经济学人166:清道夫平菇

 　　Science and technology

　　科学技术

　　Bioremediation

　　生物降解

　　Bottom feeders

　　清道夫平菇

　　A novel way of dealing¹ with an unpleasant problem

　　解决烦人难题的新颖方法

　　For your delight and delectation

　　愿你欢愉

　　DESPITE their name, disposable nappies are notoriously difficult to dispose of.

　　一次性尿布，虽然它名字的英文含义为可随意处理的，然而对它的处理却是一个老大难问题。

　　Studies of landfills suggest they may take centuries to rot away.

　　垃圾填埋区的研究显示它们可能要花上几个世纪才会完全腐烂。

　　But Alethia Vázquez-Morillas of the Autonomous² Metropolitan³ University in Mexico City thinks she has found a method of speeding the process up.

　　但墨西哥城自治都市大学的阿莱蒂娅·巴斯克斯·莫莱拉丝认为她已经找到加速此过程的方法。

　　As she and her colleagues describe in Waste Management, cultivating the right type of mushroom on soiled nappies can break down 90% of the material they are made of within two months.

　　正如她与其同事在《废物处理》一文中所描述，以尿布为基壤，培植恰当种类的菇类，能在两个月内将其分解90%。

　　Within four, they are degraded completely.

　　四个月后，它们将被完全降解。

　　What is more, she says, despite their unsavoury diet the fungi⁴ in question, Pleurotus ostreatus, are safe to eat.

　　她表示，尽管所讨论的糙皮侧耳口味不佳，但食用安全。

　　To prove the point she has, indeed, eaten them.

　　为了证明这一点，她确确实实曾亲口品尝过。

　　The culinary use of oyster⁵ mushrooms was one reason why she picked them for the experiment.

　　平菇的食用价值正是她选择其进行实验的原因之一。

　　The species is frequently used in stir-fries and is often added to soups.

　　该食材经常用于煎炸以及常常被添加至汤中。

　　The other reason was that Pleurotus ostreatus is widely used in what is known as mycoremediation—the deployment⁶ of fungi to clean up waste.

　　而另一个原因是平菇被广泛用于所谓的茵核降解—即是使用真菌去清理垃圾。

　　It is, for example, already grown on agricultural materials such as wheat and barley⁷ straw,

　　比方说，它已经在处理诸如小麦和大麦秸秆等农业废料以及在类似咖啡渣和特基拉

　　and industrial waste like coffee grounds and the leftovers⁸ from making tequila.

　　酒废渣等工业废料上得到逐步推广。

　　Dr Vázquez-Morillas and her colleagues were trying to extend the oyster mushroom’s own culinary range.

　　巴斯克斯·莫莱拉丝博士与其同事正试图拓展平菇原有的烹饪范围。

　　The reason nappies are difficult to break down has nothing to do with their use.

　　尿布难于降解跟它有没有被使用过毫无关系。

　　Even a clean nappy would hang around for a long time in a dump.

　　即便是干净的尿布也会在垃圾场长期留存。

　　The main ingredient of a nappy is cellulose, an annoyingly persistent⁹ material.

　　尿布的主要组成部分是纤维素，它是一种烦人的顽固性物质。

　　Pleurotus, however, grows on dead or dying trees in the wild and is thus well provided with enzymes¹⁰ that break cellulose down.

　　然而在野外生长在已死或将死树木上的平菇，将恰如其分地分泌出能分解纤维素的酶。

　　And, since Mexicans alone throw away 5 billion nappies every year, there is plenty of material from this source for them to get their mycelia into.

　　而且，既然仅墨西哥每年就有50亿张尿布被丢弃，那么必定有大量此类原料正等着它们的菌丝去分解。

　　The idea that the result might be sold and eaten may be controversial but it is not absurd.

　　销售并食用尿布平菇的想法或许具有争议性，但却并不荒唐。

　　The nappies the researchers used were contaminated only with urine, not faeces.

　　研究人员使用的尿布仅有尿渍，并没有粪便。

　　A healthy person’s urine is sterile¹¹ and Dr Vázquez-Morillas also treated the nappies with steam, to make sure.

　　健康人类的尿液是无菌的，而巴斯克斯·莫莱拉丝博士也对尿布进行了蒸汽高温消毒以确保安全。

　　Such treatment would kill the nasty bugs¹² in faeces, too, though,

　　这样的处理也将杀死粪便中的肮脏虫子，如果有的话，

　　so mushrooms grown on treated nappies should, in theory, be safe to eat.

　　因此生长处理过的尿布上的平菇在理论上应该是可以安全食用。

　　In practice, overcoming the yuck factor might be an insuperable barrier to marketing¹³ nappy-grown fungi,

　　实际上，对于销售长在尿布上的平菇而言，克服这种主观上令人反感的因素或许是一道不可逾越的障碍，

　　and the cost of the steam treatment could make the exercise futile¹⁴.

　　而且蒸汽高温消毒的花销可能是不切实际的。

　　Mycoremediation of this sort does not, however, depend for its success on selling the results.

