这次担纲的是水龙吟（嗯，我一直觉得是松鼠会最好听的ID之一），并且非常尽职地提供了中英文对照，桔子说一起贴吧，我说好。

后天就能听到Kroto教授的演讲了，而这段视频正好是介绍他的工作的，呵呵，很完美，GEOSET系列介绍也暂告一段落了，再次感谢三位译者和校对者。

发现碳60

演讲者：Harry Kroto

翻译：水龙吟

校对：桔子

视频：击它

字幕和译文如下：

Hi, I’m gonna tell you the story how we discover the C60. And it’s interesting, because I was interested in molecules that do things.

嗨，我要跟你们讲的是我们如何发现碳60 (C60）的故事。那很有趣，因为我对有用的分子很感兴趣。

This molecule you are seeing now is hemoglobin. That’s in your body. I’m gonna maybe say a few things about it later.

你现在看到的分子式血红蛋白分子。它存在于你的身体里。我待会可能会聊一些关于它的事情。

But the sort molecule I was interested was very much simplier than hemoglobin. And this is a molecule with a long sort of stretch，and it was vibrating, so the long carbon atom chains were vibration. Okay. And that led to a really interesting project we are using in astronomy. This is a telescope we used in Canada, it’s a radio telescope, a lot like satellite dishes that we use for television.

 不过我感兴趣的分子要比这个简单的多。这种分子伸展得很长，而且它一直在振动。就是说整个长碳原子链在振动。那关联到我们天文学里的一个有趣的项目。这是我们在加拿大用的一个望远镜，是个射电望远镜，很像我们电视机用的卫星电视天线。

And if you look out in spaces in black clouds, okay? Actually the star just at the top is the lefthand star in Orion. But if you look at other places, you see this black cloud? Which is smeared out of the space. And if you put radio telescope there you can get a radio signal. And that radio signal, if you point just at the point there, it actually shows up this carbon in that little area. It’s carbon chain, in fact we really detected a whole set of molecules, with 5, 7, and 9 carbon atoms, and that was an exciting time.

 如果你看向黑色的空间。事实上，上边那颗星就是猎户座中左侧的一颗星。不过如果你看向其他地方，你看到这个黑云了吧？它在空间模糊开来。如果你用射电望远镜的话你就能得到射电信号。射电信号，如果你指向就是这个点，它显示的就是这个小区域的碳元素。那是碳原子链，事实上我们探测到一整套分子，由五个、七个和九个碳原子构成，那是个令人激动的时刻。

This showed you what I used to look like you know, when I was someone younger. In fact, you guys you might have hair now, but you’ll end up like me someday, so you don’t laugh. And this paper, Brighlim Evavy Argog said they discovered proof that there are “organic” chemicals in some of the vast dust clouds between the stars. Only one simple step would be needed to change these chemicals into the building blocks of life. And in fact he said the chemical were discovered thanks to Canadian work in radio astrology -- astrology, that’s not astronomy, that’s what we were doing, astronomy -- and research by the Sussex team. 

你看到的这张是我以前的样子，我更年轻的时候。事实上，你们，你现在也许脑袋上还有头发，不过你总有一天得像我这样，所以，别笑。还有，这篇文章，Brighlim Evavy Argog说他们发现了证据，证明在恒星之间，广阔的的星际尘埃中有有机化学成分。只需要简单得一小步，这些化学成分就能变成生命的组成成分。事实上，他们说“发现这些化学成分，要感谢加拿大的射电占星学，”——是说占星学，而不是天文学，那才是我们做的事情，天文学——“Sussex大学研究组的工作。”

So that was a very interesting area and time, you know, I was really excited. Then it turned out that some stars, like our own sun will blow up one day. When they do, they blow all of the material inside the star out into space. And I got excited about that, exactly what was going on, and whether the carbon molecules that we’ve seen were actually coming out of the stars like that.

那是一个有趣的领域和时代，你要知道，我们当时非常兴奋。然后，事实上有些恒星，就像我们自己的太阳，有朝一日会爆炸。当它们爆炸时，他们把内部所有的物质都喷射到太空中。我对此感觉很兴奋：到底发生了什么，还有现在我们探测到的碳元素是否就是这样跑到恒星外面来的。

And in fact when we evaporize a carbon using a laser, I did that with the group of Richard Smalley and Bob(=Robert) Curl  in Rice University (*). We discovered this fantastic molecule. It’s called C60. And I named it after Buckminster Fuller (**). I called it Buckmistefullerene. And it’s the same shape and structure as a soccer ball – with 12 pentagon, and 20 hexagons.

