In June of last year, Richard E. Smalley, a Nobel Prize-winning chemist at Rice University in Houston, Texas, took a break from his cancer treatments to testify before a congressional subcommittee about the promise of nanotechnology, the science of building at unthinkably small scales. Smalley had jump-started the entire field back in 1985, when he discovered a novel form of carbon that showed promise as a raw material for miniature devices. Engineers began to dream of microscopic machines that could clean up pollution and aid in space exploration. More than a decade later, however, Smalley was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, an often fatal cancer of the immune system. The treatment was chemotherapy—a harsh chemical brew that poisons not only the cancer but the entire body, causing weakness, nausea and hair loss. It was then that Smalley became interested in another potential application of nanotechnology: the treatment of disease.
展开▼
机译：去年6月，得克萨斯州休斯敦赖斯大学的诺贝尔化学奖得主化学家理查德·E·史密利（Richard E. Smalley）休假了一段时间，在国会小组委员会上作了关于纳米技术的承诺的证词，纳米技术是不可想象的科学小规模。 Smalley早在1985年就开始涉足整个领域，当时他发现了一种新颖的碳材料，这种碳材料有望作为微型设备的原材料。工程师开始梦想能够清除污染并有助于太空探索的微观机器。然而，十多年后，斯莫利被诊断出患有非霍奇金淋巴瘤，这通常是致命的免疫系统癌症。治疗方法是化学疗法-一种刺激性的化学酿造，不仅使癌症中毒，而且使整个身体中毒，从而导致虚弱，恶心和脱发。那时Smalley对纳米技术的另一潜在应用感兴趣：疾病的治疗。
展开▼
