科学美国人60秒 喜欢电脑还历史，听这个播客

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Love Computers? Love History? Listen to This Podcast

喜欢电脑还历史，听这个播客

KATIE HAFNER: Hello Science Talk audience!

I’m Katie Hafner, the host of Lost Women of Science. Each season is devoted¹ to the life and work of one scientist who hasn’t gotten the recognition she deserves.

We’re calling this season “A Grasshopper² in Very Tall Grass,” and it’s all about Klara Dan von Neumann. Klari, as she was called by friends, was one of the world’s first computer programmers.

凯蒂·哈夫纳：观众好，科学讲座！

我是凯蒂·哈夫纳，《迷失的科学女性》的主持人。每一季都会讲述一位科学家的生活和工作，她没有得到应有的认可。

我们称这一季为“高高草丛中的蚱蜢”，它是关于克拉拉·丹·冯·诺依曼的。朋友们称她为克拉里，她是世界上最早的计算机程序员之一。

I’ve been writing about computers for a really long time, more than 30 years in fact. I even wrote a history of the internet in 1996, called Where Wizards Stay Up Late. And the wizards? All men.

I’ve been on this beat for so long, I thought I knew all the major figures. But then I stumbled upon Klara von Neumann’s name this past year, and I drew a blank. How had I missed her?

我写计算机已经很长时间了，事实上已经30多年了。我甚至在1996年写了一部互联网史，名为《巫师们熬夜的地方》。巫师呢？所有人。

我在这个节拍上待了这么久，我以为我知道所有的主要数字。但在过去的一年里，我偶然发现了克拉拉·冯·诺依曼的名字，我画了个空白。我是怎么想她的？

When I asked some big-hitters in the computer science world about her, they all had the same response: Who?

I couldn’t shake this feeling that here was this truly “lost” woman of computing³–who was nonetheless connected to very well-known histories and people. She was involved in nuclear weapons research, she worked for Los Alamos, she coded for the ENIAC, one of the earliest electronic computers. 

当我向计算机科学界的一些大人物询问她的情况时，他们的回答都是一样的：谁？

我无法摆脱这样一种感觉：这里有一位真正“迷失”的计算机女性——尽管如此，她与非常著名的历史和人物有着密切的联系。她从事核武器研究，为洛斯阿拉莫斯工作，为最早的电子计算机之一ENIAC编码。

And she ran in a circle of famous scientists—people like Albert Einstein, J. Robert Oppenheimer, and her own husband, John von Neumann, a famous Hungarian scientist who was considered one of the smartest people alive. 

她参加了一个由著名科学家组成的圈子，包括阿尔伯特·爱因斯坦、J·罗伯特·奥本海默和她自己的丈夫约翰·冯·诺依曼，一位著名的匈牙利科学家，被认为是当今世界最聪明的人之一。

I thought Klari could teach us a thing or two about this time–the dawn of electronic computers and nuclear warfare⁴. And so we started digging. This season is the result of what we found.

Here’s the trailer:

我以为克拉里这次可以教我们一两件事——电子计算机和核战争的曙光。于是我们开始挖掘。这个季节是我们发现的结果。

这是预告片：

[Trailer]

UNKNOWN #1: Do I know who Klara von Neumann is?

未知#1：我知道克拉拉·冯·诺依曼是谁吗？

UNKNOWN #2: I’m embarrassed to say I’ve never heard of her.

未知2：我不好意思说我从来没听说过她。

UNKNOWN #1: Wasn’t she, didn’t she have something to do with the weather?

未知#1：她不是吗？她不是和天气有关吗？

UNKNOWN #3: I’ve heard of John von Neumann

未知#3：我听说过约翰·冯·诺伊曼

UNKNOWN #4: I’m not even sure how to pronounce her name.

未知4：我甚至不知道她的名字怎么发音。

UNKNOWN #5: Was she related to Newman on Seinfeld?

未知#5：她和《宋飞传》中的纽曼有亲戚关系吗？

KATIE HAFNER: I'm Katie Hafner, host of Lost Women of Science, where we uncover the remarkable⁵ work of overlooked scientists.

凯蒂·哈夫纳：我是凯蒂·哈夫纳，《迷失的科学女性》的主持人，我们将在这里揭露被忽视的科学家的杰出工作。

NATHAN ENSMENGER: What Klara von Neumann is doing is helping⁶ to define what is possible on this new kind of machine.

MARINA WHITMAN: She ultimately became sort of a super programmer.

内森·恩斯曼格：克拉拉·冯·诺依曼正在做的是帮助定义这种新型机器上的可能性。

玛丽娜·惠特曼：她最终成了一名超级程序员。

KATIE HAFNER: Their stories are often untold⁷. Their contributions unacknowledged.

GEORGE DYSON: Klara's role was, sort sorta hidden because she had worked on the very secret bomb calculations.

凯蒂·哈夫纳：他们的故事往往不为人知。他们的贡献没有得到承认。

乔治·戴森：克拉拉的角色有点隐秘，因为她参与了非常秘密的炸弹计算。CLAIRE EVANS: Women got to be programmers and got to make such a huge impact on programming because that job was seen as not being important. 

KATIE HAFNER: In 1947, it was Klara and her code that made nuclear weapons simulations possible.

