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Our ability to collect data far outpaces our ability to fully utilize it—yet those data may hold the key to solving some of the biggest global challenges facing us today. 我们搜集信息的能力远远强于分析使用的能力，然而，这些消息可能包含了我们现如今正在面临的全球性挑战的解决办法。 Take, for instance, the frequent outbreaks of waterborne illnesses as a consequence of war or natural disasters. The most recent example can be found in Yemen, where roughly 10,000 new suspected cases of cholera are reported each week—and history is riddled with similar stories. What if we could better understand the environmental factors that contributed to the disease, predict which communities are at higher risk, and put in place protective measures to stem the spread? 比如，战后或自然灾难引起的水源性传播疾病频繁爆发。最近的例子发生在也门，每个星期也门新发现约一万例疑似霍乱病例。而且历史总是相似的。如果我们能更好地理解环境因素对该病的影响，提前预测高风险社区，以保护性方法来阻止源头传播，将会怎么样呢？ Answers to these questions and others like them could potentially help us avert catastrophe. 这些问题和其他相似问题的答案可能会潜在地帮助我们阻止灾难。 We already collect data related to virtually everything, from birth and death rates to crop yields and traffic flows. IBM estimates that each day, 2.5 quintillion bytes of data are generated. To put that in perspective: that's the equivalent of all the data in the Library of Congress being produced more than 166,000 times per 24-hour period. Yet we don't really harness the power of all this information. It's time that changed—and thanks to recent advances in data analytics and computational services, we finally have the tools to do it. | 
