万物简史 第230期:马斯特-马克的夸克(2)

 　　As physicists¹ built bigger and more ambitious machines,

　　随着物理学家建造越来越大、越来越雄心勃勃的机器，

　　they began to find or postulate² particles or particle families seemingly without number:

　　他们开始或推断出似乎永无穷尽的粒子或粒子族：

　　muons, pions, hyperons, mesons, K-mesons, Higgs bosons, intermediate vector bosons, baryons, tachyons.

　　π介子、μ介子、超子、介子、K介子、希格斯玻色子、中间矢量玻色子、重子、超光速粒子。

　　Even physicists began to grow a little uncomfortable.

　　连物理学家都开始觉得不大舒服。

　　"Young man," Enrico Fermi replied when a student asked him the name of a particular particle,

　　“年轻人，”当有个学生问恩里科·费米某个粒子的名字的时候，他回答说，

　　"if I could remember the names of these particles, I would have been a botanist³."

　　“要是我记得清这些粒子的名字，那我就成了植物学家了。”

　　Today accelerators have names that sound like something Flash Gordon would use in battle:

　　今天，加速器的名字听上去有点像是弗莱什·戈登用于打仗的武器：

　　the Super Proton Synchrotron, the Large Electron-Positron Collider, the Large Hadron Collider, the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider.

　　超级质子同步加速器呀，大型正负电子对撞机呀，大型强子对撞机呀，相对论性重离子对撞机呀。

　　奇异夸克

　　Using huge amounts of energy

　　使用的能量是如此之大

　　(some operate only at night so that people in neighboring towns don't have to witness their lights fading when the apparatus⁴ is fired up),

　　（有的只能在夜间操作，这样，设备点火时邻近城镇的居民才不至于注意到自己的灯光暗淡下去），

　　they can whip particles into such a state of liveliness that a single electron can do forty-seven thousand laps around a four-mile tunnel in a second.

　　它们可以把粒子激活到这样的状态：一个电子在不到1秒的时间里能沿着7公里长的隧道击打47000圈。

　　Fears have been raised that in their enthusiasm scientists might inadvertently create a black hole or even something called "strange quarks,"

　　人们担心，科学家们在头脑发热的时候会在无意之中创建一个黑洞，甚至所谓的“奇异夸克”。

　　which could, theoretically, interact with other subatomic particles and propagate uncontrollably.

　　从理论上说，这些粒子可以与别的亚原子粒子相互作用，产生连锁反应，完全失去控制。

　　If you are reading this, that hasn't happened.

　　要是你现在还活着在看这本书的话，说明那种情况没有发生。

　　Finding particles takes a certain amount of concentration.

　　寻找粒子需要集中一定精力。

　　They are not just tiny and swift but also often tantalizingly⁵ evanescent.

　　粒子不但个儿很小，速度很快，而且转瞬即逝。

1 physicists   

物理学家( physicist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• For many particle physicists, however, it was a year of frustration. 对于许多粒子物理学家来说，这是受挫折的一年。 来自英汉非文学 - 科技
• Physicists seek rules or patterns to provide a framework. 物理学家寻求用法则或图式来构成一个框架。

2 postulate   

n.假定，基本条件；vt.要求，假定

参考例句：

• Let's postulate that she is a cook.我们假定她是一位厨师。
• Freud postulated that we all have a death instinct as well as a life instinct.弗洛伊德曾假定我们所有人都有生存本能和死亡本能。

3 botanist   

n.植物学家

参考例句：

• The botanist introduced a new species of plant to the region.那位植物学家向该地区引入了一种新植物。
• I had never talked with a botanist before,and I found him fascinating.我从没有接触过植物学那一类的学者，我觉得他说话极有吸引力。

4 apparatus   

n.装置，器械；器具，设备

参考例句：

• The school's audio apparatus includes films and records.学校的视听设备包括放映机和录音机。
• They had a very refined apparatus.他们有一套非常精良的设备。

5 tantalizingly   

adv.…得令人着急，…到令人着急的程度

参考例句：

• A band of caribou passed by, twenty and odd animals, tantalizingly within rifle range. 一群驯鹿走了过去，大约有二十多头，都呆在可望而不可即的来福枪的射程以内。 来自英汉文学 - 热爱生命
• She smiled at him tantalizingly. 她引诱性地对他笑着。 来自互联网