As you heard, I'm a physicist. And I think the way we talk about physics needs a little modification. I am from just down the road here; I don't live here anymore. But coming from round here means that I have a northern nana, my mum's mom. And Nana is very bright; she hasn't had much formal education, but she's sharp. And when I was a second-year undergraduate studying physics at Cambridge, I remember spending an afternoon at Nana's house in Urmston studying quantum mechanics. And I had these folders open in front of me with this, you know, hieroglyphics -- let's be honest. And Nana came along, and she looked at this folder, and she said, "What's that?" I said, "It's quantum mechanics, Nana." And I tried to explain something about what was on the page. It was to do with the nucleus and Einstein A and B coefficients. And Nana looked very impressed. And then she said, "Oh. What can you do when you know that?"
如各位所聽說的,我是個物理學家。 我想,我們談論物理的方式 需要做些細微的修正。 我以前就住在這附近, 不過現在不住這裡了。 來自這附近就意味著, 我有個來自北部地區外婆, 我母親的母親。 外婆很聰明,沒受過多少正規教育, 但很精明。 當我還是劍橋物理系 大二學生的時候, 記得有一天,我整個下午 都在外婆位於厄姆斯頓的房子裡, 研讀量子力學。 我面前有一些打開了的資料夾, 內容……你知道的, 說真的,根本就是象形文字。 外婆走了過來,看著資料夾, 然後她說:「那是什麼?」 我說:「那是量子力學,外婆。」 然後我試著解釋頁面上的內容, 內容關於原子核 和愛因斯坦 A、B 係數。 外婆看起來非常佩服。 接著,她說:「喔。 你知道了那些之後能用來幹嘛?」
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
"Don't know, ma'am."
「我不知道耶,外婆。」
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
I think I said something about computers, because it was all I could think of at the time.
我想我說了一些關於電腦的東西, 因為那是我當下唯一能想到的。
But you can broaden that question out, because it's a very good question -- "What can you do when you know that?" when "that" is physics? And I've come to realize that when we talk about physics in society and our sort of image of it, we don't include the things that we can do when we know that. Our perception of what physics is needs a bit of a shift. Not only does it need a bit of a shift, but sharing this different perspective matters for our society, and I'm not just saying that because I'm a physicist and I'm biased and I think we're the most important people in the world. Honest.
但你可以擴大那個問題, 因為它是個非常好的問題: 「你知道了那些之後能用來幹嘛?」 「那些」指的是物理。 然後我意識到, 當我們社會談到物理 和我們對它的印象時, 並不包含我們了解物理後能做的事。 我們對於物理的認識需要一點轉變; 不只是需要一點轉變, 而且分享這個不同的觀點 對我們的社會很重要。 會這麼說,並非因為 我是物理學家或是偏心, 也不因為自認我們學物理的 是世界上最重要的人。 真的。 所以老實說,物理有些形象問題,
So, the image of physics -- we've got an image problem, let's be honest -- it hasn't moved on much from this. This is a very famous photograph that's from the Solvay Conference in 1927. This is when the great minds of physics were grappling with the nature of determinism and what it means only to have a probability that a particle might be somewhere, and whether any of it was real. And it was all very difficult. And you'll notice they're all very stern-looking men in suits. Marie Curie -- I keep maybe saying, "Marie Antoinette," which would be a turn-up for the books -- Marie Curie, third from the left on the bottom there, she was allowed in, but had to dress like everybody else.
