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Scientists have developed an artificial photosynthesis process that can grow plants in the dark.
科学家已经开发出人工光合作用，可以让植物在黑暗的环境中生长。
The process is designed to provide a new way to produce food as worldwide demand grows.
随着全球需求的增长，这一过程旨在提供一种新的食物生产方式。
Photosynthesis involves plants taking in energy from the sun to produce life-supporting carbon and oxygen.
光合作用涉及植物吸收来自太阳的能量来产生维持生命的碳和氧。
The process is important to support the growth of many plants.
这个过程对许多植物的生长非常重要。
But scientists have estimated that only about 1 percent of energy from the sun is actually captured by plants that produce food.
但科学家估计，实际上只有大约1%的太阳能被生产食物的植物捕获。
Researchers report in a new study that the artificial photosynthesis method they developed performed up to 18 times more efficiently in growing some foods.
研究人员在一项新的研究中报告称，他们开发的人工光合作用方法在种植某些食物时效率提高了18倍。
And the process can be carried out in complete darkness.
而且这个过程可以在完全黑暗的环境下进行。
Results of the study recently appeared in the publication Nature Food.
这项研究的结果最近发表在《自然-食品》杂志上。
The research team included members from the University of California Riverside and the University of Delaware.
研究小组包括来自加州大学河滨分校和特拉华大学的成员。
Researchers used an “electrolyzer system” to turn carbon dioxide, electricity and water into acetate.
研究人员使用“电解槽系统”将二氧化碳、电和水转化为醋酸盐。
Acetate is the main compound found in many household products, including vinegar.
醋酸盐是包括醋在内的许多家用产品中的主要化合物。
The electrolyzer process effectively turned 57 percent of carbon molecules in carbon dioxide into acetate, University of Delaware researchers said in a statement.
特拉华大学的研究人员在一份声明中表示，电解槽过程有效地将二氧化碳中57%的碳分子转化为醋酸盐。
The resulting acetate mixture was then used as food to grow plants in the dark.
生成的醋酸盐混合物之后被用作在黑暗环境中植物生长所需的食物。
The researchers experimented with nine different food plants.
研究人员试验了9种不同的食用植物。
These included lettuce, rice, peas, tomatoes, pepper and tobacco.
其中包括生菜、大米、豌豆、西红柿、胡椒和烟草。
The team reported that all these plants were able to take in carbon from the acetate.
该研究小组报告称，所有这些植物都能够吸收醋酸盐中的碳。
Experiments were also carried out with algae, yeast and a fungus that produces mushrooms.
他们还用藻类、酵母和一种产蘑菇的真菌进行了实验。
The study found that, for algae, the process was four times more efficient than growing the material photosynthetically with sunlight.
研究发现，对于藻类而言，这一过程的效率是利用阳光进行光合作用的四倍。
And yeast production was 18 times more efficient than the usual process involving sugar collected from corn.
酵母生产的效率比通常使用从玉米中提取的糖来培养的要高18倍。
Lettuce produced the best results from artificial photosynthesis out of all the food crops tested.
在所有被测试的食用作物中，生菜的人工光合作用效果最好。
“We were able to grow food-producing organisms without any contributions from biological photosynthesis,” said the co-writer of the study, Elizabeth Hann.
该研究的合著者伊丽莎白·汉恩说：“我们能够在没有任何生物光合作用的情况下培育出可食用的生物。”
She is a doctoral candidate at UC Riverside’s Jinkerson Lab.
她是加州大学河滨分校金克森实验室的博士生。
Hann added that the process is much more efficient at turning energy into food than the biological photosynthesis methods, which have taken place for millions of years.
汉恩还说，在将能量转化为食物方面，这一过程比生物光合作用方法效率更高，生物光合作用方法已经存在了数百万年。
The researchers also reported that the process increased energy efficiency, too.
研究人员还报告称，这一过程也提高了能源效率。
When used together with a solar cell to power the electrolyzer, the method required just one-fourth the energy to grow the same amount of food created by sunlight and natural photosynthesis.
当使用太阳能电池为电解槽供电时，这种方法只需要四分之一的能量就可以种植由阳光和自然光合作用产生的等量食物。
The scientists said their method could help fight the effects of climate change that are making traditional crop-growing more difficult.
科学家表示，他们的方法可以帮助对抗气候变化的影响，气候变化正在使传统作物种植变得更加困难。
“Drought, floods and reduced land availability would be less of a threat to global food security if crops for humans and animals grew in less resource-intensive, controlled environments,” the researchers noted.
研究人员指出：“如果供人类和动物食用的作物生长在资源密度低、可控的环境中，干旱、洪水和可用土地面积减少对全球粮食安全的威胁就会减少。”
Robert Jinkerson is a professor of chemical and environmental engineering at UC Riverside.
罗伯特·金克森是加州大学河滨分校的化学和环境工程教授。
He said growing foods through artificial photosynthesis could help the world meet its rising demand for food without the expansion of agricultural lands.
他说，通过人工光合作用种植食物可以帮助世界在不扩大农业用地面积的情况下满足日益增长的食物需求。
“Using solar energy to power our process could allow for more food or animal feed to be produced on a given area of land,” Jinkerson said.
金克森说：“利用太阳能为我们的生产过程提供动力可以在特定的土地上生产更多的食物或动物饲料。”
The researchers said they plan to continue improving the electrolyzer system to produce a more effective acetate mixture.
研究人员说，他们计划继续改进电解槽系统，以生产更有效的醋酸盐混合物。
They also want to explore ways to possibly bioengineer plants that grow completely on acetate.
他们还想探索完全依靠醋酸盐生长的生物工程植物。
I’m Bryan Lynn.
布莱恩·林恩为您播报。
译文为可可英语翻译，未经授权请勿转载！
