Cement, concrete’s primary ingredient, accounts for about 5% of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions. Researchers and engineers are working to develop less energy-intensive alternatives, including bricks made with leftover brewery grains, concrete modelled after ancient Roman breakwaters (Romans made concrete by mixing lime and volcanic rock to form mortar, a highly stable material), and bricks made of, well, urine.

水泥是混凝土的主要成分，所造成的二氧化碳排放量占全球的5%。研究人员和工程师们正在努力开发低耗能的替代材料，包括用啤酒厂剩余谷物制成的砖块、仿古罗马防波堤的混凝土材料(古罗马人将石灰和火山岩混合成一种高度稳定的材料——灰浆——用来制造混凝土)，以及用，呃，尿液制成的砖。

As part of his thesis project, Edinburgh College of Art student Peter Trimble was working on an exhibit that was supposed to feature a module on sustainability. Almost by accident, he created “Biostone”: a mixture of sand (incidentally, one of Earth’s most abundant resources), nutrients, and urea – a chemical found in human urine.

爱丁堡艺术学院(Edinburgh College of Art)的学生特林布(Peter Trimble)在毕业论文项目中有一部分是以可持续性模块为主题设计展览。几乎是出于偶然，他创造了“生化石”：一种沙子 、营养素和尿素(一种人类尿液中的化学物质)的混合物。顺便说一句，沙子是地球上最丰富的资源之一。

Pumping bacterial solution into a sand-filled mould, Trimble devised hundreds of experiments over the course of a year until he tweaked the recipe. The microbes eventually metabolised the mixture of sand, urea, and calcium chloride, creating a glue that strongly bound the sand molecules together.

特林布将细菌溶液注入充满沙子的模具中，在一年里进行了数百次实验才找到了配方，令细菌能够分解沙子、尿素和氯化钙的混合物，形成一种胶水，将沙子分子牢固地粘在一起。

Trimble’s design offers an alternative to the energy-intensive methods with a low energy biological process of microbial manufacturing. Biostone produces no greenhouse gases and uses a widely available raw material. While Trimble's material would require reinforcement to be as strong as concrete, it could become a low-cost way of building temporary structures or street furniture.

特林布的设计利用了制造微生物这一低能耗的生物手段，可以用来替代高能耗的生产方式。生化石不产生温室气体，原材料非常普遍。虽然它还不能像混凝土一样坚固，但可以用来建造临时建筑和街道设施，成本较低。

At the very least, Biostone has spawned a discussion on ways in which industrial manufacturing can be made more sustainable, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa and other developing countries where sand is readily available.

至少，生化石已经引发了一场关于工业制造如何变得更具可持续性的讨论，特别是在撒哈拉以南的非洲等等有沙子的发展中国家。

These bio-bricks do have an environmental downside, however: the same bacterial metabolism that solidifies them work also turns the urea into ammonia, which can pollute groundwater if it escapes into the environment.

然而，这些生物砖也会对环境造成问题：令生物砖固化的细菌代谢过程也会将尿素转化为氨，如果泄漏到环境中，会污染地下水。