Young people in Britain have become a lost generation who can no longer mend gadgets and appliances because they have grown up in a disposable world, the professor giving this year’s Royal Institution Christmas lectures has warned.

在英国皇家科学研究所的圣诞讲座上，一位教授发出警告：英国年轻人已经沦为迷惘的一代。他们生活在这个用完即扔的“一次性”的时代，没有能力修理那些小器械和电器。

Danielle George, Professor of Radio Frequency Engineering, at theUniversityofManchester, claims that the under 40s expect everything to ‘just work’ and have no idea what to do when things go wrong.

丹尼尔·乔治是曼彻斯特大学的射频工程学教授。他声称40岁以下的人只期望自己的物品“能用就成”，当这些用品损坏时，他们毫无办法。

Unlike previous generations who would ‘make do and mend’ now young people will just chuck out their faulty appliances and buy new ones.

不像过去那代人，东西坏了想到的是修补一下接着使用；现在年轻人能做的只有将这些坏产品扔掉，再去买一个新的。

But Prof George claims that many broken or outdated gadgets could be fixed or repurposed with only a brief knowledge of engineering and electronics.

然而，乔治教授声称，很多损坏和过时的小器械其实只需要掌握一些简单的工程和电子知识就可以修好，并得以重新使用。

This year’s Royal Institution Christmas Lectures are entitled ‘Sparkswill fly: How to hack your home’ she is hoping it will inspire people to think what else they can do with common household objects.

“创意火光四射：如何扮靓你的家”是今年圣诞讲座的主题，旨在鼓励人们去思考那些日常家居用品还能如何使用以装扮房间。

Ideas include using a magnifying glass and shoe box to turn a mobile phone into a rudimentary projector; how to use tin foil to make too small batteries fit correctly and how to turn a bottle of water into a lamp.

创意包括：用放大镜和鞋盒把手机改装为简化的投影仪；用锡纸帮助小电池安装的更加贴合；以及如何将一瓶水转化为一盏灯。

Prof George said: “We’ve got a lost generation that has grown up with factory electronics that just work all of the time.

乔治教授说道：“我们这个时代的年轻人已经沦为迷惘的一代。在他们的成长过程中，处处伴随着工厂生产的一直可以正常使用的电子产品。”

“All of these things in our home do seem to work most of the time and because they don’t break we just get used to them. They have almost become like Black Boxes which never die. And when they do we throw them away and buy something new.

“所有这些用品似乎都会一直工作下去，因为只要它们没坏，我们也就渐渐习惯了它们的使用。这些用品几乎就要变成像黑匣子那样永生不死的东西。当它们无法使用时，我们就会扔掉它们，然后去买一些新的替代品。”

“But there is now a big maker community who are thinking hard about what we do with all of these gadgets. They are remaking and repurposing things.

“但是现在有一家大型的制造商社区，针对我们所有不用的器械进行相关研究。他们打算改造这些用品，并进行再利用。

“I talked to someone who had used some LEDs on his bike so that he could put up a message as he was cycling.”

“我有一个朋友，他在自行车上安装了LED屏，这样他在骑车时车身可以展示信息。”

Hundreds of websites have emerged in the last few years where users post ideas about home hacks and electronics.

在过去几年里，已经涌现出成百上千的网站。网民们可以在这些网站上自由交流房间改装和设备修理的经验。

（翻译：490252028 编辑：Helen）