When I was a kid, my parents would tell me, "You can make a mess, but you have to clean up after yourself." So freedom came with responsibility. But my imagination would take me to all these wonderful places, where everything was possible. So I grew up in a bubble of innocence -- or a bubble of ignorance, I should say, because adults would lie to us to protect us from the ugly truth. And growing up, I found out that adults make a mess, and they're not very good at cleaning up after themselves.
當我仲係一個細路嘅時候 我父母同我講 ︰ 「你可以將地方搞亂, 但你要執返好佢。」 所以,自由嘅代價係責任 我嘅想像力會將我帶到 所有呢啲咁美好嘅地方 呢啲地方乜嘢都有可能 所以我係天真咁長大 或者無知咁長大 因為大人總係會講大話 唔話俾我知羞陋嘅真相 當我長大,我發現大人都會將啲嘢搞亂 但佢哋唔係好識得收拾亂局
Fast forward, I am an adult now, and I teach citizen science and invention at the Hong Kong Harbour School. And it doesn't take too long before my students walk on a beach and stumble upon piles of trash. So as good citizens, we clean up the beaches -- and no, he is not drinking alcohol, and if he is, I did not give it to him.
我宜家已經係一個成年人 我喺香港港灣小學教平民科學同發明課 冇幾耐 我嘅學生就喺沙灘度跆到好多垃圾 作為好公民,我哋清理沙灘上嘅垃圾 呀唔係,佢唔係喺度飲酒
(Laughter)
就算係,我都唔俾佢飲
(笑聲)
And so it's sad to say, but today more than 80 percent of the oceans have plastic in them. It's a horrifying fact. And in past decades, we've been taking those big ships out and those big nets, and we collect those plastic bits that we look at under a microscope, and we sort them, and then we put this data onto a map. But that takes forever, it's very expensive, and so it's quite risky to take those big boats out.
雖然講出嚟有啲悲哀 但確實今日超過八成嘅海洋 都有塑膠垃圾 呢個係好可怕嘅事實 喺過去幾十年 我哋開船,用大嘅網 撈起海裡面嘅塑膠 跟住將佢哋擺喺顯微鏡下觀察 我哋將佢哋分類 然後將所得資料以地圖形式表達 但呢樣需要非常多嘅時間,成本都好高 所以用呢啲船好冒險
So with my students, ages six to 15, we've been dreaming of inventing a better way. So we've transformed our tiny Hong Kong classroom into a workshop. And so we started building this small workbench, with different heights, so even really short kids can participate. And let me tell you, kids with power tools are awesome and safe.
我同我嘅學生,由六歲到十五歲不等 我哋一直諗住發明一個 更好嘅方法嚟處理垃圾 所以我哋將呢個細細嘅課室 變成一個工作室 我哋開始起呢個細嘅工作檯 高度係可以調較 咁樣冇咁高嘅學生都可以用張檯 等我話你知
(Laughter)
細路用工具其實好勁同好安全
(笑聲)
Not really. And so, back to plastic. We collect this plastic and we grind it to the size we find it in the ocean, which is very small because it breaks down. And so this is how we work. I let the imaginations of my students run wild. And my job is to try to collect the best of each kid's idea and try to combine it into something that hopefully would work. And so we have agreed that instead of collecting plastic bits, we are going to collect only the data. So we're going to get an image of the plastic with a robot -- so robots, kids get very excited. And the next thing we do -- we do what we call "rapid prototyping." We are so rapid at prototyping that the lunch is still in the lunchbox when we're hacking it.
啱啱講笑 所以,返到去塑膠呢個主題 我哋收集塑膠 將佢磨到海上塑膠垃圾嘅大小 即係磨到非常之細 因為海上面嘅塑膠分解咗 呢個就係我哋做嘅方式 我俾學生自由發揮想像 我嘅工作就係由集合 佢哋每一個最好嘅諗法 整成一個行得通嘅方法 所以我哋決定唔收海面垃圾 改為收集相關數據 我哋會用機械人去影塑膠垃圾 一提到機械人,小朋友就好雀躍 下一步我哋好快咁做一個模型出嚟 我哋做模型做得超快 午餐啲飯仲喺個飯盒度就切好曬啲嘢
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
And we hack table lamps and webcams, into plumbing fixtures and we assemble that into a floating robot that will be slowly moving through water and through the plastic that we have there -- and this is the image that we get in the robot. So we see the plastic pieces floating slowly through the sensor, and the computer on board will process this image, and measure the size of each particle, so we have a rough estimate of how much plastic there is in the water.
我哋將枱燈同網路攝錄機 安裝到水管系統上面 然後將佢裝落去一個可以 喺水面垃圾之中 慢慢移動嘅機械人 由我哋收集到嘅塑膠垃圾影像 呢張係機械人影到嘅嘢 我哋見到一啲塑膠慢慢流過個感應器 機械人上面嘅電腦會分析影像 計算出每件塑膠嘅大細 所以我哋可以粗略估算 水裡邊有幾多塑膠
So we documented this invention step by step on a website for inventors called Instructables, in the hope that somebody would make it even better.
