科学美国人60秒 SSS 硬化道路可帮助减排

This is Scientific American's 60-second Science, I'm Christopher Intagliata.

这里是科学美国人——60秒科学系列，我是克里斯托弗·因塔格里塔。

When you walk on a sandy beach, it takes more energy than striding down a sidewalk—because the weight of your body pushes into the sand.

在沙滩上行走比在人行道上行走消耗的能量更多，因为你的身体重量会将你推入沙子里。

Turns out, the same thing is true for vehicles driving on roads.

事实证明，在道路上行驶的车辆也是如此。

"The weight of the vehicles creates a very shallow indentation or, you know, deflection in the pavement—

“交通工具的重量会在路面上造成非常浅的凹痕或弯沉，

and it makes it such that it's continuously driving up a very shallow hill."

这样，车辆就能不断地在非常浅的小山丘上爬坡。”

Jeremy Gregory, a sustainability scientist at M.I.T.

麻省理工学院的可持续性科学家杰里米·格雷戈里说到。

His team modeled how much energy could be saved—and greenhouse gases avoided—by simply hardening the nation's roads and highways.

他的团队模拟了只通过硬化国家道路和高速公路可以节省多少能源以及避免多少温室气体排放。

And they found that stiffening² 10 percent of the nation's roads every year could prevent 440 megatons of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions³ over the next five decades—

他们发现，每年将国家道路硬化10%，未来50年可减少4.4亿吨二氧化碳当量排放，

enough to offset⁴ half a percent of projected transportation sector⁵ emissions over that time period.

这足以抵消交通部门在这段时间预计排放量的0.5%。

To put those emissions savings⁶ into context—

将这些减排量放入背景中，

that amount is equivalent to how much CO2 you'd spare the planet by keeping a billion barrels of oil in the ground—or by growing seven billion trees—for a decade.

这相当于将10亿桶石油埋在地下或在10年内种植70亿棵树时，地球减少的二氧化碳量。

The results are in the Transportation Research Record.

研究结果在《交通研究记录》上。

As for how to stiffen¹ roads? Gregory says you could mix small amounts of synthetic⁷ fibers⁸ or carbon nanotubes into paving materials.

至于如何硬化道路？格雷戈里表示，可以将少量的合成纤维或碳纳米管混入铺路材料中。

Or you could pave with cement-based concrete, which is stiffer than asphalt.

或者用比沥青硬的水泥基混凝土铺路。

(It's worth noting the research was funded in part by the Portland Cement Association.)

（值得注意的是，这项研究部分由波特兰水泥协会资助。）

This system could also be a way to shave carbon emissions without some of the usual hurdles⁹.

这个系统还能避开某些常见障碍，来减少碳排放。

"Usually, when it comes to reducing emissions in the transportation sector,

“通常，在提到交通部门减排时，

you're talking about changing policies related to vehicles and also driver behavior, which involves millions and millions of people—

谈论的都是改变与交通工具和驾驶员行为有关、且涉及数百万人生活的政策，

as opposed to changing the way we design and maintain our pavements.

而不会谈论改变我们设计和维护道路的方法。

That's just on the order of thousands of people who are working in transportation agencies."

这可能只涉及交通部门的数千名工作人员。”

And when it comes to retrofitting our streets and highways—those agencies are where you might say the rubber meets the road.

谈到改造我们的道路和高速公路，你可能会说这些机构是“橡胶与道路接触之处”（关键之处）。

Thanks for listening for Scientific American's 60-second Science. I'm Christopher Intagliata.

谢谢大家收听科学美国人——60秒科学。我是克里斯托弗·因塔利亚塔。

1 stiffen   

v.(使)硬，(使)变挺，(使)变僵硬

参考例句：

• The blood supply to the skin is reduced when muscles stiffen.当肌肉变得僵硬时，皮肤的供血量就减少了。
• I was breathing hard,and my legs were beginning to stiffen.这时我却气吁喘喘地开始感到脚有点僵硬。

2 stiffening   

n. (使衣服等)变硬的材料, 硬化 动词stiffen的现在分词形式

参考例句：

• Her mouth stiffening, she could not elaborate. 她嘴巴僵直，无法细说下去。
• No genius, not a bad guy, but the attacks are hurting and stiffening him. 不是天才，人也不坏，但是四面八方的攻击伤了他的感情，使他横下了心。

3 emissions   

排放物( emission的名词复数 )； 散发物（尤指气体）

参考例句：

• Most scientists accept that climate change is linked to carbon emissions. 大多数科学家都相信气候变化与排放的含碳气体有关。
• Dangerous emissions radiate from plutonium. 危险的辐射物从钚放散出来。

4 offset   

n.分支，补偿；v.抵消，补偿

参考例句：

• Their wage increases would be offset by higher prices.他们增加的工资会被物价上涨所抵消。
• He put up his prices to offset the increased cost of materials.他提高了售价以补偿材料成本的增加。

5 sector   

n.部门，部分；防御地段，防区；扇形

参考例句：

• The export sector will aid the economic recovery. 出口产业将促进经济复苏。
• The enemy have attacked the British sector.敌人已进攻英国防区。

6 savings   

n.存款，储蓄

参考例句：

• I can't afford the vacation,for it would eat up my savings.我度不起假，那样会把我的积蓄用光的。
• By this time he had used up all his savings.到这时，他的存款已全部用完。

7 synthetic   

adj.合成的，人工的；综合的；n.人工制品

参考例句：

• We felt the salesman's synthetic friendliness.我们感觉到那位销售员的虚情假意。
• It's a synthetic diamond.这是人造钻石。

8 fibers   

光纤( fiber的名词复数 )； （织物的）质地； 纤维，纤维物质

参考例句：

• Thesolution of collagen-PVA was wet spined with the sodium sulfate as coagulant and collagen-PVA composite fibers were prepared. 在此基础上，以硫酸钠为凝固剂，对胶原-PVA共混溶液进行湿法纺丝，制备了胶原-PVA复合纤维。
• Sympathetic fibers are distributed to all regions of the heart. 交感神经纤维分布于心脏的所有部分。

9 hurdles   

n.障碍( hurdle的名词复数 )；跳栏；（供人或马跳跃的）栏架；跨栏赛

参考例句：

• In starting a new company, many hurdles must be crossed. 刚开办一个公司时，必须克服许多障碍。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• There are several hurdles to be got over in this project. 在这项工程中有一些困难要克服。 来自辞典例句