双语原稿 | 为什么真正的5G时代还没来？背后原因居然和它有关！

你有没有想过智能手机是怎样运作的？科学家凯西·穆泽揭示了在那些高功率设备的组件中，几乎都有化学家的功劳，看完这篇演讲，也许你就能理解，为什么她会说“化学是电子通信的英雄。”了

演讲者：Cathy Mulzer

演讲题目: The incredible chemistry powering your smartphone

中英文对照翻译

When I waltzed off to high school with my new Nokia phone, I thought I just had the new, coolest replacement for my old pink princess walkie-talkie. Except now, my friends and I could text or talk to each other wherever we were, instead of pretending, when we were running around each other s backyards.

当我带着我的新诺基亚手机，迈着轻快的步伐去上高中时，我以为它是我老旧粉红公主款对讲机的最新最酷的替代品。然而现在，我和朋友不论在哪里，都可以互相发信息或者对话，而不再需要像在后院里东奔西跑时那样假装互相对话。

Now, I ll be honest. Back then, I didn t think a lot about how these devices were made. They tended to show up on Christmas morning, so maybe they were made by the elves in Santa s workshop.

坦白说，在那个时候，我并没有仔细想想这些装置是如何制造出来的。它们就像在圣诞节的早晨突然出现，所以也许是被圣诞老人手工店的小精灵做出来的。

Let me ask you a question. Who do you think the real elves that make these devices are? If I ask a lot of the people I know, they would say it s the hoodie-wearing software engineers in Silicon Valley, hacking away at code. But a lot has to happen to these devices before they re ready for any kind of code. These devices start at the atomic level.

我想问你们一个问题。你们认为谁是真正制造这些设备的小精灵？如果我问一些我认识的人，他们会说是硅谷里面那些穿着连帽衫编辑代码的软件工程师。但是在这些设备进行任何代码编辑前，它们已经经过了大量的准备工作。这些设备的诞生是从原子级别开始的。

So if you ask me, the real elves are the chemists. That s right, I said the chemists. Chemistry is the hero of electronic communications. And my goal today is to convince you to agree with me.

所以如果你问我这个问题，我会说，那些真正的小精灵是化学家们。是的，我说的是化学家们。化学是电子通讯技术的幕后英雄。我今天的目的就是说服你们赞同我的观点。

OK, let s start simple, and take a look inside these insanely addictive devices. Because without chemistry, what is an information superhighway that we love, would just be a really expensive, shiny paperweight. Chemistry enables all of these layers. Let s start at the display. How do you think we get those bright, vivid colors that we love so much?

让我们从简单一点的开始，从内部来看看这些令人痴迷的设备。因为没有化学，我们所喜爱的这个信息高速公路，将会只是一个非常昂贵的、闪亮的压纸器。化学使每一层材料能够发挥作用。让我们从显示层开始说起。你们认为我们是如何得到这些令人爱不释手的明亮生动的颜色的？

Well, I ll tell you. There s organic polymers embedded within the display, that can take electricity and turn it into the blue, red and green that we enjoy in our pictures.

事实上，嵌入在显示层中的有机聚合物，能够把电流变成我们在图片中看到的令人赏心悦目的蓝色、红色和绿色。

What if we move down to the battery? Now there s some intense research. How do we take the chemical principles of traditional batteries and pair it with new, high surface area electrodes, so we can pack more charge in a smaller footprint of space, so that we could power our devices all day long, while we re taking selfies, without having to recharge our batteries or sit tethered to an electrical outlet?

那么电池层呢？目前有一些密集的研究。我们如何将传统电池的化学原理与新兴的、高表面积电极相结合，使得我们能够将更多的电荷放进一个更小的空间，这样当我们自拍时，设备可以续航一整天，不必再去给电池重新充电，或者在一个插座附近坐着。

What if we go to the adhesives that bind it all together, so that it could withstand our frequent usage? After all, as a millennial, I have to take my phone out at least 200 times a day to check it, and in the process, drop it two to three times.

