The story behind your glasses - Eva Timothy

Transcriber: tom carter Reviewer: Bedirhan Cinar

翻译人员: Helen Gao 校对人员: Cissy Yun

Optics, or the enhancement of our natural vision,

光学，或者说是我们自然视觉的增强

has been one of the biggest catalysts for science over the past 500 years,

曾经是过去500年里自然科学最大的催化剂

Interestingly, it wasn't scientific interest, but more practical matters that led to the initial advancements in optics,

有趣的是，引导光学最初发展的不是科学兴趣， 而更多的是实际问题。

starting around 1440 when Johannes Gutenberg invented his printing press.

始于1440年，当约翰内斯·古腾堡发明印刷机之时

In short order, books, which had been a rarity,

在彼时还很珍贵的书，

were now becoming a widespread phenomenon.

马上开始变得十分普遍。

All that new reading material meant more knowledge was circulating,

更多的阅读材料意味着更多的知识流通

but it also meant that more people were straining their eyes,

但也意味着更多的人开始过度用眼，

likely as they read by candlelight.

很可能由于他们借烛光阅读。

And while spectacles had been invented in Italy around 1286,

在约1286年，当眼镜在意大利诞生后，

the need for reading glasses increased substantially.

对近视眼镜的需求急剧增加。

Now that people could use lenses to see things more clearly,

现在人们可以透过镜片看得更清晰,

they started wondering if vision could be enhanced to see things the human eye couldn't perceive by its own devices.

他们也开始考虑视野是否可以用装置进行增强， 达到肉眼无法企及的程度。

Robert Hooke pursued microscopy, and 1665 he published his findings of worlds inside worlds,

罗伯特·胡克研究的是显微术， 1665年他发表了微观世界的发现，

which he called "cells" in the book "Micrographia."

并在其著作《显微图谱》中称为“细胞(cell)”

At the other end of the spectrum,

另一方面，

Galileo innovated with telescopic lenses,

伽利略发明了望远镜，

and in 1609, he had refined a telescope until he had an instrument powerful enough to see distant objects in the sky

到1609年，他不断改进该望远镜， 直到装备强大到能看见空中较远的物体

with an accuracy no one had before him.

且精度是前人从未达到的。

He found that the moon had craters and mountains,

他发现月球上有环形山和山脉

that Jupiter had moons of its own, and the whole system governing the earth and space was brought into question.

木星带有卫星， 且整个地球和太空系统都受到质疑。

Not everyone was thrilled with all the things Galileo saw though.

但并不是所有人对于伽利略的发现都兴奋不已。

For instance, it was taught at the time that the moon was a perfectly smooth sphere.

比如，在那时，月球被认为是一个非常光滑的球体

Yet here was visual proof that was awfully hard to discount.

而眼前的证据也难以忽视。

Upon finding moons around Jupiter, he also verified what Johannes Kepler had surmised:

除了发现木星带有卫星以外， 他同时验证了约翰尼斯·开普勒的猜测：

that the earth was not the center of the universe,

地球并非宇宙中心，

dispelling another central dogma of Galileo's day.

破除了伽利略所在时期的另一中心教条。

Then almost exactly a year after Galileo died,

伽利略去世后一年，

Isaac Newton was born.

艾萨克·牛顿诞生了。

A lot that had been unknown was visible by now,

过去的许多未知，现在均清晰可见；

but much of it was simply the foundation for further questions.

但其中很多也为之后的问题奠定了基础。

What was light anyway? And color, for that matter?

什么是光？还有颜色，又是什么？

What were the laws that governed the earth, and the heavens?

支配地球和天体的法则又是什么？

And could we capture them through keen observation?

我们是否能通过敏锐的观察捕捉到它们？

Newton experimented extensively with optics,

牛顿做了广泛的光学实验，

and came to understand light as something of substance,

了解到光是一种物质，

and colors as components of light at different frequencies.

而颜色是不同频率的发光元件。

Before Newton, people widely believed that the color was due to different amounts of light,

牛顿之前，人们普遍认为颜色是由于光量的不同而产生的

with red being lots of light, and blue being mostly dark.

红色光量大，而蓝色则大部分是暗的。

Newton's prism experiments showed that white light could not only be broken into its component colors with one prism,

牛顿的棱镜实验显示， 白光不仅能通过第一个棱镜被分成不同色彩元件，

but that a second lens could recompose those colors back into white light again,

第二块棱镜能将颜色重组回白光，

thus showing that color was a matter of light's refraction rather than how light or dark it was.

因此说明颜色是光的折射，而与亮度无关。

Newton's studies of optics led to the development of the reflecting telescope.

牛顿的光学研究带来了反射式望远镜的发展。

This, together with his study of planetary motion, led to his theory of gravitation,

加上他对行星运动的研究，引出了他的万有引力定律。

one of the world's greatest examples of learning to see something invisible

世上最伟大的实例之一：要了解不可见的事物，

by observing its effect on things that are visible.

可以通过观察其对可见事物的影响。

So fast forward a few hundred years, and here we stand.

让我们快进几百年，到现在。

We've evolved from a single lens to optics that reveal the birth of a star in another galaxy,

光学从单镜头进化到可观察银河系一个新星诞生，

or a child developing in the womb,

或婴儿在子宫中成长，

or an electron whirling around an atom.

或一个电子围绕着原子运动。

At a time when so much is visible, how we see the world around us matters even more than what we see.

在很多事物均可见的今天， 我们如何看待这个世界比我们实际看到的更重要。

Will we see a world where everything important has already been discovered?

我们将看到一个所有重要事物均已被发现的世界吗？

Or will we see one in which yesterday's discoveries are but a doorway to the breakthroughs of tomorrow?

或我们会看到昨天的发现不过是明日突破的入口的世界?