The Big Experiment 大型强子对撞机试验

Are You Ready? 你准备好了吗？

　　You might have never heard of the CERN laboratory, but this is all about to change.

　　On 10th September 2008 the most powerful scientific experiment ever attempted will take place at this quiet research centre near Geneva on the border of France and Switzerland.

　　Buried underground, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is about to be switched on. In laymen's terms, it is a kind of time machine that could open a window on how the universe appeared in the first few microseconds of its existence.

　　Particle accelerators and detectors¹ are the key parts to the whole experiment. The accelerators are housed in a near circular tunnel under the Jura Mountains, buried between 50 – 175m underground at various points.

　　Beams of protons will be accelerated in opposing directions and smashed into each other at near light speed, and in conditions colder than the space between the stars.

　　In order to photograph the moment of these explosive collisions, detectors, which are as large as a five-storey building, have been built at CERN, yet they're capable of pinpointing² a particle with an accuracy of 15 microns, that's 20 times thinner than a human hair.

　　The journey to build this giant experiment has taken 14 years, more than 10,000 scientists from 40 countries and a whopping £5 billion (60 billion yuan) to complete.

　　If the experiment succeeds in recreating the conditions soon after the Big Bang, scientists are hoping to discover new physics which may answer questions about what the universe is made of, and how it came to be the way it is.

　　However, not everyone is eagerly anticipating the big day. There are fears that the experiment could open black holes and the whole planet might disappear. But Professor Sir Chris Llewellyn Smith says there's no threat at all.

　　The chance we produce a black hole is minuscule³, it's one of the wildest speculations⁴. But even if we do, it can't swallow up the earth, he said.

GLOSSARY 词汇表
CERN
欧洲粒子物理实验室
in laymen's terms
简单来说
detector
探测器
a beam of protons
一束质子
smashed
被碰撞
explosive collision
爆炸性的冲撞
micron
微米
Big Bang
宇宙大爆炸
miniscule
极小的
 Large Hadron Collider
大型强子对撞机
particle accelerator
粒子加速器
circular tunnel
圆形隧道
accelerated
被加速
light speed
光速
pinpointing a particle
精确的锁定一颗粒子
whopping
巨大的，天大的
black hole
黑洞
wildest speculation
不切实际的推测

1 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

2 pinpointing   

准确地找出或描述( pinpoint的现在分词 )； 为…准确定位

参考例句：

• The difficulty of pinpointing primitive and derived characters remains. 要正确地指出原始性状和次生性状仍然感到困难。
• Pinpointing the true source of power in Japan is a notoriously slippery task. 要准确指出日本真正的权力来源，是一项非常困难的任务。

3 minuscule   

adj.非常小的；极不重要的

参考例句：

• The human race only a minuscule portion of the earth's history.人类只有占有极小部分地球历史。
• As things stand,Hong Kong's renminbi banking system is minuscule.就目前的情况而言，香港的人民币银行体系可谓微不足道。

4 speculations   

n.投机买卖( speculation的名词复数 )；思考；投机活动；推断

参考例句：

• Your speculations were all quite close to the truth. 你的揣测都很接近于事实。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• This possibility gives rise to interesting speculations. 这种可能性引起了有趣的推测。 来自《用法词典》