万物简史 第278期:砰!(13)

The results were so unexpected, in fact, that the three scientists at first thought they had to be wrong. 实际上，结果完全出人意料，三位科学家起先以为自己错了。 The amount of iridium in the Alvarez sample was more than thre

万物简史 第279期:砰!(14)

Even among paleontologists it was not unknown. 即使在古生物学界，也不是没有这种看法。 In 1956 a professor at Oregon State University, M. W. de Laubenfels, writing in the Journal of Paleontology, 1956年，俄勒冈州立大学教授

万物简史 第281期:砰!(16)

He insisted that the iridium had been deposited by volcanic action, 他坚持认为，铱是由火山活动沉积的， even while conceding in a newspaper interview that he had no actual evidence of it. 即使他在一次记者采访中承认，他拿

万物简史 第282期:砰!(17)

I'm not mocking this at allit's vital and enlightened work; it keeps Iowa's water cleanbut with the best will in the world it's not exactly dodging lava bombs on Mount Pinatubo or scrabbling over crevasses on the Greenland ice sheet in search of anci

万物简史 第283期:砰!(18)

Suddenly we were at the center of things, Anderson told me, 突然之间，我们来到一大堆东西中间。安德森想起当年的情景， gleaming at the memory of it, when I met him and Witzke in their offices on a dismal, rainy morning in Ju

万物简史 第284期:砰!(19)

The first Anderson or Witzke learned of this setback to their careers was when they arrived at a conference in South Dakota 这对他们的事业是个挫折。安德森和威策克最初听到这个消息是在他们出席南达科他州的一次会议

万物简史 第285期:砰!(20)

Hildebrand traveled to the site and decided fairly swiftly that they had their crater. 希尔德布兰德来到该地，很快就得出结论，他们找到了想要找的大坑。 By early 1991 it had been established to nearly everyone's satisfacti

万物简史 第286期:砰!(21)

One fragment, known as Nucleus G, struck with the force of about six million megatonsseventy-five times more than all the nuclear weaponry in existence. 有个名叫核G的碎块，其撞击威力高达6亿吨级──相当于现有核武器的总威力

万物简史 第287期:砰!(22)

Chicxulub is buried under two to three kilometers of limestone and mostly offshore, 奇克休留布大坑在两三公里的灰岩深处，而且大部分在近海。 which makes it difficult to study, Anderson went on, while Manson is really quite ac

万物简史 第288期:砰!(23)

As anyone who has used such a pump knows, compressed air grows swiftly hot, 使用过打气筒的人都知道，受到压缩的空气马上会变热， and the temperature below it would rise to some 60,000 Kelvin, or ten times the surface temperatur

万物简史 第280期:砰!(15)

Walter was a geologist specializing in paleomagnetism, Luis was a physicist and I was a nuclear chemist. 沃尔特是地质学家，他的专长是古磁学；路易斯是物理学家；我是核化学家。 And now here we were telling paleontologis

万物简史 第296期:地下的烈火(4)

Voorhies sent samples to colleagues all over the western United States asking if there was anything about it that they recognized. 沃里斯把样品寄给美国西部各地的同事们，问他们是否认得出这是什么东西。 Several months l

万物简史 第289期:砰!(24)

Anyone in a tall building in Omaha or Des Moines, say, 要是有人比如说在奥马哈或得梅因的高楼上， who chanced to look in the right direction would see a bewildering veil of turmoil followed by instantaneous oblivion. 恰好看着那个

万物简史 第290期:砰!(25)

As one commentator has put it, fleeing would mean selecting a slow death over a quick one. 有一位评论家说，逃跑意味着在慢死和快死之中选择慢死。 The death toll would be very little affected by any plausible relocation effort,

万物简史 第291期:砰!(26)

Still less could we send up a shipload of space cowboys to do the job for us, as in the movie Armageddon; 我们更不可能发射一飞船警察去为我们干这个活儿，就像电影《善恶大决战》里的场面那样； we no longer possess

万物简史 第292期:砰!(27)

For most of the time of the object's approach we would exist in a kind of cone of uncertainty. 在那个物体渐渐逼近的大部分时间里，我们会生活在某种无法确定的状态之中。 It would certainly be the most interesting few mo

万物简史 第293期:地下的烈火(1)

14 The Fire Below 第十四章 地下的烈火 In the summer of 1971, a young geologist named Mike Voorhies was scouting around on some grassy farmland in eastern Nebraska, 1971年夏，一位名叫迈克沃里斯的年轻地质学家在内布拉斯加

万物简史 第294期:地下的烈火(2)

Working alone in the lab on the morning I passed through was a cheerfully grizzled, looking fellow in a blue work shirt 一天上午，我从里面经过，只见一个身穿蓝色工作服、头发灰白的人独自在实验室里忙碌。 whom I re

万物简史 第295期:地下的烈火(3)

The article called the site a Pompeii of prehistoric animals,' he told me, 文章把这个地方称之为史前动物的庞贝城，他对我说， which was unfortunate because just afterward we realized that the animals hadn't died suddenly at all.

万物简史 第297期:地下的烈火(5)

The distance from the surface of Earth to the center is 3,959 miles, which isn't so very far. 从地面到地心的距离为6370公里。这不算太远。 It has been calculated that if you sunk a well to the center and dropped a brick into it, 有人