IN FEBRUARY 2024 an article in the Wall Street Journal revealed that Stardust Solutions, an Israeli startup, was developing tiny particles which, if lofted(发射、抛入) into the stratosphere in sufficient number, might be used to cool the Earth. The idea of putting stuff into the stratosphere to lower temperatures was not new; it is the most discussed of the various sunlight-blocking technologies gathered under the rubric(范畴、标题) of solar geoengineering. Stardust’s novelty was that it claimed to be developing special particles which might do particularly well. What it was that made them so super, though, remained a secret.
2024年2月，《华尔街日报》的一篇文章披露，以色列初创公司Stardust Solutions正在开发微小粒子，如果将其大量发射到平流层，或许可用于冷却地球。将物质送入平流层以降低气温的想法并不新鲜；它是太阳地球工程范畴下各种遮阳技术中讨论最多的一种。Stardust的新颖之处在于，它声称正在开发可能特别有效的特殊粒子。然而，是什么让它们如此出色，仍是个秘密。
That secrecy ended last week. On May 14th the company published preprints(预印本) of papers which it is submitting to peer-reviewed journals describing its particles in detail. Most of the company’s data, it turns out, concerns spheres less than a thousandth of a millimetre across and made entirely of amorphous silica(无定形二氧化硅) (the same stuff that opals are made of) with a specially treated surface. A second, similarly sized version has a surface shell of amorphous silica but a core of calcium carbonate.
这种保密状态上周结束了。5月14日，该公司发布了将提交给同行评审期刊的论文预印本，详细描述了其粒子。结果显示，该公司的大部分数据涉及直径不到千分之一毫米的球体，完全由无定形二氧化硅（与蛋白石的成分相同）制成，并带有经过特殊处理的表面。另一种类似尺寸的版本则具有无定形二氧化硅的表面壳层，但核心是碳酸钙。
In an interview at a meeting on geoengineering hosted by the Climate Systems Engineering initiative (CSEi) at the University of Chicago a few days after the preprints were uploaded, Yanai Yedvab, Stardust’s boss, stressed the degree to which the particles were part of an “end to end” approach to geoengineering technology which the company hoped to provide to any governments which might, eventually, decide that geoengineering is a good idea. The reception was decidedly mixed(明显好坏参半).
在预印本上传几天后，由芝加哥大学气候系统工程倡议（CSEi）主办的一次地球工程会议上，Stardust的老板Yanai Yedvab在接受采访时强调，这些粒子是公司希望为最终可能认为地球工程是个好主意的任何政府提供的“端到端”地球工程技术的一部分。反响明显不一。