我认识的科学家，像伊凡和卢斯，还有我通过阅读了解的科学家，普遍认为人们在探索自然界规律的过程中，很快便能与美不期而遇。
Judging from the scientists I know, including Eva and Ruth, and those whom I’ve read about, you can’t pursue the laws of nature very long without bumping into beauty. “I don’t know if it’s the same beauty you see in the sunset,” a friend tells me, “but it feels the same.” This friend is a physicist, who has spent a long career deciphering what must be happening in the interior of stars.
He recalls for me this thrill on grasping for the first time Dirac’s equations describing quantum mechanics, or those of Einstein describing relativity. “They’re so beautiful,” he says, “you can see immediately they have to be true.
Or at least on the way toward truth.” I ask him what makes a theory beautiful, and he replies, “Simplicity, symmetry, elegance, and power.”
“我不清楚那份美是否如你从日落中感受到的一样，”一位朋友对我说，“但对我而言，两者是一样的。
Judging from the scientists I know, including Eva and Ruth, and those whom I’ve read about, you can’t pursue the laws of nature very long without bumping into beauty. “I don’t know if it’s the same beauty you see in the sunset,” a friend tells me, “but it feels the same.” This friend is a physicist, who has spent a long career deciphering what must be happening in the interior of stars.
He recalls for me this thrill on grasping for the first time Dirac’s equations describing quantum mechanics, or those of Einstein describing relativity. “They’re so beautiful,” he says, “you can see immediately they have to be true.
Or at least on the way toward truth.” I ask him what makes a theory beautiful, and he replies, “Simplicity, symmetry, elegance, and power.”
”朋友是位物理学家，长期致力于解开恒星内部的奥秘。
Judging from the scientists I know, including Eva and Ruth, and those whom I’ve read about, you can’t pursue the laws of nature very long without bumping into beauty. “I don’t know if it’s the same beauty you see in the sunset,” a friend tells me, “but it feels the same.” This friend is a physicist, who has spent a long career deciphering what must be happening in the interior of stars.
He recalls for me this thrill on grasping for the first time Dirac’s equations describing quantum mechanics, or those of Einstein describing relativity. “They’re so beautiful,” he says, “you can see immediately they have to be true.
Or at least on the way toward truth.” I ask him what makes a theory beautiful, and he replies, “Simplicity, symmetry, elegance, and power.”
他向我回忆起第一次领会狄拉克的量子力学方程式和爱因斯坦的相对论方程式时，他是如何欣喜若狂。
Judging from the scientists I know, including Eva and Ruth, and those whom I’ve read about, you can’t pursue the laws of nature very long without bumping into beauty. “I don’t know if it’s the same beauty you see in the sunset,” a friend tells me, “but it feels the same.” This friend is a physicist, who has spent a long career deciphering what must be happening in the interior of stars.
He recalls for me this thrill on grasping for the first time Dirac’s equations describing quantum mechanics, or those of Einstein describing relativity. “They’re so beautiful,” he says, “you can see immediately they have to be true.
Or at least on the way toward truth.” I ask him what makes a theory beautiful, and he replies, “Simplicity, symmetry, elegance, and power.”
“它们如此美丽，”朋友说道，“你几乎马上明白这就是真理，或者至少是在通往真理的大道上。
Judging from the scientists I know, including Eva and Ruth, and those whom I’ve read about, you can’t pursue the laws of nature very long without bumping into beauty. “I don’t know if it’s the same beauty you see in the sunset,” a friend tells me, “but it feels the same.” This friend is a physicist, who has spent a long career deciphering what must be happening in the interior of stars.
He recalls for me this thrill on grasping for the first time Dirac’s equations describing quantum mechanics, or those of Einstein describing relativity. “They’re so beautiful,” he says, “you can see immediately they have to be true.
Or at least on the way toward truth.” I ask him what makes a theory beautiful, and he replies, “Simplicity, symmetry, elegance, and power.”
”当被问及是什么让理论如此美丽时，他的回答是，“简洁，对称，优美，力量。
Judging from the scientists I know, including Eva and Ruth, and those whom I’ve read about, you can’t pursue the laws of nature very long without bumping into beauty. “I don’t know if it’s the same beauty you see in the sunset,” a friend tells me, “but it feels the same.” This friend is a physicist, who has spent a long career deciphering what must be happening in the interior of stars.
He recalls for me this thrill on grasping for the first time Dirac’s equations describing quantum mechanics, or those of Einstein describing relativity. “They’re so beautiful,” he says, “you can see immediately they have to be true.
Or at least on the way toward truth.” I ask him what makes a theory beautiful, and he replies, “Simplicity, symmetry, elegance, and power.”
