万物简史 第195期:威力巨大的原子(09)

 　　Physically¹ he was big and booming, with a voice that made the timid shrink. Once when told that Rutherford was about to make a radio broadcast across the Atlantic, a colleague drily asked: "Why use radio?" He also had a huge amount of good-natured confidence. When someone remarked to him that he seemed always to be at the crest² of a wave, he responded, "Well, after all, I made the wave, didn't I?" C. P. Snow recalled how once in a Cambridge tailor's he overheard Rutherford remark: "Every day I grow in girth. And in mentality³."

　　就身体而言，他块儿很大，体格壮实，说话声音能把胆小的人吓一大跳。有一次，一位同事获悉卢瑟福就要向大西洋彼岸发表广播演说，便冷冷地问：“干吗要用广播？”他还非常自信，心态不错。当有人对他说，他好像总是生活在浪尖上，他回答说：“哎呀，这个浪头毕竟是我制造的，难道不是吗？”C.P.斯诺回忆说，有一次他在剑桥的一家裁缝店里偷听到卢瑟福在说：“我的腰围日渐变粗，同时，知识日渐增加。”

　　原子结构

　　But both girth and fame were far ahead of him in 1895 when he fetched up at the Cavendish. 1 It was a singularly eventful period in science. In the year of his arrival in Cambridge, Wilhelm Roentgen discovered X rays at the University of Würzburg in Germany, and the next year Henri Becquerel discovered radioactivity. And the Cavendish itself was about to embark⁴ on a long period of greatness. In 1897, J. J. Thomson and colleagues would discover the electron there, in 1911 C. T. R. Wilson would produce the first particle detector⁵ there (as we shall see), and in 1932 James Chadwick would discover the neutron⁶ there. Further still in the future, James Watson and Francis Crick would discover the structure of DNA⁷ at the Cavendish in 1953.

　　但是，1895年他来到了卡文迪许实验室。在遥远的将来，他的腰围会变得更粗，名声会变得更响。卢瑟福抵达剑桥大学的那一年，威廉·伦琴在德国的维尔茨堡大学发现了X射线；次年，亨利·贝克勒尔发现了放射现象。卡文迪许实验室本身就要踏上一条漫长的辉煌之路。1897年，J.J.汤普森和他的同事将在那里发现电子；1911年，C.T.R.威尔逊将在那里制造出第一台粒子探测器（我们将会谈到）；1932年，詹姆斯·查德威克将在那里发现中子。在更远的将来，1953年，詹姆斯·沃森和弗朗西斯·克里克将在卡文迪许实验室发现DNA结构。

1 physically   

adj.物质上，体格上，身体上，按自然规律

参考例句：

• He was out of sorts physically,as well as disordered mentally.他浑身不舒服，心绪也很乱。
• Every time I think about it I feel physically sick.一想起那件事我就感到极恶心。

2 crest   

n.顶点；饰章；羽冠；vt.达到顶点；vi.形成浪尖

参考例句：

• The rooster bristled his crest.公鸡竖起了鸡冠。
• He reached the crest of the hill before dawn.他于黎明前到达山顶。

3 mentality   

n.心理，思想，脑力

参考例句：

• He has many years'experience of the criminal mentality.他研究犯罪心理有多年经验。
• Running a business requires a very different mentality from being a salaried employee.经营企业所要求具备的心态和上班族的心态截然不同。

4 embark   

vi.乘船，着手，从事，上飞机

参考例句：

• He is about to embark on a new business venture.他就要开始新的商业冒险活动。
• Many people embark for Europe at New York harbor.许多人在纽约港乘船去欧洲。

5 detector   

n.发觉者，探测器

参考例句：

• The detector is housed in a streamlined cylindrical container.探测器安装在流线型圆柱形容器内。
• Please walk through the metal detector.请走过金属检测器。

6 neutron   

n.中子

参考例句：

• Neutron is neutral and slightly heavier than the proton.中子是中性的，比质子略重。
• Based on the neutron energy,the value of weighting factor was given.根据中子能量给出了相应的辐射权重因子的数值。

7 DNA   

(缩)deoxyribonucleic acid 脱氧核糖核酸

参考例句：

• DNA is stored in the nucleus of a cell.脱氧核糖核酸储存于细胞的细胞核里。
• Gene mutations are alterations in the DNA code.基因突变是指DNA密码的改变。