It was just an ordinary Saturday.
那天只是个普通的星期六。
My dad was outside mowing the lawn, my mom was upstairs folding laundry,
我爸在外面除草，我妈在楼上折衣服，
my sister was in her room doing homework and I was in the basement playing video games.
我姐在她房间写作业，我在地下室打电动。
And as I came upstairs to get something to drink,
我上楼去喝东西的时候
I looked out the window and realized that there was something that I was supposed to be doing, and this is what I saw.
看向窗外，才意识到有件事我应该要做，这就是我看到的。
No, this wasn't my family's dinner on fire. This was my science project.
喔不，这不是我家的晚餐着火了，这是我的科技项目。
Flames were pouring out, smoke was in the air and it looked like our wooden deck was about to catch fire.
火焰滚滚冒出，烟散在空气中，看起来就像我家的木头露台快着火了。
I immediately started yelling.
我立即开始大叫。
My mom was freaking out, my dad ran around to put out the fire and of course my sister started recording a Snapchat video.
我妈快疯了，我爸为了灭火跑来跑去，当然我姐姐也开始用Snapchat录像做记录。
This was just the beginning of my team's science project.
这是我的小组一开始的科学项目。
My team is composed of me and three other students who are here in the audience today.
我的小组有我和另外三个学生，他们今天也都在观众席。
We competed in FIRST LEGO League which is an international LEGO robotics competition for kids,
我们参加过FIRST乐高联赛，那是专设给儿童的世界级乐高机器人比赛，
and in addition to a robotics game, we also worked on a separate science project, and this was the project that we were working on.
而且除了机器人比赛，我们也做了另一个科学实验，这就是我们一直在做的计划。
So the idea for this project all started when a few months earlier,
这个计划的点子是在那之前几个月前开始，
a couple of my teammates took a trip to Central America and saw beaches littered with Styrofoam, or expanded polystyrene foam.
我的几个组员到中美洲去玩，看到海滩上到处是保丽龙，或是其他聚苯乙烯塑料。
And when they came back and told us about it, we really started thinking about the ways in which we see Styrofoam every day.
他们回来之后告诉我这件事，我们就开始去想日常生活中看到的保丽龙。
Get a new flat-screen TV? You end up with a block of Styrofoam bigger than the TV itself.
收到一台新的平板电视吗？你收到的保丽龙会比那台电视还大。
Drink a cup of coffee? Well, those Styrofoam coffee cups are sure going to add up.
喝咖啡吗？嗯，保丽龙咖啡杯当然会越积越多。
And where do all these items go after their one-time use?
这些东西被用过一次之后会跑哪去？
Since there aren't any good existing solutions for used Styrofoam,
既然目前没有处理废弃保丽龙的好方式，
almost all of them end up right in the landfill, or the oceans and beaches, taking over 500 years to degrade.
几乎所有保丽龙最后都会直接到掩埋场，或是海洋里、沙滩上，要花超过五百年时间分解。
And in fact, every year, the US alone produces over two billion pounds of Styrofoam,
而且事实上，光是美国一整年就生产20亿磅的保丽龙，
filling up a staggering 25 percent of landfills.
足足可以填满25%的掩埋场。
So why do we have these ghost accumulations of Styrofoam waste?
为什么我们会有这些幽灵囤积废弃的保丽龙？
Why can't we just recycle them like many plastics?
为什么不能像很多塑料一样回收保丽龙？
Well, simply put, recycled polystyrene is too expensive and potentially contaminated,
简而言之，回收保丽龙太贵，而且保丽龙本身有可能受污染，
so there is very little market demand for Styrofoam that has to be recycled.
所以回收保丽龙的市场需求非常小。
And as a result, Styrofoam is considered a nonrenewable material, because it is neither feasible nor viable to recycle polystyrene.
结果是保丽龙被当成是非再生材料，因为回收保丽龙既不可行也不可能。
And in fact, many cities across the US have even passed ordinances
事实上很多美国城市甚至已经通过法令，
that simply ban the production of many products containing polystyrene,
禁止很多含有聚苯乙烯的产品生产，
which includes disposable utensils, packing peanuts, takeout containers and even plastic beach toys,
包括了免洗餐具、填充用的保丽龙球、外带餐盒，甚至是塑料制的海滩玩具，
all products that are very useful in today's society.
所有产品在当代社会都很实用。
And now France has become the first country to completely ban all plastic utensils, cups and plates.
现在法国也成为第一个完全禁止塑料餐具和杯盘的国家。
But what if we could keep using Styrofoam and keep benefiting from its cheap, lightweight, insulating and excellent packing ability,
但有没有可能，我们可以继续用保丽龙，保有它便宜、轻量、绝缘和绝佳的包装特性，
while not having to suffer from the repercussions of having to dispose of it?
