萬物簡史 第7期:引言(7)

"I now know that there is a happy abundanceof science writers who pen the most lucid andthrilling prose.

"現(xiàn)在，我知道有好多好多科普作家，他們寫出了通俗易懂而又激動人心的散文--

Timothy Ferris, Richard Fortey, and Tim Flannery arethree that jump out from a single station of thealphabet

我一下子就可以點出蒂姆西?費里斯、理查德?福泰和提姆?弗蘭納里等三位

(and that's not even to mention the late but godlike Richard Feynman)-but sadly none of themwrote any textbook I ever used.

(且不說已故的出類拔萃的理查德?費曼)--但是，令人傷心的是，他們沒有一人寫過我用過的教科書。

All mine were written by men (it was always men) who held the interesting notion

我用過的教科書全都出自那些懷有一種挺有意思的想法的男人(始終都是男人)的筆下，

that everything became clear when expressed as a formula and the amusingly deluded belief

美國的孩子們會喜歡各個章節(jié)的結(jié)尾都帶有問題部分，

that the children of America would appreciate having chapters end with a section of questionsthey could mull over in their own time.

供他們在自己的時代冥思苦想。

So I grew up convinced that science was supremely dull, but suspecting that it needn't be,and not really thinking about it at all if I could help it.

因此，我在成長過程中確信，科學(xué)是極其枯燥的，但同時我又認(rèn)為大可不必如此：科學(xué)也可以是非常有趣的，要是我辦得到的話。

This, too, became my position for a long time.

在很長的時間里，這成了我的立場。

Then much later-about four or five years ago-I was on a long flight across the Pacific,

接著，很久以后--我想大約是在四五年之前--我正做一次飛越太平洋的長途旅行，

staring idly out the window at moonlit ocean, when it occurred to me with a certainuncomfortable forcefulness

我漫不經(jīng)心地朝飛機(jī)的舷窗外望去，只見一輪皓月掛在天空，下面是灑滿銀色月光的一望無際的海洋，突然，一種強烈的不安感涌上我的心頭，

that I didn't know the first thing about the only planet I was ever going to live on.

足跡遍及世界各地的我，對于自己長期以來置身其間，而且這輩子也只能生活其間的地球，竟然是那樣的缺乏了解。

I had no idea, for example, why the oceans were salty but the Great Lakes weren't.

比如，我不知道為什么海水是咸的，而五大湖的湖水卻是淡的。

Didn't have the faintest idea. I didn't know if the oceans were growing more salty with time orless,

我一點兒也不知道。我不知道隨著時間的過去，海水會變得越來越咸，還是越來越淡，

and whether ocean salinity levels was something I should be concerned about or not.

不知道海水的咸度是不是我該關(guān)心的問題。

I am very pleased to tell you that until the late 1970s scientists didn't know the answers tothese questions either.

(我很樂意告訴你，直到20世紀(jì)70年代，科學(xué)家們也不知道這些問題的答案。)

"They just didn't talk about it very audibly.",

他們只是悄悄地議論這些事。