　　然而，此类茵核降解的成功之处并不依赖于销售其产物。

　　Merely getting rid of what would otherwise hang around indefinitely is worthwhile.

　　仅仅是摆脱那些难处理的废物就物有所值了，不然的话那些垃圾可就要无限期地困扰我们了。

　　And of the fungi themselves, Dr Vázquez-Morillas observes,

　　而且对于这些菌类本身，巴斯克斯·莫莱拉丝博士评论道，

　　they are cleaner than most of the vegetables you can find in the market, at least in Mexico.

　　至少在墨西哥，它们要比你在市场上能找得到的大多数蔬菜干净得多。

　　1.delight n.高兴；快乐

　　She clapped her hands in delight.

　　她高兴地拍手。

　　2.notorious a.臭名昭著的

　　He is notorious for his goings-on.

　　他因行为不检点而声名狼藉。

　　3.autonomous a.自治的

　　Each of the U.S. states has an autonomous government.

　　美国的每个州都有一个自治政府。

　　4.process n.工序；过程

　　Building a car is a long process.

　　制造一辆小汽车有很长的工序。

　　5.describe v.描述；说成

　　The police asked me to describe exactly how it happened.

　　警察让我描述一下这事是怎样发生的。

1 dealing   

n.经商方法，待人态度

参考例句：

• This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
• His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。

2 autonomous   

adj.自治的；独立的

参考例句：

• They proudly declared themselves part of a new autonomous province.他们自豪地宣布成为新自治省的一部分。
• This is a matter that comes within the jurisdiction of the autonomous region.这件事是属于自治区权限以内的事务。

3 metropolitan   

adj.大城市的，大都会的

参考例句：

• Metropolitan buildings become taller than ever.大城市的建筑变得比以前更高。
• Metropolitan residents are used to fast rhythm.大都市的居民习惯于快节奏。

4 fungi   

n.真菌，霉菌

参考例句：

• Students practice to apply the study of genetics to multicellular plants and fungi.学生们练习把基因学应用到多细胞植物和真菌中。
• The lawn was covered with fungi.草地上到处都是蘑菇。

5 oyster   

n.牡蛎；沉默寡言的人

参考例句：

• I enjoy eating oyster; it's really delicious.我喜欢吃牡蛎，它味道真美。
• I find I fairly like eating when he finally persuades me to taste the oyster.当他最后说服我尝尝牡蛎时，我发现我相当喜欢吃。

6 deployment   

n. 部署,展开

参考例句：

• He has inquired out the deployment of the enemy troops. 他已查出敌军的兵力部署情况。
• Quality function deployment (QFD) is a widely used customer-driven quality, design and manufacturing management tool. 质量功能展开(quality function deployment,QFD)是一个广泛应用的顾客需求驱动的设计、制造和质量管理工具。

7 barley   

n.大麦，大麦粒

参考例句：

• They looked out across the fields of waving barley.他们朝田里望去,只见大麦随风摇摆。
• He cropped several acres with barley.他种了几英亩大麦。

8 leftovers   

n.剩余物，残留物，剩菜

参考例句：

• He can do miracles with a few kitchen leftovers.他能用厨房里几样剩饭做出一顿美餐。
• She made supper from leftovers she had thrown together.她用吃剩的食物拼凑成一顿晚饭。

9 persistent   

adj.坚持不懈的，执意的；持续的

参考例句：

• Albert had a persistent headache that lasted for three days.艾伯特连续头痛了三天。
• She felt embarrassed by his persistent attentions.他不时地向她大献殷勤，使她很难为情。

10 enzymes   

n. 酶，酵素

参考例句：

• It was said that washing powders containing enzymes remove stains more efficiently. 据说加酶洗衣粉除污更有效。
• Among the enzymes which are particularly effective are pepsin, papain. 在酶当中特别有效的是胃朊酶、木瓜酶。

11 sterile   

adj.不毛的，不孕的，无菌的，枯燥的，贫瘠的

参考例句：

• This top fits over the bottle and keeps the teat sterile.这个盖子严实地盖在奶瓶上，保持奶嘴无菌。
• The farmers turned the sterile land into high fields.农民们把不毛之地变成了高产田。

12 bugs   

adj.疯狂的，发疯的n.窃听器( bug的名词复数 )；病菌；虫子；[计算机]（制作软件程序所产生的意料不到的）错误

参考例句：

• All programs have bugs and need endless refinement. 所有的程序都有漏洞，都需要不断改进。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The sacks of rice were swarming with bugs. 一袋袋的米里长满了虫子。 来自《简明英汉词典》

13 marketing   

n.行销，在市场的买卖，买东西

参考例句：

• They are developing marketing network.他们正在发展销售网络。
• He often goes marketing.他经常去市场做生意。

14 futile   

adj.无效的，无用的，无希望的

参考例句：

• They were killed,to the last man,in a futile attack.因为进攻失败，他们全部被杀，无一幸免。
• Their efforts to revive him were futile.他们对他抢救无效。