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MihoJanvier_2017G-_“太阳风暴追随者”教会我们的_
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| It is almost the end of the winter, and you've woken up to a cold house, which is weird , because you left the heater on all night. |
冬天快要结束了, 你醒来,发现房子里很冷, 很奇怪,因为你的暖气是整晚开着的。 |
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weird:adj.奇怪的;奇异的;离奇的;n.命运;宿命;命运女神; heater:n.加热器;加热工;
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| You turn on the light. |
你去开灯。 |
| It's not working. |
没反应。 |
| Actually, the coffee maker , the TV -- none of them are working. |
你还发现咖啡机、电视, 统统都打不开了。 |
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coffee maker:n.煮咖啡机;
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| Life outside also seems to have stopped. |
户外已经完全没有生机。 |
| There are no schools, most of the businesses are shut, and there are no working trains. |
学校放假了, 大部分商店都关门了, 火车也停运了。 |
| This is not the opening scene of a zombie apocalypse movie. |
这可不是某部僵尸电影的开场。 |
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zombie:n.行尸走肉;蛇神;木讷呆板的人; apocalypse:n.启示;天启;
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| This is what happened in March 1989 in the Canadian province of Quebec , when the power grid lost power. |
而是1989年3月, 在加拿大魁北克省 发生的大停电事故。 |
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Quebec:n.魁北克(加拿大港市省名); grid:n.网格;格子,栅格;输电网;
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| The culprit ? |
问题出在哪儿？ |
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culprit:n.犯人,罪犯;被控犯罪的人;
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| A solar storm. |
是太阳风暴。 |
| Solar storms are giant clouds of particles escaping from the Sun from time to time , and a constant reminder that we live in the neighborhood of an active star. |
太阳风暴是从太阳抛射出来的 巨大的粒子云雾, 它时刻提醒我们,我们生活在 一颗活跃的恒星附近。 |
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giant:n.巨人;伟人;巨兽;adj.巨大的;特大的 particles:n.微粒,粒子;粒子系统;碎木料(particle的复数形式); from time to time:不时,有时; neighborhood:n.附近;地区;街坊;adj.附近的;
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| And I, as a solar physicist , |
作为一名太阳物理学家, |
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physicist:n.物理学家;物理学研究者;
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| I have a tremendous chance to study these solar storms. |
我有很好的机会 来研究这些太阳风暴。 |
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tremendous:adj.极大的,巨大的;惊人的;极好的;
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| But you see, "solar storm chaser " |
但“太阳风暴追随者” |
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chaser:n.驱逐舰;猎人;饮烈酒后喝的饮料;[机]螺纹梳刀;
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| is not just a cool title. |
不光听起来很酷。 |
| My research helps to understand where they come from, how they behave and, in the long run , aims to mitigate their effects on human societies, which I'll get to in a second . |
我的研究还能帮助我们 理解太阳风暴从何而来, 有什么特点, 而且从长远来看, 要缓解其对人类社会的影响, 这一点我稍后再讲。 |
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behave:v.表现;(机器等)运转;举止端正;(事物)起某种作用; in the long run:长远;终究; mitigate:vt.使缓和,使减轻;vi.减轻,缓和下来; in a second:立刻,很快;
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| At the beginning of the space exploration age 50 years ago only, the probes we sent in space revealed that the planets in our Solar System constantly bathe in a stream of particles that are coming from the Sun and that we call the solar wind. |
在50年前,太空探索时代 刚刚开始时, 我们送入太空的探测器 发现太阳系里的行星 会不断遭遇来自太阳的粒子流, 我们称之为太阳风。 |
