无偷窥价值

“三思科学网”的第3节老不出来，我就试着先翻了吧。原文不难看懂，也许翻成中文到别扭了。重点不在翻译，而在俺的批语。肥硕戒批老鼠夹，简称肥批。

Nature

Published online: 2 February 2005; | doi:10.1038/433463a

Liesbeth Venema

Liesbeth Venema is a senior physics editor at Nature.

作者是《自然》杂志的一位高级物理编辑。

Part 3: Negative thoughts. 

 第3节：负面思想【肥批：标题是双关语，既与传闻的Rufus提出负面意见，阻挠Baumgarden得奖有关，又与所谓“负折射率”有关。】

"Was there any reason for you to dislike Rufus Jaeger?" The question was meant to provoke, but Lister was impressed with the relaxed manner in which Fenton Baumgarden reacted. He was leaning casually against the coffee machine and didn't shift his position one inch.

“有没有什么原因让您讨厌Rufus Jaeger？”Lister这么问是打算激怒Fenton Baumgarden，可他那悠闲的神态让Lister印象深刻。【肥批：印象深刻，这么翻比较别扭。】Baumgarden倚着咖啡机，一动没动。

Baumgarden was athletically built, and his skin had been generously tanned by the Californian sun. Although nearing 50, he still got away with wearing a T-shirt depicting a faded logo of a long-forgotten university event, and with sporting a ponytail.

Baumgarden像个运动员那么健壮，皮肤被加州的阳光慷慨地晒成古铜色。虽然快50岁了，【肥：暗指今年是爱因斯坦逝世50周年。怎么样，可堪比钻研红楼之精神乎？】可他依然满不在乎地穿着一件T恤衫，上面印着一个纪念标志的图案，已经褪色了，那是某次久已忘怀的大学活动。【肥：这句译文次序不好安排。】他还梳了一条马尾辫。

"Sure, quite a good reason I suppose. Not good enough for me though. Life's too short to be bothered by that sort of thing." Baumgarden grabbed the cup that the machine had spewed out and sat down opposite Lister, who fumbled through his notes. "You've probably heard the rumour by now," he continued. "It was Rufus's negative reference that supposedly prevented me getting the Nobel prize. Might or might not be true. To be honest, I think the Nobel is too heavy a burden to carry, I'm really better off without it. It's always a lottery anyway." Baumgarden took a tentative sip from the cup. "Rufus was a brilliant physicist and I respected him for that."

“当然，我猜有很多原因会让我恨他。不过对我来说还不够多。【肥：quite a good与not good enough里面的good，暂且都译作“多”】生命短暂，不值得让这种事情给搅和了。” Baumgarden抄过【肥：grab是啥意思】咖啡机斟满的杯子，在Lister对面坐下。Lister忙不迭地做着笔记。【肥：此句逗乐。】“你可能已经听说了一些传闻，” Baumgarden接着说。“据说正是由于Rufus的否定意见【肥：reference有‘仲裁’之意】让我没能获得诺贝尔奖。这是真是假也难说。说实在的，我觉着诺贝尔奖是个沉重的负担，我还是不扛着它为妙。这种事情听天由命吧。” Baumgarden抿了一口咖啡。“Rufus是一位杰出的物理学家，我为此而尊敬他。”

Lister briefly studied Baumgarden, but could see nothing hidden. "Let's get back to recent events," Lister said. "You said you were by yourself in one of the study rooms before the lecture, while everyone else was in the hallway for the coffee break. Are you not interested in socializing?"

Lister端详了一下Baumgarden，看不出他隐瞒了什么。“我们再说说最近的事情，”Lister说。“你说你在演讲开始前是一个人待在一间研究室里，而别人都在走廊里喝咖啡。你对社交活动不感兴趣吗？”

Baumgarden gulped the contents of the cup down. "I would've liked to join the others, but I needed to get my head together to act as chair at Rufus's lecture."

Baumgarden一口喝光杯子里的咖啡。“我倒是想跟他们一起喝咖啡，不过我要主持Rufus的演讲，需要清静一会儿。【肥：get my head togerther是啥意思？和自己脑袋呆在一起？保持清醒？】”

Lister nodded absently. "Do you have an idea of what went wrong during the demonstration?"

Lister不在意地点点头。“你觉得演示实验的时候有什么事情不对头吗？”

Baumgarden moved to the edge of the seat and looked thoughtful for a few moments. "There is something. It came to me almost straight away, but I wanted to think about it." He stood up, paced up and down the room a couple of times and finally went over to the blackboard on the wall, where a schematic of the 'mousetrap' set-up swiftly appeared from his hand. "Laser beam enters this arm here, encounters prism, goes this way. But consider for a moment what will happen if the prism refracts the beam in exactly the opposite direction, which would seem physically impossible. If you work out the optical path anyway, it goes like this, straight to the guy sitting in the chair here."

Baumgarden身子向前一探【肥：此处俺发挥了一下】，坐到了椅子边上，看上去像是沉思了一阵子。“有的。我几乎一下子就想到了，不过我得好好考虑一下。”他站起来，在屋里踱了几个来回，最后来到墙上黑板前面。他飞快地在黑板上画了一幅“老鼠夹”装置的示意图。“激光束从这里进来，遇到棱镜，走这条路线。不过，想想吧，如果棱镜让激光束朝着完全相反的方向折射，会怎么样？虽然在物理学上这似乎不可能。话说回来，如果你能设计出这样的光线路径，让光这么走，那激光束就直接射到坐在这个座位上的家伙了。”

Lister scribbled quietly in his notebook. "And how can you make the prism refract in the ... er ... opposite direction?"

