萬物簡史 第8期:引言(8)

And ocean salinity of course represented onlythe merest sliver of my ignorance.

當然，海水的咸度只是我不知道的事情中的極小部分。

I didn't know what a proton was, or a protein, didn'tknow a quark from a quasar,

我不知道什么是質(zhì)子，什么是蛋白質(zhì)，不知道夸克和類星體有什么區(qū)別，

didn't understand how geologists could look at alayer of rock on a canyon wall and tell you how oldit was, didn't know anything really.

不理解地質(zhì)學(xué)家怎么只要看一眼峽谷壁上的一層巖石，就能說出它的年齡--我確實什么也不知道。

"I became gripped by a quiet, unwonted urge to know a little about these matters and tounderstand how people figured them out.

我心里漸漸迫切想要知道一點兒這些問題，尤其想懂得人家是怎樣測算出來的。

That to me remained the greatest of all amazements-how scientists work things out.

科學(xué)家們是怎樣解決這些問題的--這對我來說始終是最大的奇事。

How does anybody know how much the Earth weighs or how old its rocks are or what really isway down there in the center?

他們怎么知道地球的重量，怎么知道巖石的年齡，怎么知道地心深處實際上是什么東西?

How can they know how and when the universe started and what it was like when it did?

他們怎么知道宇宙是怎樣開始的，什么時候開始的，它開始的時候又是什么樣子的?這到底是怎么回事--尤其是在經(jīng)過回想以后?

How do they know what goes on inside an atom?

他們怎么知道原子內(nèi)部的情況?

And how, come to that-or perhaps above all-can scientists so often seem to know nearlyeverything

科學(xué)家怎么往往好像差不多什么都知道，

but then still can't predict an earthquake or even tell us whether we should take an umbrellawith us to the races next Wednesday?

而又仍不能預(yù)測地震，甚至不能準確地告訴我們下星期三看比賽時該不該帶雨傘?

So I decided that I would devote a portion of my life,three years, as it now turns out,

于是，我決定今生要拿出一部分時間--結(jié)果是花了三年時間

to reading books and journals and finding saintly,patient experts prepared to answer a lot ofoutstandingly dumb questions.

--來讀書看報，尋訪很有耐心、 德高望重、愿意回答許多特別傻的問題的專家。

The idea was to see if it isn't possible to understand and appreciate

我倒想要看看，是不是有可能在不大專門或不需要很多知識的，而又不完全是很膚淺的層面上，

-marvel at, enjoy even-the wonder and accomplishments of science at a level that isn't tootechnical or demanding, but isn't entirely superficial either.

理解和領(lǐng)會--甚至是贊嘆和欣賞--科學(xué)的奇跡成就。

That was my idea and my hope, and that is what the book that follows is intended to be.

這曾經(jīng)是我的想法，我的希望，本書就是按照這個意圖來寫的。

Anyway, we have a great deal of ground to cover and much less than 650,000 hours in which todo it, so let's begin."

反正，我們要涉及的范圍很廣，而辦這件事又遠遠用不著100萬個小時，因此我們就開始吧。"