一直以來它的形象差不多就這樣。 這張很有名的照片 來自 1927 年的索爾維會議。 當時頂尖的物理學家 在探討決定論的本質, 只知道某粒子位於某處的機率 (註:不知道它的確切位置) 到底是什麼意思, 也不知道這說法的真假, 全都非常困難。 你們會注意到全都是 外貌嚴肅、身著西裝的男子。 瑪麗居禮──差點說成「瑪麗安東妮」 (註:上斷頭台的法國皇后) ──將成為物理書籍的轉折點。 瑪麗居禮,下排左起第三位, 她被允許加入, 但必須穿得和其他人一樣。
(笑聲)
(Laughter)
物理就像這個樣子, 總有各式各樣的象形文字。
So, this is what physics is like -- there's all these kinds of hieroglyphics, these are to do with waves and particles. That is an artist's impression of two black holes colliding, which makes it look worth watching, to be honest. I'm glad I didn't have to write the risk assessment for whatever was going on there. The point is: this is the image of physics, right? It's weird and difficult, done by slightly strange people dressed in a slightly strange way. It's inaccessible, it's somewhere else and fundamentally, why should I care?
圖上這些和波長、粒子有關。 那圖是藝術家對 兩個黑洞互撞的印象, 這讓它很值得一看,說真的。 很高興我無須為那裡發生的事 寫風險評估報告。 重點是,這就是物理形象: 既怪又難; 從事的人有點古怪,衣著稍奇特; 它很遙遠,難以接近; 最根本的是,我為什麽要在乎它?
And the problem with that is that I'm a physicist, and I study this. This -- this is my job, right? I study the interface between the atmosphere and the ocean. The atmosphere is massive, the ocean is massive, and the thin layer that joins them together is really important, because that's where things go from one huge reservoir to the other. You can see that the sea surface -- that was me who took this video -- the average height of those waves by the way, was 10 meters. So this is definitely physics happening here -- there's lots of things -- this is definitely physics. And yet it's not included in our cultural perception of physics, and that bothers me.
問題是, 我是個物理學家, 我研究物理, 這是我的工作。 我研究大氣和海洋之間的界面。 大氣很巨大,海洋很巨大, 把它們結合在一起的那薄薄一層 非常重要, 因為東西經過它 從一個大儲存器到另一個。 你們可以看到海面 ──我拍了這影片── 順道一提,那些波浪的 平均高度是 10 公尺。 這裡發生的肯定是物理, 很多東西,肯定都是物理。 然而這些沒被包含在 我們對物理的文化認知中, 這讓我很困擾。
So what is included in our cultural perception of physics? Because I'm a physicist, there has to be a graph, right? That's allowed. We've got time along the bottom here, from very fast things there, to things that take a long time over here. Small things at the bottom, big things up there. So, our current cultural image of physics looks like this. There's quantum mechanics down in that corner, it's very small, it's very weird, it happens very quickly, and it's a long way down in the general ... on the scale of anything that matters for everyday life. And then there's cosmology, which is up there; very large, very far away, also very weird. And if you go to some places like black holes in the beginning of the universe, we know that these are frontiers in physics, right? There's lots of work being done to discover new physics in these places.
我們對物理的文化認知包含了什麼? 因為我是物理學家, 我一定得要有張圖,對嗎? 那是被容許的。 下面的橫軸是時間, 這邊是非常快速移動的事物, 那邊是要花較長時間的。 下面的是小東西,上面是大的。 我們目前文化印象中的物理像這樣。 量子力學在下方那個角落, 它很小、很怪異, 發生得很快, 整體來說,它在非常下面, 相較於日常生活重要事件的 時間尺度,它差得很遠。 而宇宙論則是在高高在上面那裡, 非常大、非常遙遠, 也非常怪異。 若追溯到宇宙初始的黑洞之類地方, 那麼二者(量子力學和宇宙論) 會在後面連到一塊兒, 而我們知道它們是物理學的邊陲, 正進行著許多物理新領域的研究。
But the thing is, you will notice there's a very large gap in the middle. And in that gap, there are many things. There are planets and toasts and volcanoes and clouds and clarinets and bubbles and dolphins and all sorts of things that make up our everyday life. And these are also run by physics, you'd be surprised -- there is physics in the middle, it's just that nobody talks about it. And the thing about all of these is that they all run on a relatively small number of physical laws, things like Newton's laws of motion, thermodynamics, some rotational dynamics. The physics in the middle applies over a huge range, from very, very small things to very, very big things. You have to try very hard to get outside of this. And there is also a frontier in research physics here, it's just that nobody talks about it. This is the world of the complex. When these laws work together, they bring about the beautiful, messy, complex world we live in.
