Amy Smith: Simple designs that could save millions of childrens' lives

翻译人员: Ying Cui 校对人员: Guo Sheng

In terms of invention,

说到发明

I'd like to tell you the tale of one of my favorite projects.

我想跟你们说说我最得意的一个项目

I think it's one of the most exciting that I'm working on,

我觉得它是我现在做的最令我兴奋的项目

but I think it's also the simplest.

同时也是最简单的一个

It's a project that has the potential to make a huge impact around the world.

这个项目很可能极大地影响世界

It addresses one of the biggest health issues on the planet,

它能解决目前世界上最严重的健康问题之一

the number one cause of death in children under five.

这个问题是5岁以下儿童死亡的头号杀手

Which is ...?

是什么呢？ 水媒传染疾病？痢疾？营养不良？

Water-borne diseases? Diarrhea? Malnutrition?

都不对，是吸入厨房油烟

No.

It's breathing the smoke from indoor cooking fires --

acute respiratory infections caused by this.

导致急性呼吸道感染，你相信吗？

Can you believe that?

I find this shocking and somewhat appalling.

我感到很震惊也很可怕

我们能否发明更清洁的炊事燃料？

Can't we make cleaner burning cooking fuels?

Can't we make better stoves?

更好的炉灶？

How is it that this can lead to over two million deaths every year?

这个问题为何每年能杀死200多万人呢？

I know Bill Joy was talking to you about the wonders of carbon nanotubes,

我知道Bill Joy和大家讲过

碳纳管的奇妙之处

那今天我就和大家讲讲

so I'm going to talk to you about the wonders of carbon macro-tubes,

大碳管也就是木炭的妙用

which is charcoal.

(Laughter)

So this is a picture of rural Haiti.

这是一张海地乡村的照片，海地国土面积的98%如今都没有森林覆盖了

Haiti is now 98 percent deforested.

You'll see scenes like this all over the island.

整个海地岛屿都是这幅景象

It leads to all sorts of environmental problems

这造成了各种环境问题

and problems that affect people throughout the nation.

以及一些影响海地人民的其他问题

A couple years ago there was severe flooding

几年前一场洪水肆虐

that led to thousands of deaths --

夺走了几千人的生命

that's directly attributable to the fact

这都是因为

that there are no trees on the hills to stabilize the soil.

山上没有树来巩固土壤

So the rains come --

所以一旦下雨，雨水混杂泥土直接冲入河流，造成洪灾

they go down the rivers and the flooding happens.

Now one of the reasons why there are so few trees is this:

这里没树主要是因为

people need to cook,

人们烧饭需要燃料

and they harvest wood and they make charcoal in order to do it.

于是人们把木材做成木炭

It's not that people are ignorant to the environmental damage.

并不是海地人不重视环境保护

They know perfectly well, but they have no other choice.

他们明白环境重要，但是他们无可奈何

Fossil fuels are not available,

这里没有化石燃料

and solar energy doesn't cook the way that they like their food prepared.

太阳能也不是很好用

And so this is what they do.

所以这也算是无奈之举

You'll find families like this who go out into the forest to find a tree,

你常能看到这样一家人一起去森林里

cut it down and make charcoal out of it.

砍了树，再做成木炭

So not surprisingly,

毫无疑问，人们已经很努力

there's a lot of effort that's been done to look at alternative cooking fuels.

找寻这种燃料的替代品了

About four years ago, I took a team of students down to Haiti

4年前，我和一群学生去海地

and we worked with Peace Corps volunteers there.

和当地的和平队志愿者一起工作

This is one such volunteer

有一个志愿者

and this is a device that he had built in the village where he worked.

在他呆的村庄里发明了这个小玩意儿

And the idea was that you could take waste paper;

就是把废纸

you could compress it

压缩成块状用来燃烧

and make briquettes that could be used for fuel.

But this device was very slow.

但是它烧得很慢

So our engineering students went to work on it

我们工程系的学生就拿来改良了一下

and with some very simple changes,

做了一点小改动之后

they were able to triple the throughput of this device.

它的效率提高了3倍

So you could imagine they were very excited about it.

他们当时非常激动

And they took the briquettes back to MIT so that they could test them.

后来他们还把这些纸砖块带回麻省大学做测试

结果却发现这些东西不能燃烧

And one of the things that they found was they didn't burn.