”
Judging from the scientists I know, including Eva and Ruth, and those whom I’ve read about, you can’t pursue the laws of nature very long without bumping into beauty. “I don’t know if it’s the same beauty you see in the sunset,” a friend tells me, “but it feels the same.” This friend is a physicist, who has spent a long career deciphering what must be happening in the interior of stars.
He recalls for me this thrill on grasping for the first time Dirac’s equations describing quantum mechanics, or those of Einstein describing relativity. “They’re so beautiful,” he says, “you can see immediately they have to be true.
Or at least on the way toward truth.” I ask him what makes a theory beautiful, and he replies, “Simplicity, symmetry, elegance, and power.”
优美的理论和自然为何如此吻合？
Why nature should conform to theories we find beautiful is far from obvious.
The most incomprehensible thing about the universe, as Einstein said, is that it’s comprehensible.
How unlikely, that a short-lived biped on a two-bit planet should be able to gauge the speed of light, lay bare the structure of an atom, or calculate the gravitational tug of a black hole.
We’re a long way from understanding everything, but we do understand a great deal about how nature behaves.
Generation after generation, we puzzle out formulas, test them, and find, to an astonishing degree, that nature agrees.
An architect draws designs on flimsy paper, and her buildings stand up through earthquakes.
We launch a satellite into orbit and use it to bounce messages from continent to continent.
The machine on which I write these words embodies hundreds of insights into the workings of the material world, insights that are confirmed by every burst of letters on the screen, and I stare at that screen through lenses that obey the laws of optics first worked out in detail by Isaac Newton.
这不是个轻易就能回答的问题。
Why nature should conform to theories we find beautiful is far from obvious.
The most incomprehensible thing about the universe, as Einstein said, is that it’s comprehensible.
How unlikely, that a short-lived biped on a two-bit planet should be able to gauge the speed of light, lay bare the structure of an atom, or calculate the gravitational tug of a black hole.
We’re a long way from understanding everything, but we do understand a great deal about how nature behaves.
Generation after generation, we puzzle out formulas, test them, and find, to an astonishing degree, that nature agrees.
An architect draws designs on flimsy paper, and her buildings stand up through earthquakes.
We launch a satellite into orbit and use it to bounce messages from continent to continent.
The machine on which I write these words embodies hundreds of insights into the workings of the material world, insights that are confirmed by every burst of letters on the screen, and I stare at that screen through lenses that obey the laws of optics first worked out in detail by Isaac Newton.
正如爱因斯坦所言，宇宙最大的不可知性就在于它的可知性。
Why nature should conform to theories we find beautiful is far from obvious.
The most incomprehensible thing about the universe, as Einstein said, is that it’s comprehensible.
How unlikely, that a short-lived biped on a two-bit planet should be able to gauge the speed of light, lay bare the structure of an atom, or calculate the gravitational tug of a black hole.
We’re a long way from understanding everything, but we do understand a great deal about how nature behaves.
Generation after generation, we puzzle out formulas, test them, and find, to an astonishing degree, that nature agrees.
An architect draws designs on flimsy paper, and her buildings stand up through earthquakes.
We launch a satellite into orbit and use it to bounce messages from continent to continent.
The machine on which I write these words embodies hundreds of insights into the workings of the material world, insights that are confirmed by every burst of letters on the screen, and I stare at that screen through lenses that obey the laws of optics first worked out in detail by Isaac Newton.
多么不可思议啊！
Why nature should conform to theories we find beautiful is far from obvious.
The most incomprehensible thing about the universe, as Einstein said, is that it’s comprehensible.
How unlikely, that a short-lived biped on a two-bit planet should be able to gauge the speed of light, lay bare the structure of an atom, or calculate the gravitational tug of a black hole.
We’re a long way from understanding everything, but we do understand a great deal about how nature behaves.
Generation after generation, we puzzle out formulas, test them, and find, to an astonishing degree, that nature agrees.
An architect draws designs on flimsy paper, and her buildings stand up through earthquakes.
We launch a satellite into orbit and use it to bounce messages from continent to continent.
The machine on which I write these words embodies hundreds of insights into the workings of the material world, insights that are confirmed by every burst of letters on the screen, and I stare at that screen through lenses that obey the laws of optics first worked out in detail by Isaac Newton.
在这个微不足道的星球上，那天不予寿的双足动物竟能测出光速，解开原子的结构之谜，算出黑洞的地心引力。
Why nature should conform to theories we find beautiful is far from obvious.
The most incomprehensible thing about the universe, as Einstein said, is that it’s comprehensible.
How unlikely, that a short-lived biped on a two-bit planet should be able to gauge the speed of light, lay bare the structure of an atom, or calculate the gravitational tug of a black hole.
