这是从未有过的古怪想法 There's never been a stranger idea
整个科学史上 in the entire history of science.
下至最小的层面 Down at the smallest scale.
比我们的细胞还小 Smaller than our cells.
比原子还小 可以突然之间变大… Smaller than atoms,could the world suddenly get bigger...
以全新的完全出乎意料的方式扩大么？ Branching out in new and totally unexpected ways?
了解现实的终极性质的需求 A quest to understand the ultimate nature of reality
吸引了世上最伟大的头脑 has gripped the greatest living minds
正迫使我们去考虑一个令人震颤的可能性… and is forcing us to consider a truly shocking possibility...
是否不止三维么？ Are there more than three dimensions?
空间 时间 生命本身 Space,time,life itself.
宇宙的秘密，尽在穿越虫洞 The secrets of the cosmos lie through the wormhole.
是否不止三维？ Are There More Than Three Dimensions?
上下 前后 左右 Up,down,backward,forward,side to side.
若你想去地球上任何地方 If you want to get anywhere on Earth,
这三个维度是你前往的唯一途径 these three dimensions are the only ways you can go.
它们描述了我们现实中的任何地方 They describe any place in our reality.
它们行么？ Or do they?
许多科学家现在相信 Many scientists now believe
我们的世界并不是三维的 our world is not three-dimensional.
不管怎样… 还有其它移动的途径 That somehow... there are other ways to move.
探索那些隐藏的维度 Discovering those hidden dimensions
是物理学最有价值的东西 is the biggest prize in physics
将会永远改变我们观察宇宙的方式 and would forever change the way we see the Universe.
我还是密西西比三角洲的一个小孩的时候 When I was a boy down in the Mississippi Delta,
长长夏日 虫子云集 bugs swarmed all summer long.
其中有些甚至可以水上漂 Some of them could even walk on water.
但其下面有些动物 But down below there were creatures
偶尔会飞身跃起 抓住毫不知情的虫子 who would occasionally dart up and grab an unsuspecting bug.
水虫永远都看不到它的到来 The water bugs never seemed to see it coming.
为什么呢？ Why not?
是不是因为对于它们来说 池塘没有深度 Was it because,to them,the pool had no depth,
没有第三维度呢？ no third dimension?
我们会像水虫那样 Could we be like water bugs,
无法看到现实的全貌呢？ unable to see the full extent of reality?
苏珊.巴里对人类感知的极限了如指掌 Susan Barry knows all too well the limits of human perception.
她出生就患有严重的斗鸡眼 She was born with her eyes severely crossed.
婴儿时代 她的大脑企图 As a baby,her brain's attempts
将分别从两只眼睛中看到的独立的二维图像 to fuse the separate two-dimensional images
融合成一个三维图像 遇到了严重的困难 from each eye into one 3-D image ran into serious trouble.
我小时候 是个斗鸡眼 Now,when I was little,being cross-eyed,
如果我 比方说 用右眼看这个苹果 if I,let's say,looked at the apple with my right eye,
我的左眼就会转过去看别的东西 - my left eye would be turned in and looking at something else --
比如这个钟 let's say, this clock.
这样就意味着一只眼睛在看钟 So that would mean one eye is seeing the clock
一只眼睛在看苹果 and one eye is seeing the apple,
大脑可能会将其解释成 and the brain might interpret that
认为时钟和苹果 to think that the clock and the apple
是在空间的同一个地方 were in the same place in space.
现在 你若是如此认为的话 那可是一个站不住脚的情形啊 Now,if you think about that,that's an untenable situation.
因为你怎么能够知道如何移动 Because how would you be able to know how to move
并与东西互动 and interact with things
若是你不知道它们的空间位置的话？ if you don't know where they are in space?
所以 如果你的眼睛那样斗鸡的话 So,if your eyes are crossed like that,
你得找到办法去适应 you have to find a way to adapt,
有个适应之道 我用过的 and one way to adapt,the way that I used,
只不过就是抛弃一只眼睛看到的信息 was I simply threw out the information from one eye,
那只看别处的眼睛 the eye that was turned.
弗里曼：苏珊小时候做了眼科手术 Susan had eye surgeries when she was a child,
但手术只是改变了她的外表 but they only changed her outward appearance.
她只能看到两个维度 She could only see two dimensions.
没有什么东西是有深度的 Nothing had any depth.
所有一切 甚至她自己的镜像 Everything,even her own reflection,
看上去完全就是平平的 looked entirely flat.
似乎她的生活永远就是那个样子了 And it seemed she would live that way forever.
过去半个世纪里 一直有个信条 For the past half century,there has been a belief
就是如果你在襁褓期没有培育出 that if you did not develop the ability to see in 3-D
立体观察的能力的话 within the first years of life in early childhood,
你到了成年也不会培育出来的 you could not develop it as an adult.
弗里曼：然而就在她近50岁的时候 But in her late 40s,
苏珊开始了严格的视力在培训计划 Susan began a rigorous vision retraining program
尝试教会她的眼睛锁定同一个目标 to try to teach her eyes to lock onto the same target
让她的大脑有机会发现 and give her brain the chance to discover
空间其它的维度 an extra dimension of space.
有一天 在她48岁生日过后 One day,after her 48th birthday,
奇迹发生了 something incredible happened.
巴里：我走向自己的汽车 坐在驾驶座上 I went out to my car and I sat down in the driver's seat,
我看向方向盘 and I went to look at the steering wheel,
它突了出来 and it had popped out.
这个空间一清二楚地突出在 It was popped out in space with this palpable pocket of space
方向盘与仪表盘之间 between the steering wheel and the dashboard.
我从未见到过那样的东西 And I had never seen anything like that.
那一整天 我的立体视觉的出现 And all that day,my stereo vision would emerge
是间歇性的 出乎意料的 like intermittently,unexpectedly,
让人震惊 and it would be amazing.
水龙头就突出在我的面前 The sink faucets were really jutting out toward me,
我记得边兴赏水龙头 and I can remember just admiring the sink faucets
边思忖我从未见过有弧形 and thinking that I had never seen an arc
如这些水龙头那样美丽的弧形 as beautiful as the arc of those sink faucets.
弗里曼：这额外的维度的突然现身 The sudden appearance of this extra dimension
是苏珊.巴里的一个启示 was a revelation to Susan Barry.
但是我们所知晓的三维之外 But the idea that another dimension
有另一个维度 beyond the three we know
可能隐藏着不为我们大家发现的概念 might be hiding from all of us is now at the center
现在成了世界上最重要的科学调查的关注点 of the world's most important scientific investigations.
哈佛大学物理学教授丽莎.兰德尔 Harvard Professor of physics Lisa Randall
处在这场搜寻的前列 is at the forefront of this hunt.
她看到的世界与你我不同 She sees the world differently from you and me.
兰德尔：就有那么一天 我走着去上班 It was just one day I was walking to work,
我意识到我确实觉得有额外的维度 and I realized I really did think that extra dimensions
可能就存在着 could be out there.
弗里曼：她坚信必定存在有 The main reason for her conviction
不止三个维度的主要原因是什么？ that there must be more than three dimensions?
