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SaulGriffith_2009-_风筝为未来的可再生能源_
If you're at all like me, this is what you do with the sunny summer weekends in San Francisco: you build experimental kite-powered hydrofoils capable of more than 30 knots . 如果你像我一样, 那这就是你会在旧金山夏天的每个周末所干的事: 你会建造实验性的风筝动力水翼船 时速在30海里以上。
experimental:adj.实验的;根据实验的;试验性的; hydrofoils:n.水翼;水翼船; capable:adj.能干的,能胜任的;有才华的; knots:n.发髻:节子:节疤:v.把…打成结(knot的第三人称单数和复数)
And you realize that there is incredible power in the wind , and it can do amazing things. 随后你就会认识到蕴藏在风里的不可思议的能量, 而且它可以用于很奇妙的事情上。
incredible:adj.难以置信的,惊人的; in the wind:即将发生;在进行;
And one day, a vessel not unlike this will probably break the world speed record. 有一天,一艘和这个像似的船型 将可能会打破世界速度记录。
vessel:n.器皿;轮船;脉管;大船;
But kites aren't just toys like this. 但是风筝并不仅仅是像这样的玩具。
Kites. I'm going to give you a brief history, and tell you about the magnificent future of every child's favorite plaything . 关于风筝,我会给你们一个简要的历史, 以及告诉你们神奇的未来 这都是小孩最喜欢的风筝的事情。
magnificent:adj.高尚的;壮丽的;华丽的;宏伟的; plaything:n.玩物;玩具;被玩弄的人;
So, kites are more than a thousand years old, and the Chinese used them for military applications, and even for lifting men. 那么,风筝已经有1000多年的历史, 中国用他们作为过军队装备, 甚至是载人的。
military:adj.军事的;军人的;适于战争的;n.军队;军人;
So they knew at that stage they could carry large weights. 所以他们在那个时候就知道了风筝可以承载较大重量。
I'm not sure why there is a hole in this particular man. 我不确定为什么那个人身上有个洞。
(Laughter) 笑
In 1827, a fellow called George Pocock actually pioneered the use of kites for towing buggies in races against horse carridges across the English countryside. 在1827年,一个叫做乔治朴考克的家伙 实际上先锋般的用风筝来牵动车辆 这样来和马匹做横跨英国的比赛。
towing:n.拖车,拖吊;v.牵引,拖曳(tow的现在分词形式); buggies:n.四轮马车(单数形);
Then of course, at the dawn of aviation , all of the great inventors of the time -- like Hargreaves, like Langley , even Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the telephone, who was flying this kite -- were doing so in the pursuit of aviation. 随后,理所当然的,在航空时代即将到来之际, 那个时代所有的伟大发明家们-- 像哈格里夫斯,像兰利, 甚至是亚历山大格雷厄姆贝尔,电话的发明着,都会像这样放风筝-- 这样做是为了追求航空能力。
dawn:n.黎明;开端;vt.破晓;出现;被领悟; aviation:n.航空;飞行术;飞机制造业; Langley:n.兰勒(复数langleys,物理学专有名词); in the pursuit of:追求;为了追求;
Then these two fellows came along, and they were flying kites to develop the control systems that would ultimately enable powered human flight. 然后这两个家伙出现了, 他们在风筝上开发了制动系统 那样会最终让人类的飞行梦想成真。
ultimately:adv.最终;最后;归根结底;终究; enable:v.使能够;使有机会;使成为可能;使可行;
So this is of course Orville and Wilbur Wright , and the Wright Flyer. 这当然是恩奎斯特和莱特兄弟, 以及莱特飞行器。
Wright:n.制作者;工人;
And their experiments with kites led to this momentous occasion, where we powered up and took off for the first-ever 12-second human flight. 他们对风筝的实验引发了这个 重要时刻,那就是我们可以从起飞到降落 第一个12秒的人类飞行。
momentous:adj.重要的;重大的; first-ever:adj.第一例;前所未有;
And that was fantastic for the future of commercial aviation. 而且那是一个美妙的商业航空的未来。
fantastic:奇异的,空想的 commercial:adj.贸易的;商业的;赢利的;以获利为目的的;n.(电台或电视播放的)广告;
But unfortunately , it relegated kites once again to be considered children's toys. 但是不幸的是,风筝再一次被低估为儿童的玩具。
unfortunately:adv.不幸地; relegated:v.使贬职;使降级;降低…的地位;(relegate的过去分词和过去式)
