1999年的世界末日（双语有声）

诙谐的语言，生动的内容一分钟快速掌握科技最新动态

本期节目音频下载

At the recent AAAS  meeting, Stony Brook University’s Robert Crease talked about a doomsday scare involving Scientific American and Brookhaven National Lab’s Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, or RHIC:

早在1999年的美国科学促进会会议上，石溪大学的罗伯特·克里斯向《科学美国人》杂志谈及末日恐慌——布鲁克海汶实验室开发的重离子对撞机（RHIC）：

“As the accelerator neared completion in 1999, Scientific American ran an article about RHIC, called ‘A Little Big Bang,’ with the title referring to the machine’s ambition to study forms of matter in the early universe.”

“随着时间越来越接近1999年，《科学美国人》刊登了一篇关于重离子对撞机的文章，名为《来点宇宙大爆炸》。标题意指科学家们为研究宇宙形成初期物质构成而研发这台机器。”

A reader wrote in wondering if black holes might be created. Sci Am printed the letter with a considered response from physicist Frank Wilczek.

一位读者来信，疑惑对撞机是否会产生黑洞。物理学家弗兰克·维尔切克相当谨慎地回答了读者的问题。同时《科学美国人》登载了这封信。

“Wilzcek said that the black hole scenario was incredible. But he also said that there’s a more likely possibility that it might create strangelets, which would swallow ordinary matter and described that as [merely] not plausible.That then prompted a series of headlines including this from the Sunday Times of London, entitled ‘Big Bang Machine Could Destroy Earth’.”

“维尔切克说产生黑洞是不可能的，更有可能产生的是会吞噬普通物质的奇异夸克物质，虽然这种可能性也不大。他的发言引起一系列反响，其中就有伦敦《星期日时报》的文章：《重现宇宙大爆炸可能摧毁地球》。”

Scientific American, Brookhaven and the Earth survived. Wilczek won the Nobel Prize in 2004 for his earlier work.

如今已经是2010年了，《科学美国人》杂志、布鲁克海汶和地球都还好好的，维尔切克则因为他之前的研究获得2004的诺贝尔。

点击进入参与科学60秒>>>