这个回形针 This paperclip.
它确实很奇怪 It's really strange.
如果我拿起这块小磁铁 我就可以拿起这个回形针 If I take this tiny magnet,I can pick up this paperclip
哪怕整个地球在往下拉这个回形针 even though the entire Earth is pulling down on this paperclip.
你不妨想想 那磁力 If you think about it,the force of magnetism
施加给这个回形针上的 足以匹敌 that is exerted on this paperclip is enough to compete
实际上是胜过了作用于它的引力 and actually overwhelm the force of gravity that's acting on it.
所以说其中有奥秘存在 So there's a mystery there,
因为为什么电磁力能如此强大到 because why is electromagnetism so much stronger
超过引力呢？ than the force of gravity?
弗里曼：物理学家已经发现 Physicists have discovered
我们所在的世界由四种基本力量控制 that we live in a world governed by four primal forces.
有电磁力 There is electromagnetism,
该力作用于带电荷的物体… the force that affects objects with electric charge...
强核力 The strong nuclear force,
其能量在核弹里释放出来 whose power is unleashed in nuclear weapons,
以及引发放射性衰变的弱核力 and the weak nuclear force that triggers radioactive decay.
这三种力大致旗鼓相当 These first three forces are all roughly equal in strength.
然而第四种力 引力 则要弱很多 But the fourth force,gravity,is much weaker.
事实上 它要比另外三种力 In fact,it's around a trillion,trillion,trillion times
还要弱兆兆兆倍 weaker than the other three.
因此我们正努力搞明白怎样去解释引力为何 So we're trying to understand what can explain why gravity
远弱于其它基本力 is so much weaker than the other elementary forces.
有一个可能性 是我们近一二十年里 And one of the possibilities that we start to think about
非常认真考虑的 quite seriously in the last decade or two
就是实际上可能存在有另外的空间维度 is that there could actually be additional dimensions of space.
如果那是真的 有可能引力的微弱 If that's true,it could be that gravity's weak
是因为它其实集中在了 because it's actually concentrated
另一个维度的某个地方 somewhere else in another dimension.
弗里曼：额外维度的想法 The idea that extra dimensions
有可能是我们现实的隐藏部分 其可追溯到帕拉图 might be a hidden part of our reality is as old as Plato.
他想象我们所在的世界 He imagined the world we live in
就像是被火光照亮的洞穴岩壁 to be like the wall of a cave lit by firelight.
魅影舞蹈掠过我们的二维世界 Shadows dance across our two-dimensional world
那是洞穴里第三个维度的物体的投影 cast by objects in the body of the cave
我们没看见 in a third dimension that's hidden from us.
三维立体形状如四面体 A three-dimensional geometrical shape like the tetrahedron,
它有四个等边 which has four equal sides,
可以在岩壁上投射出一个扭曲的阴影 could cast a distorted shadow on the wall
以至于一边看上去比其它边短很多 so that one side looks much shorter than the others.
宛如一个额外的维度 Just as an extra dimension
能够掩饰其中一条边的长度一样 can hide the true length of one of the sides,
所以 同样 它有可能掩饰掉引力真正的强度 so,too,it might be hiding the true strength of gravity.
丽莎.兰德尔认识额外维度的努力 And Lisa Randall's efforts to learn about extra dimensions
始于 和柏拉图一样 研究阴影 begins,like Plato's,with studying shadows.
这里我有一个三维的立方体 So here I have a three-dimensional cube.
现在 我不妨来做一个投影 Now,if I had a single projection,
实际上我可以来混淆一下 I might actually confuse that,
比如 就是一个正方形 for example,of just being a square,
那是二维的 which is two-dimensional.
然而 转动物体 However,by rotating the object
从不同的角度 and looking from different angles
看到不同的投影 with different projections,
你就可以说出你手里的是个三维的物体 you can tell that what you have is a three-dimensional object.
将信息凑在一起 By putting together the information,
你就可以推断出那有什么 you can deduce what's there.
弗里曼：就像二维阴影 Just as a two-dimensional shadow
可以帮助我们认识三维立方体的真实形状一样 can help us learn the true shape of a three-dimensional cube,
我们可以探索四维立方体 we can explore a four-dimensional cube,
超立方体 通过观察其三维阴影 a hypercube,by looking at its three-dimensional shadows.
我们可以看到超立方体各个投影 We can look at different projections of a hypercube.
我们会看到的 What we would see
是从一个角度去看立方体那样的东西 are things from one angle that might look a cube.
从另一个角度 它可能看上去就像是 立方体里面有个立方体 From other angles,it might look like a cube inside a cube.
它可能看上去就像是自我从内往外翻转 It might look like it's turning itself inside out
因为我们并不是真的在第四维里 because we're not really in the fourth dimension,
因此它的举动是我们并不熟悉的 so it does things that we're not familiar with
因为它具有这整个其它的空间维度 because it has this whole other dimension of space
它可以表现出来 that it can play with.
弗里曼：不过若是有第四维度的存在 But if a fourth dimension does exist,
我们不会看到有物体如此变化形状 shouldn't we see objects changing shapes like this,
甚至会自我由内往外翻转吧？ even turning themselves inside out?
难道存在于第四维度里的东西 Could it be that whatever exists in the fourth dimension
不知咋的被阻止进入我们的世界么？ is somehow blocked from entering our world?
还是它们被某种方式隐匿起来了？ Or could they be hidden some other way?
兰德尔：因此 若是有额外的维度 So,if there are extra dimensions,
它们必定得很好地隐匿起来 they have to be pretty well-hidden
让我们无法去发现它们 for us not to have seen them.
那为何会是是这个样子？ So,why would that be?
可能是这些其它的维度 It could be these other dimensions
非常之小 我们只是发现不了它们 are just so tiny we just don't notice them.
弗里曼：然而这位科学家 But this scientist
认为他已经发现了新方法来察觉它们 thinks he's discovered a new way to detect them
我们所无法看到的维度 and that dimensions we can't see
控制着宇宙间万物运动的方式 control the way everything in the Universe moves.
如果我们进入空间第四维度 What would it look like
会是什么样子呢？ if we were to travel into a fourth dimension of space?
这是很难想象的 It's not easy to imagine.
不过这里有一个办法去得到概念 But here's one way to get an idea.
把我的手掌看成是一个只有两个维度的世界 Think of the palm of my hand as a world of only two dimensions.
如果有一个三维的球穿过它 If a three-dimensional ball were to pass through it,
那我的手掌里的居民会看到什么？ what would the inhabitants of my palm see?
一个圆圈在增大 A circle that grew
然后收缩为一点 随后慢慢消失了 and then shrunk down to a dot before disappearing.
所以 如果我可以走进第四维度 So,if I could move into the fourth dimension,
我的三维投影就会变形 收缩 my three-dimensional projection would distort,shrink,
最后消失在这个世界里 一片漆黑 and finally flicker out of this world,becoming totally dark.
加州大学欧文分校的物理学家蒂姆.泰特 U.C. Irvine Physicist Tim Tait
认为宇宙中多数物质 thinks most of the matter in the Universe
或许已经进入了第四维度 变成了漆黑一团 may have moved into the fourth dimension and gone dark.
