美国科学60秒 SSS 2013-03-21
时间：2018-12-24 作者：英语课 分类：Scientific American(三)月
英语课
This is Scientific American 60 second Science, I’m Steve Mirsky
Nothing was on the table at the annual Isaac Asimov Memorial Debate March 20th at theAmerican Museum of Natural History in New York City. Here’s Hayden PlanetariumDirector Neil deGrasse Tyson talking with journalist Jim Holt, author of WhyDoes the World Exist, and physicist 1 Lawrence Krauss, author of A Universe fromNothing.
So Jim,when did philosophers start weighing in on this?
Reallywith Leibniz in the 17th century. He was the first thinker to pose the question“why is there something rather than nothing.” And by nothing, he meant a statein which there are no existence at all, there are no entities 2, there’s no chaos 3, there’s no space, no time, absolute nothingness. It’s very difficult tograsp in the imagination. If you try to obliterate 4 all of the contents of your consciousness or try to imagine all of the contents of the universe slowly being extinguished, the stars going out, the atoms disappearing, lifedisappearing, time and space disappearing, even when you try to reach nothingness in your imagination, there’s still the little light of your consciousness creeping under the door. I actually, the only times I’ve succeeded in imagining absolute nothingness is during dreamless sleep and once while I was watching professional bowling 5 on television.
I think that what Jim has pointed 6 out is exactly it. You’re absolutely right, there are some things that are essentially 7 impossible to get an intuitive conception of.And that’s just a limitation of the fact that we’re classical human beings who didn’t evolve to intuitively understand quantum mechanics. So there’s lots ofthings in science that are impossible to get any intuitive handle on, but that doesn’t mean they don’t exist.
I completely agree with you. And I think that a state of absolute nothingness,even though we can’t envision it in our minds, it’s logically consistent, it’sa real possibility, and there is a genuine question—why is there a universe rather than absolute nothingness?
For Scientific American 60 second science, I’m Steve Mir sky.
It’s about nothing.
So we’re coming on in with saying telling an idea for a show about nothing.
Exactly!
They say what your show about? I say nothing.
Here you go.
I think you might have something here.
Nothing was on the table at the annual Isaac Asimov Memorial Debate March 20th at theAmerican Museum of Natural History in New York City. Here’s Hayden PlanetariumDirector Neil deGrasse Tyson talking with journalist Jim Holt, author of WhyDoes the World Exist, and physicist 1 Lawrence Krauss, author of A Universe fromNothing.
So Jim,when did philosophers start weighing in on this?
Reallywith Leibniz in the 17th century. He was the first thinker to pose the question“why is there something rather than nothing.” And by nothing, he meant a statein which there are no existence at all, there are no entities 2, there’s no chaos 3, there’s no space, no time, absolute nothingness. It’s very difficult tograsp in the imagination. If you try to obliterate 4 all of the contents of your consciousness or try to imagine all of the contents of the universe slowly being extinguished, the stars going out, the atoms disappearing, lifedisappearing, time and space disappearing, even when you try to reach nothingness in your imagination, there’s still the little light of your consciousness creeping under the door. I actually, the only times I’ve succeeded in imagining absolute nothingness is during dreamless sleep and once while I was watching professional bowling 5 on television.
I think that what Jim has pointed 6 out is exactly it. You’re absolutely right, there are some things that are essentially 7 impossible to get an intuitive conception of.And that’s just a limitation of the fact that we’re classical human beings who didn’t evolve to intuitively understand quantum mechanics. So there’s lots ofthings in science that are impossible to get any intuitive handle on, but that doesn’t mean they don’t exist.
I completely agree with you. And I think that a state of absolute nothingness,even though we can’t envision it in our minds, it’s logically consistent, it’sa real possibility, and there is a genuine question—why is there a universe rather than absolute nothingness?
For Scientific American 60 second science, I’m Steve Mir sky.
It’s about nothing.
So we’re coming on in with saying telling an idea for a show about nothing.
Exactly!
They say what your show about? I say nothing.
Here you go.
I think you might have something here.
1 physicist
n.物理学家，研究物理学的人
- He is a physicist of the first rank.他是一流的物理学家。
- The successful physicist never puts on airs.这位卓有成就的物理学家从不摆架子。
2 entities
实体对像； 实体，独立存在体，实际存在物( entity的名词复数 )
- Our newspaper and our printing business form separate corporate entities. 我们的报纸和印刷业形成相对独立的企业实体。
- The North American continent is made up of three great structural entities. 北美大陆是由三个构造单元组成的。
3 chaos
n.混乱，无秩序
- After the failure of electricity supply the city was in chaos.停电后，城市一片混乱。
- The typhoon left chaos behind it.台风后一片混乱。
4 obliterate
v.擦去，涂抹，去掉...痕迹，消失，除去
- Whole villages were obliterated by fire.整座整座的村庄都被大火所吞噬。
- There was time enough to obliterate memories of how things once were for him.时间足以抹去他对过去经历的记忆。
5 bowling
n.保龄球运动
- Bowling is a popular sport with young and old.保龄球是老少都爱的运动。
- Which sport do you 1ike most,golf or bowling?你最喜欢什么运动，高尔夫还是保龄球？
6 pointed
adj.尖的，直截了当的
- He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
- She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。
7 essentially
adv.本质上，实质上，基本上
- Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
- She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。