事实上，当我们用一束激光蒸发碳原子，那是我和Rice大学的Richard Smalley 和 Bob　Curl研究组合作的实验，我们发现了这个让人难以置信的分子。它称之为碳60。我以Buckminster Fuller（巴克敏斯特•富勒）的名字给他命名，叫做巴克敏斯特富勒烯。它和足球的形状和结构一样——由12个五边形和20个六边形构成。

水龙吟注：

(*) C60的发现者为三个人，分别是本讲座演讲人Harold Kroto （University of Sussex）和Robert Curl, and Richard Smalley（Rice University）三人因此获1996年诺贝尔化学奖。

(**) Richard Buckminster Fuller, 巴克敏斯特·富勒，美国著名建筑师。曾于1967年设计球形圆顶薄壳的美国万国博览馆，C60的发现者曾受此建筑结构启发，认为C60可能具有类似球体的结构，于是以此命名。

Anyway, after that there is really now three forms of carbon. This is diamond which you heard about it, and you find it in mines, very deep under the earth. We don’t really know fully how to make them ourselves. But the earth is so dense, such high pressure that we squeeze carbon into diamond. Okay? You heard of the diamond. And then there is graphite, the graphite it’s the same, it’s carbon again, but in different sort of structure, the carbon atoms are sort of stuck together in a different way, and that forms a graphite, and that’s in pencil lead. So diamond, it’s sharp, and translucent, and bright and sparkling, and is increadibly hard. And here is another form called graphite, which is actually very soft that you can make pencil lead. What we discovered is a third form, and it’s called C60, Buckminstefullerene.

不管怎样，那之后碳就有三种结构了。这是钻石，你肯定听说过，你可以从深埋地下的金刚石矿里发现它。我们并不十分清楚如何人工造钻石。但是地球很致密，很高的压强可以把碳压成钻石。Okay? 你听说过钻石。然后，就是石墨，同样的，石磨也是碳，但是拥有不同的结构，碳原子通过另一种方法连在一起，那样组成了石墨，在铅笔铅里就有。所以说钻石，尖利、透明、闪闪发光，坚不可摧，而另一个结构下是石墨，实际中非常软，你可以把它做成铅笔铅。我们发现的是第三种结构，叫做碳60，巴克敏斯特富勒烯。

And that was an exciting thing because no one thought of carbon would come yet in another form after all diamond and graphite have been known for millions of years. So now there are a lot of things, that’s in fact fullerene chemistry. And we can make compounds. Over 5000 different compounds have been made from these bucky balls that we called.

那是个让人兴奋的东西，因为从来没有人想过，在金刚石和石墨被大家熟知的万亿年后，碳其实还有另外一种形态。因此现在就有了很多东西，事实上那就是富勒烯化学。我们还可以自己造各种合成物。从这些所谓的巴克球中，我们已经造出了超过5000种不同的合成物质。

Well, that’s one thing, but then the next thing, it turned out that you can actually form a long tubes, okay, in fact just something like a cage, C60, we can actually produce a long tubes, and these are called nanotubes. And to give you an idea, okay, you heard of carbon fibers, if you, you can break a carbon fiber, and this carbon fiber has been snapped. It’s very very thin, say, probably about a size of a hair, okay, a human hair. But if you look coming out of the middle of it, okay, you see here, you see that little white sort of thread coming out, that’s a nanotube.

这是一件事情，接下来的我们发现，你可以造出一个长管子。事实上，碳60就像是一个笼子，由此我们可以造出一个长长的管子，这些叫做碳纳米管。只是让你对这个有些了解，你听说过碳化纤维，如果你，你可以折断一个碳化纤维，这一根碳化纤维已经被折断了。它非常薄，大概和头发差不多大小，人的头发。如果你看着从中间伸出来的这个，你看这里，你可以看到一个很小的白色丝状物伸出来，那就是碳纳米管。

And these are really really exciting things, because these would be materials that I think would made them in large amounts, could make a material which is a hundred times stronger than steel, and probably about1/6 of the weight. And that means, that you probably make airplanes that are so light, that the engine failed that we just flied, no problem, much safe, more save. And in fact, you should be able to be build buildings, bridges and skyscrapers, and even the strongest hurricanes and the strongest earthquakes, they will still stand up. And so, on the base of C60 discovery, okay, and the discovery of these nanotubes, which are long cousin of C60, there is an exciting possibility our revolution of materials which will make life a lot easier for everybody. Anyway, this is one of the pictures of the first nanotubes that was shown for seen. And they bent, okay, they don’t break. Carbon fibers said we have it today they snapped if you sort of try to bend them by 5-10 degrees. If you tried, they bend like a rubber tubing. And they bend back again.