他同时也花费了大部分时间 He,too,spends most of his time
试图逃出平时束缚我们的维度 trying to escape the dimensions that normally confine us.
泰特：你潜水时 When you scuba dive,
你会马上意识到那样的事实 you become immediately aware of the fact
你得控制你的高度 that you have to control how high you are,
深度 要知道 你是在水里 how deep,you know,you are in the water,
你距离水面有多近 how close you are to the surface,
这样你就立马意识到实际上 and so you instantly become aware of the fact
对于另一个维度 that there's another dimension
某种程度你在实地是无法真正感受到的 in a way that you can't really feel when you're on the ground.
弗里曼：蒂姆认为另一个维度 Tim believes that yet another dimension,
第四维度 甚至有可能是 a fourth dimension,might be the key
解释宇宙最深层的谜团之一的关键 - to explaining one of the deepest mysteries of the Universe --
暗物质之谜 the mystery of dark matter.
近年来 我们已经真正意识到了事实上 In the recent years,we've become really aware of the fact
我们在盘点我们宇宙的所有东西后 that when we account for all the stuff in our Universe,
有东西不见了 there's stuff that's missing.
我们可以看到它的引力吸引着其他东西 We can see it pulling on other things gravitationally,
但除此之外 并没有留下任何存在的痕迹 but other than that,it doesn't leave any trace that it's there.
弗里曼：科学家相信有暗物质的存在 Scientists are convinced dark matter exists
因为它影响着恒星围绕星系的方式 because it's affecting the way stars rotate around galaxies.
它的引力非常强大 The gravitational pull of it is so strong,
他们估计暗物质 that they estimate dark matter
比普通物质是5:1 outweighs normal matter by five to one.
我们确实不知道暗物质是什么 We really don't know what dark matter is,
但已有许多想法提了出来 but there have been many ideas that have been proposed
试图去解释它 to try to explain it,
我个人接受暗物质 and my own personal take on dark matter
是关于额外维度的理论 is a theory with extra dimensions.
弗里曼：蒂姆的想法是暗物质可能是 Tim's idea is that dark matter could be evidence
第四维度存在的证据 that a fourth dimension exists,
那个维度我们几乎是看不见的 a dimension that is almost impossible for us to see.
泰特：所以说额外维度可比作 So an analogy for the extra dimension
是观察船只的锚索 would be looking at the anchor line of a boat.
你看到绳索伸到远方 你看到绳索 When you look at the line from far away,you see a line.
你看到又长又细的东西 You see a long,thin object,
你没意识到它其实是有宽度的 and you don't realize that it actually has width,
它具有另一个维度 你可以移动的 that it has an extra direction that you can move
如果你坐在其表面的话 if you were sitting on the surface of it.
凑近一看 它实际上是个圆柱体 Close up,it's actually a cylinder.
它很粗壮 你可以沿着它的外围移动 It's big and fat,and you can move around the periphery of it.
弗里曼：如果粒子绕着这个圆柱移动 If particles are moving around this cylinder,
如果它足够小的话 and if it were small enough,
它们就会让我们看上去就好像它们根本没动一般 they would look to us like they were not moving at all.
这就是我们关于额外维度的模型 So this is our model for an extra dimension.
我们有这个浮子 它代表一个粒子 We have the Bob,which represents a particle.
我旋转粒子 As I spin the particle around,
它就会打圈 绳子将其保持在适当位置上 as it goes in a circle with the string holding it in place,
那表示它在额外的维度里移动 and that represents it moving in the extra dimension.
好 让我们来看看其如何动作 So,let's see how that works.
现在我们看到它在额外的维度里打圈 So here we have it spinning around in the extra dimension.
随着它越来越靠近 加速了起来 As it gets closer and closer,it speeds up.
它速度越来越快 具有了更高的能量 It moves faster and faster and has more energy.
尽管这个粒子看上去好像原地不动 Even though this particle looks like it's standing still,
它可能实际上动作非常非常快 it could actually be moving very,very fast
打着很小很小的圈子 just in a very,very small circle.
弗里曼：运动中的任何粒子必须具有能量 Any particle that is moving must have energy,
根据所有物理学里最著名的方程式 and according to the most famous equation in all physics,
你具有了能量 你就具有了质量 if you have energy,you have mass.
那就给了蒂姆灵光闪现 That gave Tim a flash of inspiration
暗物质粒子实际上有可能是什么 about what dark-matter particles might actually be
以及它们有可能引导我们 and how they might lead us
发现第四维 to discovering the fourth dimension.
泰特：光子是光的粒子 So photons are particles of light,
但如果有另一个方向让光子可以穿行 but if there's another direction that photons can travel in,
我们实际上就可以得到暗物质粒子了 we can actually get a dark-matter particle
只要取上这些无质量的光子 by just taking these massless photons
让它们在额外的维度里转圈就行了 and letting them move around in a circle in the extra dimension.
弗里曼：若蒂姆是对的 If Tim's right,
暗物质实际上是出自光 dark matter is actually made of light,
无质量粒子呈现出具有质量 massless particles that appear to have mass
因为它们竞相围绕着 because they are racing around
微小的第四维度打圈 它太小了我们看不到 a tiny fourth-dimensional loop that's too small for us to see.
但又是如何和何时 But how and when
让这些光子离开我们的三维世界 did these photons leave our three-dimensional world
进入到第四维度的呢？ and enter the fourth dimension?
有个办法让你可以试着明白这个 One way you can try to understand this
你不妨想想游乐场里有台旋转木马 is if you think about a round-about in a playground.
它旋转得飞快 It's spinning around really fast.
要登上旋转木马 Actually get onto the round-about,
小孩跑动的速度得等同于 a child is gonna have to run around it at the same speed
它旋转的速度 that it's spinning.
但要是其旋转快于孩子的跑动 But if it's spinning faster than the child can actually run,
那么就没有办法安全登录 then there's no way to get onto it safely.
我们今天所看到的多数粒子 Most particles we have today
恰恰就没有那么多的能量 just don't have that much energy.
不过在宇宙很年轻时 But when the Universe was very young,
它很小很热 it was very small and it was very hot.
当时 粒子具有更多的能量 And at that time,particles had a lot more energy,
它们就真正能够进入到额外的维度里去 and they were able to actually get into the extra dimension.
弗里曼：就在大爆炸之后 Right after the Big Bang,
光的超高能粒子 super high-energy particles of light
可能就这样被炸进了第四维度 may have blasted their way into the fourth dimension.
它们从此被套牢在了那里 They have been stuck there ever since
今天呈现给我们的是暗物质 and appear to us today as dark matter.
不过蒂姆认为可能有办法让它们出来 But Tim thinks there might be a way for them to get out,
一旦它们这样做的话 就有可能给我们带来证明 and when they do,they could bring us proof
第四维度确实存在 that the fourth dimension really exists.
如果有两个光子以相对方向围绕着 If two photons are moving around this curled-up dimension
这个卷曲的维度转动 in opposite directions,
它们就有可能偶尔相撞在一起 they might occasionally bump into one another.
