萬物簡史 第2期:引言(2)

The bad news is that atoms are fickle and theirtime of devotion is fleeting-fleeting indeed.

原子很脆弱，它們的獻身時刻倏忽而過--簡直是倏忽而過，這是個壞消息。

Even a long human life adds up to only about650,000 hours.

連壽命很長的人也總共只活大約100萬個小時。

And when that modest milestone flashes past, orat some other point thereabouts,

而當(dāng)那個不太遙遠(yuǎn)的終結(jié)點或沿途某個別的終點飛快地出現(xiàn)在你眼前的時候，

for reasons unknown your atoms will shut you down, silently disassemble, and go off to beother things.

由于未知的原因，你的原子們將宣告你生命的結(jié)束，然后散伙，悄然離去成為別的東西。

And that's it for you.

你也就到此為止。

Still, you may rejoice that it happens at all. Generally speaking in the universe it doesn't, sofar as we can tell.

不過，這事兒還是發(fā)生了，你可以感到高興。總的來說，據(jù)我們所知，這類事情在宇宙別的地方是沒有的。

This is decidedly odd because the atoms that so liberally and congenially flock together toform living things on Earth are exactly the same atoms that decline to do it elsewhere.

原子們?nèi)绱舜蠓?、如此協(xié)調(diào)地聚集在一起，構(gòu)成地球上的生物，而同一批原子在別處是不肯這么做的。

Whatever else it may be, at the level of chemistry life is curiously mundane:

不說別的，從化學(xué)的角度來說，生命只有這個世界上才有，真是不可思議：

carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen, a little calcium, a dash of sulfur,

碳、氫、氧、氮、一點兒鈣、一點兒硫，

a light dusting of other very ordinary elements-nothing you wouldn't find in any ordinarydrugstore-and that's all you need.

再加上一點兒很普通的別的元素--在任何普通藥房里都找得著的東西--這些就是你的全部需要。

The only thing special about the atoms that make you is that they make you.

原子們惟一特別的地方就是：它們形成了你。

That is of course the miracle of life.

當(dāng)然，這正是生命的奇跡。

Whether or not atoms make life in other corners of the universe, they make plenty else;indeed, they make everything else.

不管原子在宇宙的別的角落是不是形成生命，它們形成許多其他東西;實際上，除了生命以外，它們還形成別的任何東西。

Without them there would be no water or air or rocks,

沒有原子，就沒有水，就沒有空氣，就沒有巖石，

no stars and planets, no distant gassy clouds or swirling nebulae or any of the other thingsthat make the universe so usefully material.

就沒有恒星和行星，就沒有遠(yuǎn)方的云團，就沒有旋轉(zhuǎn)的星云，就沒有使宇宙如此動人、如此具體的任何別的東西。

Atoms are so numerous and necessary that we easily overlook that they needn't actually existat all.

原子如此之多，如此必不可少，我們很容易忽視它們實際存在的必要性。實際上也根本不需要宇宙。

There is no law that requires the universe to fill itself with small particles of matter

沒有法則要求宇宙間充滿物質(zhì)微粒，

or to produce light and gravity and the other physical properties on which our existencehinges.

產(chǎn)生我們所賴以生存的光、引力和其他物理性質(zhì)。

There needn't actually be a universe at all. For the longest time there wasn't.

在很長時間里就沒有宇宙。

There were no atoms and no universe for them to float about in. There was nothing-nothing atall anywhere."

那時候沒有原子，沒有供原子到處飄浮的宇宙。什么也沒有--任何地方什么也沒有。