橘皮创新获谷歌奖学金？南非青少年智斗旱灾

导读:科学的意义是什么？科学家的情怀又如何体现？我想，近日获得谷歌奖学金的南非少女可以给我们一些思考。

Kiara Nirghin beat students from around the world for a $50,000 (38,000 pounds) scholarship with her "fighting drought with fruit" submission.

在提交了“水果抗旱”计划后，Kiara Nirghin以全球最优秀学生的身份获得了五万美金（三万八千英镑）的奖学金。

Her work was in response to the recent drought that has hit South Africa .

她的工作是为了回应最近袭击南非的旱灾。

The drought, the worst since 1982, led to crop failures and animals dying.

这场自1982年以来最严重的旱灾，使得庄家欠收，动物死亡。

Ms Nirghin, a student at the Anglican Church-founded St Martin’s High School in the main city Johannesburg, said three experiments over 45 days resulted in her coming up with the "orange peel mixture" as an alternative to expensive and non-biodegradable super-absorbent polymers (SAPs).

Nirghin小姐就读于南非主要城市约翰内斯堡圣公会创办的一所圣马丁高中，她说，历史45天的三次试验使她提出了这个“混合橘皮”的方法，作为替代昂贵并且无法生物降解的超强吸收性聚合物的一种方法。

It was made out of waste products from the juice-manufacturing industry, she said.

她说，它是从果汁制造业的废物中做出来的。

These included molecules found in orange peels and naturally occurring oils in avocado skins.

这些东西包括橘皮中发现的分子和鳄梨皮上自然分泌的油脂。

"The product is fully biodegradable, low-cost and has better water retaining properties than commercial SAPs. The only resources involved in the creation of the ’orange peel mixture’ were electricity and time, no special equipment nor materials were required," Ms Nirghin added in her online submission.

Nirghin在线上提交时补充道：“这个产品可以完全被生物降解，成本低，而且比商用的超强吸收性聚合物附水能力更强。制造“橘皮混合物”唯一需要的资源就是电和时间，并不需要特殊的装置或者材料。”

The student, who was awarded the prize at the annual fair in California, said she hoped it would help farmers save both money and their crops.

她在加利福尼亚举行的年度展览会上被授予奖励，她说，她希望帮助农民节省资金，拯救粮食。

The competition was open to children from the ages of 13 to 18.

该项比赛对13到18岁的孩子开放。