经济学人03:追寻尼斯湖水怪的老人罗伯特·莱恩斯

 　　Obituary¹

　　逝者

　　Robert Rines

　　罗伯特·莱恩斯

　　Robert Rines, scientist and Nessie-hunter, died on November 1st, aged² 87

　　罗伯特·莱恩斯——科学家、尼斯水怪追寻者——于11月1日逝世，享年87岁

　　Eyewitness³ evidence may be all very well in a court of law, but it cuts no ice with scientists. Robert Rines knew that perfectly⁴, because he was a scientist himself, and a good one. In his work to develop radar⁵, sonar and ultrasound he performed all the necessary tests and provided all the proofs required. But when a shining grey hump appeared from the waters of Loch Ness, bringing a hectic⁶ lump to his throat and causing him to run across the road, jamming first a telescope and then binoculars⁷ to his eyes, he was simply a man who knew he had seen a monster. Science trailed uncomfortably behind.

　　目击者的证词在法庭上倒是很好使，但是到了科学家那里却不管用了。罗伯特·莱恩斯深知这一点，因为他自己就是一名科学家，还是名不错的科学家。在研制雷达、声纳和超声波装置的过程中，他不仅做了必要的试验，还提供了必需的实验证据。但是当一个灰色发亮的圆丘突出于尼斯湖面之时，他就只是一个兴奋的水怪目击者了——兴奋得喉咙都哽住了，径直朝那个方向跑去，眼睛紧贴着单筒望远镜观瞧，后又换上双筒望远镜。科学在这个时候不情愿地退居到了次席。

　　What he saw on that day in June 1972 he described as well as he could. It was a hump about 25 feet (8 metres) long, covered with rough dark-grey hide like an elephant’s back. The creature it belonged to ploughed against the current for a while, and then disappeared. It had presumably returned to its haunts in the murky⁸, peaty depths of the lake. But Mr Rines’s life was upside down. The star lecturer in innovation at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the founder⁹ and president of the Academy of Applied¹⁰ Science, now had a myth on his hands. He determined¹¹ to substantiate¹² it with all the cash he could raise and all the expertise¹³ he could muster¹⁴, because the alternative was ridicule¹⁵, or worse. Galileo sometimes sprang to mind.

　　他那天看到的那一幕——即1972年6月的一天——他尽自己所能地描述了下来。那是一个大约25英尺（8米）长的圆形突出物，背部呈黑灰色、粗糙、好似象皮，逆着水流翻搅了一阵子之后，就消失了。假定的情形是它回到了它幽暗、满是泥沼的老巢。但同时，莱恩斯的生活却有了180度的大转弯。这个麻省理工学院讲授“创新”课程的明星讲师，这个应用技术学院的创始人兼院长，现在有了一个萦绕心头的谜题。他决心筹集所有能够筹到的钱，集合所有能够获得的技术，来证实水怪的存在，因为说水怪不存在的说法便是荒谬的说法，要比说水怪存在更糟糕；他的心头有时会浮起伽利略的形象。

　　He could have refused to believe his eyes, of course. Plenty of others suggested that he had really seen a tree trunk, a huge eel¹⁶, a seal, an otter¹⁷, an upturned boat or a ripple¹⁸ of wind on water. The creature had appeared at dusk, an illusory time of day. More pertinently¹⁹, Mr Rines was already primed to see something in the loch. The year before he had taken part, half-sceptically, in experiments with underwater microphones that had picked up “bird-like chirps” in the deeps, and he had even had a perfume concocted²⁰ to draw shy Nessie to his boat. His favourite reading then was Constance Whyte’s “More than a Legend”, which argued for the creature’s existence with testimony²¹ from witnesses she knew. With her, he agreed that this was “a really super ‘whodunit’”—a murder in which “the witnesses have seen the corpse²², but cannot produce it.” Perhaps he could.