这是一个非常非常让人激动的事情，因为这些材料让我觉得可以大量生产，可以制造出一种物质，比不锈钢坚硬100倍，但是只有其1/6的重量。那就意味着，你可能可以造一个非常轻的飞机，即使引擎坏掉了，我们依然可以接着飞，没问题，更安全，更节约。事实上，你可以建造一些建筑，比如桥梁，摩天大楼等，甚至经历最强烈的飓风或最剧烈的地震，他们也不会倒。同时，在发现碳60的基础上，还有这些碳纳米管的发现，就是碳60的高个表亲，我们有可能引发一场材料革命，可以让每个人的生活都变得更容易。那么，这里有人们第一次见到碳纳米管照片里其中的一张。它们可以弯曲，它们不会折断。如果你要试着把碳化纤维弯个5到10度，它们就会折断。如果你折碳纳米管，它们就会像橡胶管那样弯曲起来。而且他们会回复成原样。

Well just how small is a bucky ball. Let’s take the earth, it’s pretty big, okay, let’s shrink it down to about the size of a football, that is a factor of 100 million. Okay. That’s 10 times 10 times 10 times 10 times 10 times 10 times 10 times 10. That’s 10 multiplied by 8 times. Okay? And we call that, 10 to the 8th, 100 million time. So a football is actually 100 million times smaller then the earth. Okay. So now let’s shrink the football down by the same amount, 100 million,10 to the 8th, and we get, a bucky ball. So it gives you an idea, how really tiny, and how thin those bucky balls are, those nanotubes that very very thin indeed. That’s the sort of size of what we called nano-technology, which is exciting at present time. Okay.

那么，巴克球到底有多小呢。让我们拿地球作比例，地球很大，让我们把它缩小到一个足球那么大，那就是缩小1亿倍。那就是10乘以10乘以10乘以10乘以10乘以10乘以10乘以10。我们称之为10的8次方。也就是说一个足球比地球小1亿倍。那么现在我们把这个足球缩小同样的比例，一亿倍，10的8次方，然后我们得到，一个巴克球。那么就让你有个概念，这些巴克球到底有多小，多薄，那些碳纳米管的确非常非常薄。这种尺度量级差不多就是我们所说的纳米技术，目前是个让人激动的领域。

We made wires, we made conducting wires that are really really tiny, okay, much tinier than the wires now you had in your computers. And if we can make these wires and put them into computers and we might have a super computer in your pocket, or your wrist watch. You imagine that. Immense computing power, in fact, if you lucky you can put this, everything that we know in your wrist watch. And you just stick in your head, and maybe one day, you will haven’t need to go to school, because everything that’s known is in there. All you have to do is plug it in, and you are smart as anybody else. That’s one possibility.

我们制造导线，我们造非常非常细的导线，比你现在电脑里用的导线要细的多。如果我们可以造出来这种导线，把它们放进电脑，我们就可能造一个超级电脑，装在你口袋里或者手表里。想想看吧。计算机的本领有多强大，事实上，如果你够幸运你可以把这个，把所有我们知道的东西装进你的手表。或者只要塞进你的脑袋，也许有一天，你根本不用去上学，因为所有已知的东西都在脑子里了。你所要做的只是简单的一插，你就像其他所有人一样聪明了。那是一种可能。

And one thing that we got, just get to show you, that we made shock absorbers. The tiny-tiny little springs, that move up and down, okay. So that’s again, we can now make out of atoms or molecules, we can make objects that are very similar to the objects that we have made by engineering. Here is a bundle, okay, it’s only 100, to achieve those fantastic possibilities that I’ve been just talking about, we got to make a bundle of a thousand million million tubes, that’s 10 to the 15th. That’s 10 multiplied by 10, no 15 times. Okay. So that’s a bit of difficulty.

