Top 10 Mysterious Diseases
There are many sicknesses doctors can cure with the swish of a pen across prescription pad. But for all we understand now about some illnesses, there are even more that still stump the pros, confound the public and rage on uncontested. —Heather Whipps
10＃Morgellons Disease
（这个没有看明白是什么病，但是看描述觉得蛮可怕的：浑身痒痒，而且伤口还会长出怪异的纤维，怪不得说它是科幻小说里的疾病-_-///）
This mysterious illness, which has cropped up again recently, displays almost sci-fi symptoms. Sufferers complain of intensely creepy-crawly skin and odd fibrous strands which protrude from open wounds. Some in the medical community blame the “disease” on psychotic delusion, but others say the symptoms are very real.
9＃Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
（慢性疲劳综合症，恩，汗一下bed-ridden for days at a time，怎么感觉跟我堕落的时候一个样？我，我不会是病了吧？>_<）
Chronic fatigue is a classic MUPS (medically unexplained physical symptoms) disease, with a diagnosis based only on the ruling out of other possibilities. More than just feeling a little tired, CFS patients are often bed-ridden for days at a time.
8＃Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease
（这个名字不知道怎么翻译，反正就是疯牛病啦。恩，想起了一本书《致命的盛宴》，里面提出了一个很怪的理论，说同类相食可能是海绵样脑病的原因之一，比如疯牛病是因为肉骨粉，而人类的库鲁病最先发现于有着食用死人大脑习俗的岛屿。恩，对么？不对么？我不知道诶，只是奇怪为什么同类相食会诱导元病毒的产生，难道是自然为了防止蚕食同类耍的把戏？）
One version of this rare brain disorder is better known—Mad Cow—and can be contracted by eating contaminated beef. “Regular” CJD is also always fatal, quick-acting and is the most common form, but develops in most patients for reasons doctors have yet to figure out and can not prevent.
7＃Schizophrenia
（精神分裂，呃，我喜欢的john nash就得的这个病，拥有两个自我，生活在两个世界，什么感觉呢？）
Experts consider this the most puzzling of mental disorders, one which robs the sufferer of the ability to logically distinguish between reality and fantasy. Symptoms range wildly between patients and include delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech, lack of motivation or emotion, but the disease has no defining medical tests.
6＃Autoimmune Disorders
（自身免疫性疾病，比如红斑狼疮，比如那个没看懂的MS：P，看来攘外必先安内还是有一定道理的）
A catchall term for a host of afflictions including Lupus and MS, autoimmune disorders treat the body’s organs and normal functions as enemy invaders. They’re usually chronic, always debilitating, and doctors can do little except ease their symptoms.
5＃Pica
（异食病，恩，只是很奇怪是怎么吃进去的，牙齿不会痛么？）
People diagnosed with Pica have an insatiable urge to eat non-food substances like dirt, paper, glue and clay. Though it is believed to be linked with mineral deficiency, health experts have found no real cause and no cure for the peculiar disorder.
4＃Avian Flu
（严重怀疑选这个出来是为了响应时代要求-_-||不过禽流感的确比较可怕，随着迁徙的候鸟传遍世界。。。）
Humans have no immunity to the powerful flu virus carried by birds, which health official fear could mutate into a strain that can be transmitted between humans. Death rates for human infected are around 50 percent but, so far, humans have been infected mostly by direct handling with infected birds. A recent cluster of cases, however, appeared to involved its spread between people.
3＃The Common Cold
（真没有想到感冒会进前三甲，不过看在它辛勤的为人类服务了几千年的份上就不和它计较了）
Even with an estimated one billion cases in the United States every year, doctors still know very little about the nose-running, cough-inducing cold, whose root causes number in the hundreds (some headway is being made). Time and chicken soup, not antibiotics, is often the only prescription that helps.