再看看把这些全都紧紧固定在一起的粘合剂，它经得起我们的频繁使用吗？毕竟，作为千禧一代，我不得不每天把手机拿出来检查200次，并且在这个过程中摔了两到三次。

But what are the real brains of these devices? What makes them work the way that we love them so much? Well that all has to do with electrical components and circuitry that are tethered to a printed circuit board. Or maybe you prefer a biological metaphor -- the motherboard, you might have heard of that. Now, the printed circuit board doesn t really get talked about a lot.

但是什么才是这些设备真正的大脑？为什么我们对它们爱不释手？这些都和电子组件，以及围绕在一个印刷电路板周围的电子线路有关。或者也许你更喜欢生物学隐喻——你应该听说过的，主板。围绕印刷电路板，并没有太多真正的讨论。

And I ll be honest, I don t know why that is. Maybe it s because it s the least sexy layer and it s hidden beneath all of those other sleek-looking layers. But it s time to finally give this Clark Kent layer the Superman-worthy praise it deserves.

And so I ask you a question. What do you think a printed circuit board is?

坦白讲，我不知道这是为什么。可能是因为它是最不吸引人的一层，并且它隐藏在其它所有设计流畅的应用层下面。但是现在是时候给予这名不见经传的一层超人般的赞誉了。所以我想问你们一个问题。你们认为什么是印刷电路板？

Well, consider a metaphor. Think about the city that you live in. You have all these points of interest that you want to get to: your home, your work, restaurants, a couple of Starbucks on every block. And so we build roads that connect them all together. That s what a printed circuit board is.

考虑用隐喻的方式。想想你居住的城市。你知道所有的景点，然后你想去：你家里，你工作单位，餐厅，以及每个街区的星巴克。所以我们修了将它们都连接起来的路。这就是印刷电路板。

Except, instead of having things like restaurants, we have transistors on chips, capacitors, resistors, all of these electrical components that need to find a way to talk to each other. And so what are our roads? Well, we build tiny copper wires.

除了那些类似餐厅的东西，我们在芯片上用晶体管，电容器，电阻器替代了它们，所有这些电子元件，都需要可以相互通话的方式。那么我们的道路呢？我们造了微小的铜线。

So the next question is, how do we make these tiny copper wires? They re really small. Could it be that we go to the hardware store, pick up a spool of copper wire, get some wire cutters, a little clip-clip, saw it all up and then, bam -- we have our printed circuit board? No way. These wires are way too small for that. And so we have to rely on our friend: chemistry.

所以下一个问题是，我们如何制造这些微小铜线？它们非常的小。有没有可能，我们走进一家硬件商店，拿一轴铜线，再用那些钢丝钳，一点线缆，把它们组装起来，然后，砰——我们就有了印刷线路板吗？没门。我们需要的铜线是非常微小的。所以我们不得不依靠我们的朋友：化学。

Now, the chemical process to make these tiny copper wires is seemingly simple. We start with a solution of positively charged copper spheres. We then add to it an insulating printed circuit board. And we feed those positively charged spheres negatively charged electrons by adding formaldehyde to the mix. So you might remember formaldehyde.

化学工艺使制造这些微小铜线看起来似乎非常简单。我们从一个带正电的铜球的溶液开始。然后我们加入一个绝缘的印刷电路板。同时我们通过往混合液里加入甲醛，给带正电的球体里提供带负电的电子。你可能还记得甲醛是什么。

Really distinct odor, used to preserve frogs in biology class. Well it turns out it can do a lot more than just that.

非常独特的气味，用来在生物课上保存青蛙。是的，事实证明它可以用来做更多的事情。

And it s a really key component to making these tiny copper wires. You see, the electrons on formaldehyde have a drive. They want to jump over to those positively charged copper spheres. And that s all because of a process known as redox chemistry. And when that happens, we can take these positively charged copper spheres and turn them into bright, shiny, metallic and conductive copper.

