It was just an ordinary Saturday. My dad was outside mowing the lawn, my mom was upstairs folding laundry, my sister was in her room doing homework and I was in the basement playing video games. And as I came upstairs to get something to drink, I looked out the window and realized that there was something that I was supposed to be doing, and this is what I saw.
那天只是個平凡的星期六。 我爸在外面除草, 我媽在樓上摺衣服, 我姊在她房間寫作業, 我在地下室打電動。 我上樓去喝東西的時候 看向窗外, 才意識到有件事我應該要做, 這就是我看到的。
No, this wasn't my family's dinner on fire. This was my science project. Flames were pouring out, smoke was in the air and it looked like our wooden deck was about to catch fire. I immediately started yelling. My mom was freaking out, my dad ran around to put out the fire and of course my sister started recording a Snapchat video.
喔不,這不是我家的晚餐著火了, 這是我的科展計畫。 火焰滾滾冒出, 煙散在空氣中, 看起來就像 我家的木頭露臺快著火了。 我馬上開始大叫。 我媽快瘋了, 我爸為了滅火跑來跑去, 當然我姊也開始用 Snapchat 錄影做記錄。
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
This was just the beginning of my team's science project. My team is composed of me and three other students who are here in the audience today. We competed in FIRST LEGO League which is an international LEGO robotics competition for kids, and in addition to a robotics game, we also worked on a separate science project, and this was the project that we were working on.
這是我的小組一開始的科展計畫。 小組有我和另外三個學生, 他們今天也都在觀眾席。 我們參加過 FIRST 樂高聯賽, 那是專設給兒童的 世界級樂高機器人比賽, 而且除了機器人比賽, 我們也做了另一個科學實驗, 這就是我們一直在做的計畫。
So the idea for this project all started when a few months earlier, a couple of my teammates took a trip to Central America and saw beaches littered with Styrofoam, or expanded polystyrene foam. And when they came back and told us about it, we really started thinking about the ways in which we see Styrofoam every day. Get a new flat-screen TV? You end up with a block of Styrofoam bigger than the TV itself. Drink a cup of coffee? Well, those Styrofoam coffee cups are sure going to add up. And where do all these items go after their one-time use? Since there aren't any good existing solutions for used Styrofoam, almost all of them end up right in the landfill, or the oceans and beaches, taking over 500 years to degrade. And in fact, every year, the US alone produces over two billion pounds of Styrofoam, filling up a staggering 25 percent of landfills.
這個計畫的點子 是在那之前幾個月前開始, 我的幾個組員到中美洲去玩, 看到海灘上到處是保麗龍, 或是其他聚苯乙烯塑料。 他們回來之後告訴我這件事, 我們就開始去想 日常生活中看到的保麗龍, 收到一臺新的平板電視嗎? 你收到的保麗龍會比那臺電視大。 喝咖啡嗎? 嗯,保麗龍咖啡杯 當然會越積越多。 這些東西被用過一次之後 會跑哪去? 既然目前沒有處理 廢棄保麗龍的好方式, 幾乎所有保麗龍 最後都會直接到掩埋場, 或是海洋裡、沙灘上, 要花超過五百年時間分解。 而且事實上,光是美國一整年 就生產 20 億磅的保麗龍, 足足可以填滿 25% 的掩埋場。
So why do we have these ghost accumulations of Styrofoam waste? Why can't we just recycle them like many plastics? Well, simply put, recycled polystyrene is too expensive and potentially contaminated, so there is very little market demand for Styrofoam that has to be recycled. And as a result, Styrofoam is considered a nonrenewable material, because it is neither feasible nor viable to recycle polystyrene. And in fact, many cities across the US have even passed ordinances that simply ban the production of many products containing polystyrene, which includes disposable utensils, packing peanuts, takeout containers and even plastic beach toys, all products that are very useful in today's society. And now France has become the first country to completely ban all plastic utensils, cups and plates.
為什麼我們會有這些幽靈 囤積廢棄的保麗龍? 為什麼不能像很多塑膠一樣 回收保麗龍? 簡而言之,回收保麗龍太貴, 而且保麗龍本身有可能受汙染, 所以回收保麗龍的市場需求非常小。 結果是保麗龍被當成是 非再生材料, 因為回收保麗龍既不可行也不可能。 事實上很多美國城市 甚至已經通過法令 禁止很多含有聚苯乙烯的產品生產, 包括了免洗餐具、 填充用的保麗龍球、外帶餐盒, 甚至是塑膠製的海灘玩具, 所有產品在當代社會都很實用。 現在法國也成為第一個 完全禁止塑膠餐具 和杯盤的國家。
But what if we could keep using Styrofoam and keep benefiting from its cheap, lightweight, insulating and excellent packing ability, while not having to suffer from the repercussions of having to dispose of it? What if we could turn it into something else that's actually useful? What if we could make the impossible possible?
