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当前位置:首页 -> 10级英语阅读 - > 科学家将污染物变成打印机墨水
科学家将污染物变成打印机墨水
添加时间:2015-10-20 18:57:11 浏览次数: 作者:未知
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  • Anirudh Sharma doesn't just want to pull harmful carbon from the air. He wants to offer a cheaper alternative to the exorbitant1 costs of ordinary printer ink.

    阿尼鲁德·夏尔马不仅想除掉空气中的有害炭物质,还希望创造一种更便宜的普通打印机油墨,解决墨水价格高昂的问题。

    Sharma recently invented "Kaala," a device that can gobble up harmful pollutants2 and instantly repurpose them, with a little help from alcohol and oil, into black printer ink.

    夏尔马最近发明了一种名叫“Kaala”的装置,它能吞掉有害污染物并迅速将其变成有用物质,只需加点酒精和油,就能生成黑色打印机墨水。

    One day, Sharma hopes to commercialize the device so it can live in every home around the world.

    将来,夏尔马希望能将这个设置商业化,希望世界上的每家每户都能使用它。

    The idea came to him after one-too-many smog-filled trips to his home country of India.

    他经常去烟雾严重的祖国印度,如此往返,就有了灵感。

    "On a hot summer day, if you take a handkerchief and rub it on your skin, the handkerchief actually turns a little brownish-blackish in color," says Sharma, a scientist at MIT's Media Lab. "So we thought, 'How do we repurpose something we complain about on an everyday basis into something that is a utility?'"

    “在酷热的夏日,如果你拿手帕擦皮肤,手帕就会变得乌黑,”麻省理工学院(MIT)媒体实验室的科学家夏尔马说,“所以我们就想‘能不能把这种我们天天抱怨的东西变成日常用品呢?’”

    For the device to work, it first needs to be exposed to exhaust. In his demo, Sharma uses the flame of a candle.

    要让这个设置运行,得先把它放在废气中。做实验时,夏尔马用的是蜡烛燃烧产生的废气。

    While the candle burns, a suction pump pulls in the surrounding air to a simple mechanism3 that separates the carbon black — a byproduct of combustion5 — from the rest of the air. It then traps the soot6 in a small chamber7 to be mixed with alcohol — in this case, vodka — and a drop of olive oil.

    蜡烛燃烧时,用真空泵吸走周围的空气,令黑色的炭物质——即燃烧产物——与其余空气分开。接下来,黑灰聚焦到一个小隔间,加入酒精——此例中用伏特加——和一滴橄榄油。

    Lastly, the newly formed liquid can be injected into an ordinary ink cartridge8 for everyday use.

    最后,混合而成的液体就能放到普通墨盒中每日使用了。

    Sharma admits the black could still be blacker. Since it was designed as a research project, Kaala would also need to hold up against formal toxicity9 standards before it can hit the market.

    夏尔马承认墨水还可以更黑。但这只是个研究项目,投入市场前,Kaala也得满足正式的无毒标准。

    "With a little bit of research," he says, "it can become as good as the printing ink HP sells to you."

    他说:“只需再研究研究,它就能跟惠普(HP)卖的打印墨一样好了。”

    Sharma estimates a 4-year-old diesel10 engine could produce enough carbon to fill an HP cartridge within 60 minutes. A chimney would take only 10 minutes approximately.

    夏尔马估计一个使用了四年的柴油内燃机60分钟内产生的炭能填满一个惠普墨盒。一个烟囱大约只需要10分钟。

    Recreating that ink wouldn't take much effort.

    制造这种墨并不费事。

    "Usually, people don't know about this, but the ink you're buying is nothing," he says. "It's just carbon black mixed with a few chemicals, and that's all. If you're making your own ink, the cost would definitely be much, much lower."

    “一般来说,人们不了解这点,不过大家买的墨真没什么特殊的,”他说,“炭黑掺些化学品就制出来了,就这些。如果自己制墨,成本绝对非常非常低。”

    Sharma hopes that his handheld device could scale to a size that sits on par4 with leading carbon-capture systems: huge walls of fans that trap carbon lurking11 in the air.