并且这是制造这些微小铜线的关键部分。于是，这些甲醛上的电子有了内驱力。它们想跳上这些带正电的铜球。这些都是因为一个叫氧化还原的过程。当这个反应发生的时候，我们可以将这些带正电的铜球变成明亮的、闪光的、带金属性的、有传导性的铜。

And once we have conductive copper, now we re cooking with gas. And we can get all of those electrical components to talk to each other. So thank you once again to chemistry.

一旦我们有了带传导性的铜，就相当于我们已经在用天然气做饭了。那么，我们就能使所有电子元件互相之间进行交流了。所以再次谢谢化学。

And let s take a thought and think about how far we ve come with chemistry. Clearly, in electronic communications, size matters. So let s think about how we can shrink down our devices, so that we can go from our 1990s Zack Morris cell phone to something a little bit more sleek, like the phones of today that can fit in our pockets. Although, let s be real here: absolutely nothing can fit into ladies  pants pockets, if you can find a pair of pants that has pockets.

让我们来想想，思考一下有了化学以后我们有了多大的进步。很明显，在电子通讯领域，尺寸非常重要。所以让我们思考一下如何才能缩小设备的尺寸，这样我们可以从90年代的大哥大，过渡到一种更加流畅的，就像今天我们可以装进口袋里的手机。尽管，现实一点：很显然没有东西可以装进女士裤子的口袋里，如果你可以找到一条有口袋的裤子。

And I don t think chemistry can help us with that problem. But more important than shrinking the actual device, how do we shrink the circuitry inside of it, and shrink it by 100 times, so that we can take the circuitry from the micron scale all the way down to the nanometer scale? Because, let s face it, right now we all want more powerful and faster phones. Well, more power and faster requires more circuitry.

并且我也不认为化学可以帮我们解决这个问题。但是比让实际设备缩小尺寸更重要的是，我们如何使内部的电路缩小100倍，以便使电路从微米尺寸直接缩小到纳米尺寸？因为，我们面对的问题是，现在我们需要更强大，更快的手机，而更强大和更快意味着需要更多的电路。

So how do we do this? It s not like we have some magic electromagnetic shrink ray, like professor Wayne Szalinski used in "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" to shrink his children. On accident, of course. Or do we? Well, actually, in the field, there s a process that s pretty similar to that.

那么我们如何做到这一点？并不是说我们拥有某些有魔力的电磁收缩射线，就像韦恩·萨林斯基教授在 “亲爱的，我把孩子们缩小了”里面用来缩小他的孩子们的机器。当然，他不是故意的。我们可以用他的机器吗？事实上，在该领域内，有一个过程和那个非常类似。

And it s name is photolithography. In photolithography, we take electromagnetic radiation, or what we tend to call light, and we use it to shrink down some of that circuitry, so that we could cram more of it into a really small space.

它的名字叫光刻法。在光刻法里，我们使用电磁辐射，或者，我们更倾向于叫光，我们用它来缩小电路的一些部分，这样我们可以在一个非常小的空间里塞进更多的电路。

Now, how does this work? Well, we start with a substrate that has a light-sensitive film on it. We then cover it with a mask that has a pattern on top of it of fine lines and features that are going to make the phone work the way that we want it to. We then expose a bright light and shine it through this mask, which creates a shadow of that pattern on the surface.

那么，这是如何运作的呢？我们从一个有一层感光膜覆盖的基底开始。然后我们用一张膜把它盖住，膜上面有一些用来定制手机功能的细线和特性的图案。这些图案将使手机按照我们希望的方式工作。然后，我们通过该遮罩暴露明亮的光线并将其照亮，从而在表面上创建该图案的阴影。

Now, anywhere that the light can get through the mask, it s going to cause a chemical reaction to occur. And that s going to burn the image of that pattern into the substrate.