　　当然，他本可以拒绝相信眼前看到的一切。很多人都认为他看到的其实是别的东西，如一段树干、一只巨大的鳗鱼、一只海豹、一只水獭、一只翻了的小船，或是风在水面上掀起的一道波浪。而且这只生物是在傍晚时分出现的，这是一天当中容易引发错觉的时候。并且莱恩斯已经预备自己会在湖上看到什么东西。前一年，他半带着怀疑参加了一项科学实验，用水中麦克风收集水下深处“鸟叫似的啾啾声”，他甚至合成了一种香水来吸引害羞的“小尼斯”来到他的船边。他那时最喜欢读的书是康斯坦斯·怀特的《不只是传说》，该书用她从目击者那里得来的证词来肯定水怪的存在。莱恩斯同意她的讲法——这是“一本真正超级无敌的‘whodunit’式的侦探小说[这个类型的侦探小说只有到了结尾才知道谁是凶手。——译者]”；在这场凶案中，“目击者看到了被害人的尸体, 却拿不出证据来。” 也许他能。

　　Instead he produced some famous photographs. They were taken in August 1972 by an underwater camera triggered by a sonar beam, and seemed to show a diamond-shaped flipper²³ attached to a large underbelly. Everything was greenish and grainy, and the unretouched prints looked more like the lake-bed with a flurry of stirred-up sand. But they were published in Nature, and on the strength of them hearings were held in Parliament and a Latin name, Nessiteras rhombopteryx, was attached to the creature by Sir Peter Scott, a prominent naturalist²⁴. It was said to be a sort of plesiosaur, somehow stranded²⁵ in the loch from 65m years ago. Sir Peter, better known for geese, painted a picture of a pair of them plumply swimming.

　　他在1972年8月用水下声纳摄影机拍摄了几张很有名的照片，上面显示的似乎是水怪巨大的下腹部，一个钻石状的菱形鳍状肢附在其上。这些未经处理的图片整体呈暗绿色，颗粒感很重，看起来更像是搅起一阵沙浪的湖底。尽管如此，《自然》杂志刊登了这些图片，国会专门为此举行了听证会，著名的博物学家彼得·斯科特爵士还为它起了一个拉丁语学名：Nessiteras rhombopteryx（具有菱形鳍的尼斯巨兽）。据说这是蛇颈龙的一种，六千五百万年前由于某种原因在此搁浅。彼得爵士还画了一幅两只水怪拖着胖墩墩的身子、在水里游泳的画（和博物学比起来，彼得爵士更有名的是他画鹅的画）。

　　Very like a whale

　　非常像鲸鱼

　　Mr Rines thought the Latin moniker had clinched²⁶ it. But his evidence was still too sparse²⁷. During the war he had developed a radar that could detect aircraft at 200 miles through cloud; in 1985 his inventions in sonar helped to find the drowned Titanic²⁸ in the North Atlantic; during the first Gulf²⁹ war his technology guided Patriot³⁰ missiles to their targets. But he was stumped³¹ by the gloomy profundities³² of Loch Ness. Scientist friends from MIT lent their expertise, at arm’s length. The most he heard, from sonar echoes in 1997, was very like a whale. The most he ever fished up—in 2008, on the last of almost 30 trips, when he supposed that the creature was dead and was looking for its carcass—was an old tyre cut about a bit, which could have looked quite humpish on the surface.

　　莱恩斯认为这个拉丁文学名已经抓住了水怪的特点，但是他能够拿出的证据还是太少。二战期间，他研制出一种可以透过云层探测200公里以外飞机的雷达；1985年，他的发明的声纳帮助找到了北大西洋的泰坦尼克沉船；第一次海湾战争中，他的专利技术引导爱国者导弹找到了目标。但是他却在幽暗深邃的尼斯湖水面前受了阻。麻省理工学院的科学家朋友给他提供了专业技术，但只是点到为止。他听到最清楚的一次是1997年声纳接受到的回声，类似鲸叫；他从湖中钓出最大的战利品是2008年的一只旧轮胎（那年，他几乎去了30次，钓出轮胎的是最后一次，他当时认为水怪已死，于是寻找它的尸体），被切掉了一点，所以在水面上才呈现圆丘状。

　　Even close family members, taken reverently³³ into the “Nessie room” in his Boston apartment or instructed never to be without cameras on Scottish holidays, could not quite understand his obsession³⁴. But as well as being a scientist, Mr Rines was for 50 years a patent lawyer. His appetite for inventions went back to his childhood, when he had devised a fork and spoon that could fit into a penknife. He was pipped on that one, but died with around 100 patents to his name, most of them improvements to imaging things. A visit to his doctor for cataracts³⁵ gave him his last invention, when he suggested a longer exposure of his eyeball to ultrasound radiation and found, on looking from his window that night, that the lights round Logan Airport were suddenly crystal clear.

