好英语网2021年优秀科技大赏
In the tech industry, 2021 was a year of profits and pivots.
在科技行业，2021是盈利与转折的一年。
Thanks in part to the pandemic and the digitization of our lives, all of the big tech companies got bigger. Facebook changed its name to Meta, Jeff Bezos went to space, Jack Dorsey left Twitter and Silicon Valley fell harder for crypto.
这在一定程度上是由于大流行和我们生活的数字化，所有大型科技公司都变得更大了。Facebook更名为Meta，杰夫·贝佐斯去了太空，杰克·多尔西离开了Twitter，硅谷对加密货币更加趋之若鹜。
Every December, partly to cheer myself up after a year of covering tech’s scandals and shortfalls, I use this column to lift up a handful of tech projects that improved the world during the year. My criteria are somewhat loose and arbitrary, but I look for the kinds of worthy, altruistic projects that apply technology to big, societal problems, and that don’t get much attention from the tech press, like start-ups that are using artificial intelligence to fight wildfires, or food-delivery programs for the needy.
每年12月，我利用这个专栏来举出一些在这一年改善世界的科技项目，也是为了在报道了一年的科技丑闻和糗事之后让自己振作起来。我的标准有点松散和武断，但我要选择的是那些有价值的利他项目，它们将技术应用到重大的社会问题上，并且没有得到科技媒体的太多关注，比如使用人工智能扑灭森林大火，或为有需要的人提供送餐服务的初创企业。
Especially at a time when many of tech’s leaders seem more interested in building new, virtual worlds than improving the world we live in, it’s worth praising the technologists who are stepping up to solve some of our biggest problems.
相比改善我们生活的世界，许多技术行业领导者现在似乎对构建新虚拟世界更感兴趣。正是在这种时候，为了解决我们一些最大问题而挺身而出的科技从业者值得赞扬。
So here, without further ado, are this year’s Good Tech Awards.
所以，话不多说，以下是获得今年良善科技奖的公司。
To DeepMind, for cracking the protein problem (and publishing its work)
DeepMind，解决了蛋白质问题（并将其成果发表）
One of the year’s most exciting A.I. breakthroughs came in July when DeepMind — a Google-owned artificial intelligence company — published data and open-source code from its groundbreaking AlphaFold project.
7月发生了年度最激动人心的人工智能突破之一，谷歌旗下的人工智能公司DeepMind发布了其开创性的AlphaFold项目的数据和开源代码。
The project, which used A.I. to predict the structures of proteins, solved a problem that had vexed scientists for decades, and was hailed by experts as one of the greatest scientific discoveries of all time. And by publishing its data freely, AlphaFold set off a frenzy among researchers, some of whom are already using it to develop new drugs and better understand the proteins involved in viruses like SARS-CoV-2.
该项目使用了人工智能预测蛋白质的结构，解决了困扰科学家数十年的问题，并被专家誉为有史以来最伟大的科学发现之一。通过无偿发布数据，AlphaFold在研究人员中掀起了一阵狂潮，其中一些人已经在使用它来开发新药并更好地了解与SARS-CoV-2等病毒有关的蛋白质。
Google’s overall A.I. efforts have been fraught with controversy and missteps, but AlphaFold seems like an unequivocally good use of the company’s vast expertise and resources.
谷歌的整体人工智能努力充满争议和失误，但AlphaFold似乎是公司良好利用广泛专业知识和资源的成果。
To Upside Foods, Mosa Meat and Wildtype, for pushing lab-grown meat toward the mainstream
Upside Foods、Mosa Meat和Wildtype：将实验室培育的肉类推向主流
People love eating meat. But the industrial-farm system that produces the vast majority of the world’s meat supply is an ethical and environmental disaster, and plant-based substitutes haven’t caught on widely with carnivores. Hence the importance of cultured meat — which is grown from cells in a lab, rather than taken from slaughtered animals, and which might be tech’s answer to our global meat addiction.
人喜欢吃肉。但是，生产世界上绝大多数肉类供应的工业农场系统是一场道德和环境灾难，植物性替代品还没有在食肉动物中广泛流行。因此，人造肉十分重要。它是从实验室的细胞中培育出来的，而不是来自屠宰动物，这也许是科技对我们的全球肉类嗜好的一个应对方案。
Despite more than a decade of research and development, cultured meat is still far too expensive and hard to produce. But that may be changing soon, thanks to the efforts of dozens of start-ups including Upside Foods, Mosa Meat and Wildtype.
尽管经过十多年的研究和开发，人造肉仍然过于昂贵且生产难度高。但由于包括Upside Foods、Mosa Meat和Wildtype在内的数十家初创企业的努力，这种情况可能很快就会改变。
Upside Foods, formerly known as Memphis Meats, opened a 53,000-square-foot plant in California this year, and announced it had figured out a way to grow cells into meat without using animal components.