但有沒有可能 我們可以繼續用保麗龍, 保有它便宜、輕量、絕緣 和絕佳的包裝特性, 而不必苦於必須丟棄的下場? 我們有沒有可能 把它變成有用的東西? 我們有沒有可能 讓不可能變成可能?
My team hypothesized that we could use the carbon that's already in Styrofoam to create activated carbon, which is used in almost every water filter today. And activated carbon works by using very small micropores to filter out contaminants from water or even air.
我的小組假設我們能 用存在保麗龍裡的碳 製造活性碳, 現在過濾水都用這個。 而且活性碳用非常小的微孔 過濾出水,甚至是空氣中的汙染物。
So we started out by doing a variety of heating tests, and unfortunately, we had many failures. Literally, nothing worked. Besides my dad's grill catching on fire, most of our samples vaporized into nothing, or exploded inside expensive furnaces, leaving a horribly sticky mess. In fact, we were so saddened by our failures that we almost gave up.
所以我們開始各種加熱測試, 不幸的是我們失敗很多次。 說真的,沒有成功過。 除了我爸的烤肉架著火, 我們大部分的樣品也都人間蒸發, 或是在昂貴的火爐裡爆炸, 留下一團黏黏的東西。 其實我們大受失敗打擊 到幾乎想要放棄。
So why did we keep trying when all the adults said it was impossible? Well, maybe it's because we're kids. We don't know any better. But the truth is, we kept trying because we thought it was still possible. We knew that if we were successful, we would be helping the environment and making the world a better place. So we kept trying and failing and trying and failing. We were so ready to give up.
那為什麼我們還繼續試, 即使所有大人 都跟我們說不可能? 嗯,可能因為我們是小孩, 我們什麼也不懂。 但真相是我們繼續嘗試 是因為我們認為還有可能。 我們知道如果成功, 就可以幫助環境、 讓地球變成更好的地方。 所以我們繼續嘗試、 繼續失敗、 繼續嘗試、 繼續失敗。 我們都已經準備好要放棄了。
But then it happened. With the right temperatures, times and chemicals, we finally got that successful test result showing us that we had created activated carbon from Styrofoam waste. And at that moment, the thing that had been impossible all of a sudden wasn't. It showed us that although we had many failures at the beginning, we were able to persevere through them to get the test results that we wanted. And moreover, not only were we able to create activated carbon for purifying water, but we were also able to reduce Styrofoam waste, solving two global problems with just one solution.
但後來成功了。 有了對的溫度、時間和化學物質, 我們終於測試成功, 看到廢棄保麗龍變成活性碳。 在那當下, 那個一直以來不可能的事情 瞬間都變可能了。 我們看見雖然一開始失敗很多次, 我們還是堅持到底, 從中得到想要的結果。 而且,不只是我們可以製造活性碳 來過濾水, 我們還可以減少廢棄保麗龍, 只用一個方法 解決全球的兩個麻煩。
So from then on, we were inspired to take our project further, performing more tests to make it more effective and testing it in real world situations. We then proceeded to receive funding from the NSTA's eCYBERMISSION STEM-in-Action program sponsored by the US Army, as well as FIRST Global Innovation Awards sponsored by XPRIZE. And we were also honored with the Scientific American Innovator Award from Google Science Fair. And using these funds, we plan to file a full patent on our process and to continue to work on our project.
從那之後,我們受到鼓舞, 讓計畫更進一步 做更多測試,讓它更有效益, 並用在真實生活之中。 我們開始收到資金, 來自全美科學教師協會的 E 網路科學競賽 STEM 行動計畫, 由美軍贊助, 以及第一全球創新獎, 由 XPRIZE 基金會贊助。 我們也很榮幸 得到美國科學創新獎, 由 Google 科學展頒發。 運用這些資金,我們預計為 這個程序申請完全專利, 並繼續我們的計畫。
So yes, although we started with catching my dad's grill on fire and failing so many times that we almost quit, it was well worth it when we look back at it now. We took a problem that many people said was impossible and we made it possible, and we persevered when it looked like nothing that we did would work. We learned that you can't have success without a little, or a lot, of failure.
沒錯,雖然我們 是從燒了我爸的烤架開始, 而且失敗無數次到幾乎要放棄, 現在回頭看都還是覺得 非常值得, 我們把每個人都認為 不可能解決的麻煩 變成可能, 我們堅持到底, 即使我們做的事看起來毫無希望。 我們學到了你不可能成功, 卻沒經歷過一些 或是非常多失敗。
So in the future, don't be afraid if your grill goes up in flames, because you never know when your idea might just catch fire.
所以未來你的烤架著火時, 不要害怕, 因為你永遠不知道 你的點子什麼時候可能點燃。
Thank you.
謝謝。
(Applause)
(掌聲)