时代周刊:时代百大人物 玛丽卡·布兰奇和露丝·戴维森

Marica Branchesi COSMIC MAESTRO

宇宙大师 玛丽卡·布兰奇

BY JEFFREY KLUGER

文/杰弗里·克鲁格

It took Albert Einstein to predict the existence of gravitational waves—ripples¹ in space-time that occur when objects like black holes collide.

预言引力波的存在——即黑洞这样的物体碰撞时在时空中产生的涟漪——这一工作落到了爱因斯坦的肩上。

It took Marica Branchesi to make sure we actually saw the evidence of such a crack-up.

确认我们真的看到引力波存在的证据的工作则落到了玛丽卡·布兰奇的肩上。

Branchesi, an astrophysicist, works at the Virgo gravitationalwave detector² in Italy.

布兰奇是意大利室女座引力波探测器的天体物理学家。

Detectors³ in the U.S. had recorded waves three times since 2015 but only as physical ripples, never optically.

自2015年以来，美国的探测器已经三次捕捉到了引力波，但都是物理波纹，没能从光学上捕捉到。

Branchesi got the astronomers⁴ and physicists⁵ working together so that the next time waves were picked up,

布兰奇号召天文学家和物理学家们协同工作，这样下次波被接收到的时候，

telescopes all over the world could swing into position.

世界各地的望远镜都可以摆好观测位置。

Last August her work paid off, when a collision between two neutron⁶ stars was detected.

去年8月，她的努力得到了回报，两颗中子星相撞的情形被探测到了。

Thanks to her, 70 telescopes jumped into action, yielding dozens of scientiic papers, one with 3,500 co-authors.

多亏了她，70架望远镜投入使用，产生了几十篇科学论文，其中一篇有3500名合著者。

Her name is listed among the B’s—modest credit for a monumental achievement.

她的名字被列入B类人物行列 ——一个为里程碑式的成就设立的，十分谦逊的荣誉。

(Time Note: Kluger, a TIME editor at large, is the author of Apollo 8)

(注：克鲁格，《时代》杂志的特约编辑，著有《阿波罗8号》)

Ruth Davidson GREAT SCOT

伟大的苏格兰人 露丝·戴维森

BY NIALL FERGUSON

文/尼尔·弗格森

(Time Notes: Ferguson, a Scottish historian, is the Milbank Family Senior Fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution)

（注：尼尔·弗格森，苏格兰历史学家，斯坦福大学胡佛研究所米尔班克家族高级研究员）

There was a time when the Conservative Party looked as dead as a dodo in Scotland.

曾经有一段时间，保守党在苏格兰看起来就像渡渡鸟一样早就绝迹了。

Having won majorities of Scottish votes in the 1950s,

50年代赢得苏格兰多数选票后，

the Tories seemed to have gone extinct by 1997, when not a single one of their candidates won in Scotland.

到1997年，保守党似乎已经绝种了，当时，他们的候选人中没有一个人在苏格兰获胜。

The party’s resurrection—it won 31 seats in the Scottish Parliament in 2016 and 29% of the Scottish vote in last year’s U.K. general election—

该党的重新崛起——2016年在苏格兰议会赢得了31个席位，在去年的英国大选中赢得了29%的苏格兰选票——

owes much to the refreshing⁷, rambunctious⁸ style of Ruth Davidson.

在很大程度上应归功于露丝·戴维森清新、奔放的领导风格。

Born in Edinburgh in 1978,

1978年出生于爱丁堡，

Davidson served in the British Army Reserves and worked as a journalist before entering politics in 2009.

戴维森曾在英国陆军预备役服役，2009年进入政界之前曾是一名记者。

Just two years later, she was elected the Scottish Conservatives’ leader.

仅仅两年后，她就被选举为苏格兰保守党的领袖。

An opponent of both Scottish independence and Brexit, Davidson stands out as a proponent⁹ of samesex marriage.

作为既反对苏格兰独立又反对英国脱欧的一员，戴维森靠支持同性婚姻从同僚中脱颖而出。

Indeed, she and partner Jen Wilson are currently planning their wedding.

事实上，她和她的伴侣珍·威尔逊目前正在筹划他们的婚礼。

Could she be a future British Prime Minister, succeeding the beleaguered¹⁰ Theresa May?

她能否成为英国未来的首相，接替饱受批评的特里萨·梅呢 ?

“I love London,” she has said. “No plans to move there myself, but great to visit.”

“我爱伦敦，”她说。“虽然我自己没有搬过去的打算，但能去伦敦看看我也会很高兴。”

Many voters south of the border would love her to reconsider.

边境以南的许多选民都希望她能再考虑考虑。

1 ripples   

逐渐扩散的感觉( ripple的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The moon danced on the ripples. 月亮在涟漪上舞动。
• The sea leaves ripples on the sand. 海水在沙滩上留下了波痕。

2 detector   

n.发觉者，探测器

参考例句：

• The detector is housed in a streamlined cylindrical container.探测器安装在流线型圆柱形容器内。
• Please walk through the metal detector.请走过金属检测器。

3 detectors   

探测器( detector的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The report advocated that all buildings be fitted with smoke detectors. 报告主张所有的建筑物都应安装烟火探测器。
• This is heady wine for experimenters using these neutrino detectors. 对于使用中微子探测器的实验工作者，这是令人兴奋的美酒。 来自英汉非文学 - 科技

4 astronomers   

n.天文学者，天文学家( astronomer的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Astronomers can accurately foretell the date,time,and length of future eclipses. 天文学家能精确地预告未来日食月食的日期、时刻和时长。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Astronomers used to ask why only Saturn has rings. 天文学家们过去一直感到奇怪，为什么只有土星有光环。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 physicists   

物理学家( physicist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• For many particle physicists, however, it was a year of frustration. 对于许多粒子物理学家来说，这是受挫折的一年。 来自英汉非文学 - 科技
• Physicists seek rules or patterns to provide a framework. 物理学家寻求用法则或图式来构成一个框架。

6 neutron   

n.中子

参考例句：

• Neutron is neutral and slightly heavier than the proton.中子是中性的，比质子略重。
• Based on the neutron energy,the value of weighting factor was given.根据中子能量给出了相应的辐射权重因子的数值。

7 refreshing   

adj.使精神振作的，使人清爽的，使人喜欢的

参考例句：

• I find it'so refreshing to work with young people in this department.我发现和这一部门的青年一起工作令人精神振奋。
• The water was cold and wonderfully refreshing.水很涼，特别解乏提神。

8 rambunctious   

adj.喧闹的；粗鲁的

参考例句：

• Their rambunctious son always got into trouble.他们那个不受管束的儿子老是惹麻烦。
• It's not the chirping,rambunctious play that they did when they first arrived.他们现在已经不像刚开始见面那会儿，总是冲着对方乱叫，或者在玩耍时动作粗暴。

9 proponent   

n.建议者；支持者；adj.建议的

参考例句：

• Stapp became a strong early proponent of automobile seat belts.斯塔普是力主在汽车上采用座椅安全带的早期倡导者。
• Halsey was identified as a leading proponent of the values of progressive education.哈尔西被认为是进步教育价值观的主要支持者。

10 beleaguered   

adj.受到围困[围攻]的；包围的v.围攻( beleaguer的过去式和过去分词)；困扰；骚扰

参考例句：

• The beleaguered party leader was forced to resign. 那位饱受指责的政党领导人被迫辞职。
• We are beleaguered by problems. 我们被许多困难所困扰。 来自《简明英汉词典》