BrianCox_2008[CERN的超级对撞机]

1.This is the Large Hadron Collider.
这就是大型强子对撞机
2.It's 27 kilometers in circumference; it's the biggest scientific experiment ever attempted.
它周长27公里 是有史以来开展过最大的科学实验
3.Over 10,000 physicists and engineers from 85 countries around the world have come together over several decades to build this machine.
超过10000名物理学家和工程师 来自全球85个国家 共同在几十年的时间里 建造了这部机器
4.What we do is we accelerate protons -- so, hydrogen nuclei -- around 99.999999 percent the speed of light.
我们用它将质子—— 也就是氢原子核—— 的运动速度加到 光速的99.999999%
5.Right? At that speed, they go around that 27 kilometers 11,000 times a second.
了解？以这种速度，他们每秒 环绕27公里的轨道11000次
6.And we collide them with another beam of protons going in the opposite direction.
然后我们使它与另一束 来自相反方向的质子相撞
7.We collide them inside giant detectors.
我们使质子在巨型探测器内对撞
8.They're essentially digital cameras.
探测器基本上就是数码相机
9.And this is the one that I work on, ATLAS.
而这是我所任职的那台，ATLAS
10.You get some sense of the size -- you can just see these EU standard-size people underneath.
你可以得到些尺寸上的概念 你可以看到这些欧洲标准尺寸 的人在那下面
11.(Laughter) You get some sense of the size: 44 meters wide, 22 meters in diameter, 7,000 tons.
（笑） 你能有点概念：44米长 直径22米，重7000吨。
12.And we re-create the conditions that were present less than a billionth of a second after the universe began -- up to 600 million times a second
我们所要重塑的 是宇宙形成十亿分之一秒后的状态 每秒制造大约6亿次这一状态
13.inside that detector -- immense numbers.
在这个探测器内部——天文数字
14.And if you see those metal bits there -- those are huge magnets that bend electrically-charged particles, so it can measure how fast they're traveling.
如果你看到那里的那些小金属块 它们是巨型磁铁，用于弯折 带电粒子 使探测器能够测算出粒子运动的速度
15.This is a picture about a year ago.
这是大概一年前的照片
16.Those magnets are in there.
有那些磁铁在上面
17.And, again, an EU standard-size real person, so you get some sense of the scale.
再一次重申，有一个欧洲标准身高的人 在那里给你一些尺寸上的概念
18.And it's in there that those mini-Big Bangs will be created, sometime in the summer this year.
这就是那些迷你大爆炸将要被批量制造的地方 在今年夏天的时候
19.And actually, this morning, I got an email saying that we've just finished, today, building the last piece of ATLAS.
事实上，今天早晨，我收到一封邮件 说我们今天刚刚完成 建造ATLAS的最后一个环节
20.So as of today, it's finished. I'd like to say that I planned that for TED, but I didn't. So it's been completed as of today.
就是说今天，我们竣工了。我想说 这是我特意为TED安排的 但实际上不是。不过无论怎样，它完成了
21.(Applause) Yeah, it's a wonderful achievement.
（鼓掌） 没错，这是项伟大的成就
22.So, you might be asking, "Why?
那，你可能会问，“为什么？
23.Why create the conditions that were present less than a billionth of a second after the universe began?"
为什么要制造那个 宇宙形成十亿分之一秒后的状态？”
24.Well, particle physicists are nothing if not ambitious.
嗯，如果没有野心就当不成粒子物理学家
25.And the aim of particle physics is to understand what everything's made of, and how everything sticks together.
而粒子物理学的目标就是要了解 所有一切是从何而来，又如何组建
26.And by "everything" I mean, of course, me and you, the Earth, the Sun, the hundred billion suns in our galaxy and the hundred billion galaxies
当然，所谓“一切”，我的意思是 我和你，地球，太阳 我们银河系中的几千亿个太阳 和存在在可观测的宇宙中
27.in the observable universe.
的那几千亿个银河系
28.Absolutely everything.
绝对是一切事物
29.Now you might say, "Well, OK, but why not just look at it?
现在你可能会说，“那，好吧，但是干嘛不直接观察它？
30.You know? If you want to know what I'm made of, let's look at me."
明白么？如果你想知道我是拿什么做的，那我们就来看看我。“
31.Well, we found that as you look back in time, the universe gets hotter and hotter, denser and denser, and simpler and simpler.
嗯，我们发现，当你回溯时间， 宇宙会越来越热 越来越致密，越来越单一
32.Now, there's no real reason I'm aware of for that, but that seems to be the case.
现今为止我不能告诉你我为什么知道这个 不过事实貌似就是如此
33.So, way back in the early times of the universe, we believe it was very simple and understandable.
所以，回到宇宙形成初期 我们认为它是非常简单易懂的
34.All this complexity, all the way to these wonderful things -- human brains -- are a property of  an old and cold and complicated universe.
所有繁复的衍生，所有这些美妙的事物—— 包括人脑——都是 一个古老，苍凉而又精密的宇宙的产物
35.Back at the start, in the first billionth of a second, we believe, or we've observed, it was very simple.
在宇宙的起点，第一个十亿分之一秒 我们相信，或者我们发现，它是非常纯粹的
36.It's almost like ...
这就好像
37.imagine a snowflake in your hand, and you look at it, and it's an incredibly complicated, beautiful object. But as you heat it up, it'll melt into a pool of water,
想象你手里有一片雪花 当你观察它，会发现它是如此精致 如此美丽的事物。但当你散发出热量 它就会融化成一小滩水
38.and you would be able to see that actually it was just made of H20, water.
这时你就能看到其实它不过是 H2O，水形成的
39.So it's in that same sense that we look back in time to understand what the universe is made of.
同样道理可以解释为什么我们从初始状态 开始认知宇宙的形成
40.And as of today, it's made of these things.
如今我们发现，它由这些形成
41.Just 12 particles of matter, stuck together by four forces of nature.
  12种物质微粒 在4种自然力的作用下结合在一起
42.The quarks, these pink things, are the things that make up protons and neutrons that make up the atomic nuclei in your body.
夸克，这些粉色的东西，是构成质子和中子的粒子 质子和中子组成你身体里的原子核
43.The electron -- the thing that goes around the atomic nucleus -- held around in orbit, by the way, by the electromagnetic force that's carried by this thing, the photon.