　　他很近的亲属甚至也不大能理解他对此的痴迷，要知道莱恩斯曾经很郑重地带他们参观过自己在波士顿公寓的“尼斯水怪展览室”，在苏格兰度假时也告诉过他们千万要记得带照相机。除了是一名科学家，莱恩斯还作了50年的专利律师。他对于发明的喜好可以追溯到童年时代，他那时曾设计过一款能放进折叠刀的叉子和勺子，差一点就申请到专利。但当他去世时，名下却有了100项左右的专利，大多都是对成像设备的改进。他最后一项发明来自一次看医生、治疗白内障的过程中，他建议医生加长对眼球超声辐射时间，结果当晚透过窗户看外面时，他发现洛根机场周围的灯光突然间变得水晶般的清澈。

　　He never saw clearly enough to find Nessie—except on that one day in 1972, when he had been too moved and excited to work the Super-8 camera that shook in his hand. But the founder of the Academy of Applied Science, and the patent lawyer, regularly recognised himself in the inventors, old and young, who came to see him. The streak³⁶ of craziness; the thrill of the quest; the frequent difficulty of describing what their invention was, how it worked, what it was for; their vulnerability to ridicule, because what they had done or thought was new; and the need to protect that thought, as something interesting and precious in itself. Mr Rines’s generosity³⁷ and openness to them was no more than he hoped for for himself, as he sat patiently in his waterproofs³⁸, waiting, beside a Scottish shore.

　　在寻找尼斯水怪的过程中，他却从没看清楚过——除了1972年的那一天，他由于过分的激动和兴奋，都用不好他那台Super-8型号的照相机了，手不停地抖动。但是这个实用技术学院的创始人，这个专利律师却时常可以在拜访他的年轻和年老的发明家那里看见自己的影子：近似疯癫的性格；探索未知时的激动；描述新发明时常遇到的困难（诸如发明的东西怎么工作，发明的目地是什么）；面对嘲笑时的脆弱（因为所做所想都是新东西）；还有感觉需要保护新想法的心理（把新想法本身看作有趣的、要珍视的东西）。莱恩斯不会不包容这些性格，他对这些人是敞开的；但是他更希望那个坐在苏格兰的湖边、穿着雨衣、静静等待的那个人——他自己，受到包容。

1 obituary   

n.讣告，死亡公告；adj.死亡的

参考例句：

• The obituary records the whole life of the deceased.讣文记述了这位死者的生平。
• Five days after the letter came,he found Andersen s obituary in the morning paper.收到那封信五天后，他在早报上发现了安德森的讣告。

2 aged   

adj.年老的，陈年的

参考例句：

• He had put on weight and aged a little.他胖了，也老点了。
• He is aged,but his memory is still good.他已年老，然而记忆力还好。

3 eyewitness   

n.目击者，见证人

参考例句：

• The police questioned several eyewitness to the murder.警察询问了谋杀案的几位目击者。
• He was the only eyewitness of the robbery.他是那起抢劫案的唯一目击者。

4 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。

5 radar   

n.雷达，无线电探测器

参考例句：

• They are following the flight of an aircraft by radar.他们正在用雷达追踪一架飞机的飞行。
• Enemy ships were detected on the radar.敌舰的影像已显现在雷达上。

6 hectic   

adj.肺病的；消耗热的；发热的；闹哄哄的

参考例句：

• I spent a very hectic Sunday.我度过了一个忙乱的星期天。
• The two days we spent there were enjoyable but hectic.我们在那里度过的两天愉快但闹哄哄的。

7 binoculars   

n.双筒望远镜

参考例句：

• He watched the play through his binoculars.他用双筒望远镜看戏。
• If I had binoculars,I could see that comet clearly.如果我有望远镜，我就可以清楚地看见那颗彗星。

8 murky   

adj.黑暗的，朦胧的；adv.阴暗地，混浊地；n.阴暗；昏暗

参考例句：

• She threw it into the river's murky depths.她把它扔进了混浊的河水深处。
• She had a decidedly murky past.她的历史背景令人捉摸不透。

