The greatest of faults, I should say, is to be conscious of none.
我必須說，最大的過錯，莫過於看不到任何過錯。
– Thomas Carlyle, Writer 湯瑪斯‧卡萊爾 (作家)
--- 外刊看世界編輯擇優推薦
請將你喜歡的名句格言：中英文版，留言跟貼，
讓我們一起分享、鼓勵、進步！
This is Scientific American — 60-Second Science. I'm Debbie Ponchner.
這裡是科學美國人——60秒科學。我是黛比·龐徹納。
Pineapples—just thinking about this delicious tropical fruit, rich in vitamin C, might make your mouth water. But have you ever stopped to think where the peel and other waste from this crop end up?
菠蘿——只要想想這種富含維生素C的美味熱帶水果，可能就會讓你流口水。但你有沒有停下來思考過，這種作物的果皮和其它廢料最後到哪裡去了？
We do here in the small country of Costa Rica, the world's largest producer of pineapples. Pineapple production generates about 4.5 million tons of crop residues every year in our Central American nation.
而在哥斯大黎加這個小國，這個全世界最大的菠蘿生產國，我們就在思考這個問題。菠蘿種植每年會在我們這個中美洲國家產生約450萬噸作物殘餘。
And that waste is tough stuff. The plant is made of strong cellulose that takes a long time to biodegrade. And most of it is either burnt or ends up dumped in open forests, where disease-causing mosquitoes and fungi thrive off its high sugar content.
這些廢料是個棘手的難題。菠蘿由需要很長時間才能被生物降解的高強度纖維素構成。大部分廢料不是被焚燒，就是被丟棄在疏林中——那裡的致病蚊子和真菌依靠廢料的高糖分生長。
But hidden in pineapple peels is a treasure—of nanomaterials. Scientists at Costa Rica's National Laboratory of Nanotechnology (LANOTEC) have been extracting valuable nanocellulose from the peel and stubble of the pineapple. This nanocellulose can be used in the pharmaceutical, food and medical industries.
但是，菠蘿皮中隱藏著一種名為「納米材料」的寶藏。哥斯大黎加國家納米技術實驗室（簡稱LANOTEC）的科學家一直在從菠蘿果皮和殘株中提取寶貴的納米纖維素。這種納米纖維素可用於製藥、食品和醫療行業。
And it turns out that, while harvesting that nanocellulose, you can also get rosettelike silica-based microparticles. These tiny traces have potential as reinforcement in adhesives, in the biomedical field, and even as a source of silica for fertilizers. Scientists from LANOTEC describe these applications in the journal Scientific Reports.
結果發現，在獲得納米纖維素的同時，還可以得到玫瑰花狀的矽基微粒。這些微粒可能在粘合劑和生物領域起到加固作用，甚至可作為肥料中的二氧化矽來源。納米技術實驗室的科學家在《科學報告》期刊上介紹了這些用途。
José R. Vega-Baudrit is the director of LANOTEC and one of the authors of the paper. "Pineapple residue is something that has been studied a lot, but nobody had seen this particle in the skin of the fruit."
何塞·維加-鮑德裡特是納米技術實驗室的負責人，也是文章的作者之一。「人們對菠蘿殘渣進行了大量研究，但是沒有人在菠蘿果皮中發現過這種顆粒。」
It was chemical engineer and material scientist Yendry Corrales-Ureña who noticed the silica-based microparticles.
注意到這種矽基微粒的是化學工程師兼材料科學家耶德利·科拉雷斯-包雷尼亞。
"I began to study the plant, to make the cuts, to see what it had, and incredibly, after doing the synthesis, I began to see those rosettes, like flowers, that did not fall apart under duress. It was wonderful. We had thousands, millions, of the same structures left over."
「我開始研究這種植物，切開它觀察其構造，難以置信的是，在做完合成之後，我開始看到那些沒有被迫分解的玫瑰花形狀的物質。那真是太奇妙了。我們有了數千甚至是數百萬個相同結構的剩餘物。」
The pineapple silica differs from silica nanospheres that are synthesized in labs for various applications.
菠蘿二氧化矽不同於在實驗室合成的適用於不同用途的二氧化矽納米球。
YCU: "This is a silica that the pineapple plant processes on its own, and it is of very high purity."
耶德利·科拉雷斯-包雷尼亞：「這是菠蘿自己加工而成的二氧化矽，純度非常高。」
Most commercial fertilizers use silica. And Corrales-Ureña's main interest in the rosettelike silica-based microparticles is as a fertilizer component. The next steps in that line of research will be to determine if parts other than the peels also have silica nanoparticles, and to develop an efficient fertilizer using them.
大多數商用肥料使用二氧化矽。科拉雷斯-包雷尼亞對於這種玫瑰花形狀的矽基微粒的主要興趣是使其成為一種肥料成分。這一研究方向的下一步計劃是，確定菠蘿除果皮之外的其餘部分是否也含有二氧化矽納米顆粒，並利用這些顆粒開發出一種高效肥料。
Thanks for listening for Scientific American — 60-Second Science. I'm Debbie Ponchner.
謝謝大家收聽科學美國人——60秒科學。我是黛比·龐徹納。
英語的歷史
「出氣筒」，指無充分的理由或恰當的原因而被人當做發洩怒火的「工具」。「出氣」，字面意思是「排放空氣（air-out）」，引申含義為「發洩氣憤（give vent to one’s anger）」。常見表達為「把某人當成出氣筒（use somebody as a punchbag）」。
例句：
我又沒得罪你，別拿我出氣。
I’m not the one who offended you. Don’t take it out on me.
他的秘書成了他的出氣筒。
His secretary had to bear the burnt of his temper.
Editor: Jade
1、本期每日一句，由編輯選優推薦。
2、本期每日一播，取自影視宣傳資源。
3、本期每日一聞，取自Scientific American — 60-Second Science.
4、本期每日一詞，取自紐約時報中文網.
本文僅供學習交流參考，未用作商業用途。如對本公眾號發布的文章存有異議，歡迎留言告知，編輯將在24小時內回復處理。
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