Upside Foods，前身为Memphis Meats，今年在加利福尼亚开设了一家占地5.3万平方英尺的工厂，并宣布已找到一种无需使用动物成分即可将细胞培育成肉的方法。
Mosa Meat, a Dutch cultivated-meat start-up, announced major breakthroughs in its technology, too, including a method of growing animal fat that is 98 percent cheaper than the previous method.
荷兰人造肉类初创公司Mosa Meat也宣布了其技术的重大突破，包括一种动物脂肪生长方法，比过去的方法便宜98%。
And Wildtype, a San Francisco start-up that is producing lab-grown seafood, released a new, cell-based salmon product this year that is getting good reviews in early tests, even though the Food and Drug Administration hasn’t yet approved it.
旧金山的一家生产实验室人造海鲜的初创公司Wildtype今年发布了一种新的以细胞培育为基础的三文鱼产品，该产品在早期测试中获得了好评，不过尚未获得美国食品和药物管理局的批准。
To Recidiviz and Ameelio, for bringing better tech to the criminal justice system
Recidiviz和Ameelio：为刑事司法系统带来更好的技术
Prisons aren’t known as hotbeds of innovation. But two tech projects this year tried to make our criminal justice system more humane.
监狱通常不是创新的温床。但今年有两个科技项目试图让我们的刑事司法系统更加人性化。
Recidiviz is a nonprofit tech start-up that builds open-source data tools for criminal justice reform. It was started by Clementine Jacoby, a former Google employee who saw an opportunity to corral data about the prison system and make it available to prison officials, lawmakers, activists and researchers to inform their decisions. Its tools are in use in seven states, including North Dakota, where the data tools helped prison officials assess the risk of Covid-19 outbreaks and identify incarcerated people who were eligible for early release.
Recidiviz是一家非营利科技初创公司，为刑事司法改革构建开源数据工具。前Google员工克莱门汀·雅各比看到了机会并成立了该公司，它收集有关监狱系统的数据，并将其提供给监狱官员、立法者、活动家和研究人员，以告知他们的决定。其工具已在包括北达科他州在内的七个州使用，这些数据工具帮助监狱官员评估新冠暴发的风险，并识别有资格提前释放的在押人员。
Ameelio, a nonprofit start-up founded by two Yale students and backed by tech honchos like Jack Dorsey and Eric Schmidt, is trying to disrupt prison communications, a notoriously exploitative industry that charges inmates and their loved ones exorbitant fees for phone and video calls. This year, it released a free video calling service, which is being tested in prisons in Iowa and Colorado, with plans to add more states next year.
Ameelio是一家由两名耶鲁大学学生创立并得到杰克·多尔西和埃里克·施密特等技术大亨支持的非营利初创企业，正试图颠覆监狱通信行业，这是一个臭名昭著的剥削性行业，向囚犯及其亲属收取高昂的电话和视频通话费用。今年，该公司发布了一项免费视频通话服务，该服务正在爱荷华州和科罗拉多州的监狱中进行测试，并计划明年推广至更多州。
To ICON and Mighty Buildings, for using 3-D printing to address the housing crisis
ICON和Mighty Buildings：使用3D打印解决住房危机
When I first heard about experimental efforts to 3-D print houses a few years ago, I dismissed them as a novelty. But 3-D printing technology has improved steadily since then, and is now being used to build actual houses in the United States and abroad.
几年前，当我第一次听说3D打印房屋的实验性努力时，我只把它们当作某种新鲜事物。但从那时起，3D打印技术就在稳步提高，现在被用于在美国和国外建造真正的房屋。
3-D printing houses has several advantages: It’s significantly cheaper and faster than traditional construction (houses can be 3-D printed in as little as 24 hours), and they can be made using local materials in parts of the world where concrete is hard to come by.
3D打印房屋有几个优势：相比传统建筑，它的造价低很多，建造周期短很多（可以用24小时造出一座房子），可以在不容易获得混凝土的地方建造。
ICON, a construction technology company based in Texas, has 3-D printed more than two dozen structures so far. Its technology was used to print homes in a village in Mexico this year, and the company plans to break ground next year on a development in Austin, Texas, that will consist entirely of 3-D printed houses.
得州建筑技术公司ICON已经打印了二十多座建筑。今年在墨西哥一个村庄用它的技术打印了住宅，公司计划明年在得州奥斯汀开始兴建一个项目，所有房屋都使用3D打印技术建造。
Mighty Buildings, based in Oakland, Calif., is taking a slightly different approach. It sells prefab home kits consisting of 3-D printed panels that are made in a factory and assembled on site. Its homes are powered by solar panels and loaded with energy-efficient features, and it recently struck a deal to 3-D print 15 houses in a subdivision in Rancho Mirage, Calif.