9 Founder   

n.创始者，缔造者

参考例句：

• He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
• According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说，罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。

10 applied   

adj.应用的；v.应用，适用

参考例句：

• She plans to take a course in applied linguistics.她打算学习应用语言学课程。
• This cream is best applied to the face at night.这种乳霜最好晚上擦脸用。

11 determined   

adj.坚定的；有决心的

参考例句：

• I have determined on going to Tibet after graduation.我已决定毕业后去西藏。
• He determined to view the rooms behind the office.他决定查看一下办公室后面的房间。

12 substantiate   

v.证实；证明...有根据

参考例句：

• There is little scientific evidence to substantiate the claims.这些主张几乎找不到科学依据来证实。
• These theories are used to substantiate the relationship between the phenomenons of the universe.这些学说是用来证实宇宙现象之间的关系。

13 expertise   

n.专门知识(或技能等)，专长

参考例句：

• We were amazed at his expertise on the ski slopes.他斜坡滑雪的技能使我们赞叹不已。
• You really have the technical expertise in a new breakthrough.让你真正在专业技术上有一个全新的突破。

14 muster   

v.集合，收集，鼓起，激起；n.集合，检阅，集合人员，点名册

参考例句：

• Go and muster all the men you can find.去集合所有你能找到的人。
• I had to muster my courage up to ask him that question.我必须鼓起勇气向他问那个问题。

15 ridicule   

v.讥讽，挖苦；n.嘲弄

参考例句：

• You mustn't ridicule unfortunate people.你不该嘲笑不幸的人。
• Silly mistakes and queer clothes often arouse ridicule.荒谬的错误和古怪的服装常会引起人们的讪笑。

16 eel   

n.鳗鲡

参考例句：

• He used an eel spear to catch an eel.他用一只捕鳗叉捕鳗鱼。
• In Suzhou,there was a restaurant that specialized in eel noodles.苏州有一家饭馆，他们那里的招牌菜是鳗鱼面。

17 otter   

n.水獭

参考例句：

• The economists say the competition otter to the brink of extinction.经济学家们说，竞争把海獭推到了灭绝的边缘。
• She collared my black wool coat with otter pelts.她把我的黑呢上衣镶上了水獭领。

18 ripple   

n.涟波，涟漪，波纹，粗钢梳；vt.使...起涟漪，使起波纹； vi.呈波浪状，起伏前进

参考例句：

• The pebble made a ripple on the surface of the lake.石子在湖面上激起一个涟漪。
• The small ripple split upon the beach.小小的涟漪卷来，碎在沙滩上。

19 pertinently   

适切地

参考例句：

• It is one thing to speak much and another to speak pertinently. 说得多是一回事，讲得中肯又是一回事。
• Pertinently pointed out the government, enterprises and industry association shall adopt measures. 有针对性地指出政府、企业和行业协会应采取的措施。

20 concocted   

v.将（尤指通常不相配合的）成分混合成某物( concoct的过去式和过去分词 )；调制；编造；捏造

参考例句：

• The soup was concocted from up to a dozen different kinds of fish. 这种汤是用多达十几种不同的鱼熬制而成的。
• Between them they concocted a letter. 他们共同策划写了一封信。 来自《简明英汉词典》

21 testimony   

n.证词；见证，证明

参考例句：

• The testimony given by him is dubious.他所作的证据是可疑的。
• He was called in to bear testimony to what the police officer said.他被传入为警官所说的话作证。

22 corpse   

n.尸体，死尸

参考例句：

• What she saw was just an unfeeling corpse.她见到的只是一具全无感觉的尸体。
• The corpse was preserved from decay by embalming.尸体用香料涂抹以防腐烂。

23 flipper   

n. 鳍状肢，潜水用橡皮制鳍状肢

参考例句：

• The seal's flipper is homologous with the human arm. 海豹的鳍肢与人类的手臂同源。
• It's almost like a flipper action as she kicks down. 她向下踢腿时有鱼鳍的效果。

24 naturalist   

n.博物学家(尤指直接观察动植物者)

参考例句：

• He was a printer by trade and naturalist by avocation.他从事印刷业，同时是个博物学爱好者。
• The naturalist told us many stories about birds.博物学家给我们讲述了许多有关鸟儿的故事。

