万物简史 第8期:引言(8)

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

当然，海水的咸度只是我不知道的事情中的极小部分。

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

我不知道什么是质子，什么是蛋白质，不知道夸克和类星体有什么区别，

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.

不理解地质学家怎么只要看一眼峡谷壁上的一层岩石，就能说出它的年龄--我确实什么也不知道。

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

我心里渐渐迫切想要知道一点儿这些问题，尤其想懂得人家是怎样测算出来的。

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

科学家们是怎样解决这些问题的--这对我来说始终是最大的奇事。

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

他们怎么知道地球的重量，怎么知道岩石的年龄，怎么知道地心深处实际上是什么东西?

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

他们怎么知道宇宙是怎样开始的，什么时候开始的，它开始的时候又是什么样子的?这到底是怎么回事--尤其是在经过回想以后?

How do they know what goes on inside an atom?

他们怎么知道原子内部的情况?

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

科学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?

而又仍不能预测地震，甚至不能准确地告诉我们下星期三看比赛时该不该带雨伞?

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

于是，我决定今生要拿出一部分时间--结果是花了三年时间

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

--来读书看报，寻访很有耐心、 德高望重、愿意回答许多特别傻的问题的专家。

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专门或不需要很多知识的，而又不完全是很肤浅的层面上，

-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.

理解和领会--甚至是赞叹和欣赏--科学的奇迹成就。

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

这曾经是我的想法，我的希望，本书就是按照这个意图来写的。

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，我们要涉及的范围很广，而办这件事又远远用不着100万个小时，因此我们就开始吧。"