So it was a little discouraging to the students.

学生们都挺失望的

(Laughter)

And in fact, if you look closely,

如果你仔细看，在这儿，

right here you can see it says, "US Peace Corps."

你就会发现“美国和平队”字样

As it turns out, there actually wasn't any waste paper in this village.

因为在那个村庄里根本没废纸

And while it was a good use of government paperwork

或许这仪器用来处理政府文书倒是挺好的

for this volunteer to bring it back with him to his village,

让那个志愿者把政府文书带回到那个村子

it was 800 kilometers away.

不过政府机关离那个村子有足足800公里之遥

And so we thought perhaps there might be a better way

所以我们就想琢磨个更好的办法

to come up with an alternative cooking fuel.

来制造炊事燃料的替代品

What we wanted to do is we wanted to make a fuel

我们希望这种新燃料

that used something that was readily available on the local level.

能就地取材

You see these all over Haiti as well.

海地到处都有小规模的制糖厂

They're small-scale sugar mills.

And the waste product from them

这些厂的废料

after you extract the juice from the sugarcane

也就是榨完甘蔗之后剩下的东西叫“甘蔗渣”

is called "bagasse."

It has no other use.

这个没啥用，也没营养价值

It has no nutritional value, so they don't feed it to the animals.

当饲料都不够好

It just sits in a pile near the sugar mill until eventually they burn it.

人们就把成堆的甘蔗渣堆在制糖厂外，最后拿来烧掉

而我们就想

What we wanted to do was we wanted to find a way

to harness this waste resource and turn it into a fuel

变废为宝

that would be something that people could easily cook with,

把那些甘蔗渣做成人人都能方便使用的燃料

something like charcoal.

就像木炭一样

So over the next couple of years,

接下来的几年时间里，我和我的学生就在开发合适的生产工艺

students and I worked to develop a process.

So you start with the bagasse, and then you take a very simple kiln

首先我们把甘蔗渣放入一个窑炉

that you can make out of a waste fifty five-gallon oil drum.

这种炉子很好做，拿一个废弃的55加仑容积的油桶就可以改装了

After some time, after setting it on fire,

然后我们点燃甘蔗渣，让它烧一小会儿以后就把炉封好

you seal it to restrict the oxygen that goes into the kiln,

不要让空气进去

and then you end up with this carbonized material here.

最后就制成了这种炭化材料

However, you can't burn this.

但是，这个不好用，因为颗粒太细了

It's too fine and it burns too quickly to be useful for cooking.

用来烧饭的话一下就烧完了

So we had to try to find a way to form it into useful briquettes.

所以我们就设法把它压缩成块

And conveniently, one of my students was from Ghana,

正好，我的一个学生是加纳人

记得他母亲给他做过一道菜叫“木薯糊”

and he remembered a dish his mom used to make for him called "kokonte,"

which is a very sticky porridge made out of the cassava root.

就是用木薯的根烧成的很稠的粥

And so what we did was we looked,

于是我们就四下寻找

and we found that cassava is indeed grown in Haiti,

发现海地也种植木薯，只不过叫法不同

under the name of "manioc."

In fact, it's grown all over the world --

其实世界上很多地方都有木薯

yucca, tapioca, manioc, cassava, it's all the same thing --

虽然名称各异，东西都是一样的

a very starchy root vegetable.

就是含淀粉的食用其块状根的植物

And you can make a very thick, sticky porridge out of it,

你可以把它做成糊

which you can use to bind together the charcoal briquettes.

再用这个糊把木炭块粘在一起

So we did this. We went down to Haiti.

我们就这么做了。 后来我们又去海地

These are the graduates of the first Ecole de Charbon,

这些研究生就是第一所

or Charcoal Institute.

木炭学院的学生

And these --

（笑）

(Laughter)

That's right. So I'm actually an instructor at MIT as well as CIT.

没错，所以我既是麻省理工的导师也是木碳学院的导师

这些就是我们做的炭砖

And these are the briquettes that we made.

现在我们到亚洲再来看看印度

Now I'm going to take you to a different continent.

This is India

and this is the most commonly used cooking fuel in India.

这是印度最常见的炊事燃料——牛粪

It's cow dung.