还有个东西，给你看一下这个，我们制造了震动吸收器。这种非常极其细小的弹簧，可以上下运动。再一次，我们可以从原子或分子制造东西，我们可以造出和现在的机械中类似的东西。这里有一束碳纳米管，只有100个，要实现我们刚才说的绝妙的可能性，我们需要一千万亿一捆的碳纳米管，就是10的15次访，那就是10个，不是，15个10连乘。那么，那就有些困难了。

Now you may think that my favorite molecule is this C60 molecule, well it’s not. Okay. My favorite molecule, is this one. It’s made of Oxygen, Nitrogen, Carbon and Hydrogen, okay. If I make a space-filling molecular model of it, it looks like a dog. Okay. It’s my dog. It’s got Carbon, Nitrogen. I like this. Okay. And that got blue head, and red nose, coz it has been drinking. Okay. And I can show that this molecule is actually shaking its head like this, okay, like a dog looking at its tail. Not only that, when you look at it a bit more details, you can do this by studying these things by research in chemistry. You can see that tail and actually the legs was around like this. And you know if you are a dog has been drinking too much, and nose on the top. You know the average dog has a problem, and the problem is it has been drinking too much something you will know about it for sure. And if your dog, the best thing on the block is a lamp post, right? That’s what we do. So in fact if you are a dog, it really require joy have a lamp post. So that’s say that’s my favorite molecule. 

你也学会认为我最喜欢的分子是这个碳60分子，事实上不是的。我最喜欢的分子是这一个。它由氧、氮、碳和氢构成。如果给它做一个分子空间填充模型，那看起来就像一只狗。那时我的狗。它有碳和氮。我喜欢这个。它又一个蓝脑袋和红鼻子，因为它一直在喝酒。我可以让你看看，这个分子事实上总是像这样摇头晃脑，okay，就像一只狗看着自己的尾巴。不仅如此，当你从更仔细的观察它时，你可以通过化学研究来了解它。你可以看到它的尾巴和腿在周围就像这样。你知道如果你是一只喝多了的狗，鼻子朝上。你知道通常狗会有一些毛病，它的毛病就是喝太多了，一些你肯定知道的事情。如果是你的狗，最需要的是一个电线杆，对吧？那就是我们做的事情。因此，事实上如果你是一只狗，有一个电线杆是件很让人开心的事情。那么，这个就是我最喜欢的分子。

But finally, I’m going to finish off with hemoglobin because this molecule is fantastic. Okay. hemoglobin is a molecule that’s in your body. Okay. It’s the molecule that catch the oxygen in your lungs, it catches it, then it transports it to where is needed. So here it is the fantastic molecule and it changes its shape. As oxygen goes on, it changes its shape to grab onto it more tightly. But, what happens is that it mustn’t grab onto so tightly that won’t release it where is needed, to actually convert the food you eat into energy. You got to get a molecule which hangs onto it in the lung where there is not much of it, （校对注：这里可能是口误，他的意思实际上应该是：在肺里氧气分子的量很充足）and then where it’s needed it can release it so that you can ran around or speak or sing or whatever, and play football and whatever. So this is a wonderful molecule. This is a molecule that has been invented by life, millions of millions of years ago. And that molecule is the best molecule to explain what nanotechnology is all about. It’s a molecule does things. It’s a molecular machine. And its structure, its action, the way it worked was discovered over fifty years ago. So with that, see you. 

最后，我想用血红蛋白作为结束，因为这种分子是在太棒了。血红蛋白是一种存在于你的身体中的分子。这种分子能在你的肺部捕获氧气分子，它捉住氧分子，把它运输到需要的地方。这儿，就是这个绝佳的分子，它会改变自己的形状。当氧气过来的时候，它改变自己的形状以紧紧地抓住氧气。但是，问题是它又不能抓的太牢，不能在需要氧气的地方放不下来，从而将你吃的食物转化成能量。它在肺里把氧气抓住，肺里氧气分子很充足，然后到需要的地方，它就会把氧气释放开来，然后你就可以到处跑，可以说话、唱歌，等等，或者可以踢球，诸如此类。因此这种分子棒极了。这种分子是生命本身，在亿万年前创造的。而这个分子，是解释什么是纳米科技的最合适的分子。它是一个有一定功能的分子。它是个分子机械。人们50年前才发现它的结构、它的行为以及它如何工作。那么，就这样。再见。