That was until the 1970's, where we had the last energy crisis . 直到19世纪70年代,当我们上一次经济危机的时候。
crisis:n.危机;危险期;决定性时刻;adj.危机的;用于处理危机的;
And a fabulous man called Miles Loyd who lives on the outskirts of San Francisco, wrote this seminal paper that was completely ignored , in the Journal of Energy, 一个叫做迈尔斯劳埃德的神话般的人 他住在旧金山的郊区。 写了这样一篇完全被遗忘的论文, 能量之旅,
fabulous:adj.难以置信的;传说的,寓言中的;极好的; outskirts:n.郊区;市郊;(市镇的)边缘地带;(outskirt的复数) seminal:adj.种子的;精液的;生殖的; ignored:v.忽视;对…不予理会;佯装未见;不予理睬;(ignore的过去分词和过去式) Journal:n.杂志;日记;日志;(用于报纸名)…报;
about how to use basically an airplane on a piece of string to generate enormous amounts of electricity . 这是关于怎样用一根绳子去操控飞机 来产生超乎强大的电力。
basically:adv.主要地,基本上; airplane:n.飞机; string:n.字符串; v.悬挂; adj.由弦乐器组成的; generate:v.产生;引起; enormous:adj.庞大的,巨大的;凶暴的,极恶的; electricity:n.电力;电流;强烈的紧张情绪;
The real key observation he made is that a free-flying wing can sweep through more sky and generate more power in a unit of time than a fixed-wing turbine . 他做到的最关键的观察是 一个自由飞行翼可以扫过更多的天空和创造更多的能量 这是在一定的时间内和固定翼涡轮相比。
observation:n.观察;观测;监视;(尤指据所见、所闻、所读而作的)评论; free-flying:自由飞行; fixed-wing:固定翼; turbine:n.汽轮机;涡轮机;
So turbines grew. And they can now span up to three hundred feet at the hub height, but they can't really go a lot higher, and more height is where the more wind is, and more power -- as much as twice as much. 所以涡轮那时在不断的被开发。现在他们可以跨越跨度长达三百英尺的枢纽高度, 但是他们确实在也不能比那再高了, 不过更高的地方有更多的风,以及更多的能量 -- 两倍高的能量。
turbines:n.[动力]涡轮;[动力]涡轮机(turbine的复数);[动力]汽轮机; span:n.持续时间; v.持续; hub:n.中心;毂;木片;
So cut to now. We still have an energy crisis, and now we have a climate crisis as well. You know, so humans generate about 12 trillion watts, or 12 terawatts , from fossil fuels. 所以直到现在,我们仍然还有能量危机, 现在我们还同时有环境危机,你知道的。 所以人类生产了大概十二万亿瓦特, 或12兆瓦,从化石燃料中。
trillion:n.[数]万亿;adj.万亿的;num.[数]万亿; terawatts:n.太(拉)[物]瓦;兆兆瓦; fossil:n.化石;老人;老古董;adj.从地下发掘出来的;化石的;属于旧时代的;陈腐的;
And Al Gore has spoken to why we need to hit one of these targets, and in reality what that means is in the next 30 to 40 years, we have to make 10 trillion watts or more of new clean energy, somehow . 然后戈尔已经讲解了我们为什么要达到这些目标, 以及在今后的30到40年里那到底意味着什么, 我们必须制造10亿瓦特或者更多的干净能源,不管怎么样都要。
somehow:adv.以某种方法;莫名其妙地;
Wind is the second-largest renewable resource after solar: 3600 terawatts, more than enough to supply humanity 200 times over. 风能是在太阳能之后的第二大可再生能源: 3600兆瓦特,足以维持比现在多200倍的人。
renewable:adj.可再生的;可更新的;可继续的;n.再生性能源; resource:n.资源;资料;才智;财力;v.向…提供资金(或设备); humanity:n.人类;人道;仁慈;人文学科;
The majority of it is in the higher altitudes , above 300 feet, where we don't have a technology as yet to get there. 大多数风能是在高海拔,300英尺以上, 我们现有的科技还无法到达那个高度。
majority:n.大部分:大多数:多数票:成年人: altitudes:n.高地;高度;[数]顶垂线;(等级和地位等的)高级; technology:n.技术;工艺;术语; as yet:至今仍;
So this is the dawn of the new age of kites. 这样就到了风筝新舞台开始的时候。
This is our test site on Maui, flying across the sky. 这是我们在茂宜岛上的一个测试点,在空中翱翔着。
site:n.地点;位置;场所;v.设置;为…选址;
I'm now going to show you the first autonomous generation of power by every child's favorite plaything. 我现在将要为你们展示 第一自主发电机 由所有小孩最爱的玩具所提供。
autonomous:adj.自治的;自主的;自发的;
As you can tell, you need to be a robot to fly this thing for thousands of hours. 你可以想象,你需要一个机器人来几千小时的放飞这个东西。