And more than in Haiti, this produces really smoky fires,

这产生的油烟比海地的还厉害

and this is where you see the health impacts

你看，健康问题

of cooking with cow dung and biomass as a fuel.

就是因为燃烧牛粪或其他生物燃料造成的

Kids and women are especially affected by it,

儿童和妇女尤受影响

because they're the ones who are around the cooking fires.

因为他们经常在厨房里转悠

我们想看看是否能引进

So we wanted to see

if we could introduce this charcoal-making technology there.

之前的制炭技术

Well, unfortunately, they didn't have sugarcane

可惜，印度没甘蔗

and they didn't have cassava,

也没木薯，但这些都难不倒我们

but that didn't stop us.

What we did was we found what were the locally available sources of biomass.

我们还是就地取材

And there was wheat straw and there was rice straw in this area.

用这里的麦秆和稻秆加工成燃料

And what we could use as a binder was actually small amounts of cow manure,

至于粘合剂

就用少量的牛粪

which they used ordinarily for their fuel.

而原本这些牛粪都是直接做燃料的

And we did side-by-side tests,

我们做了些对比试验，大家可以看到

and here you can see the charcoal briquettes

炭砖和牛粪做对比

and here the cow dung.

And you can see that it's a lot cleaner burning of a cooking fuel.

很明显炭砖清洁得多

And in fact, it heats the water a lot more quickly.

而且烧水速度也快很多

And so we were very happy, thus far.

所以我们都很开心

But one of the things that we found

但是我们发现

was when we did side-by-side comparisons with wood charcoal,

和一般木炭比

it didn't burn as long.

炭砖不持久，一下就碎了

And the briquettes crumbled a little bit

and we lost energy as they fell apart as they were cooking.

于是热量就分散开来，导致烧饭的时候很费力

So we wanted to try to find a way to make a stronger briquette

我们就想办法把炭砖做得更紧实

so that we could compete with wood charcoal in the markets in Haiti.

这样就能和海地市场上的木炭竞争了

So we went back to MIT,

我们回到麻省，找出英斯特朗电子强力测试仪

we took out the Instron machine

and we figured out what sort of forces you needed

分析出用多少压缩力度

in order to compress a briquette to the level

压缩出的炭砖

that you actually are getting improved performance out of it?

会有一个质的飞跃

And at the same time that we had students in the lab looking at this,

一方面我的学生们在实验室里研究

we also had community partners in Haiti working to develop the process,

一方面海地的社区伙伴也同我们合作

努力改良炭砖，让人人都用得上

to improve it and make it more accessible to people in the villages there.

一段时间之后

And after some time,

we developed a low-cost press that allows you to produce charcoal,

我们发明了低成本制木炭法，新的产品

which actually now burns not only --

比一般木炭燃烧更持久也更清洁

actually, it burns longer, cleaner than wood charcoal.

So now we're in a situation where we have a product,

所以我们现在就有一个

which is actually better than what you can buy in Haiti in the marketplace,

比海地市场上的木炭更好的产品

which is a very wonderful place to be.

这是一个很好的状况

In Haiti alone, about 30 million trees are cut down every year.

仅海地一国，每年就有3000万棵树被砍伐

There's a possibility of this being implemented

这个产品如果能得到应用

and saving a good portion of those.

能救很多树

In addition, the revenue generated from that charcoal is 260 million dollars.

另外，这种新木炭每年能创收2.6亿美元

这可是一大笔钱

That's an awful lot for a country like Haiti --

with a population of eight million

海地人口800万

and an average income of less than 400 dollars.

人均收入不足400美元

So this is where we're also moving ahead with our charcoal project.

因此我们想在海地继续这个木炭项目

And one of the things that I think is also interesting,

还有一件有意思的事情是

is I have a friend up at UC Berkeley who's been doing risk analysis.

我有个朋友在伯克利大学是做风险研究的

And he's looked at the problem of the health impacts

他研究了对健康

of burning wood versus charcoal.

木材和木炭分别会造成什么影响

And he's found that worldwide, you could prevent a million deaths

他发现只要改用木炭作燃料

在世界范围内就能有100万人可以幸免于难

switching from wood to charcoal as a cooking fuel.

That's remarkable,

这真是很棒

but up until now, there weren't ways to do it without cutting down trees.

