們星球上的事情變得混亂時，看看另一個是很好的逃避方式。火星勘測軌道飛行器已經為這顆紅色星球拍攝了15年了，資深編輯克拉拉·莫斯科維茨分享了一些最美麗的景色。他們揭示了火星和地球一樣有塵暴、滑坡和小行星撞擊。
翻譯：木易
朗讀：翔太郎