我哋將呢個發明全部紀錄低 放上一專為發明者而設嘅網站 Instructables 度 希望有人可以改良佢
What was really cool about this project was that the students saw a local problem, and boom -- they are trying to immediately address it.
呢個項目有趣在於 學生見到一個本地問題 然後佢哋就即刻解決佢
[I can investigate my local problem]
(我可以研究本地嘅問題)
But my students in Hong Kong are hyperconnected kids. And they watch the news, they watch the Internet, and they came across this image. This was a child, probably under 10, cleaning up an oil spill bare-handed, in the Sundarbans, which is the world's largest mangrove forest in Bangladesh. So they were very shocked, because this is the water they drink, this is the water they bathe in, this is the water they fish in -- this is the place where they live. And also you can see the water is brown, the mud is brown and oil is brown, so when everything is mixed up, it's really hard to see what's in the water. But, there's a technology that's rather simple, that's called spectrometry, that allows you see what's in the water. So we built a rough prototype of a spectrometer, and you can shine light through different substances that produce different spectrums, so that can help you identify what's in the water. So we packed this prototype of a sensor, and we shipped it to Bangladesh. So what was cool about this project was that beyond addressing a local problem, or looking at a local problem, my students used their empathy and their sense of being creative to help, remotely, other kids.
但我香港嘅學生好識得用網絡 佢哋會睇新聞、 上網 然後佢哋搵到呢張相 一個大概十歲樓下嘅細路 喺孟加拉孫德爾本斯 全世界最大嘅紅樹林 徒手清理油污 我嘅學生都非常震訝 因為呢度嘅水都係 當地居民飲用、洗澡用嘅水 佢哋都喺呢個水域捕魚 呢度就係佢哋住嘅地方 你可以見到水、泥土同油污都係啡色 所以當所有嘢都被油覆蓋時 好難望到水裡面有咩 不過有一種幾簡單嘅科技 叫做光譜測量 可以俾你望到水裡面有咩嘢 所以我哋做咗個 未算好準確嘅光譜測量儀 你可以用光照唔同嘅物質 然後就可以得出唔同嘅光吸收譜 咁樣就可以幫你分辨出水裡面有咩物質 我哋將呢個測量儀包好 寄去孟加拉 呢個項目有趣在 佢唔只係解決一個本地問題 或者研究一個本地問題 我嘅學生用佢哋嘅同理心同創意 去幫助遠方嘅其他小朋友
[I can investigate a remote problem]
(我可以研究一個喺好遠地方嘅問題)
So I was very compelled by doing the second experiments, and I wanted to take it even further -- maybe addressing an even harder problem, and it's also closer to my heart.
所以做完第二個實驗之後 我得到好多動力 我想將更推進一步 可能係解決更複雜嘅問題
So I'm half Japanese and half French,
都係我想做嘅事情
and maybe you remember in 2011 there was a massive earthquake in Japan. It was so violent that it triggered several giant waves -- they are called tsunami -- and those tsunami destroyed many cities on the eastern coast of Japan. More than 14,000 people died in an instant. Also, it damaged the nuclear power plant of Fukushima, the nuclear power plant just by the water. And today, I read the reports and an average of 300 tons are leaking from the nuclear power plant into the Pacific Ocean. And today the whole Pacific Ocean has traces of contamination of cesium-137. If you go outside on the West Coast, you can measure Fukushima everywhere. But if you look at the map, it can look like most of the radioactivity has been washed away from the Japanese coast, and most of it is now -- it looks like it's safe, it's blue. Well, reality is a bit more complicated than this.
我係日法混血兒 你可能會記得 2011 年 日本嗰場好強嘅地震 嚴重到引發咗好幾波巨浪 就係海嘯 海嘯摧毀咗日本東邊好多沿岸城市 超過 14,000 人喺一瞬那喪生 海嘯亦都令座落喺海邊嘅 福島核電廠損毀 今日我睇報告話 大約 300 噸核污水 由核電廠流到太平洋 所以今日成個太平洋 都有微量嘅銫 -137 元素 如果你去美國西岸 周圍都可以量度到嚟自福島嘅輻射 但當你睇返地圖,似乎大部分嘅核輻射 都被海水沖離日本海岸 好似宜家大部分輻射都安全 但其實情況係比較複雜嘅
So I've been going to Fukushima every year since the accident, and I measure independently and with other scientists, on land, in the river -- and this time we wanted to take the kids. So of course we didn't take the kids, the parents wouldn't allow that to happen.
核災以嚟我每年都會到福島一次 我同其他科學家一齊進行獨立調查 喺土地上,喺河流裡面 今次我哋想帶埋細路 當然我哋冇帶小朋友去
(Laughter)
父母都唔肯俾佢哋去
(笑聲)
But every night we would report to "Mission Control" -- different masks they're wearing. It could look like they didn't take the work seriously, but they really did because they're going to have to live with radioactivity their whole life. And so what we did with them is that we'd discuss the data we collected that day, and talk about where we should be going next -- strategy, itinerary, etc... And to do this, we built a very rough topographical map of the region around the nuclear power plant. And so we built the elevation map, we sprinkled pigments to represent real-time data for radioactivity, and we sprayed water to simulate the rainfall. And with this we could see that the radioactive dust was washing from the top of the mountain into the river system, and leaking into the ocean. So it was a rough estimate.
