理论的胜利
A Victory for Theory
文、译/林巍1
〔1〕令科学家们魂牵梦绕2了一百年的引力波，终于在2016年2月11日被美国研究者发现了，这个重大的科学进步，实质上是一个理论的胜利。
[1] Gravitational waves, which scientists around the world have been fondly dreaming of for a hundred years, were finally found by United States researchers on 11th February 2016. This significant scientific progress actually marks a victory for theory.
〔2〕在科学中，理论固然来自实践——是对事实的发现和研究，但事实本身不是科学，正如房子是由砖砌成的，而砖的堆积不能称之为房子。
[2] In science, theory is drawn from practice – the discovery and study of the facts. However, facts by themselves are not science, just as a house is built with bricks, but a pile of bricks can hardly be called a house.
〔3〕科学还需要想象力和创造性思维，从而形成科学理论，用以解释过去、设计现在、预测未来。爱因斯坦便是这样优秀的科学家。
[3] Science also involves imagination and creative thinking so as to establish scientific theories, explaining the past, designing the present and predicting the future. In this regard, Einstein is one of the most outstanding scientists.
〔4〕早在1916年，爱因斯坦便突破了牛顿力学（在牛顿引力学中，假定物质互动传播是以无限速度进行的，因而引力波不可能存在），而根据广义相对论，预言引力波会作为引力放射向外传送能量。所谓引力波，是物理学上从动力源作为波浪向外传播时在时空弯曲中的一种波动3，即宇宙中的时空结构会因巨大物体而发生弯曲。当巨变发生时，如黑洞合并、行星爆炸，这些曲线便作为引力波扩散他处，正如有人在池塘里扔入了石头。
[4] As early as in 1916, Einstein broke through the Newtonian theory of gravitation (gravitational waves cannot exist in the Newtonian theory of gravitation, which postulates that physical interactions propagate at infinite speed), and predicted that gravitational waves transport energy as gravitational radiation on the basis of his theory of general relativity. The so-called “gravitational waves” are ripples in the curvature of space-time which propagate as waves, travelling outward from the source; in other words, the fabric of space-time which can become curved by anything massive in the Universe. When cataclysmic events happen, such as black holes merging or stars exploding, these curves can ripple out elsewhere as gravitational waves, just as if someone had dropped a stone in a pond.
〔5〕然而，这些波纹传送到地球时，因体积极小（大约是原子的十亿分之一），很难发现，故耗费了科学家们近百年时间才得以发现4，多亏LIGO5实验室利用激光在两根4公里长的管道内来回探测，使得物理学家能够测量到时空中难以置信的微小变化。
[5] However, by the time those ripples get to us on Earth, they have become very tiny (around a billionth of the diameter of an atom), which is why scientists have taken a hundred years to realize their dreams. Thanks to LIGO (the Laser Interferometer Gravitational wave Observatory), laboratory scientists have finally been able to detect them by bouncing lasers back and forth in two 4-km-long pipes, permitting physicists to measure incredibly small changes in space-time.
〔6〕在科学史上，这类以科学理论来“预知”科学发现的实例很多。例如，俄国化学家门捷列夫在发明了化学元素周期表后，从该表中的几个空洞6，预测了新元素的存在。果然，十五年后，其他科学家发现了与预测相符的三种元素。理论物理学家狄拉克研究电子的性质，认为“真空”正如充满电子的海洋，那里其实没有电子的“泡泡”，却预测了正子的存在，等等。
[6] Reviewing scientific history, many predictions of this kind can be easily found. Taking chemistry as an example, the Russian chemist Mendeleyev discovered some gaps in the Periodic Table and predicted several new chemical elements, three of which were found by other chemists fifteen years later. Similarly, the theoretical physicist Diac revealed that there were no electronic “bubbles” in a vacuum during his research into the nature of electrons, and then predicted that something called a positron might exist, and so on.
〔7〕在中国历史上， 类似的“理论先于7实践”的例子，其实也并不罕见。例如，两千多年前老子的关于“有”和“无”的论断，就不断被许多现代科学实验所证实。
[7] Similar cases of “theory guiding practice” are also not rare in Chinese history, such as the theory of “Being versus Nonbeing” hypothesized by Lao Zi about two thousand years ago, has constantly been proved by modern experiments.
〔8〕此次引力波的重大发现，证实了爱因斯坦广义相对论的最后一项重大预测，使我们不但可以去观察、而且可以去聆听宇宙了，因而进入了宇宙研究的全新时代8。
[8] The significant discovery of gravitational waves was the last major prediction of Einstein’s general theory of relativity, ushering us into a whole new era of research in which we are able not only to observe but also listen to the Universe.
注释：
1. 博士，暨南大学翻译学院特聘教授。
2. 常用的译法还有 dream、dream about、haunt、obsess 等，如：
① 我多年来魂牵梦绕的中国之旅, 就这样实现了。（I’ve had my “China dream” for years and I’m here to realize this dream.）
② 这就是我魂牵梦绕的那所房子啊！（This is the house I’ve always dreamed about.）
③ ……这让他魂牵梦绕（... which haunted and haunted him day and night）
④ 那些天她正被中国画所魂牵梦绕。（She is obsessed by Chinese painting those days.）等。
3. 从定义角度，这里的“波动” 不宜再用 waves, 如同不能定义“ Computer is ...computer”，而为“Computer is a machine whose function is to accept data and process them into information”。同时，ripple与wave亦有细微区别：a small wave or series of gentle waves across a surface；an oscillation of small amplitude imposed on top of a steady value等。
4. 为呼应前面的fondly dreaming，这里没有用to discover等。
5. 其全称的中译文为“激光干涉引力波天文台”（the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory）。
6. 不是一般意义上的empty、cavity、 hollow、void等，而是指根据理论推测应存在的尚未发现的某种物质，即理论和实践之间的差距，故用了gaps。
7. 不是简单意义上的in advance of、antecedent to、anterior to，而其实质是理论对实践的指导作用，故用了guiding。
8. 把此句提前，并将中文的定语转化为英文的状语。