重點是,你會注意到 中間有很大的鴻溝。 在那鴻溝中,有許多東西。 有星球、吐司、火山、雲、 單簧管、泡泡、海豚, 以及構成我們日常生活的各種東西, 這些也都靠物理來運作。 你會驚訝中間有物理, 只是沒有人談論它。 這些的通性是 只依據相對少數的物理法則來運作, 比如牛頓運動定律、 熱力學、 轉動動力學。 中間區的物理應用的範圍很廣, 從非常、非常小的事物 到非常、非常大的。 你得要很努力才能超出這範圍。 這裡也有物理研究中 尚未完全開拓的疆界, 只是沒有人在談論它。 這是個複雜的世界。 這些法則一起運作, 帶來我們所居住的這個美麗、 混亂、複雜的世界。
Fundamentally, this is the bit that really matters to me on an everyday basis. And this is the bit that we don't talk about. There's plenty of physics research going on here. But because it doesn't involve pointing at stars, people for some reason think it's not that. Now, the cool thing about this is that there are so many things in this middle bit, all following the same physical laws, that we can see those laws at work almost all the time around us.
基本上,這是對我而言 每天都很重要的一點, 是我們不談論的那部份, 有許多的物理研究正在進行著。 但由於它不牽涉到某顆星星, 人們基於某些原因忽視它。 很酷的一點是 中間這部份有非常多的東西, 都遵循著同樣的物理法則, 在我們周遭幾乎隨時 都看得到那些法則。 我這裡有段影片。
I've got a little video here. So the game is, one of these eggs is raw and one of them has been boiled. I want you to tell me which one is which. Which one's raw?
遊戲中一顆是生蛋, 另一顆是煮熟的。 請各位告訴我,哪個是哪個。 哪個是生的?
(Audience responds)
(觀眾回應)
The one on the left -- yes! And even though you might not have tried that, you all knew. The reason for that is, you set them spinning, and when you stop the cooked egg, the one that's completely solid, you stop the entire egg. When you stop the other one, you only stop the shell; the liquid inside is still rotating because nothing's made it stop. And then it pushes the shell round again, so the egg starts to rotate again. This is brilliant, right? It's a demonstration of something in physics that we call the law of conservation of angular momentum, which basically says that if you set something spinning about a fixed axis, that it will keep spinning unless you do something to stop it. And that's really fundamental in how the universe works. And it's not just eggs that it applies to, although it's really useful if you're the sort of person -- and apparently, these people do exist -- who will boil eggs and then put them back in the fridge. Who does that? Don't admit to it -- it's OK. We won't judge you. But it's also got much broader applicabilities.
左邊的──對! 即使沒做過這實驗,你們也都知道。 理由是,轉動它們, 當你停下煮熟的蛋, 也就是內部完全凝固的蛋, 整個蛋會靜止。 當你停住另一顆蛋, 你只停住了蛋殼; 裡面的液體還在轉動, 因為沒東西讓它停下來, 它就會再推動蛋殼, 所以蛋又繼續轉。 這很聰明,對吧? 這是在展示物理中 我們稱之為「角動量守衡定律」。 基本上這定律是,如果你讓某物旋轉, 繞著一個固定軸旋轉, 除非你主動去阻止它, 不然它會一直轉下去。 對於宇宙的運作 , 這是非常基礎的法則。 它不只應用在雞蛋上面, 不過也的確挺有用, 如果你是那種人的話── 很顯然,那種人的確存在── 那種會把雞蛋煮熟了再放回冰箱的人。 誰會這樣做啊?不必承認── 沒關係。我們不會評斷你。 但它還有更廣的應用性。
This is the Hubble Space Telescope. The Hubble Ultra Deep Field, which is a very tiny part of the sky. Hubble has been floating in free space for 25 years, not touching anything. And yet it can point to a tiny region of sky. For 11 and a half days, it did it in sections, accurately enough to take amazing images like this. So the question is: How does something that is not touching anything know where it is? The answer is that right in the middle of it, it has something that, to my great disappointment, isn't a raw egg, but basically does the same job. It's got gyroscopes which are spinning, and because of the law of conservation of angular momentum, they keep spinning with the same axis, indefinitely. Hubble kind of rotates around them, and so it can orient itself. So the same little physical law we can play with in the kitchen and use, also explains what makes possible some of the most advanced technology of our time. So this is the fun bit of physics, that you learn these patterns and then you can apply them again and again and again. And it's really rewarding when you spot them in new places. This is the fun of physics.
