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Every time you inhale, oxygen passes from your windpipe to your lungs and on into your bloodstream. But what if your windpipe was blocked? Getting the gas straight to your blood could save your life. Wait, put down that syringe—a large air bubble in a blood vessel can kill you. But what if the bubbles were only a few millionths of a meter in diameter?
每次呼吸时，氧气通过气管传到肺部，然后进入血液。但是万一你的气道堵塞了怎么办？为了救命，可以把氧气直接输入到血液里。等等，放下注射器——血管里如果出现一个大气泡，则会致人死命。但是气泡的直径如果只有10微米会怎么样呢？
Researchers coated tiny amounts of oxygen gas with fatty molecules to create microparticles. Suspended in solution, the microparticles formed a foam containing 50 to 90 percent oxygen. In a beaker of blood, the foam was able to quickly transfer its oxygen to the cells.
研究者先用油脂分子包围少量的氧气，以形成微粒。悬浮在溶液里的微粒会产生含有50%-90%氧气的泡沫。在盛有血液的烧杯里，气泡能迅速将氧气输送到细胞里。
Then the researchers tested it in animals. Normally, a blocked windpipe cuts off the blood’s supply of oxygen, leading to brain damage and death. But when rabbits with blocked windpipes received injections of the microparticles, their blood oxygen levels and heart rates remained stable. The work is in the journal Science Translational Medicine.
然后研究者在动物身上做了实验。正常情况下，血管如果阻塞了，就会切断氧气供应，导致大脑损伤坏死。给气管阻塞的兔子注射这种微粒时，它们的血液氧气浓度和心率保持稳定。该实验发表在《科学?转化医学》上。
The foam may someday buy time for human patients. So that even someone with a closed airway can breathe easy.
可能有一天，这种气泡会为病人争取时间。这样，即使是那些气道封闭的人也会很轻松地呼吸。