埃文斯：女性必须成为程序员，并对编程产生巨大影响，因为这项工作被认为并不重要。 

凯蒂·哈夫纳：1947年，正是克拉拉和她的代码使核武器模拟成为可能。

ANANYO BHATTACHARYA: Programming was this completely new discipline, so really everybody was starting on the ground floor as it were.

MARINA WHITMAN: She always said she liked it because she liked puzzles. And this was a kind of puzzle.

阿纳约·巴塔查里亚：编程是一门全新的学科，所以实际上每个人都是从底层开始的。

玛丽娜·惠特曼：她总是说她喜欢它，因为她喜欢拼图。这是一种困惑。

THOMAS HAIGH: I mean, she's like at Los Alamos as someone with absolutely no training in physics or mathematics talking one-on-one with Nobel prize winners, which is pretty incredible.

KATIE HAFNER: And she was working with a brand new technology, deep inside a world forever changed by nuclear weapons.

托马斯·黑格：我的意思是，她就像在洛斯阿拉莫斯一样，完全没有接受过物理或数学方面的训练，与诺贝尔奖得主一对一地交谈，这真是难以置信。

凯蒂·哈夫纳：她正在使用一种全新的技术，在一个永远被核武器改变的世界的深处。

CLAIRE EVANS: There's this connection between death and computing that is inextricable and inescapable in this history.

KATIE HAFNER: Join us as we seek to understand the origins of modern computing, through one extraordinary woman's story.

克莱尔·埃文斯：在这段历史中，死亡和计算之间有着无法分割、无法逃避的联系。

凯蒂·哈夫纳：加入我们，通过一个非凡的女性故事，来了解现代计算的起源。

GEORGE DYSON: She was sort of there at the moment of creation. If you look at this as a sort of, you know, cradle in a manger sort of thing, she, she was holding the cradle.

KATIE HAFNER: Season 2 of Lost Women of Science coming March 31st. Listen wherever you get your podcasts.

乔治·戴森：她在创造的那一刻就在那里。如果你把这看作是一种，你知道，马槽里的摇篮之类的东西，她，她拿着摇篮。

凯蒂·哈夫纳：《迷失的科学女性》第二季将于3月31日播出。无论你在哪里收听播客。

KATIE HAFNER: This season will take us on a journey from wild parties in Budapest and gambling⁸ sprees in Monte Carlo to the staid academic world of Princeton and the wild west of Los Alamos in New Mexico. Klari’s eventful life gives color to this pivotal moment in history. 

凯蒂·哈夫纳：本季将带领我们从布达佩斯的疯狂派对和蒙特卡洛的疯狂赌博，到普林斯顿的沉静学术界和新墨西哥州洛斯阿拉莫斯的狂野西部。克拉里多事的一生为这一历史关键时刻增添了色彩。

Married four–maybe five–times. Figure skating champion. Computer pioneer. How could we have missed her?

结了四次婚——也许五次。花样滑冰冠军。计算机先驱。我们怎么会错过她？

Tune⁹ in to Lost Women of Science to get the full story of a grasshopper in very tall grass.

收听《迷失的科学女性》，了解高草中蚱蜢的完整故事。

1 devoted   

adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的

参考例句：

• He devoted his life to the educational cause of the motherland.他为祖国的教育事业贡献了一生。
• We devoted a lengthy and full discussion to this topic.我们对这个题目进行了长时间的充分讨论。

2 grasshopper   

n.蚱蜢，蝗虫，蚂蚱

参考例句：

• He thought he had made an end of the little grasshopper.他以为把那个小蚱蜢干掉了。
• The grasshopper could not find anything to eat.蚱蜢找不到任何吃的东西。

3 computing   

n.计算

参考例句：

• to work in computing 从事信息处理
• Back in the dark ages of computing, in about 1980, they started a software company. 早在计算机尚未普及的时代（约1980年），他们就创办了软件公司。

4 warfare   

n.战争(状态)；斗争；冲突

参考例句：

• He addressed the audience on the subject of atomic warfare.他向听众演讲有关原子战争的问题。
• Their struggle consists mainly in peasant guerrilla warfare.他们的斗争主要是农民游击战。

5 remarkable   

adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的

参考例句：

• She has made remarkable headway in her writing skills.她在写作技巧方面有了长足进步。
• These cars are remarkable for the quietness of their engines.这些汽车因发动机没有噪音而不同凡响。

6 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

7 untold   

adj.数不清的，无数的

参考例句：

• She has done untold damage to our chances.她给我们的机遇造成了不可估量的损害。
• They suffered untold terrors in the dark and huddled together for comfort.他们遭受着黑暗中的难以言传的种种恐怖，因而只好挤在一堆互相壮胆。

8 gambling   

n.赌博；投机

参考例句：

• They have won a lot of money through gambling.他们赌博赢了很多钱。
• The men have been gambling away all night.那些人赌了整整一夜。

9 tune   

n.调子；和谐，协调；v.调音，调节，调整

参考例句：

• He'd written a tune,and played it to us on the piano.他写了一段曲子，并在钢琴上弹给我们听。
• The boy beat out a tune on a tin can.那男孩在易拉罐上敲出一首曲子。