這是「哈伯太空望遠鏡」。 「哈伯超深空」是太空中 非常微小的一部份。 哈伯已在自由空間中飄浮了 25 年, 沒有碰觸任何東西。 但它可以對準天空中的一個小區域。 花 11.5 天的時間, 分段做。 精準度足以拍出像這樣驚人的影像。 問題是:如何在完全不碰到 任何東西的情況下, 知道它在哪裡? 答案就在它中間有某樣東西, 很可惜那東西並不是生的雞蛋, 但基本上功能是一樣的。 它有不斷旋轉的陀螺儀, 因為角動量守衡定律的緣故, 它們會不斷繞著同一個軸旋轉, 永無止境。 而哈伯繞著它們轉,所以能自己定位。 我們在廚房裡使用的小小物理法則, 也能用來解釋 在我們這個時代最先進的某些技術。 這是物理好玩的部份, 你能學到這些形式, 而且你可以把它們重複使用。 當你在新地方發現它們時 會很有成就感。 這就是物理的樂趣。
I have shown that egg video to an audience full of businesspeople once and they were all dressed up very smartly and trying to impress their bosses. And I was running out of time, so I showed the egg video and then said, "Well, you can work it out, and ask me afterwards to check." Then I left the stage. And I had, literally, middle-aged grown men tugging on my sleeve afterwards, saying, "Is it this? Is it this?" And when I said, "Yes." They went, "Yes!"
我曾把那部雞蛋的影片 放給商業界的觀眾看, 他們都穿得很正式、得體, 想要讓老闆印象深刻。 當時快沒時間了, 所以播完雞蛋影片後,我說: 「你們能找出來, 之後再來跟我確認答案。」 然後我就離開講台了。 事後真的就有 中年成人男子拉著我的袖子,問: 「這個嗎?是嗎?」 當我說:「是啊!」 他們就說:「太好了!」
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
The joy that you get from spotting these patterns doesn't go away when you're an adult.
發現這些模式時得到的喜悅, 即使成年人也能得到。
And that's really important, because physics is all about patterns, and a small number of patterns give you access to almost all of the physics in our everyday world. The thing that's best about this is it involves playing with toys. Things like the egg shouldn't be dismissed as the mundane little things that we just give the kids to play with on a Saturday afternoon to keep them quiet. This is the stuff that actually really matters, because this is the laws of the universe and it applies to eggs and toast falling butter-side down and all sorts of other things, just as much as it applies to modern technology and anything else that's going on in the world. So I think we should play with these patterns.