现在，光线可以透过遮罩的任何地方，都会引起化学反应的发生。这会将该图案的图像烧入基材中。

So the question you re probably asking is, how do we go from a burned image to clean fine lines and features? And for that, we have to use a chemical solution called the developer. Now the developer is special. What it can do is take all of the nonexposed areas and remove them selectively, leaving behind clean fine lines and features, and making our miniaturized devices work.

所以你可能想问一个问题，我们如何从一个烧出来的图像得到干净的线条和特征？要实现这个目的，我们必须使用一种叫显影剂的化学溶液。这种显影剂比较特别。它的作用是将没有曝光的区域有选择性的去除掉，留下干净的线条和特征，让我们的小型设备正常工作。

So, we ve used chemistry now to build up our devices, and we ve used it to shrink down our devices. So I ve probably convinced you that chemistry is the true hero, and we could wrap it up there.

所以，现在我们已经使用化学打造出了我们的设备，也用它缩小了我们的设备。所以我可能已经说服了你们，化学才是真正的功臣，那我们就可以到这里结束了。

Hold on, we re not done. Not so fast. Because we re all human. And as a human, I always want more. And so now I want to think about how to use chemistry to extract more out of a device.

等一下，还没有。没这么快。因为我们都是人类。作为一个人类，我总是想要更多。所以现在我想思考如何使用化学从一个设备中提取出更多的东西。

Right now, we re being told that we want something called 5G, or the promised fifth generation of wireless. Now, you might have heard of 5G in commercials that are starting to appear. Or maybe some of you even experienced it in the 2018 winter Olympics.

现在，我们知道了我们想造5G，或者说承诺的第五代无线技术。你应该已经在商业领域听说过，5G已经开始出现了。或者你们中的一些人也许已经在2018年冬奥会体验过了。

What I m most excited about for 5G is that, when I m late, running out of the house to catch a plane, I can download movies onto my device in 40 seconds as opposed to 40 minutes. But once true 5G is here, it s going to be a lot more than how many movies we can put on our device.

5G最使我兴奋的是，当我迟到了，冲出家门去赶飞机，我可以用40秒下载电影到我的手机上，而不是40分钟。但是一旦5G真的来了，比起我们可以放多少部电影在手机里，它实际上有更深远的意义。

So the question is, why is true 5G not here? And I ll let you in on a little secret. It s pretty easy to answer. It s just plain hard to do. You see, if you use those traditional materials and copper to build 5G devices, the signal can t make it to its final destination.

那么问题来了，为什么真正的5G还没来？我想与你们分享一个小秘密。这个问题很好回答。只是因为太难了。想想看，如果你用那些传统的材料和铜来制造5G设备，信号强度并不能满足我们的需求。

Traditionally, we use really rough insulating layers to support copper wires. Think about Velcro fasteners. It s the roughness of the two pieces that make them stick together. That s pretty important if you want to have a device that s going to last longer than it takes you to rip it out of the box and start installing all of your apps on it.

传统上，我们用非常粗糙的绝缘层来使铜线发挥作用。想象一下尼龙搭扣。是粗糙度让两片东西能相互粘牢。如果你想要一个设备，它的续航的时间比你把它从盒子里拿出来，并开始安装所有的应用程序要长的话，这一点就非常重要。

But this roughness causes a problem. You see, at the high speeds for 5G the signal has to travel close to that roughness. And it makes it get lost before it reaches its final destination. Think about a mountain range. And you have a complex system of roads that goes up and over it, and you re trying to get to the other side.

但是这种粗糙度引起了一个问题。在 5G 的高速下，信号不得不靠近粗糙面传输。那么在到达终点前它就会损失殆尽。想象一个山脉，环绕着一条错综复杂的道路系统，你试图到达山的那一边。

Don t you agree with me that it would probably take a really long time, and you would probably get lost, if you had to go up and down all of the mountains, as opposed to if you just drilled a flat tunnel that could go straight on through? Well it s the same thing in our 5G devices. If we could remove this roughness, then we can send the 5G signal straight on through uninterrupted. Sounds pretty good, right?

