Every year, more than four to five million people die due to exposure to outdoor air pollution around the world. This petri dish that you are looking at contains approximately 20 minutes' worth of pollution captured off a pyrolysis plant. This is PM 2.5. These particles -- you can see it right now, but when they're out there in the air, you won't see them. These are so tiny that our lungs -- our bodies cannot filter them, and they end up in our bodies -- give us asthma and lung cancer if not treated in the right time.
每年,全世界有超過四、五百萬人 是因為暴露在戶外空氣污染下而死。 你們現在看到的這個培養皿, 收集大約二十分鐘的空氣污染 來自熱裂解工廠。 (以廢輪胎和塑料產生再生能源) 這是細懸浮微粒(PM 2.5)。 這些粒子──你們現在看得到, 但當你們在外面在空氣中時 是無法看到它們的。 它們非常微小, 我們的肺、我們的身體無法濾掉。 它們最後會留在我們的身體中, 造成氣喘或肺癌, 如果沒有即時治療的話。
On a trip back to India, when I was a student in 2012, I took this picture. This picture stuck in my head. On one side, you see this exhaust of a diesel generator, the same generator which is a sign of human progress, which is a sign of rapid industrialization and what we have become as a society in the last 100 years, generating energy. But on the other side, you see this very interesting triangular, black-colored swatch, that is produced by the same residual particulate waste created by the emissions of the generator.
2012 年,我還是學生時,回到印度, 拍下了這張照片。 這影像在我腦中揮之不去。 一邊是柴油發電機的廢氣, 設計發電機的目的 是為了人類的進步, 它象徵著快速工業化, 以及在過去一百年間我們 這個社會變成了什麼樣子, 以產生能源。 但在另一邊,你們可以看到 這個有趣的黑色三角形區塊, 是發電機排放氣體中的 殘留廢粒子造成的。
Now, this picture gave me an idea and got me thinking about rethinking both pollution and inks, because it was making that black-colored mark. Now, the reality is that most of the black ink that we use conventionally is traditionally produced by conventionally burning fossil fuels in factories. There are factories around the world that are burning fossil fuels to produce carbon black, to make black inks that we use on an everyday basis. But given that millions of liters of fossil fuels are already being burned out there by our cars, our engines and our exhaust out there, what if you could capture that pollution and use it to recycle and make those inks?
這張照片讓我靈機一動, 或許應該要重新思考污染及墨水, 因為它製造出了那塊黑色的記號。 現實是,我們一般使用的黑墨水 傳統的做法是在工廠中 燃燒化石燃料來製造。 全世界都有工廠 專門在燃燒化石燃料, 來生成炭黑,製造我們 每天使用的黑墨水。 但既然已經有 數百萬公升的化石燃料 在外頭被我們的汽車、 我們的引擎給燃燒掉, 有那麼多廢氣在外頭, 如果我們能收集那些污染, 將它們回收來做墨水呢?
I decided to give this experiment a shot. I went back to my lab back in Boston and conducted a small experiment. In Boston, I couldn't find much pollution to play with, so I resorted to using a candle. This was an experiment. I burnt a candle, built this contraption that would suck in that candle soot, mixed it with some vegetable oil and vodka, because to a DIY hacker, these were really easily available.
我決定實驗看看。 我回到我在波士頓的實驗室, 進行了一項小實驗。 在波士頓沒有多少污染可以用, 所以我改為用蠟燭。 這就是我的實驗。 我燃燒蠟燭, 建造了這個新玩意兒, 它會吸入蠟燭的煤煙, 和某種植物油和伏特加混合, 因為對 DIY 駭客而言, 這些東西都很容易取得。
(Laughter)
(笑聲)在把它們混合之後,
And after mixing them, you could churn out a very rudimentary form of ink that would go into a cartridge, and now you could print with it. This was my "Hello, World!" of experimenting with printing with pollution. This is the same pollution that I showed you in the petri dish, which is the result of any fossil fuel that is being burned out there.
就能大量產出非常初階的墨水, 放到墨水匣中, 就可以用來列印了。 這是我的「哈囉,世界!」, 用實驗墨水列印出來的。 這和各位剛才在培養皿中 看到的是同一種污染, 外頭燃燒的任何一種化石燃料 都會產生這種污染。
In 2015, I decided to take this experimentation forward and set up a lab in India to work on the capture and recycling of air pollution. In the good times, the lab used to look something like this. But experimentations were not always controlled, and disasters happened. And while experimentation would happen, the lab would end up looking something like this. Well, we knew where we wanted to go, but we were not sure how exactly to reach there. The passersby who used to go by that lab through that building used to, at times, think, "These guys are making bombs in there," because there was too much fire, wires and smoke in the same vicinity.
