第4章 万物的尺度 The Measure of Things · 第8讲

1. 讲稿里说 Cavendish 做的实验“a century ahead of their time”，这到底是啥意思？是说他的实验太超前了，还是说时间穿越了？
2. 老师，文中提到 Cavendish 经常暗示自己做过实验但不直说，让同行“抓狂”（exasperation），他为什么要搞得这么神秘，不像牛顿那样直接发表成果呢？
3. 这里用了“foreshadowed”这个词来描述 Cavendish 预见了后来的科学发现，它和之前讲过的“anticipate”有啥区别？是不是都表示“预见”？
4. 讲稿里提到“noble gases”（惰性气体），这里的 noble 不是“高贵”的意思，而是指“惰性”，为啥要用 noble 这个词来形容这些气体？
5. Cavendish 这么厉害，预见并发现了那么多定律（比如欧姆定律、能量守恒），但为什么大部分功劳在当时都被别人拿走了，直到19世纪才被重新发现？

1. What does it mean when the text says Cavendish's experiments were 'a century ahead of their time'? Is it just a metaphor for being very advanced?
2. Why did Cavendish keep his experimental results secret and only allude to them indirectly, causing his fellow scientists to feel 'exasperated'?
3. How is the word 'foreshadowed' different from 'anticipated' in the context of Cavendish predicting future scientific discoveries?
4. Why is the term 'noble gases' used to describe inert gases, and what does 'noble' mean in this specific scientific context?
5. Given that Cavendish discovered or anticipated so many important laws, why were most of his achievements ignored or attributed to others until the late 19th century?