它们相撞时 就会湮灭迸发成 When they collide,they annihilate and burst out
一阵能量雨进入到我们的3-D宇宙里来 as an intense shower of energy into our 3-D Universe.
尽管这一事件十分罕见 Even though this event is rare,
但第四维里的这些碰撞 these collisions in the fourth dimension
应该会产生警告讯号 should create a telltale signal.
点火 升空 Engines start. Liftoff.
弗里曼：2008年 美国航天局发射了费米太空望远镜 In 2008,NASA launched the Fermi Space Telescope,
探测器旨在截获强烈的辐射 伽马射线 a probe designed to pick up the intense radiation,gamma rays,
产生自恒星爆炸那样的宇宙灾难 created by cosmic cataclysms like exploding stars.
但它也能侦测到暗物质光子彼此湮灭时 But it should also detect gamma rays from dark-matter photons
所发出的伽马射线 as they annihilate one another.
这样 随着它收集数据 我们就能了解到伽马射线空域 So,as it collects data,we understand the gamma-ray sky,
我们就着手寻找暗物质有可能存在的地方 and we start to look for where the dark matter might be.
弗里曼：费米已经发现了有大量的伽马射线 Fermi has already discovered a sea of gamma rays
源自我们银河系的中心 emanating from the center of our galaxy.
但是需要有更多的工作 But much more work is needed
来证明这个讯号是来自第四维 to prove this signal is coming from the fourth dimension.
泰特：如此明显 我希望明天我们就能宣布胜利 So obviously,I hope that tomorrow we declare victory
去探索其它的维度 and explore the extra dimension.
从另一方面 On the other hand,
我并不知道我们究竟何时能发现它 I don't know exactly when we're gonna discover it.
不过 我认为现在的前景要远好于 I think,though,the prospects today are much better
它们的过去 than they have been in the past.
弗里曼：费米望远镜将会继续收集 The Fermi Telescope will continue gathering evidence
太空深处的证据 直到2015年前后 from the depths of space until around 2015.
不过要证明存在有不止三个维度 But proof that there are more than three dimensions
可能并不是那么遥远了 may not come from so far away.
眼下人类有史以来所打造的最大的实验 Right now the biggest experiment mankind has ever built
正在瑞士的阿尔卑斯山底下努力去发现它们 is trying to find them under the Swiss Alps.
科学目标 The goal of science
就是向我们揭示大自然最深层的运作 is to reveal to us the deepest workings of nature.
科学尝试里没有什么比弦理论更加深入 And nothing in science attempts to go deeper than string theory.
弦理论称物质的每一个粒子 String theory says that every single particle of matter
宇宙中的能量 and energy in the Universe
其实都是小小的 颤动的弦… is actually a tiny,vibrating string...
弦的颤动并不是在三个维度上 而是九个 A string that vibrates not in three dimensions,but in nine.
若是弦理论是正确的 那空间的每一点 If string theory is right,at every point in space,
都有六个额外的维度紧紧缠绕在一起 there are six extra dimensions curled up incredibly tight.
这些看不见的维度 These hidden dimensions
可以解决所有的物理奥秘 could solve all the mysteries of physics.
但是有一个问题 But there's a problem.
自弦理论在40多年前首次提出以来 Since string theory was first proposed over 40 years ago,
并没有丝毫证据支持它 there's not a single shred of evidence to support it.
数以千计的科学家在追寻证据 Thousands of scientists are on the hunt for that evidence.
日内瓦的阿尔卑斯山麓下 Under the foothills of the Alps in Geneva
建有大型强子对撞机 即LHC lies the Large Hadron Collider,the LHC.
那是个17英里长的环形跑道 It's a 17-mile-long circular racetrack
旨在将亚原子粒子撞击在一起 designed to smash subatomic particles together
依靠惊人的能量 at phenomenal energies.
加州理工学院的物理学教授玛利亚.丝波罗普鲁 Caltech Physics Professor Maria Spiropulu
自大学毕业以后就一直在日内瓦 has been working at the atom smashers in Geneva
从事粒子加速器工作 since she was an undergraduate.
她见过无数粒子的飞行 She has seen trillions of particles fly
如亚原子弹片那样穿过探测器 like subatomic shrapnel through the detectors.
LHC 我觉得是人类所尝试过的最具雄心 The LHC,I think,is the most ambitious
技术上最为复杂的科学项目 and technologically complex scientific project
人类已经尝试过了 that humanity has ever attempted.
我们每秒有10亿次碰撞 We got a billion collisions per second,
记录这个数据可谓是项艰巨的任务 and this is a daunting task to record this data.
弗里曼：玛利亚和她的同事筛选了 Maria and her colleagues have sifted through
这一大堆数据 this immense pile of data
甄别出了几十个亚原子粒子 and identified dozens of tiny subatomic particles,
物质的基本模块 the basic building blocks of matter.
但他们从未见到过 But they've never seen the strings
深居在这些粒子中心的弦 that lie at the heart of each of these particles.
弦理论预测它们必定 String theory predicts that they must be
比原子要小上万亿 万亿倍 a trillion,trillion times smaller than an atom.
换句话说 - Put that another way --
若是原子的大小相当于太阳系 if an atom were the size of the solar system,
一个弦就相当于一个灯泡的大小 a string would be the size of a light bulb.
目标越小 And the smaller an object is,
则看到它所需的能量就越大 the more energy it takes to see it.
环绕LHC飞行的亚原子粒子的能量 The energy of the subatomic particles racing around the LHC
大得惊人 is staggeringly large.
质子穿梭在这个环里飞快 乃至光束 Protons zip around this ring so fast that a beam of light
也只能超越它们每小时约8英里 only outruns them by about eight miles an hour.
但要看到基本的弦 But to see fundamental strings
以及它们六个缠绕在一起的维度 and their six curled-up dimensions
所需的能量几乎不可理喻 requires levels of energy almost beyond comprehension.
丝波罗普鲁：如果你想做出一个对撞机 If you want to make a collider
使其真正产生弦那样的东西 that will actually produce something like strings,
所需的加速器要远大于LHC it would take an accelerator much bigger than the LHC,
远大过地球 地球的周长 much bigger than the Earth,the circumference of the Earth,
没准远大过银河系 possibly much bigger than the Milky Way.
弗里曼：不过或许有办法来证明弦理论 But there may be a way to prove that string theory
以及伴随它的六个额外的空间维度 and the six extra dimensions of space that come with it
是正确的 is correct,
一个并不需要直接看到微小的弦的办法 a way that does not require seeing tiny strings directly.
乔.泡钦斯基是世界上 Joe Polchinski is one of the world's
首席弦理论家之一 leading string theorists.
和许多物理学家一样 Like many physicists,
他走进大自然以获得灵感 he draws inspiration from being close to nature.
真是太棒了 走出去来到大自然来到山区 It's great to get out here in nature in the mountains
来做一点思考 to think about things a bit.
你登上高处 When you get to the top of a climb,
你就会豁然开朗 you really get a much bigger picture.
弗里曼：乔或许 Joe has probably
更深入地探究弦理论的原理 delved deeper into the workings of string theory
甚于其它任何人 在此过程中 他意识到 than anyone else,and in doing so,he realized
有关键的东西消失在了数学中 something crucial was missing from the math.
