2023年经济学人 能够防雾的“金三明治”(1)

 

    How to keep windows clear using gold and sunlight.

    如何用金和阳光让窗户保持干净。

    As the northern hemisphere’s winter arrives, the problem of fogged-up car windscreens becomes more pressing for drivers.

    随着北半球冬季的到来，汽车挡风玻璃结雾成为了司机们亟待解决的问题。

    When humid air hits a surface colder than it is, the water vapour it carries condenses onto that surface as myriad¹ tiny droplets².

    潮湿的空气接触到比自身更冷的表面时，它携带的水蒸气会凝结到该表面上，形成无数微小的水滴。

    These scatter³ light at random⁴.

    这些水滴会散射一切光线。

    The result, if the surface is transparent⁵, looks to a human eye like fog.

    因此，如果凝结水滴的表面是透明的，在人眼看来就像是形成了雾。

    Depending on what is fogged, be it windows, spectacle lenses or windscreens, that can be a curiosity, a nuisance or a serious hazard.

    无论是窗户、眼镜片还是挡风玻璃，起雾的东西不同，可能会产生不同的影响：让人感到好奇、妨碍人们做事，或者有可能成为一种严重的安全隐患。

    Antimisting sprays are one way to deal with such fogging.

    防雾喷剂是解决方案之一。

    But they need frequent reapplication.

    但需要经常使用喷剂来维持效果。

    Another approach is to embed⁶ within the thing to be demisted a set of electrically powered heating wires.

    还有一种方法是在要去雾的东西内嵌入一组电热丝。

    That works for a car’s rear window but not (because of the visual distraction⁷ created) for its front windscreen.

    这适用于汽车后挡风玻璃，但不适用于前挡风玻璃（因为视觉上会让司机分心）。

    Nor does it suit the windows of buildings or the lenses of spectacles to be demisted in this way.

    这种去雾方式也不适合建筑物窗户或眼镜镜片。

    Iwan Hachler and Dimos Poulikakos of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich have, however, come up with another way of warming something up to stop condensation⁸ forming.

    然而，苏黎世联邦理工学院的伊万·哈克勒和迪莫斯·普利卡科斯想出了一种新的方法，加热某样东西，防止水蒸气凝结。

    Their new material, which they describe in Nature Nanotechnology, is a coating ten nanometres thick.

    他们在《自然：纳米技术》上介绍了他们的新材料，一种10纳米厚的涂层。

    It is flexible, easily made using existing processes, and can be applied⁹ as a coating to glass or plastic, or embedded¹⁰ inside such materials.

    该涂层属于柔性材料，可以简单用现有工艺制造，作为玻璃或塑料的涂层材料，或者嵌入到这些材料中。

    Its demisting properties are powered by sunlight.

    它的除雾能力依赖于阳光。

    In effect, this material is a gold sandwich.

    该材料实际上是一个“金三明治”。

    The “bread” of this butty is a pair of layers, top and bottom, of titanium dioxide, each three nanometres thick.

    三明治的两片“面包”是二氧化钛，上下各有一层，每层有三纳米厚。

    The filling is a four-nanometre deep golden filigree¹¹.

    中间的“馅料”是四纳米厚的金团簇。

    The whole kaboodle lets visible light pass untrammelled, while absorbing infrared¹² and converting it into heat.

    整个结构能够让可见光自由通过，同时吸收红外线并将其转化为热。

    And there is plenty to be absorbed.

    有大量的红外线需要吸收。

    Only about 40% of solar radiation is visible to the eye.

    太阳辐射中只有大约40%的光是肉眼可见的。

    More than 50% of it is infrared.

    还有超过50%都是红外线。

1 myriad   

adj.无数的；n.无数，极大数量

参考例句：

• They offered no solution for all our myriad problems.对于我们数不清的问题他们束手无策。
• I had three weeks to make a myriad of arrangements.我花了三个星期做大量准备工作。

2 droplets   

n.小滴( droplet的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Droplets of sweat were welling up on his forehead. 他额头上冒出了滴滴汗珠。 来自辞典例句
• In constrast, exhaled smoke contains relatively large water droplets and appears white. 相反，从人嘴里呼出的烟则包含相当大的水滴，所以呈白色。 来自辞典例句

3 scatter   

vt.撒，驱散，散开；散布/播；vi.分散，消散

参考例句：

• You pile everything up and scatter things around.你把东西乱堆乱放。
• Small villages scatter at the foot of the mountain.村庄零零落落地散布在山脚下。

4 random   

adj.随机的；任意的；n.偶然的(或随便的)行动

参考例句：

• The list is arranged in a random order.名单排列不分先后。
• On random inspection the meat was found to be bad.经抽查，发现肉变质了。

5 transparent   

adj.明显的，无疑的；透明的

参考例句：

• The water is so transparent that we can see the fishes swimming.水清澈透明，可以看到鱼儿游来游去。
• The window glass is transparent.窗玻璃是透明的。

6 embed   

vt.把…嵌(埋、插)入，扎牢；使深留脑中

参考例句：

• The harpoon struck but did not embed.鱼叉击中了但并没有插入。
• This photo showed us how did the root of plant embed the soil deeply.这张照片显示植物的根是如何深入到土壤里去的。

7 distraction   

n.精神涣散，精神不集中，消遣，娱乐

参考例句：

• Total concentration is required with no distractions.要全神贯注，不能有丝毫分神。
• Their national distraction is going to the disco.他们的全民消遣就是去蹦迪。

8 condensation   

n.压缩，浓缩；凝结的水珠

参考例句：

• A cloud is a condensation of water vapour in the atmosphere.云是由大气中的水蒸气凝结成的。
• He used his sleeve to wipe the condensation off the glass.他用袖子擦掉玻璃上凝结的水珠。

9 applied   

adj.应用的；v.应用，适用

参考例句：

• She plans to take a course in applied linguistics.她打算学习应用语言学课程。
• This cream is best applied to the face at night.这种乳霜最好晚上擦脸用。

10 embedded   

a.扎牢的

参考例句：

• an operation to remove glass that was embedded in his leg 取出扎入他腿部玻璃的手术
• He has embedded his name in the minds of millions of people. 他的名字铭刻在数百万人民心中。

11 filigree   

n.金银丝做的工艺品；v.用金银细丝饰品装饰；用华而不实的饰品装饰；adj.金银细丝工艺的

参考例句：

• The frost made beautiful filigree on the window pane.寒霜在玻璃窗上形成了美丽的花纹。
• The art filigree tapestry is elegant and magnificent.嵌金银丝艺术挂毯，绚丽雅典。

12 infrared   

adj./n.红外线(的)

参考例句：

• Infrared is widely used in industry and medical science.红外线广泛应用于工业和医学科学。
• Infrared radiation has wavelengths longer than those of visible light.红外辐射的波长比可见光的波长长。