Some company called "Szalinski Labs" or something was having a going out of business sale, and we thought this laser-y thing would be pretty cool for the show.

一間名叫「薩林斯基實驗室」還什麼的公司正在進行倒閉清倉特賣會，而我們覺得這個雷射機器感覺能用來做一檔不錯的節目。

Uh, is it plugged in?

呃，插頭接上了嗎？

Powering up!

充電中！

This is gonna be cool.

這肯定會超酷的。

Um, you made, you made sure it wasn't turned on, right?

呃，你應該... 你應該有確定沒把開關打開吧？

Popcorn's ready! Dr. Hanson?

爆米花好啦！Hanson 博士？

Um. I think I've been shrunk. Or is it shrank?

呃，我好像被縮小了。縮小的過去分詞是這樣嗎？

Uh... this is not good. Let's, let's figure this out like a scientist. Think. Observe.

呃... 這可不太妙。好吧，用科學家的思路解決問題。好好思考，細細觀察。

Actually, it's really hard to see. Everything is so dark.

實際上，我幾乎什麼都看不到，眼前一片漆黑。

Which makes sense: My irises are super super tiny, not letting in a lot of light. But who needs to see, right?!

這確實合乎常理：因為我的眼鏡虹膜也跟著被縮小了，沒有多少光線照射的進去。不過看不到也無所謂，對吧？

He—Hey! What just—what just happened?

欸！剛才發生什麼事了？

What?! Hold on...

什麼？等等...

They can't hear me, and I can't seem to hear them either.

他們聽不見我說話，我也聽不見他們說話。

I can explain this! A full-sized ear responds to frequencies between 20 hertz and 20 kilohertz, because of how the hair cells in our cochlea vibrate.

我來解釋原因吧！因為毛細胞在耳蝸裡震動方式的限制，正常大小的耳朵能夠接收到 20 赫茲到 20 千茲的聲音。

Full-sized human voices fall between 85 and 255 hertz, but my inner ear is so small, I can't hear anything less than maybe four or five hundred hertz.

正常人類發出的聲音頻率為 85 到 255 赫茲，但是我的內耳實在太小了，因此聽不到小於 400 或500 赫茲的聲音。

And even if my tiny lungs could move enough air for an audible sound wave, my itty-bitty vocal cords must be ringing at 20 kHz or higher. If only there was a dog around.

而如果我的迷你肺可以移動足夠的空氣，產生出足以讓人聽得見的聲波，我那才一丁點的聲帶一定是在20 千赫茲或更高的頻率下震動。要是有隻狗在附近就好了。

I am cold. Really cold.

好冷喔。真的好冷。

Well, I'm about a hundred times shorter, which means I've got about ten thousand times less surface area, and a million times less volume to make body heat.

現在的我比平常矮了一百倍，代表我的表面積也少了大約一萬倍，能夠產身體溫的體積更少了一百萬倍。

I'll have to eat like a hummingbird down here just to keep from freezing to death. I wonder where that popcorn went?

我得像蜂鳥那樣不停地吃東西才能不被凍死。不知道剛才那粒爆米花去哪兒了？

Come to think of it, I don't know why I'm still conscious.

現在想想，我甚至不知道為什麼我到現在還有意識。

The hemoglobin in my blood is probably smaller than the oxygen molecules it needs to carry to keep me alive.

維繫生命的血紅素肯定比它所運輸的氧分子還小。

I'm sure there's a perfectly good explan...

這當中肯定有很好的解....

Man, that Szalinski machine should be illegal!

老天，薩蘭斯基縮小機器真應該被法律禁止！

Actually, I'm pretty sure I just broke several laws of physics.

實際上，我剛才就已經打破了好幾個物理法則了。

Shrinking someone shouldn't be possible. If that beam were capable of destroying atomic matter, it would have looked more like this.

把人縮小是不可能的。 如果那個光束真的可以摧毀原子物質，那結果應該會變成這樣。

But what if it removed the empty space in my atoms?

但是如果把原子裡的空間去除呢？

The nucleus holds more than 99% of an atom's mass, but it's 100,000 times smaller than an atom is wide.

原子核佔了一顆原子中 99% 的質量，但是比原子的直徑要小上十萬倍。

In other words, if an atom was the size of the Big Apple, the nucleus would be just an apple.

換句話說，如果將原子比做「大蘋果」紐約市的大小，那原子核就真的只有一顆蘋果那麼大。

Problem is, this isn't how atoms really work.

問題是，原子內部的運作方式並沒有那麼簡單。

Electrons aren't exactly anywhere, at any moment. We can't predict for certain where one will be orbiting.

電子實際上並不存在於一個固定的位置上或指定的時間點。我們無法準確預測一顆電子會位於什麼地方。

If we go looking for it, quantum mechanics says there's a high probability the electron will be orbiting here compared to, say, here, but there's some chance it could be anywhere.

如果我們要找它，我們能根據量子力學推斷電子出現在某處的機率比較高，但它還是有機率會出現在其他的任何位置上。

Imagine a spinning fan. We know there are four blades in there, but we can't say exactly where they are.

想像一台正在運轉著的電風扇。雖然我們清楚知道裡面有四個葉片，可是我們說不出那些葉片具體在哪裡。

But if you put your hand inside, you're definitely going to find one.

但只要把手伸進去，你肯定就能找到其中一個。

An electron's orbit is a cloud of places it could be, and an atom's empty space isn't really "empty" the way we normally think of it.

電子在一團可能的機率空間中運行，而原子內的空間並不如想像中的那麼「空曠」。

This is the weirdness of quantum probability.

量子概率就是這麼奇怪。

We also can't shrink me just by pushing my atoms closer together. That would violate the Pauli Exclusion Principle.

我們也不能把原子之間的距離縮短，因為如此一來會違反包立不相容原理。

Our cloud view of electrons only tells us where we'll probably find them,

我們將電子的活動範圍繪製成一團團雲狀的空間，而這僅能告訴我們它們的大概位置。

but if we push two atoms closer together without bonding them, the higher the probability that two of their electrons would be found in the same quantum state,

但是如過原子在沒有鏈結的情況下太過接近，兩個電子處於相同量子狀態的機率便會提昇，

and in this universe, that's just not allowed.

而這樣的現象是不可能出現在我們的宇宙中的。

We could add energy and move electrons to higher cloud orbitals all on their own, but that would take pressures approaching the inside of a planet or a star.

我們可以添加能量，把電子推到更高層的雲狀軌道上，但是這樣一來便需要接近行星或恒星內的壓力。

Not particularly good for your health.

這對你的健康可不是什麼好消息。

Atoms are the size they are because of the rules of the universe, and since we're made of atoms, that goes for us too.

原子的大小由宇宙的規則所決定，而因為我們是原子做的，所以我們也得遵守這些規則。

But that doesn't explain what happened earlier.

但這仍然無法解釋剛剛發生的事情。

For now, let's just keep today's experiment between us, ok?

至少現在，請將今天的實驗保密，好嗎？

Stay curious.

保持你的好奇心。