我们知道大自然的基本模块必定是 So,we know that the basic building blocks of nature
很小很小的 have to be really small,
小于我们所见过的任何东西 - smaller than anything we've ever seen --
或许是相当地小 probably a whole lot smaller.
因此 如果这些模块是弦的话 那么要知道 So,if these building blocks are strings,you know,
它们是难以捉摸的 they're very elusive.
我们怎么知道它们的存在呢？ How do we know that they're there?
所以说它极具挑战 And so it's challenging.
我们曾做过一个计算 And there was this one calculation we would do,
数学给我们的答案 and the answer that the math was giving us
并没有匹配我们曾以为的 wouldn't match up with the physical picture
物理图像 we thought we had.
原来问题在于 It turned out that the problem was
弦本身并不充分 the strings themselves were not enough.
数学告诉我们的是有另一种东西 What the math was telling us was there was another kind of thing,
有另一种对象在图像中 another sort of object in the picture.
弗里曼：1995年 经过多年工作后 In 1995,after many years of work,
乔以自己的方式通过恼人的数学 Joe made his way through the torturous math
发现了弦的源头 and discovered the source of strings.
他称这些东西为缔膜（D-Branes） He called these objects D-branes.
我们大老远远足到这里 So we're out here on this nice hike out here in nature,
我们看到了这个漂亮的蜘蛛网 and we've got this beautiful spider web,
这是某些概念的一个很好的模型 which is a nice model for some of these ideas.
所以说缔膜是这些高维对象 So D-branes are these higher-dimensional objects.
它们可以使二维的 三维的 甚至更多维的 They can be two-dimensional,three-dimensional,or even more.
这个蜘蛛网是二维的 一张薄片 And this spider web is two-dimensional,a sheet,
就像一张纸 它可以伸缩弯曲 and like a sheet,it can flex and bend
同样蒂膜也可以伸缩弯曲 the way D-branes can flex and bend.
现在 这并不是理想的模型 Now,it's not a perfect model
因为这张网粘在了两根树枝之间 because this web is stuck between these two branches,
然而蒂膜却可以延伸无尽头 but the D-branes can go on forever.
它们可以是宇宙规模 They could be of cosmic size,
从宇宙的一侧一直延伸到另一侧 stretching from one side of the Universe to another.
你不妨仔细看看 And if you look close,
你可以看到有小虫子粘在上面 you see that there are these little bugs stuck to it
同样弦也粘在蒂膜上 the way strings get stuck to a D-brane.
弗里曼：在乔的理论里 蒂膜可以取上 In Joe's theory,D-branes could take on
九个维度中的任何维度 any of the nine dimensions
这些维度存在于弦理论的数学中 that exist in the mathematics of string theory.
我们整个宇宙可以是三维的膜 Our entire Universe could be a three-dimensional brane,
大块的空间全都是弦 a block of space to which all the strings,
我们宇宙中的物质都粘在上面 all the matter in our Universe is stuck.
现在你看到了膜的作用 Now you have the branes doing what they do,
你会发现极有可能 and you find that very possibly
维度可能远远大于我们的想象 the dimensions could be much larger than we thought about,
大得足以看到 粒子加速器 large enough to see particle accelerators,
大得足以可以让我们看到其效果 large enough to maybe have effects on what we see
在天体物理学里 在某些我们从太空中所看到的物理学里 in astrophysics,in some of the physics we see from space.
弗里曼：多亏了乔的发现 Thanks to Joe's discovery,
全世界的科学家充满了新的希望 scientists around the world are fueled with fresh hope
他们可能很快就能发现额外的维度 that they may soon detect extra dimensions.
如果你我 所有的星星 宇宙间所有的星系 If you,me,every star,every galaxy in the cosmos
都是粘在三维的膜上的话 is stuck on a three-dimensional brane,
那么第四维度 then a fourth dimension
就不必是原子的一小部分了 wouldn't have to be a tiny fraction of an atom.
它可要大多了 It could be much bigger.
发现额外的维度 The discovery of extra dimensions
将是科学史上 would be one of the biggest breakthroughs
最大的突破之一 in the history of science.
但它也可能带来灾祸 But it might also spell disaster.
因为证明它们存在的实验 Because the experiment that proves they exist
也可能会创造出地球上的黑洞 might also create a black hole here on Earth.
1609年 伽利略透过他的望远镜 In 1609,Galileo peered through his telescope
窥视到了木星的卫星 and spied the moons of Jupiter.
他发现了那四个小小的光点 His discovery of those four tiny points of light,
肉眼看不见 invisible to the naked eye,
从而改变了我们对自己的世界的理解 changed our understanding of our world.
额外的空间维度 Extra dimensions of space
将远比伽利略的卫星更难看到 will be much harder to see than Galileo's moons,
但一旦我们发现它们的话 那将改变我们 but if we discover them,it will change our understanding
对整个宇宙的理解 of the entire Universe.
这件精妙的平衡设备 This piece of delicately balanced equipment
有可能是发现第四维的装置 could be the device that discovers the fourth dimension.
它位于华盛顿大学的地下室 It sits in a basement at the University of Washington
属于这个人的 and belongs to this man.
埃里克.阿德尔伯格 与一个小组一道 Eric Adelberger,along with a small team,
花了最近十年的时间 has spent the last decade
来观察这台扭秤的来回扭动 watching this torsion balance twist back and forth,
希望它能昭然若揭 hoping it reveals evidence
证明存在超过三个以上的维度 that there are more than three dimensions.
引力确实是个惊人的故事 Gravity is really an amazing story.
它是物理学家所认识的 It was the first of the fundamental forces
首个基本力 that the physicists learned about.
牛顿有他的引力理论 Isaac Newton had his theory of gravity,
它在太阳系里屡试不爽 which has been tested very well in the solar system.
但它在很短的距离上的测试 But it's not really been tested very well at all
非常不佳 at very short distances.
短距离 And the short distances
全都停留在理论上 are now where all the theoretical action is,
可以这么说 so to speak.
弗里曼：埃里克需要测量的力道 The forces Eric needs to measure
极其微弱 are incredibly weak.
尽管实验室在地下 Even though the lab is underground,
但他的数据还是屡遭破坏 有交通高峰时刻的火车 his data is frequently marred by trains,rush-hour traffic,
乃至高空飞行的飞机 even airplanes flying miles overhead.
我们所测量的力道确实极其微小 The forces we're measuring are really extraordinarily tiny.
为了有点概念 你不妨设法将一张邮票 To get some idea,if you could cut a postage stamp
切成万亿小片 into a trillion little pieces somehow
设法称重其中的一片 and could weigh one of those little pieces somehow,
那种力道就是我们要测量的 that's the kind of forces that we're measuring.
弗里曼：如果引力在很小的距离上偏离牛顿定律 If the force of gravity deviates from Newton's laws
那将是一个警示信号 at very small distances,it would be a telltale sign
有额外的微型维度存在 that an extra microscopic dimension exists.