本来做木炭都是需要木材的

But now we have a way

但现在我们能

that's using an agricultural waste material to create a cooking fuel.

变农业废物为炊事燃料

One of the really exciting things, though,

最让人激动的是

is something that came out of the trip that I took to Ghana just last month.

上个月我去加纳时了解到的一个信息

And I think it's the coolest thing,

这个不但非常酷

而且在技术层面上也比前面的那些更简单

and it's even lower tech than what you just saw,

if you can imagine such a thing.

如果你们能想象的到的话。就是这个。

Here it is.

So what is this?

这是什么呢？这是把玉米棒做成木炭

This is corncobs turned into charcoal.

And the beauty of this is that you don't need to form briquettes --

这个的好处就是你都不需要把炭压缩成块

it comes ready made.

因为玉米棒本来就是一块块的。 这就是我的100美元手提电脑项目了（一个帮助促进不发达地区教育的事业）

This is my $100 laptop, right here.

And actually, like Nick, I brought samples.

和尼克一样，我也带了样品给大家

(Laughter)

（笑）

So we can pass these around.

大家相互传一下

They're fully functional, field-tested, ready to roll out.

很好用，经过测试，能立刻燃烧

(Laughter)

And I think one of the things

这项技术妙在

which is also remarkable about this technology,

容易转让

is that the technology transfer is so easy.

Compared to the sugarcane charcoal,

就甘蔗木炭而言

where we have to teach people how to form it into briquettes

我们要培训当地人如何压缩木炭

and you have the extra step of cooking the binder,

还要多出一步制粘合剂

this comes pre-briquetted.

玉米棒木炭自己成型，不需经过压缩的步骤

And this is about the most exciting thing in my life right now,

而这是我一生中最让我激动的事了

which is perhaps a sad commentary on my life.

也是我一个小小的遗憾的注脚

(Laughter)

（笑）

But once you see it, like you guys in the front row --

但是一旦你见过，就像第一排的人

All right, yeah, OK.

恩，对，反正

So anyway --

(Laughter)

（笑）

Here it is.

我觉得这是最能

And this is, I think, a perfect example

of what Robert Wright was talking about in those non-zero-sum things.

体现罗伯特.怀特说的非零和事物

So not only do you have health benefits,

这不光有利健康

you have environmental benefits.

有利环境

But this is one of the incredibly rare situations

更难得的是

还有经济效益

where you also have economic benefits.

People can make their own cooking fuel from waste products.

人们用废农作物就可以烧饭

They can generate income from this.

还能赚钱

They can save the money that they were going to spend on charcoal

他们能省下原本买木炭的钱

and they can produce excess and sell it in the market

自己生产销售

to people who aren't making their own.

卖给别人

It's really rare that you don't have trade-offs

难得的是，这不会造成

between health and economics, or environment and economics.

健康与经济发展，或环境与经济不可兼得的窘境

So this is a project that I just find extremely exciting

所以这个项目最振奋人心了

and I'm really looking forward to see where it takes us.

我期望看到它未来的发展前景

讲到未来

So when we talk about, now, the future we will create,

one of the things that I think is necessary

我觉得有必要

is to have a very clear vision of the world that we live in.

清晰地认识我们所处的这个世界

And now, I don't actually mean the world that we live in.

我不是指我们自己生活的这个小世界

I mean the world where women spend two to three hours everyday

而是另一个世界。在那里，妇女每天花2-3个小时

grinding grain for their families to eat.

碾谷才能养活家人

I mean the world where advanced building materials

在那里，所谓的高级建材

means cement roofing tiles that are made by hand,

其实就是人工造的水泥屋顶板

and where, when you work 10 hours a day,

在那里，就算你一天做10小时

you're still only earning 60 dollars in a month.

一个月也才赚60美元

I mean the world

在那里，妇女和儿童成天做的就是打水，一年400亿小时

where women and children spend 40 billion hours a year fetching water.

That's as if the entire workforce of the state of California

工时相当加州所有劳动力的集合

worked full time for a year doing nothing but fetching water.

整年全职打水

It's a place where, for example, if this were India,

如果这里是印度

in this room, only three of us would have a car.

那么在坐的只有三分之一的人有车

If this were Afghanistan,

如果是阿富汗

only one person in this room would know how the use the Internet.