這點非常重要, 因為物理的重點就是模式, 少量的模式就能讓你 探究日常生活中幾乎所有的物理。 最棒的一點就是,它也和玩玩具有關。 像雞蛋這樣的東西 不該被視為是平凡的小東西, 只在星期六下午給孩子們玩, 來讓他們安靜下來。 這其實是很有意義的東西, 因為這是宇宙的法則, 能應用在雞蛋上、 吐司總是塗奶油的那面落地和其他, 就像是它廣泛應用在現代科技上, 以及在世上正發生的其他事情上。 我認為我們應該玩玩這些模式。
Basically, there are a small number of concepts that you can become familiar with using things in your kitchen, that are really useful for life in the outside world. If you want to learn about thermodynamics, a duck is a good place to start, for example, why their feet don't get cold. Once you've got a bit of thermodynamics with the duck, you can also explain fridges. Magnets that you can play with in your kitchen get you to wind turbines and modern energy generation. Raisins in [fizzy] lemonade, which is always a good thing to play with. If you're at a boring party, fish some raisins out of the bar snacks, put them in some lemonade. It's got three consequences. First thing is, it's quite good to watch; try it. Secondly, it sends the boring people away. Thirdly, it brings the interesting people to you. You win on all fronts. And then there's spin and gas laws and viscosity. There's these little patterns, and they're right around us everywhere. And it's fundamentally democratic, right? Everybody has access to the same physics; you don't need a big, posh lab.
基本上,有少數的一些概念, 是用廚房的東西就可以認識的概念, 並且對生活在外面的世界很有用。 如果你想要學熱力學, 鴨子就是個很好的起點, 比如,為何牠們的腳不會變冷。 一旦你從鴨子理解了一點熱力學, 你也能夠用來解釋冰箱。 磁鐵也是你在廚房中可以玩的東西, 它能教你風力發電機 以及現代發電方法。 還有發泡檸檬水中的葡萄乾, 它向來是很好玩的。 若你處在無聊的派對中, 拿點吧台上的葡萄乾點心, 把它們丟到檸檬水中。 會有三項後果。 第一是很好看,去試試看。 第二是它能趕走無聊的人。 第三是它能吸引有趣的人 來到你身邊。 是全贏的局面。 還有旋轉、氣體方程式、黏性。 這些小模式在我們身邊處處可見。 它基本上是普羅大眾的。 每個人都能接觸到同樣的物理, 不需要大型、奢侈的實驗室。
When I wrote the book, I had the chapter on spin. I had written a bit about toast falling butter-side down. I gave the chapter to a friend of mine who's not a scientist, for him to read and tell me what he thought, and he took the chapter away. He was working overseas. I got this text message back from him a couple of weeks later, and it said, "I'm at breakfast in a posh hotel in Switzerland, and I really want to push toast off the table, because I don't believe what you wrote." And that was the good bit -- he doesn't have to. He can push the toast off the table and try it for himself.
當我寫這本書的時候, 有一章是關於旋轉的。 我寫到關於吐司總是 塗著奶油的那面落地。 我把這章拿給一位 不是科學家的朋友看, 請他讀完後告訴我他的想法, 他把那章拿走了。 他在海外工作。 幾週後,我收到了他的短信, 寫著:「我在瑞士 一間豪華飯店吃早餐, 我真的很想把吐司推下餐桌, 因為我不相信你所寫的。」 那是好事──他無須相信我。 他可以自己把吐司推下餐桌試試。
And so there's two important things to know about science: the fundamental laws we've learned through experience and experimentation, work. The day we drop an apple and it goes up, then we'll have a debate about gravity. Up to that point, we basically know how gravity works, and we can learn the framework. Then there's the process of experimentation: having confidence in things, trying things out, critical thinking -- how we move science forward -- and you can learn both of those things by playing with toys in the everyday world.
要知道兩件關於科學的重要事情: 我們透過經驗、實驗 所學來的基礎法則是有用的。 我們丟下蘋果而它會上向飛的那天, 我們就會辯論地心引力。 在那之前,我們基本上知道 地心引力是如何運作的, 我們可以學那架構。 接著是實驗的過程: 對事物有信心,去嘗試事物, 批判性思維,如何讓科學向前邁進, 兩者你都可以學到, 玩日常中的玩具即可。
And it's really important, because there's all this talk about technology, we've heard talks about quantum computing and all these mysterious, far-off things. But fundamentally, we still live in bodies that are about this size, we still walk about, sit on chairs that are about this size, we still live in the physical world. And being familiar with these concepts means we're not helpless. And I think it's really important that we're not helpless, that society feels it can look at things, because this isn't about knowing all the answers. It's about having the framework so you can ask the right questions. And by playing with these fundamental little things in everyday life, we gain the confidence to ask the right questions.
