Every summer, my family and I travel across the world, 3,000 miles away to the culturally diverse country of India. Now, India is a country infamous for its scorching heat and humidity. For me, the only relief from this heat is to drink plenty of water. Now, while in India, my parents always remind me to only drink boiled or bottled water, because unlike here in America, where I can just turn on a tap and easily get clean, potable water, in India, the water is often contaminated. So my parents have to make sure that the water we drink is safe.
每一个夏天, 我和家人都会跨过 3000 英里远的地球另一边, 回到文化多元的印度。 要知道,印度以炎热 和潮湿而臭名昭著, 对于我来说,面对炎热唯一的 方法就是喝足够的水。 在印度的时候, 我的父母总是提醒我只 喝煮沸的或者瓶装水, 因为不像美国, 我能直接打开水龙头, 得到洁净和可饮用的水。 在印度,水经常是被污染的。 所以我的父母一定要保证 我们喝的水是安全的。
However, I soon realized that not everyone is fortunate enough to enjoy the clean water we did. Outside my grandparents' house in the busy streets of India, I saw people standing in long lines under the hot sun filling buckets with water from a tap. I even saw children, who looked the same age as me, filling up these clear plastic bottles with dirty water from streams on the roadside. Watching these kids forced to drink water that I felt was too dirty to touch changed my perspective on the world. This unacceptable social injustice compelled me to want to find a solution to our world's clean water problem. I wanted to know why these kids lacked water, a substance that is essential for life. And I learned that we are facing a global water crisis.
但是,我很快意识到 不是所有人都足够幸运, 能够像我们一样享受纯净水。 我祖父母的房子外面, 在印度繁忙的大街上, 我看见人们在烈日下, 排着长队, 从一个水龙头往桶里装水。 我甚至看到一个 看起来和我年纪相仿的孩子, 用透明的塑料瓶 在路边水沟里取脏水。 看着这些孩子, 被迫喝我觉得太脏 不能碰的水, 改变了我对世界的看法。 这个难以接受的社会不平衡 让我想找到一个对 世界洁净水资源问题的 解决方案。 我想知道为什么这些孩子缺少水, 一个生命不可或缺的物质。 于是我学到,我们面对着 全球水危机。
Now, this may seem surprising, as 75 percent of our planet is covered in water, but only 2.5 percent of that is freshwater, and less than one percent of Earth's freshwater supply is available for human consumption. With rising populations, industrial development and economic growth, our demand for clean water is increasing, yet our freshwater resources are rapidly depleting. According to the World Health Organization, 660 million people in our world lack access to a clean water source. Lack of access to clean water is a leading cause of death in children under the age of five in developing countries, and UNICEF estimates that 3,000 children die every day from a water-related disease.
这可能令人惊讶, 我们星球面积的 75% 被水覆盖, 但是只有 2.5% 是淡水, 而可为人类所用的地球淡水供应 还不到 1% 。 随着人口的增加, 工业发展和经济增长, 我们对洁净水的需求也在增大, 可我们的淡水资源正在急速枯竭。 据世界卫生组织统计, 世界上 6 亿 6 千万人 缺少洁净水资源。 缺少洁净水资源是发展中国家 5 岁以下孩子死亡的主要原因, 据联合国儿童基金会估计, 每天有 3 千个孩子 因为与水相关的疾病死亡。
So after returning home one summer in eighth grade, I decided that I wanted to combine my passion for solving the global water crisis with my interest in science. So I decided that the best thing to do would be to convert my garage into a laboratory.
所以回到家后,八年级的一个夏天, 我决定要把我对解决 世界水危机的热情 和我对科学的兴趣结合起来。 所以我决定,最好的办法 就是把我的车库变成一个实验室。
(Laughter)
(笑声)
Actually, at first I converted my kitchen into a laboratory, but my parents didn't really approve and kicked me out.
事实上,刚开始, 我把厨房变成了一个实验室, 但那时我的父母 并不支持,还把我赶出去了。
I also read a lot of journal papers on water-related research, and I learned that currently in developing countries, something called solar disinfection, or SODIS, is used to purify water. In SODIS, clear plastic bottles are filled with contaminated water and then exposed to sunlight for six to eight hours. The UV radiation from the sun destroys the DNA of these harmful pathogens and decontaminates the water. Now, while SODIS is really easy to use and energy-efficient, as it only uses solar energy, it's really slow, as it can take up to two days when it's cloudy. So in order to make the SODIS process faster, this new method called photocatalysis has recently been used.
我也读了很多和水有关的研究论文, 我学到现在在发展中国家, 一个叫做太阳消毒的东西, 或者 SODIS,被用来净化水。 利用 SODIS,干净的塑料瓶 装满被污染的水, 然后在阳光下暴晒 6 到 8 小时。 阳光中的紫外线 摧毁了那些有害病毒的 DNA, 从而实现了水的净化。 虽然 SODIS 使用起来 很简单而且能源效率很高, 但因为只使用太阳能驱动, 所以这个过程非常慢, 阴天可能会花上两天时间。 所以为了让 SODIS 的过程更快, 人们近期开始使用一种新的方法, 光催化剂。
So what exactly is this photocatalysis? Let's break it down: "photo" means from the sun, and a catalyst is something that speeds up a reaction. So what photocatalysis is doing is it's just speeding up this solar disinfection process. When sunlight comes in and strikes a photocatalyst, like TiO2, or titanium dioxide, it creates these really reactive oxygen species, like superoxides, hydrogen peroxide and hydroxyl radicals. These reactive oxygen species are able to remove bacteria and organics and a whole lot of contaminants from drinking water.