2015 年,我決定進一步實驗, 在印度設立了一間實驗室, 致力於收集和回收空氣污染。 在好日子,實驗室看起來這樣。 但,實驗不見得都能受到控制, 災難會發生。 雖然實驗是進行了, 但實驗室最後會變成像這個樣子。 嗯,我們知道我們的目標, 但我們還不知道要如何到達那裡。 以前,這棟大樓裡 經過這間實驗室的路人 有時會心想: 「這些人是在做炸彈吧!」 因為在同一塊區域中 有太多火、電線,和煙了。
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
We decided, let's move to a garage and take experiments forward. We took a garage, and during the early stages, we were driving around Bangalore with contraptions like these. This is an early-stage prototype. Imagine the looks people gave us, "What are these cars driving around doing?" This is an early-stage prototype of our system that would capture pollution that is being released from a conventional diesel-based car. This is an early stage of the technology. We advanced the technology and created this into this version that would capture pollution from static sources of pollution, like a diesel generator. If you see, all the fumes disappear as soon as you turn this machine on. Without affecting the performance of the engine, we are able to capture 95 percent worth of pollution released from the diesel generator. This is the particulate matter that we are talking about that we capture, in this case, within three to four hours of operation of a generator.
我們決定搬到車庫進一步實驗。 我們找了一間車庫,在初期, 我們會開車載著這些新玩意兒 在班加羅爾各地跑。 這是早期的原型。 想像大家看我們的表情: 「這些車跑來跑去是在幹嘛?」 這個早期的原型 是我們用來收集污染的系統, 收集從一般柴油車排放的污染。 這是這項技術的早期。 我們進一步發展,創造出這個版本, 它能夠收集來自靜態污染源的污染, 像是柴油發電機。 可以看到,一啟動這台機器, 所有的煙都不見了。 在不會影響引擎效能的前提下, 95% 柴油發電機所產生的污染 能被我們收集起來。 這就是我們收集到的懸浮微粒, 在這個例子中,發電機運轉 三到四小時就能收集這些。
And while our experiments and our research was advancing, a very big company, a very big brand, approached us and said, "We want to take this idea further with you guys, and take this further in a very big celebrated form." They said, "Let's do a global art campaign with the inks that you are making off this pollution." I'll show you what the ink looks like. So, this pen is made by recycling 40 to 50 minutes of that car pollution that we are talking about, the same pollution that is in the petri dish. And it's a very sharp black that you can write with. So I'm going to write ... PM 2.5, that's incorrect. So this is a very sharp black that is generated by the same pollution.
在我們的實驗和研究進展當中, 一間很大的公司, 很大的品牌來找我們,說: 「我們想和你們合作, 把這個點子再進一步發揮, 而且要玩很大。」 他們說:「讓我們辦一場 全球的藝術活動, 使用你們從污染物製出的墨水。」 各位看看這墨水是什麼樣子。 這支筆是用回收四、五十分鐘的 汽車污染所製成的, 我們剛談過的, 和培養皿中的污染相同。 它是種非常鮮明的黑色, 可以用來寫字。 所以我要寫…… 「PM 2.5」是不妥的。 這鮮明的黑色 是用同樣的污染做出來的。
After much work on the lab-level research, we got an offer from a big corporation to do a very big trial of this idea. And it happened to be a brand, and we didn't think twice. We said, "Let's go ahead." Inventing in the lab is one thing and taking ideas and deploying them in the real world is completely another. During early stages, we had to resort to using our own houses and own kitchens as our ink-making factories, and our own bedrooms and living rooms as the first assembly line for making these inks. This is my cofounder Nikhil's own bedroom, that is being used to supply inks to artists all around the world, who would paint with AIR-INK. And that's him, delivering AIR-INKs to the ports so that the artists around the world can use it. Soon, we started seeing that thousands of artists around the world started using AIR-INK, and artworks started emerging like this. Soon, thousands of black-and-white, pollution-made artworks started emerging on a global scale. And believe me, for a group of scientists and engineers and inventors, there was nothing more satisfying than that the product of their work is now being used by some of the finest artists around the world.
