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Part I Lost in the cosmos
第一章 如何营造一个宇宙
They're all in the same plane.They're all going around in the same direction. . . .
它们都处于同一平面。 它们都在沿同一方向转动......
It's perfect,you know. It's gorgeous. It's almost uncanny.
你要知道，这真是完美无缺的，这真是不可思议的，这几乎是很神奇的。
Astronomer Geoffrey Marcy describing the solar system
天文学家杰弗里?马西对太阳系的描述
1 How to build a universe? No matter hard you try you will never be able to grasp just how tiny, how spatially unassuming, is a proton.
无论怎么努力，你都永远也想像不出质子有多么微小，占有多么小的空间。
It is just way too small.
它实在太小了。
A proton is an infinitesimal part of an atom, which is itself of course an insubstantial thing.
质子是原子极其微小的组成部分，而原子本身当然也小不可言。
Protons are so small that a little dib of ink like the dot on this i can hold something in the region of 500 billion of them,
像字母"i"上的点这样大小的一滴墨水，就可以拥有约莫5000亿个质子，
rather more than the number of seconds contained in half a million years.
说得更确切一点，要比组成1.5万年的秒数还多。
So protons are exceedingly microscopic, to say the very least.
因此，起码可以说，质子是极其微小的。
Now imagine if you can (and of course you can't)
现在，请你想像一下，假如你能（你当然不能）
shrinking one of those protons down to a billionth of its normal size into a space so small that it would make a proton look enormous.
使它显得很大，然后，你把大约30克物质装进那个极小极小的空间。
Now pack into that tiny, tiny space about an ounce of matter.
把一个质子缩小到它正常大小的十亿分之一，放进一个极小的空间，
Excellent. You are ready to start a universe.
很好，你已作好创建一个宇宙的准备。
I'm assuming of course that you wish to build an inflationary universe.
我当然估计到，你希望创建一个会膨胀的宇宙。
If you'd prefer instead to build a more old-fashioned, standard Big Bang universe, you'll need additional materials.
不过，要是你愿意创建一个比较老式而又标准的大爆炸型宇宙，你还需要别的材料。
In fact, you will need to gather up everything there is every last mote and particle of matter between here and the edge of creation
事实上，你需要收集现有的一切东西--从现在到宇宙创建之时的每个粒子--
and squeeze it into a spot so infinitesimally compact that it has no dimensions at all.
把它塞进一个根本谈不上大小的极小地方。
It is known as a singularity.",
这就是所谓的奇点。