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At the beginning of:在…的开始; exploration:n.探索;勘探;探险;[医]探查术; probes:n.探索; v.探查; revealed:v.揭示;显示;露出;(reveal的过去分词和过去式) Solar System:[天]太阳系; constantly:adv.不断地;时常地; bathe:v.用水清洗(尤指身体部位); n.(在海、河等中的)游泳;
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| And in the same way that global wind patterns here on Earth can be affected by hurricanes , the solar wind is sometimes affected by solar storms that I like to call "space hurricanes." |
就像地球上的飓风, 会扰乱全球气流分布, 太阳风有时候也会被太阳风暴影响, 我将后者称为“太空飓风”。 |
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global:adj.全球的;总体的;球形的; hurricanes:n.[气象]飓风(hurricane的复数);
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| When they arrive at planets, they can perturb the space environment, which in turn creates the northern or southern lights , for example, here on Earth, but also Saturn and also Jupiter . |
当它们抵达行星时, 会扰乱太空环境, 引起北极光或南极光, 比如在地球上看到的, 在土星也有, 在木星上也是如此。 |
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perturb:vt.扰乱;使…混乱;使…心绪不宁; southern lights:n.南极光; Saturn:n.[天]土星;农业之神(罗马神话中的一个形象); Jupiter:n.[天]木星;朱庇特(罗马神话中的宙斯神);
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| Luckily, here on Earth, we are protected by our planet's natural shield , a magnetic bubble that we call the magnetosphere and that you can see here on the right side. |
幸运的是,在地球上, 我们有一个天然保护盾, 就是这个我们称为 “磁层”的磁性泡泡, 就是右边的这个。 |
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shield:n.盾;防护物;保护者;v.遮蔽;包庇;避开;保卫; magnetic:adj.像磁铁的;有磁性的;磁的;富有吸引力的; bubble:n.泡;气泡;肥皂泡;一点感情;v.起泡;冒泡;洋溢着(某种感情); magnetosphere:n.磁气圈;磁层;
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| Nonetheless , solar storms can still be responsible for disrupting satellite telecommunications and operations, for disrupting navigation systems, such as GPS, as well as electric power transmission . |
尽管如此,太阳风暴还是会影响 卫星通信和运行, 扰乱导航系统,像GPS, 还有电力传输系统。 |
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Nonetheless:adv.尽管如此,但是; responsible:adj.负责的,可靠的;有责任的; disrupting:v.扰乱;使中断;打乱;(disrupt的现在分词) telecommunications:n.电信;电讯; navigation:n.导航;航行;领航; as well as:也;和…一样;不但…而且; electric:n.供电;adj.电的;用电的;电动的;发电的; transmission:n.传输;传染;播送;发射;广播;传动装置;
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| All of these are technologies on which us humans rely more and more. |
所有这些技术 都是人类越来越依赖的。 |
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technologies:n.技术;科技(technology的复数); rely:vi.依靠;信赖;
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| I mean, imagine if you woke up tomorrow without a working cell phone -- no internet on it, which means no social media . |
想象一下,如果你 明早起来发现手机用不了, 没有网络, 就意味着用不了社交媒体。 |
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media:n.媒体;媒质(medium的复数);血管中层;浊塞音;中脉;
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| I mean, to me that would be worse than the zombie apocalypse. |
对我来说简直比僵尸爆发更糟糕。 |
| (Laughter) |
（笑声） |
| By constantly monitoring the Sun, though, we now know where the solar storms come from. |
通过持续监控太阳, 我们知道了太阳风暴是从何而来的。 |
| They come from regions of the Sun where a tremendous amount of energy is being stored. |
它们来自太阳的某些区域, 那里存储了大量的能量。 |
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regions:n.地区;地域;行政区;左近;(region的复数)
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| You have an example here, as a complex structure hanging above the solar surface, just on the verge of erupting . |
这里有个例子, 就像浮在太阳表面的一个复杂结构, 就在喷发物的边缘。 |
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complex:adj.复杂的;合成的;n.复合体;综合设施; structure:n.结构;构造;建筑物;vt.组织;构成;建造; on the verge of:濒临于;接近于; erupting:v.爆发;(岩浆、烟等)喷出;突然发生;爆发;(erupt的现在分词)