在實驗室裡的很多研究努力之後, 有一間大企業提議和我們合作, 為這個點子做一場大型試驗。 恰好是我們完全不假思索的品牌, 我們說:「就做吧。」 在實驗室中發明是一回事, 把點子部署到現實世界中 完全是另一回事。 在初期, 我們得要用我們自己的房子和廚房 來當作墨水製造工廠, 我們的臥室和客廳 則是最初製作這些墨水的裝配線。 這是我的共同創辦人 尼基爾自己的臥室, 我們用這間臥室來供應墨水 給全世界願意用 AIR-INK 來畫畫的藝術家。 那是他把 AIR-INK 遞送到港口, 讓全世界的藝術家能夠使用它。 我們很快就看到 全世界數千名藝術家 開始使用 AIR-INK, 像這樣的藝術作品也開始出現。 很快的,數千件 用污染繪製的黑白作品 開始在全球出現。 相信我,對一群科學家、 工程師,和投資者來說, 最讓人滿足的就是 他們努力做出的產品 現在正在被全世界 一些最棒的藝術家使用。
This is the cover of "Contagious" magazine last year, that was done by using the same ink that we made back in our labs. This is a famous painting by the British artist, Christian Furr, who painted it for the song "Paint It Black" by The Rolling Stones. Now, there's more to this pen and this ink than just the popular and pop-culture artworks. And now our goal is to create a company that can actually make some black money -- I mean, just money --
這是《Contagious》雜誌去年的封面, 它所使用的墨水就是 我們實驗室生產的墨水。 這是英國藝術家 克里斯汀 · 佛爾的知名畫作, 為滾石樂團的歌曲 《Paint It Black》所畫。 這支筆和這種墨水不只是 用來創作流行文化藝術作品而已。 現在,我們的目標 是要創立一間公司, 能夠真的賺一些黑錢—— 我是說,賺一些錢——
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
and high-quality printing processes and inks that can replace the conventional black inks that have been produced for the last thousands of years around the world.
製造高品質的印刷流程和墨水, 來取代全世界過去數千年來 用慣行法製造的黑墨水。
Soon after our growing popularity and artworks around the world, we started facing a very different kind of a problem. We started getting spammed by polluters, who would send us bags full of pollution to our office address, asking us, "What can we do with this pollution?" Our lab back in Bombay right now has pollution samples that have come from London, from India, from China, you name it. And this is just the beginning. This polluter sent us this specific image, asking us that these are all bags filled with PM 2.5, and can we recycle it for him if we paid him some money. Well, what would he have done if we did not take that pollution? He would probably find a nearby river or a landfill and dump it over there. But now, because we had the economics of AIR-INK figured out on the other side, we could incentivize him to give us this pollution and make inks from it, and turn it into even more valuable products.
在我們的知名度打開, 藝術作品紅起來之後, 我們開始面臨不同類的問題。 我們開始收到污染者的垃圾郵件, 他們會寄一袋一袋滿滿的污染物 到我們的辦公室地址。 問我們:「要如何處理這些污染?」 我們在孟買的實驗室 現在已經有各地的樣本, 來自倫敦、印度、中國, 任何你能想到的地方。 且這只是開端。 這位污染者寄來明確的影像,問── 這些袋子都裝滿細懸浮微粒── 問我們能不能回收,且付錢給他。 如果我們不收下這些污染, 他會怎麼處理? 他很可能會直接丟棄在 鄰近的河流或垃圾場裡。 但現在因為 AIR-INK 另一端的經濟問題已經有解, 我們能鼓勵他把污染交給我們, 用來製造墨水, 甚至將之轉變成更有價值的產品。
Now, pollution, as we all know, is a global killer. We can't claim that our ink will solve the world's pollution problem. But it does show what can be done if you look at this problem slightly differently. Look at this T-shirt I'm holding right now. This is made from the same AIR-INK I'm talking about. It's made from the same pollution that is inside this petri dish. And the same pollution we are all breathing in when we are walking outdoors. And we are on our way to do better than this.
我們都知道污染是全球性的殺手。 我們無法宣稱我們的墨水 能夠解決全世界的污染問題。 但它確實顯示 若用稍微不同的角度看這個問題, 我們能夠做什麼。 看看我手上的這件 T 恤。 它同樣也是用我說的 AIR-INK 印製的, 和這培養皿中的同樣的污染, 也是當我們在戶外散步時 吸入的那種污染。 我們正努力做得更好。
Thank you very much.
非常謝謝。
(Applause)
(掌聲)