"We're thinking about how we can engineer plants to replace functions of the things that we use every day," explained Michael Strano, a professor of chemical engineering at MIT.
麻省理工学院化学工程教授迈克尔·斯特拉诺解释道：“我们正在思考如何设计植物来代替我们日常使用的东西的功能。”
The technology, Strano said, could one day be used to light the rooms or even to turn trees into self-powered street lamps. In the future, the team hopes to develop a version of the technology that can be sprayed onto plant leaves in a one-off treatment that would last the plant's lifetime.
斯特拉诺表示，该技术将来可能用于房间照明，甚至可以将树木改造为自供电路灯。该团队希望未来可以开发此技术的新形式，用于喷洒植物叶片，一次操作，终生有效。
Strano and his colleagues detail their discovery in the March 7 issue of the journal Nature Materials.
斯特拉诺和他的同事在3月7号的《自然材料》杂志上详细说明了他们的发现。
"The thermal wave squeezes electrons out of the nanotubes like a tube of toothpaste," Strano explained.
“热浪把电子从毫微管里像挤牙膏一样挤出来，”斯特拉诺解释说。
“The thermal wave squeezes electrons out of the nanotubes like a tube of toothpaste, ” Strano explained.
“热浪把电子从毫微管里像挤牙膏一样挤出来，”斯特拉诺解释说。
Strano said he was confident his team's discovery could be translated into commercial batteries within a few years.
斯特拉诺表示他相信小组的发现在几年之内就可以转化成商业的电池。
And while the individual nanowires are tiny, Strano suggests that they could be made in large arrays to supply significant amounts of power for larger devices.
斯特拉诺表示，由于各个纳米管很细微，可以大批量地生产，给较大的设备供应相当数量的电力。
“We’re basically imitating tricks that nature has discovered over millions of years” — in particular, “reversibility, the ability to break apart and reassemble,” Strano says.
“我们基本上是在重复自然数百万年前就发现的戏法”，斯特拉诺说道，“尤其是可逆性，一种消解后可重组的能力。”
We have a lot of engineering challenges that we have to overcome in order to make this a commercial device, " Strano said, "but nothing is as difficult as the initial discovery."
“为了做这个商业的装置，我们有许多工程上的挑战要战胜，”斯特拉诺说，“但是没有什么会比最初的研发更艰难。”
That process has now been imitated by Michael Strano, the Charles and Hilda Roddey Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering, and his team of graduate students and researchers.
如今，查尔斯和希尔达·罗迪(Charles and HildaRoddey)化学工程的副教授迈克尔·斯特拉诺(MichaelStrano)和他的研究团队已可以模仿这一过程。
The chloroplast is "an amazing machine," Strano says. "They are remarkable engines that consume carbon dioxide and use light to produce glucose," a chemical that provides energy for metabolism.
叶绿体是一个“令人惊艳的机器”，斯特拉诺说，“这些超级机器借助光将二氧化碳转化为葡萄糖”，一种为新陈代谢提供能量的物质。
The chloroplast is "an amazing machine," Strano says. "They are remarkable engines that consume carbon dioxide and use light to produce glucose," a chemical that provides energy for metabolism.
叶绿体是一个“令人惊艳的机器”，斯特拉诺说，“这些超级机器借助光将二氧化碳转化为葡萄糖”，一种为新陈代谢提供能量的物质。
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