Lister默不作声地在笔记本上快速记录着。“那你怎么样能让棱镜朝着……嗯……相反的方向折射呢？”

"That's the thing. As I said, it's not possible. At least, up till now. Negative refraction was discovered in 2001 for microwaves, but so far has not been possible for light. But now there's this new synthetic optical material. Looks just like glass, but refracts light in the opposite, negative direction. Gives totally weird effects. Petra Pruszczyncki has called it negadex — it's her group that developed the material. It's still top secret."

“问题就在这里。我说过，那不可能。至少，目前是不可能的。微波的负折射是在2001年发现的，到目前为止，光波是不可能负折射的。但是现在有了一种新型合成光线材料。看上去像是玻璃，不过能让光波朝着相反的方向，也就是所谓负方向来折射。这引发了完全怪异的效应。Petra Pruszczyncki称之为‘负折射率’――是她的研究小组发现的这种材料。这个现在还是绝密的。”

"So how do you get to know all about this negadex?" Lister wanted to know.

“那么，你是怎么了解到‘负折射率’这些情况的？”Lister想了解一下。

"Petra has just submitted a paper about the discovery to Nature ... and I am one of the referees." Baumgarden made a dismissive gesture. "Look, it's probably a crazy thought. In any case I can't believe Petra could be involved, she has way too much sense for that. But I had to tell you about the possibility." Baumgarden sat down again and folded his arms. "Anything else I can help you with?"

“Petra刚刚向《自然》杂志提交了一篇关于这项发现的论文……而我就是论文的审稿人之一。” Baumgarden作了个轻蔑的手势。“可能这是个很没谱的想法。怎么着我也不相信Petra会卷进这个案子，她在这种事情上可是个非常理智的人。【肥：she has way too much sense for that这句不会翻。】不过我得告诉你这种可能性。” Baumgarden重新坐下，抱起双臂。“还有什么我能帮上忙的吗？”

Lister held up his hand to indicate he needed a moment to arrange his thoughts. So the demonstration set-up was probably compromised during the coffee break, as it now turned out by replacing a prism with a piece of negadex — a material that only a few people in the world knew about. Petra Pruszczyncki was present at the conference, and was already on Lister's list of suspects. He needed to find out whether anyone else with ties to her group was present. Baumgarden himself couldn't be ruled out. Who else? Lister had a brainwave.

Lister抬手示意他要花点儿时间好好想想。【肥：held up his hand是啥意思】这么说来，在演讲开始前大家喝咖啡的时候，演示装置可能被人动了手脚。原来的棱镜被换成了一块“负折射率”的棱镜。而在这个世界上只有几个人才知道有这种“负折射率”的材料。Petra Pruszczyncki在会议上露了面，而且已经上了Lister的嫌疑犯名单。现在他要搞清楚她那个小组是不是还有人到过现场。Baumgarden本人也还不能摆脱嫌疑。还有谁呢？Lister灵光一闪。

For the first time during the interview, Baumgarden looked a little uneasy. The detective had surprised him by asking which editor was handling Pruszczyncki's paper. "Nigel Lorimer. Yes, he is here too..."

在整个询问过程当中，Baumgarden头一次显出有点儿不自在。这个侦探问，处理Pruszczyncki论文的编辑是谁，这让他吃了一惊。“Nigel Lorimer。对，他也在这儿……”

Lister sensed that there was more to come. Baumgarden fiddled with his sunglasses. "I should probably tell you before you hear this from someone else. There was a paper from Rufus's group, some five years ago. It was generally seen as a huge breakthrough, and received massive publicity. But it turned out soon after that there was a crucial error in the data that should have been spotted.

Lister感觉到他还有话没说。Baumgarden摆弄着太阳镜。“这个事情，在你从别人那里听说之前，我也许应该先跟你说说。【肥：不好翻】大约在5年前，Rufus的小组发表过一篇论文，多数人都认为是个巨大的突破，很是出了风头。可是后来发现实验数据里有个关键性的错误，本来早该发现的。这一下就全完了。

"Rufus himself started an internal investigation, no doubt to head off criticism. He cleverly accepted responsibility for the mistake, but made sure it was clear that it was a student who had messed up. Rufus actually managed to emerge with his reputation largely unstained." Baumgarden looked at the floor and shook his head. "The paper had to be retracted. Poor Nigel was devastated — he was the editor who handled it. Nigel is a very decent guy but he tends to take things personally. I think he has been rather obsessed about it ... felt the whole affair damaged him. He tried to keep up appearances and stay polite with Rufus, but I think it must have been clear to everyone that he hated him."

“Rufus自己在内部进行了一番调查研究，当然是想阻止外界的批评。他很聪明地为那个错误负了责任，但是他确信，很明显是他一个学生出的岔子。Rufus实际上很成功地保住了他的声誉不受损失。” Baumgarden瞅着地板，摇着头。“那篇论文只好撤销了。可怜的Nigel完蛋了――他就是处理那篇论文的编辑。Nigel是个非常正派的编辑，不过他老是自作主张【肥：take things personally啥意思】。我想他一定满脑子都是这件事……觉得整件事情害了他。他试图装着没事人似的，和Rufus客客气气的，不过我想，是个人都看得出来，他恨他。”

（第3节完）