The World Ahead 2023 -世界展望 2023
IN 2020 AND 2021 the world embarked on a crash course in epidemiology and vaccinology. Novel expressions such as "viral load" became part of the public discourse. What terms of art will enter wider circulation in 2023?
Green, blue and brown hydrogen -绿氢、蓝氢和棕氢
Hydrogen is a colourless gas that burns cleanly, producing just water vapour. Despite being the most abundent element in the universe, it's rarely found on Earth in a pure form. When making pure hydrogen, some methods are much dirtier than others-so energy wonks use different colours to identify them. "Green" hydrogen is made using renewable energy to split water into hydrogen and oxygen via electrolysis. By contrast, making "black" or "brown" hydrogen involves burning coal or lignite,releasing huge amounts of carbon dioxide. This is cheap but bad for the climate. "Blue" hydrogen is also made from natural gas, but the resulting carbon dioxide is then captured and stored undergroud.
eSIM
SIMs are going away. So-called eSIM technology replaces physical chips with digital codes that can be zapped from an old handset to a new one. Apple's decision to launch its iPhone 14 range in America as eSIM-only handsets will force millions of people to start using it in 2023. It will push mobile operators around the world to move to eSIMs and make the process of transferring them between devices less clunky. The technology also makes it easier to roam between networks by installing multiple eSIMs.
Mixed reality -混合现实
Virtual reality (VR) is like wearing a digital blindfold-it blots out the real world and immerses you in an alternative, computer-generated reality. Augmented reality (AR), by contrast, superimposes computer-generated elements onto your view of the real world. Mixed reality (XR or MR) goes a step further by allowing real and virtual items to interact. For example, you might play a game of table tennis in which the paddles are real, but the ball is computer generated.
Horizontal and vertical escalation -横向升级和纵向升级
How might the conflict in Ukraine escalate in 2023? Military wonks distinguish between two dimensions of escalation. Horizontal escalation is where the geographical scope of a conflict expands (for example, if Russia attacks another country, drawing it into the conflict). Vertical escalation is where the intensity of the conflict increase.
Regasification -再气化
Natural gas is normally delivered via pipelines, it is difficult to load and unload onto ships. But liquefied natural gas (LNG) changes the equation. Cooling natural gas down to -162℃ turns it into a liquid and reduces its volume 6oo-fold, enabling it to be transported over long distance using special, cryogenically cooled tanker ships. Turning LNG back into a gas, so that it can be fed into pipelines and used as a fuel, is called regasification.
-From The Economist
embark 开始，着手，上船/飞机 epidemiology 流行病学，传染病学 vaccinology 疫苗学 discourse 演讲，谈话，论文，论述 grimly 可怕地，冷酷地，严格地 circulation 销售量，流通，交际
vapour 蒸汽，忧郁，吹牛 abundent 大量的，丰富的 pure 纯的，纯真的 wonk 书呆子，刻苦用功的学生 split 分裂，分开 via 经由，通过，借助于 electrolysis 电解的
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zap 攻击，打败，除去，快速移动 handset 手机 clunky 沉重的，笨重过时的，影响不好的
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blindfold 眼罩，障碍物 blot out 完全清除，遮盖 immerse 使沉浸，使深陷 augment 增加，加强，补充 superimpose 添加，重叠，安装
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escalate 升级，逐步增强 dimensions 规模，大小 horizontal 水平的，同一层次的 scope 范围，机会，视野，眼界 vertical 垂直的，直立的，纵向的，不同层次的
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equation 等式，复杂局面 volume 体积，容积，大量的 cryogenically 低温地，冷冻地 tanker 油轮
