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Scientists made see-through wood that's stronger than glass‍‍‍

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Researchers at the University of Maryland were able pull away color and chemicals from a block of wood to leave it impressively see-through. The result is a material that is both stronger and more insulating than glass, with better biodegradability than plastic. "We were very surprised by how transparent it could go," said Liangbing Hu, who wrote about the project inAdvanced Materials.

据称马里兰大学的研究者可以通过对一块木头进行脱色和去除化学物质使得木头看起来几乎透明。经过这样处理后的木头，它的坚韧度和绝缘性能都要比玻璃强，而且比塑料更容易降解。胡良斌教授："我们都对一块木头能达到如此高的透明度而感到震惊",他曾写过一篇关于高级材料工程学的论文。

Hu's team isn't the only group that's developed a technique for transparent wood -- Swedish researchers have also been able to clear out that pesky visible pulp, replacing it with a transparent polymer. The treatment techniques appear pretty similar: it's a two-stage process.

胡教授的团队并不是唯一一个研究“透明木头”技术的团队--瑞典的研究者也曾做实验，通过将肉眼能看到的木浆抽离出来，然后再填充入一种透明的高分子聚合物。这种处理技术和“二段(硝化)法”极为相似。

The researchers first boiled the wood in water, sodium hydroxide and other chemicals for roughly two hours. This flushes out lignin, the molecule responsible for giving wood its color. The team then poured epoxy over the block which makes the wood four to five times stronger, although it makes it all a little less environmentally-friendly in the process.

首先，研究者把木头放入水中加热煮沸约两个小时，分离其中的氢氧化钠和其他化学物质。这样可以冲刷掉木头中的木质素，这种分子是构成木头颜色的重要组成部分。然后，再浇灌“环氧基树脂”在木头上，它可以使得木头的强度增强4-5倍，尽管在这个步骤中它对环境并不是百分百无害的。

One of the great properties of the treated wood is how it retains the structure and natural channels from when it was a tree. These micro-channels can then deliver light similarly to how it moved nutrients around as part of a plant. "In traditional material the light gets scattered," said Hu. "If you have this waveguide effect with wood, more light comes into your house."

这种经过处理的木头还有一个伟大的属性，就是当它长成一棵树后，它可以保持原有的结构和天然的传输营养物质的管道。这种微型的管道可以像传输营养素一样在植物体中传输光线。“传统的材料是以散射的方式传播光线的”，胡教授说道。“如果你家的房子是用这种具有波导效应的木质材料建的，那么将会有更多的光线传播到你的房子中。”

So what's stopping us living in see-through wood houses, aside from privacy issues? Size limitations. Five by five-inch wood blocks are as large as they've been able to make it work, ranging in thickness from paper thin to about a centimeter thick -- far more substantial than what Swedish researchers have shown off so far. Dr. Hu and the University of Maryland scientists are is still working to scale it up further.

那么，是什么因素导致了我们不能生活在这种透明木头建的房子中呢？除了隐私问题之外，那就是尺寸大小限制了。研究者最大只能让5.5英寸大的木块起作用，目前瑞典的研究者展示的木头厚度范围在纸张的厚度至一公分的厚度之间，而且更多的还是偏向于实木。

If the team can accomplish that there's no shortage of applications, ranging from windows, building materials and furniture to smaller, precise, optical equipment that's normally made from glass or plastic.

如果该团队能解决这种木头的应用问题，从窗户到建筑材料、家具，甚至是通常都是由玻璃或者塑料制成的更小更精确的光学设备。

辞海拾贝

pull away:离开；脱身；拉掉

a block of:一块

impressively:令人难忘地

biodegradability:生物降解能力

clear out:清除

pesky:讨厌的,麻烦的

two-stage process:两阶段程序

sodium hydroxide:氢氧化钠

flush out:冲掉 

lignin:木质素

molecule:分子，微小颗粒

pour over:浇灌

environmentally-friendly:对环境无害的

nutrients:营养素

scattered:分散的

aside from:除...以外

privacy issues:隐私问题

thickness:厚度

precise:精确

range from:从...到...变动

building materials:建筑材料

optical equipment:光学设备

原英文文章链接：

http://www.engadget.com/2016/05/16/see-through-wood/

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