加州奥克兰的Mighty Buildings选择的方式稍有不同。它在出售预制住宅套件，包括了在工厂生产的3D打印板材，只需要在现场组装。它的房屋使用太阳能板供电，有许多低能耗特性，公司最近刚签下一笔包括15座3D打印住宅的订单，位于加州兰乔米拉奇的一个地块。
Our national housing crisis, it should be said, is not primarily a tech problem. Bad zoning and tax laws, NIMBY protectionism and other factors have played a part in making housing unaffordable for many. But it’s comforting to know that if and when local and state governments get their acts together and start building more housing, 3-D printing could help speed up the process.
需要明确的是，我们的全国住房危机主要不是技术问题。糟糕的分区和税法、NIMBY保护主义以及其他许多因素，都导致许多人无力负担住房的成本。但令人欣慰的是，如果地方和州政府能打起精神，开始建造更多的住房，那么3D打印可以帮助加快这个过程。
To Frances Haugen and the Integrity Institute, for helping to clean up social media
弗朗西丝·霍根和Integrity Institute：对社交媒体的清理
Few tech stories made as big an impact this year as the revelations from Frances Haugen, the Facebook product manager turned whistle-blower who was the main source for The Wall Street Journal’s blockbuster “Facebook Files” series. By making public thousands of documents detailing internal Facebook research and discussions about the platform’s harms, Ms. Haugen advanced our collective knowledge about Facebook’s inner workings, and her congressional testimony was a landmark moment for tech accountability.
作为前Facebook产品经理的吹哨人弗朗西丝·霍根，是《华尔街日报》爆炸性系列报道“Facebook档案”的重要消息来源，她在这些报道中揭示的内幕，使其成为本年度最具影响力的科技类新闻。霍根公布了大量有关Facebook内部研究的详细资料，探讨了这个社交平台的危害，从而增进了我们对Facebook内部运作的了解，而她在国会的证词，更是科技问责的里程碑时刻。
Shortly after Ms. Haugen went public, two former members of Facebook’s integrity team, Jeff Allen and Sahar Massachi, started the Integrity Institute, a nonprofit that is meant to help social media companies navigate thorny issues around trust, safety and platform governance. Their announcement got less attention than Ms. Haugen’s document dump, but it’s all part of the same worthy effort to educate lawmakers, technologists and the public about making our social media ecosystem healthier.
在霍根站出来后，两位前Facebook诚信团队成员杰夫·艾伦和萨阿·马萨奇创办了Integrity Institute，这个非营利机构旨在帮助社交媒体公司应对围绕信任、安全和平台治理的许多棘手问题。他们的宣言不像霍根的资料披露那么引人注目，不过同样都是为了向立法者、科技业者和公众讲解我们该如何让社交媒体的生态更健康。
And an honorary mention to MacKenzie Scott, for becoming the world’s fastest philanthropist
荣誉奖授予麦肯琪·斯科特，她以世界最快的速度成为了一位慈善家
Ms. Scott, who got divorced from Jeff Bezos in 2019, did not introduce new technology or a start-up in 2021. But she is giving away her Amazon fortune — estimated to be worth more than $50 billion — at a pace that makes other tech philanthropists look like penny pinchers.
斯科特在2019年与杰夫·贝佐斯离婚，她在2021年并没有推出什么新技术或创办什么公司。她只是把自己的亚马逊财富捐了出来——估计价值超过500亿美元——捐赠的速度之快，让其他慈善家显得像守财奴。
She donated more than $6 billion in 2021 alone to a host of charities, schools and social programs, an astonishing feat for an individual working with a small team of advisers. (For scale, the entire Gates Foundation gave out $5.8 billion in direct grants in 2020.)
她仅在2021年就向一系列慈善机构、学校和社会项目捐款超过60亿美元，作为只有一个小型顾问团队的个人，这是了不起的成绩。（为了对规模有个概念，我们知道整个盖茨基金会在2020年的直接拨款是58亿美元。）
And unlike other donors, who splash their names on buildings and museum wings, Ms. Scott announced her gifts quietly in a series of understated blog posts. Let’s hope that in 2022, more tech moguls follow her lead.
不同于那些把自己的名字贴在建筑物和博物馆翼楼上的捐赠者，斯科特的捐赠都是悄无声息地进行的，只是通过一些波澜不惊的博客文章来宣布。希望2022年有更多科技大亨效仿她的行动。