而不必苦于必须丢弃的后果？

What if we could turn it into something else that's actually useful?
我们有没有可能把它变成有用的东西？
What if we could make the impossible possible?
我们有没有可能让不可能变成可能？
My team hypothesized that we could use the carbon that's already in Styrofoam to create activated carbon,
我的小组假设我们能用存在保丽龙里的碳制造活性碳，
which is used in almost every water filter today.
现在过滤水都用这个。
And activated carbon works by using very small micropores to filter out contaminants from water or even air.
而且活性碳用非常小的微孔过滤出水，甚至是空气中的污染物。
So we started out by doing a variety of heating tests, and unfortunately, we had many failures.
所以我们开始各种加热测试，不幸的是我们失败很多次。
Literally, nothing worked. Besides my dad's grill catching on fire, most of our samples vaporized into nothing,
说真的，没有成功过。除了我爸的烤肉架着火，我们大部分的样品也都人间蒸发，
or exploded inside expensive furnaces, leaving a horribly sticky mess.
或是在昂贵的火炉里爆炸，留下一团黏黏的东西。
In fact, we were so saddened by our failures that we almost gave up.
其实我们大受失败打击到几乎想要放弃。
So why did we keep trying when all the adults said it was impossible?
那为什么我们还继续试，即使所有大人都跟我们说不可能？
Well, maybe it's because we're kids. We don't know any better.
嗯，可能因为我们是小孩，我们什么也不懂。
But the truth is, we kept trying because we thought it was still possible.
但真相是，我们继续尝试是因为我们认为还有可能。
We knew that if we were successful, we would be helping the environment and making the world a better place.
我们知道如果成功，就可以帮助环境、让地球变成更好的地方。
So we kept trying and failing and trying and failing. We were so ready to give up.
所以我们继续尝试、继续失败、继续尝试、继续失败。我们都已经准备好要放弃了。
But then it happened. With the right temperatures, times and chemicals,
但后来成功了。有了对的温度、时间和化学物质，
we finally got that successful test result showing us that we had created activated carbon from Styrofoam waste.
我们终于测试成功，看到废弃保丽龙变成活性碳。
And at that moment, the thing that had been impossible all of a sudden wasn't.
在那一刻，那个一直以来不可能的事情瞬间都变可能了。
It showed us that although we had many failures at the beginning,
这一切表明，虽然一开始失败很多次，
we were able to persevere through them to get the test results that we wanted.
我们还是坚持到底，从中得到想要的结果。
And moreover, not only were we able to create activated carbon for purifying water,
而且，不只是我们可以制造活性碳来过滤水，
but we were also able to reduce Styrofoam waste, solving two global problems with just one solution.
我们还可以减少废弃保丽龙，只用一个方法，解决全球的两个麻烦。
So from then on, we were inspired to take our project further,
从那之后，我们受到鼓舞，让计划更进一步，
performing more tests to make it more effective and testing it in real world situations.
做更多测试，让它更有效益，并用在真实生活之中。
We then proceeded to receive funding from the NSTA's eCYBERMISSION STEM-in-Action program sponsored by the US Army,
我们开始收到由美军赞助的全美科学教师协会的E网络科学竞赛STEM-in-Action项目的资金，
as well as FIRST Global Innovation Awards sponsored by XPRIZE.
以及由XPRIZE基金会赞助的第一全球创新奖。
And we were also honored with the Scientific American Innovator Award from Google Science Fair.
我们也很荣幸得到由Google科学展颁发的美国科学创新奖。
And using these funds, we plan to file a full patent on our process and to continue to work on our project.
运用这些资金，我们计划为这个程序申请完全专利，并继续我们的项目。
So yes, although we started with catching my dad's grill on fire and failing so many times that we almost quit,
没错，虽然我们是从烧了我爸的烤架开始，而且失败无数次到几乎要放弃，
it was well worth it when we look back at it now.
但现在回头看都还是觉得非常值得，
We took a problem that many people said was impossible and we made it possible,
我们把每个人都认为不可能解决的麻烦变成可能，
and we persevered when it looked like nothing that we did would work.
我们坚持到底，即使我们做的事看起来毫无希望。
We learned that you can't have success without a little, or a lot, of failure.
我们学到了：没经历过一些或是非常多次的失败，你就不可能成功。
So in the future, don't be afraid if your grill goes up in flames,
所以未来你的烤架着火时，不要害怕，
because you never know when your idea might just catch fire. Thank you.
因为你永远不知道你的点子什么时候可能点燃。谢谢。