标题：为什么生物制造是下一场工业革命

Suzanne Lee: Why biofabrication is the next industrial revolution

来源：每日英语听力，TED演讲（视频版）双语精选

Summary

    The speaker used to be a fashion designer close with textile and fabric suppliers. It is not until fifteen years that she had access to the project about biofabrication, which offered a different perspective of how we can design and make things[1]. Biofabrication, literally meaning fabrication with biology, creates things directly with living organisms[2]. In comparation to chemical materials, they grow faster, only in a matter of days, and are zero wastes[3], which means if  we replace intensive man-make steps with biofabriaction one[5], it will no longer need decades of years for the soil to degrade. After realizing these traits, the speaker has transformed own design thinking[4]. At the same time, there's a growing global community of innovators rethinking materials with biology[7]. Since it is easy to get biological materials only by offering a initial conditions for growth[6], biofabrication can be applied to a wide range of fields, such as biocouture and biofabricated bricks. With hydroponics for bricks[9], biofabricated bricks, 3 times stronger than the construction materials concrete block[10], is low cost[8] and have a significant advantage of storing more carbon so that it can reduce a great amount of CO2 emissions. And this comes from the realization that the very thing we've been trying to marginalize- life-might actually be our greatest collaborator. Instead of designing out life, we're designing with it and for it. The speaker is committed to making this future a reality by shining a light on all the amazing work being done today and by facilitating more interactions between designers, scientists, investors and brands.

单词积累

textile n.  1.[c]  纺织品 any type of cloth made by weaving or knitting

                2.[pl]  纺织业 the industry that makes cloth

retardant  adj. (使)延迟的capable of making something move or happen more slowly    

                 n.阻止物   something designed to slow down a particular process or change, especially a chemical substance that inhibits change

degrade    v.1.[t]降低…身份；侮辱…的人格；使受屈辱  degrade sb

                2.[i][t]（使）退化，降解；分解  degrade (sth)

                3.[t]  降低，削弱（尤指质量）degrade sth

incredibly

marginalize  v. 使显得微不足道；使处于边缘；使无实权  marginalize sb

    to make sb feel as if they are not important and cannot influence decisions or events; to put sb in a position in which they have no power

embody  v.  1.具体表现，体现，代表（思想或品质）to express or represent an idea or a quality

                    2.包括；包含；收录 embody sth            to include or contain sth

[8]Living organisms are transforming waste into cost-competitive, performance-matching materials that can start to replace plastics and other CO2-emitting materials.生物体正在将废弃物转换成成本低廉、性能相当的材料，可以开始取代塑料和其他排放二氧化碳的材料。

[10]And in stark contrast to traditional cement production they store more carbon than they make.而与传统水泥工艺对比鲜明的是，它们贮存的碳比产生的碳还多。

精句积累

[1]Our project gave me a different perspective on life, introducing a whole new world of possibility around how we can design and make things.

我们的项目给了我看待生命的不同视角，围绕我们如何设计与制造物品打开了充满可能性的全新世界。

I'm committed to making this future a reality by shining a light on all the amazing work being done today and by facilitating more interactions between designers, scientists, investors and brands.

The provocation was that instead of growing a plant, like cotton, in a field over several months, we could use microbes to grow a similar cellulose material in a lab in a few days.

其发想在于，并不是花费几个月时间在地里栽培作物，比如棉花；而是只用几天时间，在实验室里用微生物培养出类似的纤维材料。

So now I can't help but see all materials through the lens of biofabrication.

现在，我无法不透过生物制造的镜片去审视所有材料。

Incredibly, we can grow all kinds of structures using living organisms, from foams that can replace plastics in footwear, to leather-like materials without animals.

不可思议的是，我们可以用生物体培养各式各样的结构，从可以取代鞋履中塑料的泡沫，到不需要动物的类皮革材料。

And if we applied the same energy we currently do suppressing forms of life towards cultivating life, we'd turn the negative image of the urban jungle into one that literally embodies a thriving, living ecosystem.

如果我们将现在用于抑制生物的能量用在培育生命上，我们就能把都市森林的负面形象转换成承载了生机盎然的生态系统的形象。

I'm committed to making this future a reality by shining a light on all the amazing work being done today and by facilitating more interactions between designers, scientists, investors and brands.