這點十分重要, 因為關於科技有很多的討論, 我們聽過量子運算, 還有各種神秘、遙遠的事物。 但根本上,我們還是活在 大約這麼大的身體當中, 我們還是會走來走去, 坐在這麼大的椅子上, 我們還是活在實體世界中。 了解這些概念, 意味著我們並非是無助的。 我認為非常重要的是我們並非無助, 社會能夠去看事物, 因為重點不在於知道所有的答案。 重點是要有架構, 讓你能問出正確的問題。 通過玩玩這些日常基本的小東西, 我們就能得到信心, 來問出正確的問題,
So, there's a bigger thing. In answer to Nana's question about what can you do when you know that -- because there's lots of stuff in the everyday world that you can do when you know that, especially if you've got eggs in the fridge -- there's a much deeper answer. And so there's all the fun and the curiosity that you could have playing with toys. By the way -- why should kids have all the fun, right? All of us can have fun playing with toys, and we shouldn't be embarrassed about it. You can blame me, it's fine.
──這就是大的。 回答先前我外婆的問題, 「知道了那些之後能用來幹嘛」, 因為在日常的世界中,有很多事 在你了解了那些之後都能做到, 特別是如果你家冰箱中有雞蛋的話。 還有一個更深層的答案。 從玩玩具,你能夠得到 各種樂趣和好奇心。 順便問:為何只有孩子能享受樂趣? 所有人都能享受玩玩具的樂趣, 我們不該為此感到不好意思。 你們可以怪在我頭上我,沒關係。
So when it comes to reasons for studying physics, for example, here is the best reason I can think of: I think that each of us has three life-support systems. We've got our own body, we've got a planet and we've got our civilization. Each of those is an independent life-support system, keeping us alive in its own way. And they all run on the fundamental physical laws that you can learn in the kitchen with eggs and teacups and lemonade, and everything else you can play with. This is the reason, for example, why something like climate change is such a serious problem, because It's two of these life-support systems, our planet and our civilization, kind of butting up against each other; they're in conflict, and we need to negotiate that boundary.
談到研究物理的理由為例, 我能想出的最佳理由是: 我認為每個人都有 三項生命維持系統: 自己的身體、 地球, 和文明。 各自是獨立的生命維持系統, 以自己的方式維持我們的生命, 都依循著基本物理法則在運作, 是你在廚房用雞蛋、茶杯、檸檬水, 以及所有其他能玩的東西 就可以學到的法則。 這就是為什麼 像氣候變遷之類的問題會如此嚴重, 因為它的兩種生命維持系統, 我們的地球和文明, 有點像是在彼此碰撞、互相衝突, 我們需要協調出界線。
And the fundamental physical laws that we can learn that are the way the world around us works, are the tools at the basis of everything; they're the foundation. There's lots of things to know about in life, but knowing the foundations is going to get you a long way. And I think this, if you're not interested in having fun with physics or anything like that -- strange, but apparently, these people exist -- you surely are interested in keeping yourself alive and in how our life-support systems work. The framework for physics is remarkably constant; it's the same in lots and lots of things that we measure. It's not going to change anytime soon. They might discover some new quantum mechanics, but apples right here are still going to fall down.
