Name: 【TED】哈里-克利夫：我們已經達到物理學的盡頭了嗎？(Have we reached the end of physics? | Harry Cliff) (【TED】Harry Cliff: Have we reached the end of physics? (Have we reached the end of physics? | Harry Cliff))
Uploaded: 2021-01-14T07:29:36.000Z
Duration: 13 min 58 s

A hundred years ago this month, a 36-year-old Albert Einstein

譯者: Christian Grey 審譯者: 瑞文Eleven 林Lim

stood up in front of the Prussian Academy of Sciences in Berlin

to present a radical new theory of space, time and gravity:

General relativity is unquestionably Einstein's masterpiece,

發表有關時空與重力的 開創性理論：

a theory which reveals the workings of the universe at the grandest scales,

capturing in one beautiful line of algebra

everything from why apples fall from trees to the beginning of time and space.

1915 must have been an exciting year to be a physicist.

Two new ideas were turning the subject on its head.

the other was arguably even more revolutionary:

1915 年是令物理學家 興奮的一年，

兩個嶄新的觀念 在物理界掀起革命。

a mind-meltingly strange yet stunningly successful new way

of understanding the microworld, the world of atoms and particles.

另一個可說是 更革命性的量子力學。

Over the last century, these two ideas have utterly transformed

這是一個十分艱深 但有效的新方法，

讓我們理解 原子與粒子的小尺度世界。

It's thanks to relativity and quantum mechanics

that we've learned what the universe is made from,

how it began and how it continues to evolve.

A hundred years on, we now find ourselves at another turning point in physics,

我們得以了解宇宙的 構成、形成與演進。

but what's at stake now is rather different.

The next few years may tell us whether we'll be able

to continue to increase our understanding of nature,

or whether maybe for the first time in the history of science,

we could be facing questions that we cannot answer,

是否可以進一步 加深對自然的認知，

not because we don't have the brains or technology,

but because the laws of physics themselves forbid it.

This is the essential problem: the universe is far, far too interesting.

不是因為 缺乏足夠才智或科技，

Relativity and quantum mechanics appear to suggest

that the universe should be a boring place.

But when we look around us, we see we live in a universe full of interesting stuff,

full of stars, planets, trees, squirrels.

應該是黑暗、致命、無生氣的。

why does all this interesting stuff exist?

Why is there something rather than nothing?

This contradiction is the most pressing problem in fundamental physics,

恆星、行星、樹木與動物的新奇世界 。

and in the next few years, we may find out whether we'll ever be able to solve it.

At the heart of this problem are two numbers,

為什麼有這些有趣的萬物存在？

為什麼是「有」， 而不是「虛無」？

These are properties of the universe that we can measure,

這個矛盾在基礎物理中 最迫切的問題。

because if they were different, even by a tiny bit,

我們也許會知道 是否有能力解決它。

then the universe as we know it would not exist.

The first of these numbers is associated with the discovery that was made

a few kilometers from this hall, at CERN, home of this machine,

關乎兩項可以量測的宇宙特質。

the largest scientific device ever built by the human race,

因為假若它們之值 與現今有絲毫差異，

The LHC whizzes subatomic particles around a 27-kilometer ring,

那我們所熟知的宇宙 便不復存在。

getting them closer and closer to the speed of light

第一個數字與在 距此數公里之外的

before smashing them into each other inside gigantic particle detectors.

On July 4, 2012, physicists at CERN announced to the world

that they'd spotted a new fundamental particle

大強子對撞機（LHC） 所做的發現有關。

being created at the violent collisions at the LHC: the Higgs boson.

Now, if you followed the news at the time,

加速次原子粒子 直至接近光速，

you'll have seen a lot of physicists getting very excited indeed,

再使它們在 巨型粒子探測器中對撞。

we get that way every time we discover a new particle.

CERN 的物理學家 向全世界宣告，

but the Higgs boson is particularly special.

We all got so excited because finding the Higgs

proves the existence of a cosmic energy field.

Now, you may have trouble imagining an energy field,

你會發現許多 物理學家十分興奮。

If you've ever held a magnet close to a piece of metal

每次物理學家 發現新粒子都是如此，

and felt a force pulling across that gap,

And the Higgs field is a little bit like a magnetic field,

我們如此興奮是因為 發現希格斯玻色子，

except it has a constant value everywhere.

如果你拿一個磁鐵 靠近金屬片，

會感覺到之間 有一股無形的拉力，

to the fundamental particles that we're made from.

If it wasn't there, those particles would have no mass,

and no atoms could form and there would be no us.

But there is something deeply mysterious about the Higgs field.

Relativity and quantum mechanics tell us that it has two natural settings,

希格斯場給予構成 我們的基本粒子質量，

so that it has a zero value everywhere in space,

or it should be on so it has an absolutely enormous value.

In both of these scenarios, atoms could not exist,

and therefore all the other interesting stuff

that we see around us in the universe would not exist.

In reality, the Higgs field is just slightly on,

相對論與量子力學說 它有兩種自然狀態。

not zero but 10,000 trillion times weaker than its fully on value,

a bit like a light switch that's got stuck just before the off position.

then there would be no physical structure in the universe.

也就是說它到處都是個巨大定值。

So this is the first of our dangerous numbers,

在這兩個情況下 原子都無法存在，

Theorists have spent decades trying to understand

why it has this very peculiarly fine-tuned number,

and they've come up with a number of possible explanations.

They have sexy-sounding names like "supersymmetry"

不是零，而是 開的值的一萬兆分之一，

有點像是卡在 「關」前面一點的電燈開關。

【TED】哈里-克利夫：我們已經達到物理學的盡頭了嗎？(Have we reached the end of physics? | Harry Cliff) (【TED】Harry Cliff: Have we reached the end of physics? (Have we reached the end of physics? | Harry Cliff))

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【TED】哈里-克利夫：我們已經達到物理學的盡頭了嗎？(Have we reached the end of physics? | Harry Cliff) (【TED】Harry Cliff: Have we reached the end of physics? (Have we reached the end of physics? | Harry Cliff))

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