在坐的只有一人知道怎么上网

If this were Zambia --

如果是赞比亚，你们中就有300个农民

300 of you would be farmers,

100 of you would have AIDS or HIV.

100个人有艾滋病或感染艾滋病毒

And more than half of you would be living on less than a dollar a day.

一半以上的人日收入不足1美元

这些问题都摆在我们面前

These are the issues that we need to come up with solutions for.

需要我们培训工程师

These are the issues that we need to be training our engineers,

our designers, our business people, our entrepreneurs to be facing.

设计师，商人，企业家来解决

These are the solutions that we need to find.

这些才是需要尽快解决的问题

I have a few areas that I believe are especially important that we address.

有些问题我觉得特别重要

一个就是寻找技术来推广小型金融和小型企业

One of them is creating technologies

to promote micro-finance and micro-enterprise,

so that people who are living below the poverty line

那生活在贫困线以下的人就有了出路

can find a way to move out --

and that they're not doing it

而不是像现在这样

using the same traditional basket making, poultry rearing, etc.

通过传统的编篮子、养家禽来谋生

But there are new technologies and new products

现在我们已经有了

that they can make on a small scale.

能小规模运作的新技术和新产品

The next thing I believe

另外，我们还需要为贫苦农民发明新技术

is that we need to create technologies for poor farmers

to add value to their own crops.

增加农作物价值

And we need to rethink our development strategies,

我们还需要重新思考我们的发展策略

so that we're not promoting educational campaigns

推广教育

to get them to stop being farmers,

不是让他们都不做农民

but rather to stop being poor farmers.

而是不做穷苦农民

And we need to think about how we can do that effectively.

我们还要思考如何提高效率

We need to work with the people in these communities

我们需要和社区合作

and give them the resources and the tools that they need

提供他们所需的资源和工具

to solve their own problems.

来解决他们的问题。这是最好的方法

That's the best way to do it.

We shouldn't be doing it from outside.

我们不能只做外在的努力

So we need to create this future, and we need to start doing it now.

我们要创造未来，就要从现在开始

Thank you.

谢谢

(Applause)

（鼓掌）

Chris Anderson: Thank you, incredible.

Stay here.

Tell us -- just while we see if someone has a question --

主持人安德森：我们来看看有没有观众要提问的

just tell us about one of the other things that you've worked on.

与此同时你能不能再说说你做过的其他事情

Amy Smith: Some of the other things we're working on

艾米.史密斯：现在我们在研究

低成本水质测试法

are ways to do low-cost water quality testing,

so that communities can maintain their own water systems,

帮助社区维护水系统

know when they're working, know when they treat them, etc.

使他们知道他们的系统什么时候有效，什么时候需要清洁处理等等

We're also looking at low-cost water-treatment systems.

我们也在寻求低成本水治理系统

One of the really exciting things is looking at solar water disinfection

比如利用太阳能消毒，这很棒的

and improving the ability to be able to do that.

但我们还需要提高它的效率

CA: What's the bottleneck preventing this stuff getting from scale?

主持人：有什么瓶颈问题会阻碍这项技术得到推广？

Do you need to find entrepreneurs, or venture capitalists,

是否需要企业家，风险资本帮助

or what do you need to take what you've got and get it to scale?

或是其他帮助推广该技术？

AS: I think it's large numbers of people moving it forward.

艾米.史密斯：要的，这需要很多人合作

It's a difficult thing --

这很难，因为这个市场很零散

it's a marketplace which is very fragmented

and a consumer population with no income.

消费群体又没什么收入

So you can't use the same models that you use in the United States

所以美国的商业模式

for making things move forward.

不能助其发展

And we're a pretty small staff,

而且我们人手不足，就我一个光杆司令

which is me.

(Laughter)

（笑）

So, you know, I do what I can with the students.

所以我和我的学生会尽我们所能

We have 30 students a year go out into the field

我们有30个学生在这个领域研究

and try to implement this and move it forward.

如何应用并推广这些技术

The other thing is you have to do things with a long time frame,

另外，这些事是长期工程

as, you know, you can't expect to get something done in a year or two years;

不可能一蹴而就

you have to be looking five or 10 years ahead.

这需要5-10年时间

But I think with the vision to do that, we can move forward.

但是我相信只要有信心我们就能成功