◇◇新语丝(www.xys.org)(xys1.dyndns.org)(groups.yahoo.com/group/xys)◇◇ 【评】 经常有人送来新浪科技的报道要求立此存照。这些报道大都署名“清晨”,一看而 知乃是对国外有关报道的胡编乱译,译者不仅缺乏基本科学常识,连英文也是半通 不通。他大概以为每个英文单词都只有一个意思,或者查英汉词典的时候只看第一 义项不看其他义项,翻译的结果也就往往不知所云,还不如用机器自动翻译。比如 下面这则短讯,“宇宙膨胀”成了“宇宙扩张”,“背景辐射”成了“背景射线”, “暗能量”成了“神秘能量”,“支配更普通的物质”成了“控制着宇宙的发展”, 更妙的是,“皇家天文学会”变成“皇家天文学社会”,大名鼎鼎的“皇家学会” 大概也要被译成“皇家社会”的。这种胡编乱译在新浪网上可谓无日无之,如果都 为之立此存照,相当于是在为其工作人员上初级英语课,所以下不为例,只希望大 家不看、不传新浪科技的报道即可。 (方舟子) 科学研究小组发现宇宙扩张正在加速 http://www.sina.com.cn 2002年03月23日 15:20 新浪科技   爱因斯坦曾经提出过宇宙间存在神秘能量的理论,然而他自己又将它否决了, 还声称这是他在科学研究中最大的一次失误。然而英国和澳大利亚科学家已经证明 了用于宇宙加速的神秘力量的存在。最近,英国剑桥大学的一个科学研究小组又发 现,宇宙的扩张正在加速。    自从爱因斯坦就此问题反反复复之后科学界也从此分成了不同的派别。由乔 治-埃萨希奥教授领导的剑桥大学研究小组经过研究宣布,他们已经证明了宇宙扩 张的存在,并发现这一扩张正在加速。    研究小组的成果发现在了英国《皇家天文学社会》杂志上,他们在研究过程 中将宇宙目前的组成成份与其背景射线的组成进行了对比,后者可以显示大爆炸之 后宇宙的结构组成。埃萨希奥教授指出:“看起来爱因斯坦并没有犯错,神秘能量 的确存在,控制着宇宙的发展。”(清晨) 对比原文: New evidence that the expansion of the Universe is accelerating 21 March 2002 http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/AAO/press/external_2.html A team of UK and Australian astronomers has discovered new, independent evidence that the expansion of the universe is accelerating, using results from a giant galaxy survey done with the 3.9-m Anglo-Australian Telescope near Coonabarabran in eastern Australia. Their finding has been published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. The paper's lead author is Professor George Eftstathiou of the University of Cambridge. "The finding is significant because we've used a completely different line of investigation from the original, controversial result," said Dr Matthew Colless of the Australian National University, a co-leader of the 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey that provided the new evidence. Astronomers have known for decades that the Universe is expanding. Until 1998 they believed this expansion was slowing down, with the gravitational attraction of the Universe's matter gradually putting the brakes on. But then two research teams found that instead the Universe is accelerating like a runaway car, expanding faster and faster as time goes on. This shock finding was based on the brightnesses of supernovae (exploding stars) in extremely distant galaxies. To explain the result, cosmologists revived a concept first proposed by Einstein - 'dark energy' or the 'cosmological constant'. It's this energy that makes the Universe 'put the pedal to the metal'. "The cosmological constant is really the springiness of spacetime," explained Dr Colless. "Spacetime wants to unfurl itself. The cosmological constant is a measure of how hard it's pushing." Einstein himself discarded the notion of a cosmological constant because it spoilt the simplicity and elegance of his General Theory of Relativity. Even in the wake of the supernovae teams' findings, some theoretical physicists were reluctant to revive the idea. Now Professor George Efstathiou of the University of Cambridge, a member of the 27-strong galaxy survey team, has come up with a completely different line of evidence that supports the supernovae finding. He and his colleagues looked at the clustering pattern of 220,000 galaxies in a large volume of the universe surveyed with the Anglo-Australian Telescope at Siding Spring Observatory in New South Wales, Australia. This pattern represents the 'structure' in the Universe now, some 15 million years after the Big Bang. The researchers then compared this structure with the clumpiness in the cosmic microwave background radiation, which shows the structure the Universe had when it was only 150,000 years old. "By looking at how the early structure evolves into the structure we see today, we can calculate the cosmological constant," Dr Colless said. "It seems that Einstein did not made a blunder after all - dark energy appears to exist and to dominate over more conventional types of matter," said Professor Efstathiou. "An explanation of the dark energy may involve String Theory, extra dimensions or even what happened before the Big Bang. At present nobody knows. The ball is now firmly in the theorists' court." Designed and built by the Anglo-Australian Observatory, the 2dF (two-degree field) instrument is one of the world's most complex astronomical instruments, able to capture 400 spectra simultaneously. A robot arm positions up to 400 optical fibres on a field plate, each to within an accuracy of 20 micrometres. Light from up to 400 objects is collected and fed into two spectrographs for analysis. The expansion of the Universe shifts galaxy spectra to longer wavelengths. By measuring this 'redshift' in a galaxy's spectrum, the galaxy's distance can be determined. The 2dF survey covers a total area of about 2 000 square degrees, selected from both northern and southern skies. ◇◇新语丝(www.xys.org)(xys1.dyndns.org)(groups.yahoo.com/group/xys)◇◇