TED演讲：舞者还是用PPT?(1)

 　　Good afternoon. 下午好。

　　As you're all aware, we face difficult economic times. I come to you with a modest proposal for easing the financial burden. 众所周知，我们正处经济困难时期。今天我带来了一个小小的建议可以消除财政负担。

　　This idea came to me while talking to a physicist¹ friend of mine at MIT.  这个想法来自我和麻省理工学院一个朋友的谈话，他是物理学家。

　　He was struggling to explain something to me: a beautiful experiment that uses lasers to cool down matter.  他当时绞尽脑汁地给我解释：运用激光冷却物质的伟大实验。

　　Now he confused me from the very start, because light doesn't cool things down.  不得不说他一开始就把我弄得晕头转向，因为光并不能使东西变冷。

　　It makes it hotter. It's happening right now.  反而使东西变得更热。这一现象现在就在发生。

　　The reason that you can see me standing² here is because this room is filled with more than 100 quintillion photons,  大家之所以能看见我站在台上是因为这个房间充满了超过一万亿亿光子，

　　and they're moving randomly³ through the space, near the speed of light.  它们正在这个空间里以接近光的速度随机运动。

　　All of them are different colors, they're rippling⁴ with different frequencies,  它们的颜色各不相同，频率各异，

　　and they're bouncing off every surface, including me, and some of those are flying directly into your eyes,  它们正在物体表面反弹，也在我的身上反弹，其中一些光子直接飞入了你的眼里，

　　and that's why your brain is forming an image of me standing here. 所以，你的脑海里才呈现出我站在这里的图像。

　　Now a laser is different.  然而，激光却非如此。

　　It also uses photons, but they're all synchronized,  激光也运用光子，但是这些光子是同步的，

　　and if you focus them into a beam, what you have is an incredibly useful tool.  如果把这些光子聚焦成一束光线，它的作用将是无比强大的。

　　The control of a laser is so precise that you can perform surgery inside of an eye, you can use it to store massive amounts of data,  激光的控制之精准可用以在眼中做手术，也可以用来储存大量数据，

　　and you can use it for this beautiful experiment that my friend was struggling to explain.  也可以用来做这项伟大的实验就是当时我朋友绞尽脑汁给我解释的实验。

　　First you trap atoms in a special bottle.  首先，把原子囚禁在一个特殊的瓶子里。

　　It uses electromagnetic fields to isolate⁵ the atoms from the noise of the environment.  瓶子将运用电磁场把原子和周围的噪声隔开。

　　And the atoms themselves are quite violent, but if you fire lasers that are precisely⁶ tuned⁷ to the right frequency,  原子本身的运动很剧烈，但是如果把调到正确频率的激光射入瓶中，

　　an atom will briefly⁸ absorb those photons and tend to slow down.  原子就会慢慢地吸收这些光子原子的运动就会变慢。

　　Little by little it gets colder until eventually it approaches absolute zero. 原子会一点点地变冷直到达到绝对零度（约-273.16℃）。

1 physicist   

n.物理学家，研究物理学的人

参考例句：

• He is a physicist of the first rank.他是一流的物理学家。
• The successful physicist never puts on airs.这位卓有成就的物理学家从不摆架子。

2 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

3 randomly   

adv.随便地，未加计划地

参考例句：

• Within the hot gas chamber, molecules are moving randomly in all directions. 在灼热的气体燃烧室内，分子在各个方向上作无规运动。 来自辞典例句
• Transformed cells are loosely attached, rounded and randomly oriented. 转化细胞则不大贴壁、圆缩并呈杂乱分布。 来自辞典例句

4 rippling   

起涟漪的，潺潺流水般声音的

参考例句：

• I could see the dawn breeze rippling the shining water. 我能看见黎明的微风在波光粼粼的水面上吹出道道涟漪。
• The pool rippling was caused by the waving of the reeds. 池塘里的潺潺声是芦苇摇动时引起的。

5 isolate   

vt.使孤立，隔离

参考例句：

• Do not isolate yourself from others.不要把自己孤立起来。
• We should never isolate ourselves from the masses.我们永远不能脱离群众。

6 precisely   

adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地

参考例句：

• It's precisely that sort of slick sales-talk that I mistrust.我不相信的正是那种油腔滑调的推销宣传。
• The man adjusted very precisely.那个人调得很准。

7 tuned   

adj.调谐的，已调谐的v.调音( tune的过去式和过去分词 )；调整；（给收音机、电视等）调谐；使协调

参考例句：

• The resort is tuned in to the tastes of young and old alike. 这个度假胜地适合各种口味，老少皆宜。
• The instruments should be tuned up before each performance. 每次演出开始前都应将乐器调好音。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 briefly   

adv.简单地，简短地

参考例句：

• I want to touch briefly on another aspect of the problem.我想简单地谈一下这个问题的另一方面。
• He was kidnapped and briefly detained by a terrorist group.他被一个恐怖组织绑架并短暂拘禁。