2＃Alzheimer’s Disease
（阿尔滋海默病，就是老年痴呆了。专业啊，专业啊，不知道有生之年能不能看到人类征服它的那天）
Not to be confused with the forgetfulness that affects most everyone in their later years, Alzheimer’s is a degenerative brain disorder that manifests differently in each of its sufferers. The exact cause isn’t understood and it
can’t be effectively treated.
1＃AIDS
（恩，用脚指头都能想出来老大必定是我们超级无敌的艾滋病，不过，说实话，我觉得这个病是这10个里面唯一可以通过人类提高自身道德和修养而控制的）
Twenty-five years since it was first identified, there is still no cure for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. AIDS remains among the world’s most potent killers, especially in developing countries. The disease likely started with a chimp to human jump, recent research confirmed.
Top 10 Mysteries of the Mind
10＃Sweet Dreams
（甜美的梦境，呃，我是一个不做则已，一做必定惊人的类型，凡我醒来有印象的梦，都是超级怪异的-_-!!!）
If you were to ask 10 people what dreams are made of, you’d probably get 10 different answers. That’s because scientists are still unraveling this mystery. One possibility: Dreaming exercises brain by stimulating the trafficking of synapses between brain cells. Another theory is that people dream about tasks and emotions that they didn’t take care of during the day, and that the process can help solidify thoughts and memories. In general, scientists agree that dreaming happens during your deepest sleep, called Rapid Eye Movement (REM).
9＃Slumber Sleuth
（这个，谁说人生无大事？这睡觉可就是大事呢。有一种残忍的睡眠剥夺实验，几乎所有的志愿者都在实验结束前就精神崩溃了。。。）
Fruit flies do it. Tigers do it. And humans can't seem to get enough of it. No, not that. We're talking about shut-eye, so crucial we spend more than a quarter of our lives at it. Yet the underlying reasons for sleep remain as puzzling as a rambling dream. One thing scientists do know: Sleep is crucial for survival in mammals. Extended sleeplessness can lead to mood swings, hallucination, and in extreme cases, death. There are two states of sleep—non-rapid eye movement (NREM), during which the brain exhibits low metabolic activity, and rapid eye movement (REM), during which the brain is very active. Some scientists think NREM sleep gives your body a break, and in turn conserves energy, similar to hibernation. REM sleep could help to organize memories. However, this idea isn’t proven, and dreams during REM sleep don’t always correlate with memories.
8＃Phantom Feelings
（恩，这个是对已经失去的肢体产生幻觉，读的时候就在想，第一个没有尾巴的类人猿是不是还会感觉到尾巴被其他类人猿踩到了。。。）
It’s estimated that about 80 percent of amputees experience sensations, including warmth, itching, pressure and pain, coming from the missing limb. People who experience this phenomenon, known as "phantom limb," feel sensations as if the missing limb were part of their bodies. One explanation says that the nerves area where the limb severed create new connections to the spinal cord and continue to send signals to the brain as if the missing limb was still there. Another possibility is that the brain is "hard-wired" to operate as if the body were fully intact—meaning the brain holds a blueprint of the body with all parts attached.
7＃Mission Control
（生物钟，一直觉得这是个力量很强大的东西）
Residing in the hypothalamus of the brain, the suprachiasmatic nucleus, or biological clock, programs the body to follow a 24-hour rhythm. The most evident effect of circadian rhythm is the sleep-wake cycle, but the biological clock also impacts digestion, body temperature, blood pressure, and hormone production. Researchers have found that light intensity can adjust the clock forward or backward by regulating the hormone melatonin. The latest debate is whether or not melatonin supplements could help prevent jet lag—the drowsy, achy feeling you get when "jetting" across time zones.