那么具体什么是光催化剂? 让我们来逐步理解: “光”意思是来自太阳, “催化剂”是一些能够加快反应的东西。 所以光催化的作用 就是加快了太阳消毒的过程。 当阳光射入并启动光催化剂, 像 TiO2,又名为二氧化钛, 二氧化钛创造出了很多活性氧, 像超氧化物、过氧化氢 和羟基自由基。 这些活性氧 能够移除细菌和有机物, 和饮用水中的很多污染物。
But unfortunately, there are several disadvantages to the way photocatalytic SODIS is currently deployed. See, what they do is they take the clear plastic bottles and they coat the inside with this photocatalytic coating. But photocatalysts like titanium dioxide are actually commonly used in sunscreens to block UV radiation. So when they're coated on the inside of these bottles, they're actually blocking some of the UV radiation and diminishing the efficiency of the process. Also, these photocatalytic coatings are not tightly bound to the plastic bottle, which means they wash off, and people end up drinking the catalyst. While TiO2 is safe and inert, it's really inefficient if you keep drinking the catalyst, because then you have to continue to replenish it, even after a few uses.
但很遗憾, SODIS 光催化剂的使用方式 有很多缺点。 他们在干净的塑料瓶内壁 覆盖了一层光催化剂。 但是像二氧化钛之类的光催化剂, 事实上经常被使用在太阳镜上, 来阻隔紫外线。 所以当瓶子内部被它们覆盖, 它们事实上阻隔了紫外线, 并减少了过程的效率。 而且,这些光催化剂 并不是紧紧贴着塑料瓶, 意味着它们会被洗掉, 人们最终会食入催化剂。 虽然 TiO2 相对安全和惰性强, 但一直食入催化剂就会降低净化效率, 因为你需要不断重新加入催化剂, 甚至只是用了几次。
So my goal was to overcome the disadvantages of these current treatment methods and create a safe, sustainable, cost-effective and eco-friendly method of purifying water. What started off as an eighth grade science fair project is now my photocatalytic composite for water purification. The composite combines titanium dioxide with cement. The cement-like composite can be formed into several different shapes, which results in an extremely versatile range of deployment methods. For example, you could create a rod that can easily be placed inside water bottles for individual use or you could create a porous filter that can filter water for families. You can even coat the inside of an existing water tank to purify larger amounts of water for communities over a longer period of time.
所以我的目标是解决这些 当前方法的问题, 并创造一个安全、可持续的、 节约并环保的净化水方式。 一个最开始只是八年级 科学年会的项目, 如今延伸为我的 净化水光催化剂合成物。 这个合成物结合了二氧化钛和水泥。 这个像水泥一样的合成物 能够形成许多不同形状, 提供了一个多功能的使用方式。 比如,你可以制作一个棒子, 能够简单放在个人的水瓶中, 或者你可以制作一个 多孔滤器,给家庭用水进行过滤。 你甚至可以把它做成水箱内部的涂层, 从而净化大量的水, 长时间供一整个社区的人使用。
Now, over the course of this, my journey hasn't really been easy. You know, I didn't have access to a sophisticated laboratory. I was 14 years old when I started, but I didn't let my age deter me in my interest in pursuing scientific research and wanting to solve the global water crisis.
想要完成这些, 我的旅程并不简单。 我没有高端实验室的资源。 最开始的时候我只有 14 岁, 但我并没有让年龄阻止我 追求科学研究, 浇灭我解决世界水危机的热情。
See, water isn't just the universal solvent. Water is a universal human right. And for that reason, I'm continuing to work on this science fair project from 2012 to bring it from the laboratory into the real world. And this summer, I founded Catalyst for World Water, a social enterprise aimed at catalyzing solutions to the global water crisis.
水不仅仅是一个万能溶剂, 也是普适的人权。 也正因此, 我从 2012 年开始研究 这个科学年会项目, 并把它从实验室带到了现实生活中。 这个夏天,我成立了“催化世界水”, 一个为了加快解决 世界水危机的社会型企业。
(Applause)
(鼓掌)
Alone, a single drop of water can't do much, but when many drops come together, they can sustain life on our planet. Just as water drops come together to form oceans, I believe that we all must come together when tackling this global problem.
仅一滴水做不了什么, 但是当许多滴水聚集在一起, 它们就能够维系我们星球上的生命。 就像水滴聚成了大海, 我相信我们需要通力合作, 来解决这个国际性的问题。
Thank you.
谢谢。
(Applause)
(鼓掌)
Thank you.
谢谢。
(Applause)
(鼓掌)