万物简史 第14期:如何营造一个宇宙(6)

 　　Still unaware¹ of what caused the noise, Wilson and Penzias phoned Dicke at Princeton and described their problem to him in the hope that he might suggest a solution. Dicke realized at once what the two young men had found. “Well, boys, we've just been scooped,” he told his colleagues as he hung up the phone.

　　彭齐亚斯和威尔逊仍然找不到噪声的原因，便打电话给普林斯顿大学的迪克，向他描述了他们遇到的问题，希望他能作出一种解释。迪克马上意识到两位年轻人发现了什么。"哎呀，好家伙，人家抢在我们前面了。"他一面挂电话，一面对他的同事们说。

　　Soon afterward² the Astrophysical Journal published two articles: one by Penzias and Wilson describing their experience with the hiss³, the other by Dicke's team explaining its nature.

　　此后不久，《天体物理学》杂志刊登了两篇文章：一篇为彭齐亚斯和威尔逊所作，描述了听到咝咝声的经历；另一篇为迪克小组所作，解释了它的性质。

　　Although Penzias and Wilson had not been looking for cosmic background radiation, didn't know what it was when they had found it, and hadn't described or interpreted its character in any paper, they received the 1978 Nobel Prize in physics. The Princeton researchers got only sympathy. According to Dennis Overbye in Lonely Hearts of the Cosmos⁴ , neither Penzias nor Wilson altogether understood the significance of what they had found until they read about it in the New York Times .

　　尽管彭齐亚斯和威尔逊并不是在寻找宇宙的本底辐射，发现的时候也不知道是什么东西，也没有发表任何论文来描述或解释它的性质，但他们获得了1978年诺贝尔物理学奖。普林斯顿大学的研究人员只获得了同情。据丹尼斯·奥弗比在《宇宙孤心》一文中说，彭齐亚斯和威尔逊都不清楚自己这一发现的重要意义，直到看到《纽约时报》上的一篇报道。

　　Incidentally, disturbance⁵ from cosmic background radiation is something we have all experienced. Tune⁶ your television to any channel it doesn't receive, and about 1 percent of the dancing static you see is accounted for by this ancient remnant of the Big Bang. The next time you complain that there is nothing on, remember that you can always watch the birth of the universe.

　　顺便说一句，来自宇宙本底辐射的干扰，我们大家都经历过。把你的电视机调到任何接收不着信号的频道，你所看到的锯齿形静电中，大约有1％是由这种古老的大爆炸残留物造成的。记住，下次你抱怨接收不到图像的时候，你总能观看到宇宙的诞生。

 

1 unaware   

a.不知道的，未意识到的

参考例句：

• They were unaware that war was near. 他们不知道战争即将爆发。
• I was unaware of the man's presence. 我没有察觉到那人在场。

2 afterward   

adv.后来；以后

参考例句：

• Let's go to the theatre first and eat afterward. 让我们先去看戏，然后吃饭。
• Afterward,the boy became a very famous artist.后来，这男孩成为一个很有名的艺术家。

3 hiss   

v.发出嘶嘶声；发嘘声表示不满

参考例句：

• We can hear the hiss of air escaping from a tire.我们能听到一只轮胎的嘶嘶漏气声。
• Don't hiss at the speaker.不要嘘演讲人。

4 cosmos   

n.宇宙；秩序，和谐

参考例句：

• Our world is but a small part of the cosmos.我们的世界仅仅是宇宙的一小部分而已。
• Is there any other intelligent life elsewhere in the cosmos?在宇宙的其他星球上还存在别的有智慧的生物吗？

5 disturbance   

n.动乱，骚动；打扰，干扰；(身心)失调

参考例句：

• He is suffering an emotional disturbance.他的情绪受到了困扰。
• You can work in here without any disturbance.在这儿你可不受任何干扰地工作。

6 tune   

n.调子；和谐，协调；v.调音，调节，调整

参考例句：

• He'd written a tune,and played it to us on the piano.他写了一段曲子，并在钢琴上弹给我们听。
• The boy beat out a tune on a tin can.那男孩在易拉罐上敲出一首曲子。