呃，用尿液制成的磚

Cement, concrete’s primary ingredient, accounts for about 5% of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions. Researchers and engineers are working to develop less energy-intensive alternatives, including bricks made with leftover brewery grains, concrete modelled after ancient Roman breakwaters (Romans made concrete by mixing lime and volcanic rock to form mortar, a highly stable material), and bricks made of, well, urine.

水泥是混凝土的主要成分，所造成的二氧化碳排放量占全球的5%。研究人員和工程師們正在努力開發(fā)低耗能的替代材料，包括用啤酒廠剩余谷物制成的磚塊、仿古羅馬防波堤的混凝土材料(古羅馬人將石灰和火山巖混合成一種高度穩(wěn)定的材料——灰漿——用來制造混凝土)，以及用，呃，尿液制成的磚。

As part of his thesis project, Edinburgh College of Art student Peter Trimble was working on an exhibit that was supposed to feature a module on sustainability. Almost by accident, he created “Biostone”: a mixture of sand (incidentally, one of Earth’s most abundant resources), nutrients, and urea – a chemical found in human urine.

愛丁堡藝術(shù)學(xué)院(Edinburgh College of Art)的學(xué)生特林布(Peter Trimble)在畢業(yè)論文項(xiàng)目中有一部分是以可持續(xù)性模塊為主題設(shè)計(jì)展覽。幾乎是出于偶然，他創(chuàng)造了“生化石”：一種沙子 、營養(yǎng)素和尿素(一種人類尿液中的化學(xué)物質(zhì))的混合物。順便說一句，沙子是地球上最豐富的資源之一。

Pumping bacterial solution into a sand-filled mould, Trimble devised hundreds of experiments over the course of a year until he tweaked the recipe. The microbes eventually metabolised the mixture of sand, urea, and calcium chloride, creating a glue that strongly bound the sand molecules together.

特林布將細(xì)菌溶液注入充滿沙子的模具中，在一年里進(jìn)行了數(shù)百次實(shí)驗(yàn)才找到了配方，令細(xì)菌能夠分解沙子、尿素和氯化鈣的混合物，形成一種膠水，將沙子分子牢固地粘在一起。

Trimble’s design offers an alternative to the energy-intensive methods with a low energy biological process of microbial manufacturing. Biostone produces no greenhouse gases and uses a widely available raw material. While Trimble's material would require reinforcement to be as strong as concrete, it could become a low-cost way of building temporary structures or street furniture.

特林布的設(shè)計(jì)利用了制造微生物這一低能耗的生物手段，可以用來替代高能耗的生產(chǎn)方式。生化石不產(chǎn)生溫室氣體，原材料非常普遍。雖然它還不能像混凝土一樣堅(jiān)固，但可以用來建造臨時(shí)建筑和街道設(shè)施，成本較低。

At the very least, Biostone has spawned a discussion on ways in which industrial manufacturing can be made more sustainable, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa and other developing countries where sand is readily available.

至少，生化石已經(jīng)引發(fā)了一場關(guān)于工業(yè)制造如何變得更具可持續(xù)性的討論，特別是在撒哈拉以南的非洲等等有沙子的發(fā)展中國家。

These bio-bricks do have an environmental downside, however: the same bacterial metabolism that solidifies them work also turns the urea into ammonia, which can pollute groundwater if it escapes into the environment.

然而，這些生物磚也會對環(huán)境造成問題：令生物磚固化的細(xì)菌代謝過程也會將尿素轉(zhuǎn)化為氨，如果泄漏到環(huán)境中，會污染地下水。