我将致力于实现这样的未来，为此我会关注今天正在进行的所有令人叹服的工作，并促进设计师、科学家、投资者与品牌之间的更多互动。

原文表达

Fifteen years ago, I completely changed both what I worked with and howl worked after a revelatory collaboration with a biologist.十五年前，在和一位生物学家启发式的合作后，我彻底改变了工作的对象以及工作的方式。

howl  v.    1.[i]  长嚎；嗥叫to make a long, loud cry

                2.[i] （因疼痛、愤怒、开心等）大声叫喊    howl (in/with sth)

                3.[i]    怒号；呼啸

                4.[t]    怒吼    howl sth.+ speech

[2]Well, instead of processing plants, animals or oil to make consumer materials, we might grow materials directly with living organisms. Bacteria, algae, fungi, yeast our latest design tools include those of biotechnology.细菌、藻类、真菌、酵母：我们最新的设计工具包括了生物科技。

In what many are terming "the Fourth Industrial Revolution," we're thinking about the new factories as being living cells.

My own journey in biofabrication started with a project called "Biocouture."我自己的生物制造旅程是由一个名为"Biocouture"（生物服装）的项目开始的。

Using a certain species of bacteria in a nutrient-rich liquid, we fermented threads of cellulose that self-organized into a sheet of fabric.在营养丰富的培养液里用一特定种类的细菌，我们将纤维素的线发酵，它们自行编组形成了一张布料。

And this is in contrast to currents methods of fabric production, where a plant is grown, just the cotton part is harvested, processed into a yarn, woven into a fabric and then potentially shipped across oceans before being cut and sewn into a garment. All of that can take months.

So these prototypes indicated a field offering significant resource efficiencies.因此，生物制造的原型显示了这个领域能显著提升资源效率。

prototype  n.原型；样机；典型；样品

[3]From reducing the water, energy and chemistry needed in the production of a material, through to generating zero waste, we grew fabrics to finished form-if you like, "biological additive manufacture."从减少生产材料的工序所需的水、能源和化学品，到实现零废料，我们培养织物，使其生成成品——如果想的话，可以称之为“生物添加制造”。

[5]Through biofabrication, I had replaced many intensive man-made steps with one biological step. Through biofabrication,I had replaced many intensive man-made steps with one biological step.通过生物制造，我可以用一个生物工序步骤取代许多步高强度的人工工艺。

[4]And as Il engaged with this living system, it transformed my design thinking.当我开始使用这个生物系统，它便转变了我的设计理念。

[6]Here was biology, with no intervention from me other than designing initial conditions for growth, efficiently producing a useful, sustainable material. 这就是生物学，除了设计培养的初始条件，不需我多加干预，就能高效地生产有用的、可持续的材料。

[7]In fact, there's a growing global community of innovators rethinking materials with biology.事实上，已经有一个日益壮大的全球性革新者团体，正在用生物学重新思考材料。

A common way to do this is to take a 3-D mold, fill it with a waste crop like corn stalks or hemp, add water, wait a few days for the mycelium to grow throughout, remove the mold, and you're left with a grown 3-D form.常见做法是在三维模具中填满玉米杆或亚麻籽之类的废弃作物，加上水，等几天让菌丝体充分生长，移除模具，就得到了长成的三维形体。

They're naturally hydrophobic, meaning they won't absorb water.它们天生就具疏水性，意思是它们不会吸收水分。

[9]Think: hydroponics for bricks.想象一下：水培法制砖。

An irrigation system feeds nutrient-rich water to trays of bricks that have been inoculated with bacteria.一个灌溉系统把富含营养的水喂给接种了细菌的一盘盘砖。

We can now grow construction materials in the elegant way nature does, just like a coral reef.我们现在能像自然那样优雅地培养建筑材料，就像珊瑚礁一样。

The bacteria produce crystals that form around each grain of sand, locking together all the loose particles to form a solid brick.细菌产生晶体包裹住每一粒沙，将这些碎颗粒紧紧锁住，形成一块结实的砖。

And these biofabricated bricks are nearly three times stronger than a concrete block.这些生物制造的砖块比混凝土砖坚固近三倍。

Beyond growing materials with living organisms, we're even starting to design products that encourage their growth.除了用生物培养材料，我们甚至开始设计鼓励它们生长的产品。

And this comes from the realization that the very thing we've been trying to marginalize- life-might actually be our greatest collaborator.这是由于意识到了我们试图边缘化的事物，即生物，恰恰可能是我们最有力的合作者。

By actively encouraging surface interactions with healthy microbes, we could improve passive climate control, stormwater management and even reduce CO2 emissions by lowering the energy used to heat or cool our buildings.通过积极地鼓励与健康微生物在表层的互动，我们可以改善被动气候调控，雨水管理，甚至能通过减少为建筑物制冷或制热的 能源，降低二氧化碳排放。

It's one that moves away from the exploitation of nonrenewable resources to working with the original, renewable. 这种科技远离对不可再生资源的滥用，转而与原始的、可再生的生命合作。

Instead of designing out life, we're designing with it and for it.我们不是将生物排除于设计外，而是与生物一起设计，为生物进行设计。