25 stranded   

a.搁浅的，进退两难的

参考例句：

• He was stranded in a strange city without money. 他流落在一个陌生的城市里， 身无分文，一筹莫展。
• I was stranded in the strange town without money or friends. 我困在那陌生的城市，既没有钱，又没有朋友。

26 clinched   

v.（尤指两人）互相紧紧抱[扭]住( clinch的过去式和过去分词 )；解决（争端、交易），达成（协议）

参考例句：

• The two businessmen clinched the deal quickly. 两位生意人很快达成了协议。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Evidently this information clinched the matter. 显然，这一消息使问题得以最终解决。 来自辞典例句

27 sparse   

adj.稀疏的，稀稀落落的，薄的

参考例句：

• The teacher's house is in the suburb where the houses are sparse.老师的家在郊区，那里稀稀拉拉有几处房子。
• The sparse vegetation will only feed a small population of animals.稀疏的植物只够喂养少量的动物。

28 titanic   

adj.巨人的，庞大的，强大的

参考例句：

• We have been making titanic effort to achieve our purpose.我们一直在作极大的努力，以达到我们的目的。
• The island was created by titanic powers and they are still at work today.台湾岛是由一个至今仍然在运作的巨大力量塑造出来的。

29 gulf   

n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂

参考例句：

• The gulf between the two leaders cannot be bridged.两位领导人之间的鸿沟难以跨越。
• There is a gulf between the two cities.这两座城市间有个海湾。

30 patriot   

n.爱国者，爱国主义者

参考例句：

• He avowed himself a patriot.他自称自己是爱国者。
• He is a patriot who has won the admiration of the French already.他是一个已经赢得法国人敬仰的爱国者。

31 stumped   

僵直地行走，跺步行走( stump的过去式和过去分词 )； 把（某人）难住； 使为难； （选举前）在某一地区作政治性巡回演说

参考例句：

• Jack huffed himself up and stumped out of the room. 杰克气喘吁吁地干完活，然后很艰难地走出房间。
• He was stumped by the questions and remained tongue-tied for a good while. 他被问得张口结舌，半天说不出话来。

32 profundities   

n.深奥，深刻，深厚( profundity的名词复数 )；堂奥

参考例句：

• Bessie's mind was not quite in tune with the profundities of that learned journal. 蓓西的头脑理解不了这本深奥的学术性杂志。 来自互联网

33 reverently   

adv.虔诚地

参考例句：

• He gazed reverently at the handiwork. 他满怀敬意地凝视着这件手工艺品。
• Pork gazed at it reverently and slowly delight spread over his face. 波克怀着愉快的心情看着这只表，脸上慢慢显出十分崇敬的神色。

34 obsession   

n.困扰，无法摆脱的思想(或情感)

参考例句：

• I was suffering from obsession that my career would be ended.那时的我陷入了我的事业有可能就此终止的困扰当中。
• She would try to forget her obsession with Christopher.她会努力忘记对克里斯托弗的迷恋。

35 cataracts   

n.大瀑布( cataract的名词复数 )；白内障

参考例句：

• The rotor cataracts water over the top of the machines. 回转轮将水从机器顶上注入。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• Cataracts of rain flooded the streets. 倾盆大雨弄得街道淹水。 来自辞典例句

36 streak   

n.条理，斑纹，倾向，少许，痕迹；v.加条纹，变成条纹，奔驰，快速移动

参考例句：

• The Indians used to streak their faces with paint.印第安人过去常用颜料在脸上涂条纹。
• Why did you streak the tree?你为什么在树上刻条纹？

37 generosity   

n.大度，慷慨，慷慨的行为

参考例句：

• We should match their generosity with our own.我们应该像他们一样慷慨大方。
• We adore them for their generosity.我们钦佩他们的慷慨。

38 waterproofs   

n.防水衣物，雨衣 usually plural( waterproof的名词复数 )v.使防水，使不透水( waterproof的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Put on your waterproofs. It's going to rain. 穿上你的雨衣。天要下雨了。 来自辞典例句
• Did you pack an umbrella and some waterproofs? 你有没有带雨伞及一些防水衣物？ 来自休闲英语会话