时差N小时:打针一定会痛吗?

From fluvaccines to tetanus boosters, injections areamust in modern medicine.

从流感疫苗到破伤风针，注射在现代医学中是不可或缺的。

But do they always have to makeyou say Ouch?

但是它们是否就一定会让你尖叫呢?

Eh,no?

嗯,不会吗?

No,indeed.If new microneedle technology issuccessful, we may soon have needles that injectmedicine without your even knowing it.

真的不会!如果新的显微针技术成功了的话，我们将很快享受甚至你都不能意识到的药物注射。

How does this work, you ask?

你快问它是如何办到的?

How does it work?

如何办到的?

You feel things because of the nerves that are embedded in your skin.

你有感觉是因为你皮肤里镶嵌的有神经。

However, the entiresurface of your skin is not covered.

然而，它却没有完全覆盖你的皮肤。

From a microscopic viewpoint, there is plenty of spacebetween nerves where a super-tinyneedle wouldn’t be felt.

在显微镜下可以看到，神经之间有很多空间，而在这里人们便感受不到微型针。

No way!

不可能!

Way! Researcher Mark Prausnitz and his coworkers at the Georgia Institute of TechnologyinAtlanta have already built micro-injection devices.

可能!亚特兰大乔治亚理工学院的研究人员Mark Prausnitz和他的同伴们已经研制出了微型注射器具。

Imagine a platform the size of your thumbnail,made of silicon, metal or glass.

试想它就如拇指指甲盖大小，材料是硅、金属或是玻璃。

The surface is covered with a thousand needles, each no bigger than aperiod at the end of atypewritten sentence.

表面被一千个微型针所覆盖，每一个都还没一个句子中的句号那么大。

When this chip is placed on your skin its like rolling in a briar patch-you are pierced againandagain.

当这个芯片被植入到你的皮肤就仿佛是卷入到了荆棘区一样，它会一次又一次的刺你。

But so small are the briars, you feel nothing.

但它是如此的小，以至于你什么都感觉不到。

Because they cause no discomfort,microneedles may soon allow doctors to administercontrolled amounts of medication over longperiods of time.

因为它们不会带来不适感。微型针很快就能让医生在很长时间内掌管在量上有控制的药物治疗。

That would be a big step toward the precision medicine of tomorrow–and awayfrom the bigOuch of yesterday.

这对于告别以前的疼痛时代、对于将来药物治疗的精准性来说都是迈出了一大步。