關於我們周遭世界的運作, 我們能學習的基本物理法則, 是最基本的工具,是基礎。 人生中有很多東西需要知道, 但了解基礎能讓你走得長遠。 我認為如果你沒有興趣 去快樂地學物理,諸如此類, ──很奇怪,但顯然這類人的確存在── 至少你會感興趣 要維持自己的生存, 以及我們的生命維持系統如何運作。 物理學的架構非常穩定, 在我們測量的許多東西當中都一樣, 近期內它不會改變。 他們可能會發現一些新的量子力學, 但這裡的蘋果還是會向下落。
So, the question is -- I get asked sometimes: How do you start? What's the place to start if you're interested in the physical world, in not being helpless, and in finding some toys to play with? Here is my suggestion to you: the place to start is that moment -- and adults do this -- you're drifting along somewhere, and you spot something and your brain goes, "Oh, that's weird." And then your consciousness goes, "You're an adult. Keep going." And that's the point -- hold that thought -- that bit where your brain went, "Oh, that's a bit odd," because there's something there to play with, and it's worth you playing with it, so that's the place to start.
所以,問題是── 我有時被問: 「要從何開始?從何處著手?」 如果你對物質世界有興趣, 不想要感到無助, 以及有興趣找新玩具來玩, 我給你的建議如下: 就從那一刻開始──成年人會這樣── 你在某處隨波逐流,注意到某樣東西, 你的大腦會說:「喔,那好奇怪。」 你的意識會說: 「你是成年人了,繼續前進。」 就是那個點──留住那個想法── 你的大腦說「喔,那有點怪異」的點, 因為那邊就有可以玩的東西, 且它值得你去玩玩看, 那就是要開始的地方。
But if you don't have any of those little moments on your way home from this event, here are some things to start with. Put raisins in [fizzy] lemonade; highly entertaining. Watch a coffee spill dry. I know that sounds a little bit like watching paint dry, but it does do quite weird things; it's worth watching. I'm an acquired taste at dinner parties if there are teacups around. There are so many things you can do to play with teacups, it's brilliant. The most obvious one is to get a teacup, get a spoon, tap the teacup around the rim and listen, and you will hear something strange. And the other thing is, push your toast off the table because you can, and you'll learn stuff from it. And if you're feeling really ambitious, try and push it off in such a way that it doesn't fall butter-side down, which is possible.
但如果你從家裡到這個活動的路上 都沒有這類的小時刻, 你還是可以從這些開始。 把葡萄乾放到發泡檸檬水中, 極有娛樂性。 看著濺出的咖啡乾涸。 我知道那聽起來 有點像是看著油漆乾涸, 但會發生很怪異的事,值得去看。 我漸漸開始喜歡上晚宴, 如果那兒有茶杯的話。 茶杯可以玩出好多花樣,它非常棒。 最明顯的一項是拿個茶杯, 拿支湯匙輕敲茶杯的邊緣,傾聽, 你會聽到奇怪的聲音。 另一樣是把你的吐司推下餐桌, 因為你能這麼做, 且你會從中學到東西。 如果你很有野心, 試著用塗奶油的那一面不朝下的 方式把吐司推下餐桌, 這是辦得到的。
The point of all of this is that, first of all, we should all play with toys. We shouldn't be afraid to investigate the physical world for ourselves with the tools around us, because we all have access to them. It matters, because if we want to understand society, if we want to be good citizens, we need to understand the framework on which everything else must be based.
這一切的重點是, 第一,我們都應該玩玩具。 我們不該害怕自己用身邊的工具 來研究物質世界, 因為我們都能取得這些工具。 這有意義;因為若我們想要了解社會, 若我們想要當個好公民, 我們得要了解一切基本的架構。
Playing with toys is great. Understanding how to keep our life-support systems going is great. But fundamentally, the thing that we need to change in the way that we talk about physics, is we need to understand that physics isn't out there with weird people and strange hieroglyphics for somebody else in a posh lab. Physics is right here; it's for us, and we can all play with it.
玩玩具很棒。 了解如何保持我們的 生命維持系統也很棒。 但基本上,我們需要 改變談論物理的方式, 我們必須要了解物理並非遙不可及, 並不是只有怪胎用著奇怪的象形文字 在豪華的實驗室中做的。 物理就在這裡,是大家的, 我們都能跟它玩。
Thank you very much.
非常謝謝。
(Applause)
(掌聲)