6＃Memory Lane
（又是专业啊。。。呃，记忆的产生和储存，谁知道的话，一定要告诉我啊，我就可以马上毕业了，跪谢：D）
Some experiences are hard to forget, like perhaps your first kiss. But how does a person hold onto these personal movies? Using brain-imaging techniques, scientists are unraveling the mechanism responsible for creating and storing memories. They are finding that the hippocampus, within the brain’s gray matter, could act as a memory box. But this storage area isn’t so discriminatory. It turns out that both true and false memories activate similar brain regions. To pull out the real memory, some researchers ask a subject to recall the memory in context, something that’s much more difficult when the event didn’t actually occur.
5＃Brain Teaser
（笑：），我们为什么会笑呢？如果我们只是感到愉快，但不做出表情可不可以呢？恩，估计会憋死的吧）
Laughter is one of the least understood of human behaviors. Scientists have found that during a good laugh three parts of the brain light up: a thinking part that helps you get the joke, a movement area that tells your muscles to move, and an emotional region that elicits the "giddy" feeling. But it remains unknown why one person laughs at your brother’s foolish jokes while another chuckles while watching a horror movie. John Morreall, who is a pioneer of humor research at the College of William and Mary, has found that laughter is a playful response to incongruities—stories that disobey conventional expectations. Others in the humor field point to laughter as a way of signaling to another person that this action is meant "in fun." One thing is clear: Laughter makes us feel better.
4＃Nature vs. Nurture
（思想和性格是天生的还是后天培养的？）
In the long-running battle of whether our thoughts and personalities are controlled by genes or environment, scientists are building a convincing body of evidence that it could be either or both! The ability to study individual genes points to many human traits that we have little control over, yet in many realms, peer pressure or upbringing has been shown heavily influence who we are and what we do.
3＃Mortal Mystery
（觉得这个第三名很莫名其妙，长生不老和mind有什么直接关系呢？其实，人关键不在于活了多久，而在于活着时做过些什么。。。）
Living forever is just for Hollywood. But why do humans age? You are born with a robust toolbox full of mechanisms to fight disease and injury, which you might think should arm you against stiff joints and other ailments. But as we age, the body’s repair mechanisms get out of shape. In effect, your resilience to physical injury and stress declines. Theories for why people age can be divided into two categories: 1) Like other human characteristics, aging could just be a part of human genetics and is somehow beneficial. 2) In the less optimistic view, aging has no purpose and results from cellular damage that occurs over a person's lifetime. A handful of researchers, however, think science will ultimately delay aging at least long enough to double life spans.
2＃Deep Freeze
（深层冻眠。呵呵，即使我得了绝症，也坚决不会允许人们把我冻眠的，如果醒来时，发现身边站的都是四个鼻子，8只眼睛的怪物，一定会吓死过去的，还不如早点死了算了）
Living forever may not be a reality. But a pioneering field called cryonics could give some people two lives. Cryonics centers like Alcor Life Extension Foundation, in Arizona, store posthumous bodies in vats filled with liquid nitrogen at bone-chilling temperatures of minus 320 degrees Fahrenheit (78 Kelvin). The idea is that a person who dies from a presently incurable disease could be thawed and revived in the future when a cure has been found. The body of the late baseball legend Ted Williams is stored in one of Alcor’s freezers. Like the other human popsicles, Williams is positioned head down. That way, if there were ever a leak in the tank, the brain would stay submerged in the cold liquid. Not one of the cryopreserved bodies has been revived, because that technology doesn’t exist. For one, if the body isn’t thawed at exactly the right temperature, the person’s cells could turn to ice and blast into pieces.
1＃Consciousness
（意识问题很有意思，但是现在人们对它的了解还太浅薄了，这应该是个终极的问题吧，推荐《惊人的假说》）
When you wake up in the morning, you might perceive that the Sun is just rising, hear a few birds chirping, and maybe even feel a flash of happiness as the fresh morning air hits your face. In other words, you are conscious. This complex topic has plagued the scientific community since antiquity. Only recently have neuroscientists considered consciousness a realistic research topic. The greatest brainteaser in this field has been to explain how processes in the brain give rise to subjective experiences. So far, scientists have managed to develop a great list of questions.
