A group of scientists has come upwith an unusual way to solve a messyproblem. They’ve taken dirty diapers， andused them to replace some of the sandneeded to build a house with concrete2.

Concrete is one of the most commonbuilding materials in the world. It’s usedto construct3 many things， includingroads， sidewalks， and buildings. Concreteis usually made by mixing together sand，water， and cement4.

But making concrete creates a lot ofpollution. And it uses a lot of sand. Mining5 for sand creates other problemsfor the environment.

A scientist had an unusual idea.What if some of the sand in concretecould be replaced with used disposable6diapers？

Diapers are a huge source ofpollution. In the US alone， over 3.6billion kilograms of them are thrownaway each year. These end up taking upspace in landfills7.

一組科學(xué)家想出了一個(gè)不同尋常的方法來(lái)解決一個(gè)棘手的問(wèn)題。他們拿了臟紙尿布，用它們代替了用混凝土建造房子所需的一些沙子。

混凝土是世界上最常見的建筑材料之一。它被用來(lái)建造許多東西，包括馬路、人行道和建筑物?；炷镣ǔＳ缮匙?、水和水泥混合而成。

但是制造混凝土?xí)斐纱罅课廴?。而且它?huì)使用很多沙子。開采沙子會(huì)給環(huán)境帶來(lái)其他問(wèn)題。

一位科學(xué)家有個(gè)不同尋常的想法。如果混凝土中的一些沙子可以用用過(guò)的一次性紙尿布代替呢？

紙尿布是一個(gè)巨大的污染源。僅在美國(guó)，每年就有超過(guò)36 億公斤的尿布被丟棄。這些最終占據(jù)了垃圾填埋場(chǎng)的空間。

So the scientist and her team setout to study the problem. They collectedused diapers， cleaned them up， andtreated the diapers to get rid of any badgerms8. Then the diapers were dried andcut into small pieces that could beadded to concrete.

The researchers tested out theiridea by making different mixes ofconcrete with different amounts of shredded9 diapers. They found that thisnew kind of concrete was just as safeand strong as regular concrete. It alsodidn’t have any harmful germs in it.

Overall， the scientists say thatdiapers could replace up to 8% of thesand used in the concrete needed to builda house. In the parts of a house thatsupport a lot of weight， 10% of the sandcould be replaced with shredded diapers.In areas that don’t have to support muchweight， as much as 40% of the sand couldbe replaced with diapers.

The scientists didn’t just test thestrength of the concrete. They actuallybuilt a small concrete house to testtheir ideas.

The researchers think their ideacould make it less expensive to buildhomes. After all， sand needs to be mined，which costs money. Used diapers arebasically free.

因此，這位科學(xué)家和她的團(tuán)隊(duì)著手研究這個(gè)問(wèn)題。他們收集用過(guò)的紙尿布，把它們清理干凈，并對(duì)紙尿布進(jìn)行處理，以去除任何有害細(xì)菌。然后，他們將紙尿布烘干，切成小塊，加入混凝土中。

研究人員通過(guò)用不同數(shù)量的碎紙尿片制作不同的混凝土混合物來(lái)測(cè)試他們的想法。他們發(fā)現(xiàn)這種新型混凝土和普通混凝土一樣安全和堅(jiān)固。它里面也沒(méi)有任何有害的細(xì)菌。

總的來(lái)說(shuō)，科學(xué)家們表示，紙尿布可以取代建造房屋所需混凝土中多達(dá)8%的沙子。在房子里承受較大重量的部分，10%的沙子可以用切碎的紙尿布代替。在不需要支撐太大重量的地方，多達(dá)40%的沙子可以被換成切碎的紙尿布。

科學(xué)家們不僅僅測(cè)試了混凝土的強(qiáng)度。他們實(shí)際上還建造了一座小型混凝土房屋來(lái)測(cè)試他們的點(diǎn)子。

研究人員認(rèn)為他們的想法可以降低建造房屋的成本。畢竟，沙子需要開采，這需要花錢。而用過(guò)的紙尿布基本上是免費(fèi)的。

The scientists are excitedabout their results， but they realizethat there’s still a lot of work to bedone. If diapers are really going to beused in concrete， someone will have tofind out how to safely collect， clean，and store lots and lots of used diapers.

The team is still trying to find outhow that might work. They are alsostudying how well diaper concrete isable to block out heat and sound.

Perhaps the biggest challengewill be persuading people to useconcrete made with diapers. What doyou think？

科學(xué)家們對(duì)自己的成果感到興奮，但他們意識(shí)到還有很多工作要做。如果真的要把紙尿布用于混凝土，就必須有人想出如何安全地收集、清潔和儲(chǔ)存大量用過(guò)的紙尿布。

該團(tuán)隊(duì)仍在試圖弄清楚這可能如何運(yùn)作。他們也在研究尿布混凝土的隔熱和隔音效果。

也許最大的挑戰(zhàn)將是說(shuō)服人們使用由紙尿布制成的混凝土。你怎么看？

（英語(yǔ)原文選自：newsforkids.net）