那么你们同不同意，跟挖一条笔直的隧道，直接穿过山脉相比，翻山越岭要花上很长时间，而且还可能会迷路？这就是5G设备所面临的问题。如果我们可以去掉这个粗糙面，就可以让5G信号笔直穿过媒介而不受干扰。听起来不错，是吧？

But hold on. Didn t I just tell you that we needed that roughness to keep the device together? And if we remove it, we re in a situation where now the copper isn t going to stick to that underlying substrate. Think about building a house of Lego blocks, with all of the nooks and crannies that latch together, as opposed to smooth building blocks.

但是等一下。我有没有告诉你们，我们需要那个粗糙面来保持设备相互连接？如果我们去掉了这部分，就无法将铜固定在下面的基底上。想象用乐高积木搭建一个房子，相比于光滑的积木块，乐高积木的所有边边角角都是嵌合在一起的。

Which of the two is going to have more structural integrity when the two-year-old comes ripping through the living room, trying to play Godzilla and knock everything down? But what if we put glue on those smooth blocks? And that s what the industry is waiting for. They re waiting for the chemists to design new, smooth surfaces with increased inherent adhesion for some of those copper wires.

当两岁的小孩闯进客厅，试图扮演哥斯拉，并且把所有东西都拆掉，这两个中哪一个的结构会更稳固呢？但是如果我们在光滑的积木块上用胶水呢？这就是行业目前在等待的东西。他们在等化学家们为某些铜线设计出增加了固有粘着力的新的、光滑的表面。

And when we solve this problem, and we will solve the problem, and we ll work with physicists and engineers to solve all of the challenges of 5G, well then the number of applications is going to skyrocket. So yeah, we ll have things like self-driving cars, because now our data networks can handle the speeds and the amount of information required to make that work. But let s start to use imagination.

当我们解决了这个问题——我们一定会解决这个问题——我们将与物理学家和工程师一起解决5G的所有挑战，那么应用程序的数量将激增。是的，我们将拥有自动驾驶汽车之类的东西，因为现在我们的数据网络可以处理完成这项工作所需的速度和信息量。但是，让我们开始发挥想象力。

I can imagine going into a restaurant with a friend that has a peanut allergy, taking out my phone, waving it over the food and having the food tell us a really important answer to a question -- deadly or safe to consume? Or maybe our devices will get so good at processing information about us, that they ll become like our personal trainers. And they ll know the most efficient way for us to burn calories. I know come November, when I m trying to burn off some of these pregnancy pounds, I would love a device that could tell me how to do that.

但是，再让我们来想象一下。比如，我和一个对花生过敏的朋友走进一家餐厅，拿出我的手机， 对着食物晃一下，然后让食物来帮助我们回答一个非常重要的问题——这个食物是致命的还是安全的？或者我们的设备能够非常好的处理这些信息，这样它们就成为了我们的个人助理，他们会知道最有效的方法来燃烧卡路里。我知道到了十一月，当我试图减掉一部分因为怀孕长胖的体重，我会很高兴有一个设备可以告诉我该怎么做。

I really don t know another way of saying it, except chemistry is just cool. And it enables all of these electronic devices. So the next time you send a text or take a selfie, think about all those atoms that are hard at work and the innovation that came before them.

我真的不知道怎么说，除了化学很酷。它是启用所有这些电子设备的功臣。因此，下次发送文档或自拍照时，请想一下那些辛苦工作的原子以及它们之前的创新。

Who knows, maybe even some of you listening to this talk, perhaps even on your mobile device, will decide that you too want to play sidekick to Captain Chemistry, the true hero of electronic devices.

谁知道，也许有些人在听这个演讲之后，即使只是在你的移动设备上听，也会勾起你关注这些电子设备背后真正的化学英雄的欲望。

Thank you for your attention, and thank you chemistry.

谢谢您的关注，也感谢您的化学反应。