这是埃里克直接掌握的原则 It's a principle Eric knows firsthand
来自他在实验室外的酷爱 from his passion outside the lab
照料着另一套微妙的东西 tending another set of delicate objects.
理解其的好方法就是这里的类比 A nice way to understand this is this analogy
引力在不同维度间传播的方式 between the way gravity spreads out
引力在不同维度间传播的方式 in varying number of dimensions
与水流在不同维度间的流动方式 and the way flow of water spreads out
与水流在不同维度间的流动方式 in varying number of dimensions.
我们这里有一个源源不断地水流 We got a steady stream of water
从顶部的两个口子流出 that flows out of these two outlets at the top,
落在管道里 并被限制在一个维度里 and it falls into a channel and is confined in one dimension.
它沿着一个维度流下 And it runs down along the one dimension,
我们将一个管道乘以二 还有另一个管道 and we've made one channel twice as long as the other channel.
我们将看到 - 测量水流 And we're gonna see -- measure the flow of water
观察这个水桶相对这个水桶的 by watching how much the level of the water in this bucket
水平面的变化情况 这里水流过的距离 changes compared to this bucket,where the water's had to travel
得是那个维度里得两倍的距离 twice as far in that one dimension.
流经较长一维管道的水量 The amount of water
流经较长一维管道的水量 that's flowed through the longer one-dimensional channel
完全等同于流经较短一维管道的水量 is just the same as the amount of water
流经较短一维管道的水量 that's flowed through the shorter one-dimensional channel.
所以这就告诉了我们有关引力的情况 So what this tells us about gravity is that if gravity
即如果引力运作在一个维度的世界里 were operating in a one-dimensional world,
不管物体靠的很近还是离得很远 it would be the same if objects are close together
其都是一样的 or if they're very far apart.
我们来看看水在两个维度里流动时 So now we're gonna see what happens
所发生的情况 when the water flows in two dimensions.
在我们的二维实验中 In our two-dimensional experiment,
靠近水源的烧杯所得到的水是 the beaker that was closer to the water source
离水源较远的烧杯的两倍多 got twice as much water
离水源较远的烧杯的两倍多 as the beaker that was farther from the source.
如果这两个烧杯就是我们对引力的计量 If these two beakers here were our measure of gravity,
那么我们就能知道我们处在二维世界里 we would know that we were in a two-dimensional world
因为我们在这里得到了两倍的水 because we got twice as much water over here.
好 现在我们来看看水在三维世界里扩散时 Okay,now we're gonna see what happens
所发生的情况 when the water spreads in three dimensions.
弗里曼：水在三维世界里扩散时 When water spreads out in a three-dimensional world,
你将烧杯安放靠近水源两倍 when you place the bucket twice as close to the source,
你就能得到四倍多的水 you get four times as much water.
我们不妨来罗列一下三个实验中的烧杯 So if we lined up the beakers from the three experiments,
我们看到一维的烧杯 水量等同 we'd see that the 1-D beakers,the water was the same height,
二维 就近的烧杯有两倍的水 2-D,the near beaker had twice the water,
至于三维 就有了四倍的水 and in the case of 3-D,it had four times the water.
现在 我们就可以想象我们生活在四维里 Now,if we could imagine that we were living in four dimensions,
我们所看到的 我们预计会看到 what would we see,we would expect to see
最近的烧杯的水量将会八倍于 that the nearer beaker had eight times the amount of water
较远的烧杯里的水量 that the more distant one had.
弗里曼：维度越多 The more dimensions there are,
引力随距离的变化就越快 the faster the force of gravity changes with distance.
我们已经测量了下至约50微米的引力 Well,we've measured gravity down to roughly 50 microns.
那约是你头发直径的一半 懂么？ That's about half the diameter of a hair on your head,okay?
至此 牛顿先生依然是正确的 So far,Mr. Isaac Newton is still correct.
弗里曼：如果埃里克能够更进一步的话 If Eric can get even closer,
那额外维度的隐蔽世界 the hidden world of extra dimensions
将能够昭然若揭了 could suddenly pop into view.
阿德尔伯格：有理由认为 There are reasons to think
你知道 在50到10的范围内 that,you know,the region between 50 and 10
有可能包含着某种惊喜 当然 might contain some real surprises,and,of course,
那激励着我们做实验的热情 that's stimulating our enthusiasm
做实验的热情 for doing the experiments.
弗里曼：在地球的另一头 On the other side of the planet,
在大型强子对撞机上 at the Large Hadron Collider,
粒子物理学家玛利亚.丝波罗普鲁同样在寻找 Particle Physicist Maria Spiropulu is also looking
出乎意料的引力变化. for unexpected changes in the force of gravity.
但要是她的实验取得成功 But if her experiment is successful,
她将会创造出地球上从未见到过的东西 - she'll create something never before seen on Earth --
黑洞 a black hole.
丝波罗普鲁：极有可能LHC实验 It is quite possible the LHC experiment
会产生出所谓的微型黑洞 can produce the so-called microscopic black holes.
弗里曼：这并非那种产生于塌缩星体的黑洞 This is not the type of black hole
在那里塌缩的星核 that is borne from a collapsing star,
被挤压得严严实实 where the core gets so compacted
什么都无法摆脱其引力的作用 that nothing can escape its gravitational pull.
玛利亚所要寻找的 What Maria is looking for
是微型黑洞的证据 is evidence of a microscopic black hole.
如果LHC能迫使两个粒子 If the LHC can force two particles
充分靠拢在一起 sufficiently close together,
额外维度足够大 and the extra dimensions are large enough,
引力就可以逐渐增强 超过预期 gravity could start growing much stronger than expected,
最终将两个粒子充分挤压 eventually compacting the two particles enough
形成一个微型黑洞 to form a tiny subatomic black hole.
但无用担心现在就迁移至火星 But don't worry about moving to Mars just yet.
黑洞玛利亚及其同僚希望创造的 The black holes Maria and her colleagues expect to create
是个小不点… are tiny...
小得它们会在若干分之一秒里就蒸发殆尽 So tiny that they will evaporate in a fraction of a second.
微型黑洞 它们一旦产生 The microscopic black holes,as soon as they are produced,
就会立刻衰变 寿命极短 they immediately decay with a very,very short life-span.
会有一束粒子束 那就表明 There is a spray of these particles,and that is the clue
那样一个对象有可能已经创造出来了 that such an object might have been created.
弗里曼：LHC寻找这些黑洞 The LHC has been looking for these black holes
已有一年多了 for over a year.
迄今为止 他们并没有发现有 So far they found no hint
黑洞创造出来的任何迹象 of even a single black hole being created.
额外维度依然扑朔迷离 Extra dimensions remain elusive.
但莉莎.蓝道尔认为那可能是 But Lisa Randall thinks that might be
因为它们不同于大多数科学家所预期的东西 because they're different from what most scientists expect.
她认为额外维度被扭曲了 She believes extra dimensions are warped
它们是通向平行宇宙的通道 and that they are passageways to a parallel Universe.
额外维度不易看到 Extra dimensions are not easy to see.
如果它们在 我们早就发现它们了 If they were,we'd have found them long ago.