    夏尔马希望他的手持装置再大点,能用到主流炭捕集系统上:比如捕集空气中隐藏的炭的巨型风扇墙。

     10级    英文科普 


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    1 exorbitant [ɪgˈzɔ:bɪtənt] G7iyh   第9级
    adj.过分的;过度的
    参考例句:
    • More competition should help to drive down exorbitant phone charges. 更多的竞争有助于降低目前畸高的电话收费。
    • The price of food here is exorbitant. 这儿的食物价格太高。
    2 pollutants [pə'lu:tənts] 694861490fe64672170a0da250a277c7   第8级
    污染物质(尤指工业废物)( pollutant的名词复数 )
    参考例句:
    • Pollutants are constantly being released into the atmosphere. 污染物质正在不断地被排放到大气中去。
    • The 1987 Amendments limit 301(g) discharges to a few well-studied nonconventional pollutants. 1987年的修正案把第301条(g)的普通排放限制施加在一些认真研究过的几种非常规污染物上。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法
    3 mechanism [ˈmekənɪzəm] zCWxr   第7级
    n.机械装置;机构,结构
    参考例句:
    • The bones and muscles are parts of the mechanism of the body. 骨骼和肌肉是人体的组成部件。
    • The mechanism of the machine is very complicated. 这台机器的结构是非常复杂的。
    4 par [pɑ:(r)] OK0xR   第8级
    n.标准,票面价值,平均数量;adj.票面的,平常的,标准的
    参考例句:
    • Sales of nylon have been below par in recent years. 近年来尼龙织品的销售额一直不及以往。
    • I don't think his ability is on a par with yours. 我认为他的能力不能与你的能力相媲美。
    5 combustion [kəmˈbʌstʃən] 4qKzS   第10级
    n.燃烧;氧化;骚动
    参考例句:
    • We might be tempted to think of combustion. 我们也许会联想到氧化。
    • The smoke formed by their combustion is negligible. 由它燃烧所生成的烟是可忽略的。
    6 soot [sʊt] ehryH   第10级
    n.煤烟,烟尘;vt.熏以煤烟
    参考例句:
    • Soot is the product of the imperfect combustion of fuel. 煤烟是燃料不完全燃烧的产物。
    • The chimney was choked with soot. 烟囱被煤灰堵塞了。
    7 chamber [ˈtʃeɪmbə(r)] wnky9   第7级
    n.房间,寝室;会议厅;议院;会所
    参考例句:
    • For many, the dentist's surgery remains a torture chamber. 对许多人来说,牙医的治疗室一直是间受刑室。
    • The chamber was ablaze with light. 会议厅里灯火辉煌。
    8 cartridge [ˈkɑ:trɪdʒ] fXizt   第9级
    n.弹壳,弹药筒;(装磁带等的)盒子
    参考例句:
    • Unfortunately the 2G cartridge design is very difficult to set accurately. 不幸地2G弹药筒设计非常难正确地设定。
    • This rifle only holds one cartridge. 这支来复枪只能装一发子弹。
    9 toxicity [tɒkˈsɪsəti] InYwc   第7级
    n.毒性,毒力
    参考例句:
    • The hoarse grunt or squeal is characteristic of toxicity.嘶哑的哼声和叫声是中毒的特征。
    • Dieldrin is related to aldrin,and its toxicity to earthworms is similar.狄氏剂与艾氏剂有关,对蚯蚓的毒性是相似的。
    10 diesel [ˈdi:zl] ql6zo   第7级
    n.柴油发动机,内燃机
    参考例句:
    • We experimented with diesel engines to drive the pumps. 我们试着用柴油机来带动水泵。
    • My tractor operates on diesel oil. 我的那台拖拉机用柴油开动。
    11 lurking [] 332fb85b4d0f64d0e0d1ef0d34ebcbe7   第8级
    潜在
    参考例句:
    • Why are you lurking around outside my house? 你在我房子外面鬼鬼祟祟的,想干什么?
    • There is a suspicious man lurking in the shadows. 有一可疑的人躲在阴暗中。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

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