It makes you a little nauseous . 这可能让你有点眩晕。
nauseous:adj.令人作呕的;厌恶的;
And here we're actually generating about 10 kilowatts -- so, enough to power probably five United States households -- with a kite not much larger than this piano. 而且这样我们实际上可以生产大概10千瓦-- 所以,足够维持5个美国家庭用电-- 就用一个不大于钢琴大小的风筝。
generating:v.产生;引起;(generate的现在分词) kilowatts:n.[电]千瓦(功率单位); United:adj.联合的; v.联合,团结; (unite的过去分词和过去式) households:n.家庭;拆迁户;家户(household的复数);
And the real significant thing here is we're developing the control systems, as did the Wright brothers, that would enable sustained , long-duration flight. 不过最有意义的事情是 我们正在开发控制系统, 就像莱特兄弟那样,这样会提供可持续,长时间的飞行。
significant:adj.重大的;有效的;有意义的;值得注意的;意味深长的;n.象征;有意义的事物; sustained:adj.持续的; v.维持; (sustain的过去分词和过去式)
And it doesn't hurt to do it in a location like this either. 而也不会去破坏像这样的环境。
location:n.地方;地点;位置;定位
So this is the equivalent for a kite flier of peeing in the snow. 这样的话,这样放风筝就像在雪地里撒尿一样。
equivalent:adj.等价的,相等的;同意义的;n.等价物,相等物; flier:n.飞行员;飞机乘客;小广告; peeing:v.撒尿;(pee的现在分词)
That's tracing your name in the sky. 这是在天空中画上你的名字。
tracing:n.描图;v.查出;找到;追踪;追究;描绘;记述;(trace的现在分词)
And this is where we're actually going. 这也是我们将要做的事。
So we're beyond the 12-second steps. 我们将会翱翔在12秒之上。
And we're working towards megawatt-scale machines that fly at 2000 feet and generate tons of clean electricity. 我们正着手建造着兆瓦级机发电机 这会在2000英尺的高度飞翔,以及产生大量的电力。
So you ask, how big are those machines? 那么你会问到,这些机器有多大呢？
Well, this paper plane would be maybe a -- oop! 好的,这个纸飞机大概会是,哟！
That would be enough to power your cell phone. 这个大概有足够的能量去提供你手机所需的动力。
Your Cessna would be 230 killowatts. 你们的塞斯纳就会是230千瓦。
If you'd loan me your Gulfstream, I'll rip its wings off and generate you a megawatt . 如果你能把湾流喷射机借我,我会把它的翅膀折掉,然后为你生产一千瓦特。
rip:v.撕破;突然拉开;割开;n.撕开的大口子;巨澜;清管器;废马; megawatt:n.兆瓦特,百万瓦特;
If you give a 747, I'll make six megawatts , which is more than the largest wind turbines today. 如果你有一个747,我可以生产6万千瓦, 这比今天最大的涡流翼所生产的还要多。
megawatts:n.百万瓦特(megawatt的复数);
And the Spruce Goose would be a 15-megawatt wing. 史普鲁斯之鹅的翼大概是15万千瓦。
Spruce:vi.打扮整齐;使显干净;adj.整洁的;vt.打扮整齐;n.云杉;
So that is audacious , you say. I agree. 所以这是十分大胆的构想,你会说道。我同意。
audacious:adj.无畏的;鲁莽的;
But audacious is what has happened many times before in history. 但是着这样的大胆构想在我们的历史上重复了无数次了。
This is a refrigerator factory, churning out airplanes for World War II. 这是一个电冰箱工厂, 在二战时生产飞机。
churning:n.搅乳;一次提制的奶油;v.搅拌(churn的现在分词); airplanes:n.(美)[航]飞机(airplane的复数);
Prior to World War II, they were making 1000 planes a year. 在二战之前,他们每年生产1000架飞机。
Prior:adj.先前的; n.(小隐修院)院长; v.居先;
By 1945, they were making 100,000. 在1945年,他们生产100000架。
With this factory and 100,000 planes a year, we could make all of America's electricity in about 10 years. 像这样年产100000架飞机的工厂, 我们可以生产维持美国10年的电力。
So really, this is a story about the audacious plans of young people with these dreams. There are many of us. 所以,真的,这是一个关于年轻人的大胆计划 有着这些梦想的。我们其中有很多。
I am lucky enough to work with 30 of them. 我很幸运的能和他们中的30个在一起工作。
And I think we need to support all of the dreams of the kids out there doing these crazy things. 我想我们必须支持所有的梦想 孩子们的梦想,让他们去做一些疯狂的事情。
Thank you. 谢谢。
(Applause) 掌声