许多科学家现在认为 Many scientists now believe
我们将永远都不会有技术去发现它们 we'll never have the technology to find them.
不过额外维度仍有可能自我暴露出来… But extra dimensions might still reveal themselves...
因为它们有可能正将我们从平行宇宙中分离出来 because they might be separating us from a parallel Universe.
整个宇宙可能正蛰伏在 An entire cosmos could be lurking
不足…万亿分之一英寸之间 less than...a trillionth of an inch away.
哈佛大学教授莉莎.蓝道尔 Harvard Professor Lisa Randall
有一个关于额外维度的激进新思路 has a radical new idea about extra dimensions,
将会改变我们观察我们整个宇宙的看法 one that will change the way we see our entire Universe.
她从弦理论着手 She began with string theory,
就是那个概念 即所有的基本粒子 the idea that all the fundamental particles
只不过是九维的弦的震颤而已 are just vibrations of tiny nine-dimensional strings.
然后她加进了乔.泡钦斯基的想法 Then she added in Joe Polchinski's ideas
就是构成我们宇宙间万物的弦 that strings making up all the stuff in our Universe
必须粘接成巨大的三维物体 had to be stuck to a giant three-dimensional object
即膜 called a brane.
有两类弦 - There are two types of strings --
带有尾巴的弦 strings with ends
以及闭合的弦 和橡皮筋那样 and strings that are closed loops,like rubber bands.
带有尾巴的弦 其尾巴必定得在某个地方 And the strings with ends,those ends have to be somewhere.
它们不能够呆在较高维度的空间里 They can't just be anywhere in higher-dimensional space.
它们得呆在膜的表面 They have to be on the surface of a brane.
若那是真的话 And if that's true,
与那种弦有关的粒子 the particles associated with that string
同样将在膜上 will also be on the brane.
其结果就是我们所了解的物质 And it turns out that all the matter we know about,
以及它们相互作用的力 and also the forces through which they interact,
或许全都粘在这种构造所产生的膜上 might all be stuck on a brane through this mechanism,
除了引力外 except for gravity.
因为引力从不与开放的弦打交道 Because gravity is never associated with open string.
引力与闭合的弦打交道 Gravity's associated with a closed string.
闭合的弦没有尾巴 And closed strings have no ends.
不存在使其粘在膜上的机制 There's no mechanism that makes it stick to a brane.
闭合的弦可以在任何地方 A closed string can be anywhere.
弗里曼：莉莎的计算提出引力有可能非常微弱 Lisa's math suggested that gravity might be so weak
因为闭合的弦 because the closed-loop strings
携带这种力 引力 that carry this force,gravitons,
正把我们的膜拉开 are being pulled away from our brane
而不是集中在一个平行宇宙中 and concentrated instead in a parallel Universe
把我们从第四维里分离出来 that's separated from us by a fourth dimension.
兰德尔：你可以想象我身后的这两栋大楼 You can imagine that these two buildings behind me
代表两个不同的膜 represent two different branes,
我们或许只生活在那栋大楼或那个膜里 and we maybe are living only in that building or that brane.
如果引力集中在另外的大楼里 If gravity is concentrated at the other building,
我们没准就只得到了引力的尾巴 we might only get a tail end of gravity.
这或许能够解释 It might be that that could explain
为何引力对我们如此微弱 why gravity is so weak for us.
弗里曼：引力自由流动在我们的膜与 Gravitons flow freely between our brane
跨越第四维的膜之间 and the one that's across the fourth dimension.
但那个平行世界里的引力很强 But the gravity in that parallel world is so strong,
它将空间压缩成我们世界的空间的 it compresses space
万亿万亿倍小 trillions upon trillions of times smaller than ours.
这两个膜世界之间的空间被扭曲了 The space between these two brane worlds is warped.
在引力从致密引力的膜 As gravitons move
传向我们的膜的过程中 from the dense-gravity brane to our brane,
它们扩散了 其力道越来越微弱了 they spread out,and their force gets far weaker.
东西得到了重整 Things get rescaled
随着你从额外维度里的走入另一个维度 as you go from one place in an extra dimension to the other.
所以东西在这里会非常重 So whereas things might be extremely heavy here,
它们在这里会成倍成倍地轻 they could be exponentially lighter here,
这就自然而然地解释了为什么引力会如此微弱 which would naturally explain why gravity is so weak.
弗里曼：莉莎.蓝道尔的扭曲第四维的想法 Lisa Randall's idea of a warped fourth dimension
把我们从平行宇宙里分离了出来 separating us from a parallel Universe,
在那里引力和其它自然力是一样强的 where gravity is just as strong as the other forces of nature,
引起了物理界的轰动 has set the world of physics alight.
回到日内瓦的大型强子对撞机 Back at the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva,
粒子束很快就会撞击在了一起 the beams will soon be smashing together
有足够的力量来产生粒子 with enough force to produce particles
那将会证明这个弯曲的维度的存在 that could prove this warped dimension really exists.
蓝道尔：若这个想法是对的 Well,if this idea is right,
你实际上就能让粒子 you would actually be able to make particles
基本具有其它维度里的动能 that essentially have momentum in another dimension.
现在 我们无法看到其它维度 Now,we don't see that other dimension.
我们所看到的是效果 就好像粒子具有质量 What we see is the effect as if the particle had mass,
这质量结果恰恰就是质量 and the mass turns out to be the right mass
它能够产生于大型强子对撞机的能量中 that it can be produced at the energies
但愿如此 of the Large Hadron Collider,we hope.
弗里曼：现在任何一天 都或许会有新闻来自瑞士阿尔卑斯山 Any day now,news may come from the Swiss Alps
世界根本不同于 that the world is fundamentally different
我们一直以为的那样 from the way we've always imagined it.
然而有一个更大的扭曲 But there is one more twist to this epic hunt
针对这个扭曲或卷曲的维度的史诗般的搜寻 for warped or curled-up extra dimensions.
有位科学家认为我们的搜索注定要失败的 One scientist thinks our search is doomed to failure.
她并不相信存在有不止三个维度 She does not believe there are more than three dimensions.
她认为只有一个 She thinks there's only one.
你如何来构建宇宙呢？ How do you build a Universe?
你需要三个维度么？ Do you need three dimensions?
抑或你需要四个？ 九个？ 甚至更多？ Or do you need four? Nine? Or more?
这些是科学家拷问我们 These are the most fundamental questions
现实的最基本的问题 scientists can ask about our reality.
然而最简单的问题通常都是最难回答的 But the simplest questions are often the hardest to answer.
大型强子对撞机以及世界各地实验室里的 Swarms of scientists at the Large Hadron Collider
成群的科学家 and labs around the world
都在搜寻额外维度的证据 are hunting for evidence of extra dimensions,
它们会弯曲或卷曲在小小的循环里 be they warped or curled up in tiny loops.
他们希望在未来几年里 They hope to make a major breakthrough
取得重大突破 within the next few years.
但是雷娜塔.洛尔 乌得勒支大学的物理学家 But Renate Loll,a physicist at the University of Utrecht,
并没有为之所动 isn't holding her breath.