但每晚我哋會報告俾「行動總部」知 佢哋戴唔同面具 睇起上嚟佢哋唔係好認真工作 但其實佢哋係好認真 因為佢哋成世人都要面對輻射 所以我哋同佢哋 討論當日收集到嘅數據 思考我哋接住落嚟要做啲咩 策略、行程等等⋯ 為咗做呢啲 我哋繪製咗個好簡單嘅地形圖 顯示核電廠周圍嘅地方 之後我哋整埋個立視圖 灑上顏料,反映輻射嘅實時數據 我哋灑上水嚟模擬落雨 咁樣我哋就可以見到輻射塵埃 由山上沖到落河裡面 然後流到大海 呢個係一個粗略估算
But with this in mind, we organized this expedition, which was the closest civilians have been to the nuclear power plant. We are sailing 1.5 kilometers away from the nuclear power plant, and with the help of the local fisherman, we are collecting sediment from the seabed with a custom sediment sampler we've invented and built. We pack the sediment into small bags, we then dispatch them to hundreds of small bags that we send to different universities, and we produce the map of the seabed radioactivity, especially in estuaries where the fish will reproduce, and I will hope that we will have improved the safety of the local fishermen and of your favorite sushi.
有咗呢個概念之後 我哋組織咗一次探索行動 呢次係平民最接近核電廠嘅一次 我哋喺距離核電廠 1.5 公里嘅海面上面 因為有漁民幫手 我哋先至收集到海床上面嘅沉積物 用我哋發明嘅沉積物採集器 我哋將沉澱物放入細膠袋 然後再擺入幾百個袋 送去唔同嘅大學 然後我哋做咗個海床輻射地圖 特別針對魚類繁殖嘅河口 我希望我哋嘅工作 能夠令本地漁民 同你鍾意嘅壽司都安全啲
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
You can see a progression here -- we've gone from a local problem to a remote problem to a global problem. And it's been super exciting to work at these different scales, with also very simple, open-source technologies. But at the same time, it's been increasingly frustrating because we have only started to measure the damage that we have done. We haven't even started to try to solve the problems. And so I wonder if we should just take a leap and try to invent better ways to do all these things.
你可以見到一個發展歷程 我哋由本地問題開始 到偏遠地方嘅問題,再到全球問題 喺不同規模度做令人非常之興奮 興奮亦都在於用嘅科技都係簡單同開放 但係同時愈嚟愈令人覺得挫折 因為我哋只係啱啱開始量度 我哋過去造成傷害 我哋仲未開始解決問題 所以我諗,或者我哋嚟一個進步 發明更加好嘅嘢解決曬所有問題
And so the classroom started to feel a little bit small, so we found an industrial site in Hong Kong, and we turned it into the largest mega-space focused on social and environmental impact. It's in central Hong Kong, and it's a place we can work with wood, metal, chemistry, a bit of biology, a bit of optics, basically you can build pretty much everything there. And its a place where adults and kids can play together. It's a place where kids' dreams can come true, with the help of adults, and where adults can be kids again.
諗好之後我哋發覺課室唔夠大 我哋喺香港搵咗一個工廠大廈嘅單位 將佢改成最大空間 專注於社會同環境影響方面嘅工作 佢喺香港嘅市區 一個我哋可以做木工、金工 化學、生物、光學嘅地方 基本上你可以喺呢度整到任何嘢 呢個係一個大人同細路 可以一齊玩嘅地方 一個大人幫小朋友實現夢想 令細路夢想可以成真嘅地方 大人都可以喺度重新體驗做細路嘅感覺 學生:加速!加速!
Student: Acceleration! Acceleration!
講者︰我哋問梗一啲問題,例如
Cesar Harada: We're asking questions such as, can we invent the future of mobility with renewable energy? For example. Or, can we help the mobility of the aging population by transforming very standard wheelchairs into cool, electric vehicles?
我哋可唔可以用再生能源 創造未來行路嘅工具嗎? 或者我哋可唔可以幫老化緊嘅人口 將輪椅改裝成電動車?
So plastic, oil and radioactivity are horrible, horrible legacies, but the very worst legacy that we can leave our children is lies. We can no longer afford to shield the kids from the ugly truth because we need their imagination to invent the solutions.
塑膠、石油同輻射 都係人類留低好可怕嘅嘢 但都未算最壞 最壞嘅係對細路講大話 我哋唔能夠再對細路仔隱瞞核突嘅真相 因為我哋需要佢哋嘅想像力 去整一啲解決方案出嚟
So citizen scientists, makers, dreamers -- we must prepare the next generation that cares about the environment and people, and that can actually do something about it.
所以,平民科學家、生產者、夢想家 我哋一定要培育好下個世代 令佢哋關心環境同人類 咁樣佢哋先能夠做出真正改變
Thank you.
多謝
(Applause)
(掌聲)