时代周刊:宇宙有多残酷多冰冷?(2)（在线收听）

He was struggling about on crutches, the result of two ruptured spinal disks,

当时，拄着拐杖的他正在冥思苦想两个脊椎椎间盘撕裂的结果，

which can give out over time whether or not you're the kind of person who can explain the attraction between the mass of the earth and the mass of your back.

无论你是否是那种地球的质量和背部质量都能区分的人，这一结果都会随时间变得愈加明显。

When he makes his way from desk to couch, he drops down gratefully.

他从桌子旁边挪到了沙发旁心满意足地坐了下来。

Behind him is a whiteboard with a storm of equations written on it.

他身后有一块白板，白板上写着一大堆方程式。

The numbers and glyphs frame his face in a perfect metaphor for the impossibly complex ideas

那些数字和符号映衬着他的侧脸，他的脸便瞬时变成了一个再贴切不过的隐喻，

that play out in his head, then somehow emerge comprehensibly and coherently on the page.

直指那些一一闪现在他的脑海里，之后便以这样或那样的方式清晰又连贯地呈现在了那张白板上的无比艰深的想法。

It's a busy time for Greene.

最近，格林很忙。

His World Science Festival will begin its 13th season in May in New York City and its fifth year in its satellite venue in Brisbane, Australia, in March.

五月份，他发起的世界科学节即将在纽约迎来第13次展览活动，三月份，该节日还将在澳大利亚布里斯班的会场迎来第5个周年纪念日。

The Down Under version attracted a total of 700,000 visitors in its first four years.

主办的头四年，澳洲就吸引了70万现场参与者。

The New York edition has drawn a cumulative 2 million people and more than 40 million online views of its content.

纽约这边则累计吸引了200万现场参与者及超4000万的在线浏览量。

Greene, 57, is also preparing for a promotional tour for his new book,

除了筹备科学节，现年57岁的格林还在忙着准备新书路演，

and keeps up a full schedule of teaching, holding office hours and advising graduate students.

此外还有满满当当的教学安排，与学生面谈，指导研究生等工作。

During our conversation, he mentioned that he was booked to give an evening talk

谈话期间，他提到他还有一个讲座沙龙，

on super string theory to a gathering of the university's Society of Physics Students.

哥伦比亚大学物理社团的学生邀请他给他们讲超弦理论。

It's a Friday night, a party night, but for the students and Greene, talking superstrings is a party.

沙龙安排在了派对之夜——周五晚上，但对格林和社团的学生来说，讨论超弦理论就是他们的派对。

"I've found that the theoretical physicists I've spent the most time with

“我发现，我相处得最久的那些理论物理学家

are the ones who are just enthralled by the ideas and the minutiae of an equation working out," he says.

都是那种会对想到一个方程，或是解答出一个方程这种事特别着迷的人，”他说。

"The only difference I have seen relative to my colleagues is I've never found pure research to be enough.

“相对于我的同事，我和他们唯一的不同之处在于，我从不止步于纯理论的研究。

I've always felt like the world is so big and rich that I need to engage with it in different ways.

我一直觉得这个世界太大太丰富了，我需要从不同的角度去认识它。

And that can be the books, it can be the TV shows."

可以是写书的角度，也可以是做电视节目的角度……”

Greene comes by his love of performance rightly.

格林热爱表演，他也有充分的理由热爱表演。

His father was a vaudeville entertainer as well as a composer and voice coach.

他的父亲是一名杂耍艺人，还是一名作曲家兼声乐教练。

But Greene's own passion was math and science and then big science—

但格林自己的爱好是数学和科学，宏大的科学——

the kind that seduces you with questions that both demand and defy answers,

就是那种用既需要解答，又无法解答，

that can cross the line from science to something else entirely.

一不小心还会从科学走向与科学截然相反的一面的问题引诱你入坑的科学。

Here, too, a close family member helped.

在这个问题上，也有一位亲密的家人帮过格林。

"My brother is a Hare Krishna devotee," Greene says.

“我哥哥是哈瑞·奎师那的信徒，”格林说。

"He's 13 years older than I am.

“他比我大13岁。

When I was little and getting interested in math and physics, he'd say, 'What are you learning?'

小时候，我逐渐喜欢上了数学和物理，他会对我说，‘你在学什么呢？’

I'd describe the Big Bang, and he'd pull out the Vedas and read to me from them.

我就跟他解释大爆炸理论，然后他就会拿出吠陀经念给我听。

It was a very interesting back-and-forth over the decades between the scientific pathway toward a certain kind of truth

有意思的是，两个人一个在科学的道路上追寻某种真理，一个在精神的，宗教的道路上追寻某种真理，

and the spiritual, religious pathway to a certain kind of truth."

两个人就这么来来回来地拉锯拉了几十年。”