We’re a long way from understanding everything, but we do understand a great deal about how nature behaves.
Generation after generation, we puzzle out formulas, test them, and find, to an astonishing degree, that nature agrees.
An architect draws designs on flimsy paper, and her buildings stand up through earthquakes.
We launch a satellite into orbit and use it to bounce messages from continent to continent.
The machine on which I write these words embodies hundreds of insights into the workings of the material world, insights that are confirmed by every burst of letters on the screen, and I stare at that screen through lenses that obey the laws of optics first worked out in detail by Isaac Newton.
洞悉宇宙的一切奥秘任重而道远，但我们的确已能解释相当多的自然现象。
Why nature should conform to theories we find beautiful is far from obvious.
The most incomprehensible thing about the universe, as Einstein said, is that it’s comprehensible.
How unlikely, that a short-lived biped on a two-bit planet should be able to gauge the speed of light, lay bare the structure of an atom, or calculate the gravitational tug of a black hole.
We’re a long way from understanding everything, but we do understand a great deal about how nature behaves.
Generation after generation, we puzzle out formulas, test them, and find, to an astonishing degree, that nature agrees.
An architect draws designs on flimsy paper, and her buildings stand up through earthquakes.
We launch a satellite into orbit and use it to bounce messages from continent to continent.
The machine on which I write these words embodies hundreds of insights into the workings of the material world, insights that are confirmed by every burst of letters on the screen, and I stare at that screen through lenses that obey the laws of optics first worked out in detail by Isaac Newton.
一代又一代人苦苦思索着复杂的公式，反复验算，最后发现它们与自然惊人的吻合。
Why nature should conform to theories we find beautiful is far from obvious.
The most incomprehensible thing about the universe, as Einstein said, is that it’s comprehensible.
How unlikely, that a short-lived biped on a two-bit planet should be able to gauge the speed of light, lay bare the structure of an atom, or calculate the gravitational tug of a black hole.
We’re a long way from understanding everything, but we do understand a great deal about how nature behaves.
Generation after generation, we puzzle out formulas, test them, and find, to an astonishing degree, that nature agrees.
An architect draws designs on flimsy paper, and her buildings stand up through earthquakes.
We launch a satellite into orbit and use it to bounce messages from continent to continent.
The machine on which I write these words embodies hundreds of insights into the workings of the material world, insights that are confirmed by every burst of letters on the screen, and I stare at that screen through lenses that obey the laws of optics first worked out in detail by Isaac Newton.
建筑师绘蓝图于薄纸，她的建筑历经地震屹然不倒。
Why nature should conform to theories we find beautiful is far from obvious.
The most incomprehensible thing about the universe, as Einstein said, is that it’s comprehensible.
How unlikely, that a short-lived biped on a two-bit planet should be able to gauge the speed of light, lay bare the structure of an atom, or calculate the gravitational tug of a black hole.
We’re a long way from understanding everything, but we do understand a great deal about how nature behaves.
Generation after generation, we puzzle out formulas, test them, and find, to an astonishing degree, that nature agrees.
An architect draws designs on flimsy paper, and her buildings stand up through earthquakes.
We launch a satellite into orbit and use it to bounce messages from continent to continent.
The machine on which I write these words embodies hundreds of insights into the workings of the material world, insights that are confirmed by every burst of letters on the screen, and I stare at that screen through lenses that obey the laws of optics first worked out in detail by Isaac Newton.
我们送卫星上轨道，利用它进行洲际信息传输。
Why nature should conform to theories we find beautiful is far from obvious.
The most incomprehensible thing about the universe, as Einstein said, is that it’s comprehensible.
How unlikely, that a short-lived biped on a two-bit planet should be able to gauge the speed of light, lay bare the structure of an atom, or calculate the gravitational tug of a black hole.
We’re a long way from understanding everything, but we do understand a great deal about how nature behaves.
Generation after generation, we puzzle out formulas, test them, and find, to an astonishing degree, that nature agrees.
An architect draws designs on flimsy paper, and her buildings stand up through earthquakes.
We launch a satellite into orbit and use it to bounce messages from continent to continent.
The machine on which I write these words embodies hundreds of insights into the workings of the material world, insights that are confirmed by every burst of letters on the screen, and I stare at that screen through lenses that obey the laws of optics first worked out in detail by Isaac Newton.
我写下这番话的机器包含了数百个我们对物质世界运行方式的理解，屏幕上跳出的每一个字母都在佐证这些理解的正确性；透过镜片我注视着屏幕，是艾萨克·牛顿首先解开了镜片所要遵循的光学原理这一难题。
Why nature should conform to theories we find beautiful is far from obvious.