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| Unfortunately , we cannot send probes in the scorching hot atmosphere of the Sun, where temperatures can rise up to around 10 million degrees Kelvin . |
遗憾的是,我们无法将探测器 送到太阳大气层,那里温度太高, 能达到摄氏1000万度左右。 |
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Unfortunately:adv.不幸地; scorching:adj.灼热的; v.把…烧焦; atmosphere:n.大气;气氛;气压;风格; Kelvin:n.开尔文(英国物理学家,数学家); adj.开氏度的(常作K-);
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| So what I do is I use computer simulations in order to analyze but also to predict the behavior of these storms when they're just born at the Sun. |
因此我用的是计算机模拟的方法, 来分析并且预测 太阳风暴的行为特征, 就在它刚刚从太阳上生成的时候。 |
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simulations:n.[计]模拟(simulation的复数);[计]仿真; analyze:v.对…进行分析,分解(等于analyse); predict:v.预报;预言;预告;
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| This is only one part of the story, though. |
但这仅仅是故事的一方面。 |
| When these solar storms are moving in space, some of them will inevitably encounter space probes that we humans have sent in order to explore other worlds. |
当太阳风暴进入太空后, 其中一些会不可避免的 遇上我们发射的探测器, 发射它们的目的是探索其他的世界。 |
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inevitably:adv.不可避免地;必然地; encounter:v.遭遇,邂逅;遇到;n.遭遇,偶然碰见; explore:v.探索:探测:探险:
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| What I mean by other worlds is, for example, planets, such as Venus or Mercury , but also objects, such as comets . |
所谓其他的世界,我指的是其他行星, 比如金星或者水星, 或者其他天体,比如彗星。 |
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Venus:n.[天]金星;维纳斯(爱与美的女神); Mercury:n.[化]汞,水银;[天]水星;温度表;精神,元气; comets:n.[天]彗星(comet的复数);
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| And while these space probes have been made for different scientific endeavors , they can also act like tiny cosmic meteorological stations and monitor the evolution of these space storms. |
尽管制造这些探测器的目的, 是为了不同的科学事业, 但它们也可以充当 小型的宇宙气象站, 用来监控宇宙风暴的演变。 |
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scientific:adj.科学的,系统的; endeavors:尽力; cosmic:adj.宇宙的; meteorological:adj.气象的;气象学的; evolution:n.演变;进化;发展;渐进;
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| So I, with a group of researchers, gather and analyze this data coming from different locations of the Solar System. |
因此我跟一群研究者一起, 收集并分析这些 来自太阳系不同位置的数据。 |
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locations:n.地方;地点;位置;定位(location的复数)
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| And by doing so, my research shows that, actually, solar storms have a generic shape, and that this shape evolves as solar storms move away from the Sun. |
我的研究显示,实际上, 太阳风暴都有一个普遍特征, 这一特征随着太阳风暴 远离太阳而演变。 |
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generic:adj.类的;一般的;属的;非商标的; evolves:v.进化,进展(evolve的第三人称单数形式);
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| And you know what? |
你们知道吗？ |
| This is key for building tools to predict space weather. |
这是建造宇宙天气 预测工具的关键。 |
| I would like to leave you with this beautiful image. |
我想留给大家这幅美丽的图画。 |
| This is us here on Earth, this pale blue dot. |
这是我们所在的地球, 这个暗淡的蓝点。 |
| And while I study the Sun and its storms every day, |
在我研究太阳的时候, 几乎每天都有太阳风暴, |
| I will always have a deep love for this beautiful planet -- a pale blue dot indeed, but a pale blue dot with an invisible magnetic shield that helps to protect us. |
我将永远深爱着这个美丽的星球, 它其实就是一个淡蓝色的点, 但就是这个淡蓝色的点, 有一个看不见的磁性盾牌, 在时刻保护着我们。 |
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invisible:adj.看不见的;n.看不见的人或物;
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| Thank you. |
谢谢大家。 |
| (Applause) |
（掌声） |