1 00:00:08,380 --> 00:00:08,940 Hello 2 00:00:11,530 --> 00:00:12,090 everyone, 3 00:00:12,430 --> 00:00:15,610 now we have finally come to the last session of chapter 4 00:00:15,610 --> 00:00:16,170 4, 5 00:00:16,870 --> 00:00:19,810 and we will continue to learn about Cavendish's last 6 00:00:19,810 --> 00:00:20,950 signal achievement, 7 00:00:21,410 --> 00:00:24,050 the calculation of gravitational constant. 8 00:00:24,430 --> 00:00:25,350 Here we go. 9 00:00:26,960 --> 00:00:28,480 In the course of a long life, 10 00:00:28,740 --> 00:00:31,120 Cavendish made a string of signal discoveries. 11 00:00:31,880 --> 00:00:32,800 Among much else, 12 00:00:32,900 --> 00:00:35,260 he was the first person to isolate hydrogen, 13 00:00:35,260 --> 00:00:39,160 and the first to combine hydrogen and oxygen to form 14 00:00:39,160 --> 00:00:39,520 water, 15 00:00:39,740 --> 00:00:43,120 but almost nothing he did was entirely divorced from 16 00:00:43,120 --> 00:00:44,080 strangeness. 17 00:00:44,740 --> 00:00:49,860 String 本意是细绳子,a string of means a series of, 18 00:00:49,900 --> 00:00:50,780 一系列的, 19 00:00:50,860 --> 00:00:54,020 signal discovery means important discovery, 20 00:00:54,420 --> 00:00:56,460 signal means important or extraordinary, 21 00:00:56,860 --> 00:00:58,580 you can say signal achievement, 22 00:00:59,060 --> 00:01:01,540 signal success or signal failure. 23 00:01:02,430 --> 00:01:06,170 but almost nothing he did was entirely divorced from 24 00:01:06,170 --> 00:01:08,210 strangenessdiv orce, 25 00:01:08,330 --> 00:01:12,010 probably you have learned this word 可能以前有学员学 26 00:01:12,010 --> 00:01:14,050 过,意思是离婚在这里呢, 27 00:01:14,070 --> 00:01:17,890 跟离婚的意思还是有一点关联的意思就是 separate 28 00:01:18,660 --> 00:01:24,760 他所做的事情里面几乎没有哪一项能够完全跟怪异分 29 00:01:24,760 --> 00:01:28,860 开这是字面的意思那其实就是说, 30 00:01:28,880 --> 00:01:33,460 他所做的事情或多或少都有点怪异好了, 31 00:01:34,110 --> 00:01:38,330 现在我们再把破折号里的这个部分放进来这个是插入 32 00:01:38,330 --> 00:01:39,810 语 Among my gels, 33 00:01:40,070 --> 00:01:43,690 he was the first person to isolate hydrogen Among my 34 00:01:43,690 --> 00:01:46,010 gels 指的是在他的各项成就, 35 00:01:46,110 --> 00:01:47,110 各项发现, 36 00:01:47,170 --> 00:01:53,810 各项的重大发现之中他是第一个把氢给单独分离出来 37 00:01:53,810 --> 00:01:57,480 的人 isolate means separate, 38 00:01:58,260 --> 00:01:59,720 单独的把它分离出来。 39 00:02:00,260 --> 00:02:03,280 这个词你们在其他地方可能也会见到, 40 00:02:03,360 --> 00:02:06,240 意思就是孤立,隔开的意思。 41 00:02:06,920 --> 00:02:10,160 And the first to combine hydrogen and oxygen to form 42 00:02:10,160 --> 00:02:14,600 water,他也是把氢和氧合在一起, 43 00:02:14,740 --> 00:02:16,320 形成水的第一人。 44 00:02:18,050 --> 00:02:20,950 To the continuing ex asperation of his fellow 45 00:02:20,950 --> 00:02:24,910 scientists,he often alluded in published work to the 46 00:02:24,910 --> 00:02:28,030 results of contingent experiments that he had not told 47 00:02:28,030 --> 00:02:30,050 anyone aboutex 48 00:02:30,270 --> 00:02:35,050 asperation 的动词是 ex asperate to ex asperate means 49 00:02:35,050 --> 00:02:37,690 to make someone very angry or impatient, 50 00:02:38,210 --> 00:02:42,470 to annoy someone 这个 ex asperation 就很像中文里边说 51 00:02:42,470 --> 00:02:43,150 的抓狂 52 00:02:43,340 --> 00:02:49,260 fellow scientists 指的是科学界的同人同僚 fellow 53 00:02:49,260 --> 00:02:54,060 students 是同学 Fellow workers 同事让 54 00:02:54,420 --> 00:03:01,100 他的科学界同仁感到十分抓狂的是 He often alluded in 55 00:03:01,100 --> 00:03:05,640 published work Published work means books or papers 可 56 00:03:05,640 --> 00:03:10,900 能发表的文章或者出版的著作经常在这里面 alluded 57 00:03:10,900 --> 00:03:14,400 to something Allude means to mention something 58 00:03:14,400 --> 00:03:19,220 indirectly 暗示不是直接的讲出来的 To 59 00:03:19,250 --> 00:03:22,670 the results of contingent experimentcontingent 60 00:03:22,670 --> 00:03:23,530 means possible 61 00:03:24,600 --> 00:03:29,600 所以让科学家们感到抓狂的是他经常在自己发表的文 62 00:03:29,600 --> 00:03:34,840 章里面间接地提到在里面暗示说他有一些其他的实验 63 00:03:34,840 --> 00:03:39,860 结果都没有跟别人说过但是他又不直说所以就让人十 64 00:03:39,860 --> 00:03:43,480 分抓狂了因为大家都想知道他到底做了哪些事 65 00:03:46,440 --> 00:03:47,960 In his secretiveness, 66 00:03:48,120 --> 00:03:50,940 he didn't merely resemble Newton but actively 67 00:03:50,940 --> 00:03:52,360 exceeded him. 68 00:03:53,140 --> 00:03:57,100 Secretive A secretive person likes to keep their 69 00:03:57,100 --> 00:03:59,720 thoughts or actions hidden from others. 70 00:04:00,240 --> 00:04:02,980 指的是那种做事非常秘密, 71 00:04:03,040 --> 00:04:05,640 喜欢一个人秘密地做,不跟别人交流的, 72 00:04:05,680 --> 00:04:08,080 秘而不宣的这样的个性。 73 00:04:08,280 --> 00:04:12,640 在这一点上,he did not merely resemble Newton. 74 00:04:12,880 --> 00:04:16,600 Resemble means to look like or to be similar to someone 75 00:04:16,600 --> 00:04:20,000 or something.他不仅只是跟牛顿有点像而已, 76 00:04:20,460 --> 00:04:25,780 而是呢,actively exceeded him to exceed means to go 77 00:04:25,780 --> 00:04:28,560 beyond,to surpass 而且呢, 78 00:04:28,600 --> 00:04:31,120 是远远地超过他比 79 00:04:32,440 --> 00:04:36,620 牛顿是有过之而无不及 his experiments with 80 00:04:36,620 --> 00:04:40,260 electrical conductivitywere a century ahead of their 81 00:04:40,260 --> 00:04:44,220 time but unfortunately remained undiscovereduntil 82 00:04:44,220 --> 00:04:47,990 that century had passedconductivity, 83 00:04:48,210 --> 00:04:50,010 我们先看他的动词 conduct 84 00:04:50,790 --> 00:04:53,750 If something conducts electricity or heat, 85 00:04:53,970 --> 00:04:57,810 it allows electricity or heat to travel alone or 86 00:04:57,810 --> 00:04:58,390 through it. 87 00:04:58,990 --> 00:05:01,910 这个词在物理上是传导的意思, 88 00:05:02,110 --> 00:05:04,590 可以指电或者热的传导。 89 00:05:04,690 --> 00:05:06,650 那这里指的是导电性能。 90 00:05:06,970 --> 00:05:10,730 那他所做的关于导电性的实验, 91 00:05:10,870 --> 00:05:13,370 were a century ahead of their time, 92 00:05:13,510 --> 00:05:15,090 超前了一个世纪。 93 00:05:15,090 --> 00:05:19,650 但是呢遗憾的是直到他所在的那个世纪都已经过去了 94 00:05:19,650 --> 00:05:22,650 他所做的实验还不被人所知 95 00:05:23,900 --> 00:05:28,940 这的确跟牛顿有点像牛顿也是经常做的一些什么有了 96 0 ……（后略，完整文稿见视频页字幕）