The most incomprehensible thing about the universe, as Einstein said, is that it’s comprehensible.
How unlikely, that a short-lived biped on a two-bit planet should be able to gauge the speed of light, lay bare the structure of an atom, or calculate the gravitational tug of a black hole.
We’re a long way from understanding everything, but we do understand a great deal about how nature behaves.
Generation after generation, we puzzle out formulas, test them, and find, to an astonishing degree, that nature agrees.
An architect draws designs on flimsy paper, and her buildings stand up through earthquakes.
We launch a satellite into orbit and use it to bounce messages from continent to continent.
The machine on which I write these words embodies hundreds of insights into the workings of the material world, insights that are confirmed by every burst of letters on the screen, and I stare at that screen through lenses that obey the laws of optics first worked out in detail by Isaac Newton.
牛顿认为自己研究天体的运行方式是在寻找所谓的“神臂”。
By discerning patterns in the universe, Newton believed, he was tracing the hand of God.
Scientists in our day have largely abandoned the notion of a Creator as an unnecessary hypothesis, or at least an untestable one.
While they share Newton’s faith that the universe is ruled everywhere by a coherent set of rules, they cannot say, as scientists, how these particular rules came to govern things.
You can do science without believing in a divine Legislator, but not without believing in laws.
当代的科学家大多已摒弃造物主这一不切实际的假说，至少是因为无法进行验证。
By discerning patterns in the universe, Newton believed, he was tracing the hand of God.
Scientists in our day have largely abandoned the notion of a Creator as an unnecessary hypothesis, or at least an untestable one.
While they share Newton’s faith that the universe is ruled everywhere by a coherent set of rules, they cannot say, as scientists, how these particular rules came to govern things.
You can do science without believing in a divine Legislator, but not without believing in laws.
牛顿认为宇宙的一切都被内在统一的法则主宰，对于这一观点科学家们并无异议，但他们无法科学解释这一切是如何进行的。
By discerning patterns in the universe, Newton believed, he was tracing the hand of God.
Scientists in our day have largely abandoned the notion of a Creator as an unnecessary hypothesis, or at least an untestable one.
While they share Newton’s faith that the universe is ruled everywhere by a coherent set of rules, they cannot say, as scientists, how these particular rules came to govern things.
You can do science without believing in a divine Legislator, but not without believing in laws.
你可以不信奉神圣的上帝而进行科学研究，但抛弃了规律，你将寸步难行。
By discerning patterns in the universe, Newton believed, he was tracing the hand of God.
Scientists in our day have largely abandoned the notion of a Creator as an unnecessary hypothesis, or at least an untestable one.
While they share Newton’s faith that the universe is ruled everywhere by a coherent set of rules, they cannot say, as scientists, how these particular rules came to govern things.
You can do science without believing in a divine Legislator, but not without believing in laws.
少年时代，我勇攀数学高峰。
I spent my teenage years scrambling up the mountain of mathematics.
Midway up the slope, however, I staggered to a halt, gasping in the rarefied air, well before I reached the heights where the equations of Einstein and Dirac would have made sense.
Nowadays I add, subtract, multiply, and do long division when no calculator is handy, and I can do algebra and geometry and even trigonometry in a pinch, but that is about all that I’ve kept from the language of numbers.
Still, I remember glimpsing patterns in mathematics that seemed as bold and beautiful as a skyful of stars.
然而抵达半山腰时，我蹒跚而止，在稀薄的空气中气喘吁吁，远未达到能够理解爱因斯坦和狄拉克的方程式这一高度。
I spent my teenage years scrambling up the mountain of mathematics.
Midway up the slope, however, I staggered to a halt, gasping in the rarefied air, well before I reached the heights where the equations of Einstein and Dirac would have made sense.
Nowadays I add, subtract, multiply, and do long division when no calculator is handy, and I can do algebra and geometry and even trigonometry in a pinch, but that is about all that I’ve kept from the language of numbers.
Still, I remember glimpsing patterns in mathematics that seemed as bold and beautiful as a skyful of stars.
如今，当手头没有计算器时，我手工运算加法，减法，乘法和繁琐的除法，必要时我还会去手工运算代数，几何，甚至是三角函数，但这几乎就是我从数字语言中学到的全部知识。
I spent my teenage years scrambling up the mountain of mathematics.
Midway up the slope, however, I staggered to a halt, gasping in the rarefied air, well before I reached the heights where the equations of Einstein and Dirac would have made sense.
Nowadays I add, subtract, multiply, and do long division when no calculator is handy, and I can do algebra and geometry and even trigonometry in a pinch, but that is about all that I’ve kept from the language of numbers.
Still, I remember glimpsing patterns in mathematics that seemed as bold and beautiful as a skyful of stars.