当然 你在弦理论里有一个问题 Of course,one of the problems you have in string theory
那就是全都存在许多维度 is that there's all these many dimensions.
然后你得解释为什么你只能看到其中的一些 Then you have to explain why you only see a few of them.
你若能做到那将是很了不起的 That would be wonderful if you could do that.
但是目前太困难了 But currently that's too difficult
没人能够表明那一点 or no one has managed to show that.
弗里曼：雷娜塔认为 Renate believes
弦理论所预言的额外维度 that the extra dimensions predicted by string theory
只不过是数学上的巧合 are merely a mathematical quirk
理论本身可能就是错误的 and the theory itself is likely to be wrong.
当然 它引发的问题是 Of course,it raises the question of,
好 我们或许能够 "Well,can we maybe do
不用这些额外的维度来做么？ without these extra dimensions whatsoever?"
弗里曼：雷娜塔.洛尔 Renate Loll's dislike
对弦理论的额外维度的厌恶 for the extra dimensions of string theory
使其全力以赴 is matched only by her passion
去对付创造出来有待解决的同样的难题 - to attack the same puzzle it was created to solve --
引力之谜 the mystery of gravity.
爱因斯坦认为引力可以被视为 Einstein realized that gravity could be seen
只不过是物体所弯曲的空间 as simply a bending of space by massive objects.
他的广义相对论 His theory of general relativity
是现代物理学的经典 was a masterpiece of modern physics.
但是它留下了一个重大问题没有解决 - But it left a serious problem unsolved --
引力是如何在微观层面上影响空间的呢？ how does gravity affect space on the microscopic level?
因此如果你问起 So if you ask questions
必须得说 对于极小极小的 that have to do,say,with the very,very small
牵涉到得与引力打交道的东西 - and that involves anything that has to do with gravity --
亦即 物体如何与引力互动 so,how do objects interact gravitationally
在很短很短的尺度上 - on very,very short scales --
于是你就需要有扩展的爱因斯坦理论 then you need an extension of Einstein's theory
因为它并没有涵盖那个范围 because it doesn't cover that range.
弗里曼：雷娜塔接受了那个挑战 Renate has taken on that challenge.
她试图发展新的引力定律 She's trying to develop new laws of gravity
甚至能适用于最小的距离 that apply even at the smallest distances,
她用计算机模拟来测试它们 and she's testing them in computer simulations.
她从空间的微观点的集合入手 She begins with a collection of microscopic points of space
尝试用引力将它们结合在一起 and attempts to stick them together with gravity.
换句话说 她在培养空间 In other words,she is growing space.
上一次这个发生在计算机外面 The last time this happened outside a computer
那是在约137亿年前 was about 13.7 billion years ago.
那是你听说过的事件的一部分 - It was part of an event you've probably heard of --
大爆炸 the Big Bang.
雷娜塔在小得多的尺度上研究 Renate is working on a much smaller scale,
但她所培养的微观宇宙 but the microscopic Universes she is cultivating
具有某些意想不到的属性 have some very unexpected properties.
设想你有一个空间 或就一块空间 Imagine you're given a space or just a piece of space
你想了解它是什么 尤其是 and you want to learn about what it is,and,in particular,
你可能想了解它的维度 you may want to learn about what its dimension is.
那么有个实验是你其实可以做的 So one experiment that you can actually do
以发现其维度 to find out what the dimension is,
那就是滴一滴墨水在里面 然后看其所发生的情况 is to let an ink drop fall in it and then see what happens,
看看墨水在空间的扩散 see how the ink spreads in the space.
弗里曼：在水里 墨水向三个方向扩散 In water,ink spreads into three dimensions.
在吸墨水纸上 它向两个方向扩散 On a piece of blotting paper,it spreads into two.
然而当雷娜塔在她的计算机模拟宇宙间 But when Renate tested how things spread out
物体是如何扩散时 inside her computer-simulated Universes,
其结果看上去是这种模样 the results looked something like this.
洛尔：现在来看看所发生的情况 Watch what happens now.
它在小尺度上的扩张 It filled out much less ones than we expected
远不及我们的预料 on small scales,
那真正表明了 and that's a true indication
维度其实要小于 that the dimension's actually smaller
我们的预料 than what we expected.
它小于三个 It's smaller than three.
弗里曼：雷娜塔的模拟 Renate's simulations
看上去好像它们有三个维度 looked like they had three dimensions,
但归根结底 它们只有一个 but at root,they only had one.
如果她的引力理论正确的话 If her theories of gravity are right,
那就表明实体空间根本就不是实体 it suggests that solid space is not solid at all.
下至最小的尺度 Down at the smallest scales,
它有可能是一维的线网所构成 it might be built from a mesh of one-dimensional lines.
这就是空间如何构成的基本真理么？ Is this the fundamental truth about how space is formed?
就只有一维是真正存在的么？ Is one dimension all there really is?
这样一来 人们就认为空间的维度 So the order is,one would think of the dimension of a space
是固定的 是上帝赋予的 as fixed,just God-given.
它就在那里 It's just there.
但在极小的尺度上又是怎么回事呢？ But what happens on very,very small scales?
我们发现的故事全然不同 And there's the story we find is totally different.
空间似乎具有越来越小的维度 The space appears to have a smaller and smaller dimension
伴随着你在越来越小的尺度上去探索它 as you explore it on smaller and smaller scales.
弗里曼：其他科学家并不相信 Other scientists are not convinced
雷娜塔的一维宇宙是正确的 Renate's one-dimensional Universe is correct.
他们的赌注都押在了 Their bets are hedged on a Universe
宇宙具有许多额外维度上 with many extra dimensions.
真相依然扑朔迷离 The truth is still elusive.
不过它已不是遥不可及 But it's not out of reach.
兰德尔：这个问题我们确实想要解决 It's a problem we really want to solve.
我们确实认为必须得有个答案 - We really think there has to be an answer --
确实告诉我们东西必须存在 really tells us that something has to be there,
它能够告诉我们 and it could tell us
存在有某些怪异的基本物质 that there's some really exotic,underlying matter
或物理学 或力量是我们尚未想到过的 or physics or forces that we haven't thought about yet.
最后 就是某种理论 In the end,there is,you know,some theory.
有某种简单优雅的理论出现 There's some simple,elegant theory out there
来阐述整个大自然 我们所看到的一切 that accounts for all of nature,for everything we see,
我们觉得我们能够与其非常密切 and we feel like we could be very,very close to it.
所以一旦你有了骇人的问题 So when you have shocking questions,
有时就会需要骇人的想法和答案 it takes sometimes shocking ideas and answers
努力让你去拥抱它 to try to put your arms around this.
是九个维度呢还是只有一个呢？ Are there nine dimensions or only one?
这个隐匿的空间是弯曲或是卷曲在小小的循环里么？ Is this hidden space warped or curled up in tiny loops?
我们尚不知晓 We don't know yet.
不过我们始终能够确定一件事 But we can be evermore sure of one thing.
我们认为我们所在的三维世界 The three-dimensional world we thought we lived in
是我们唯一能看到的 is only what we see.
现实几乎肯定要陌生得多 Reality is almost certainly a lot stranger.