走进剑桥大学 第19期:卡文迪什实验室的风水

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卡文迪什实验室的风水

Since its foundation, the Laboratory has had great fortune in appointing Cavendish professors who, between them, have changed completely our understanding of the physical world.

自成立以来卡文迪什实验室在指派卡文迪什教授（指的是上文的实验物理学教授，即实验室或物理系主任，译者注）方面取得了极大的收获。杰出的卡文迪什教授们彻底改变了我们对物理世界的看法。

In 1871，James Clerk Maxwell was elected as the first professor at the Cavendish, but the laboratory itself was not finally completed until 1874. Whilst he was at the Cavendish he did not add greatly to his original contributions. However, he established a laboratory where students were taught that property conducted experiments constituted the only true basis of physics, and he began the research school whose standards or experiments and theoretical work played a vital role in the birth of modem¹ physics.

1871年，詹姆斯克拉克麦克斯韦当选第一任卡文迪什教授，但是卡文迪什实验室直到1874年才完全建好。虽然身处设备一流的卡文迪什实验室，麦克斯韦并没有为自己的研究锦上添花。但是，他“创立” 了一个实验室，在那里学生们被告知，准确执行的实验才是组建物理学基础的唯一方法。麦克斯韦还创立了一个研究学派，该学派的操作规范或实验、理论工作在现代物理学诞生中起到了至关重要的作用。

Max weirs² successor, Lord Rayleigh, was appointed in 1879，and continued work on electrical standards initiated³ by Maxwell as well as carrying out research into a very wide range of subjects from telescopes to sound waves. By the time Rayleigh had left, the Cavendish was well established as a leading research laboratory.

麦克斯韦的继任者——瑀利勋爵于1879年上任。他继续致力于研究麦克斯韦提出的电学标准，同时还把研究范围扩大，从望远镜到声波，包罗万象。当瑞利卸任时，卡文迪什实验室己经是研究工作实验室的领头羊了。

Under its new head, J. J. Thomson, it grew into an outstanding institution in which many of the world’s greatest physicists⁴ were either to be trained or in which they were able to conduct their researches. Thomson himself, though no great experimenter, was able, with primitive⁵ and simple equipment, to unravel⁶ many of the secrets of the atom. He discovered the electron, and this discovery was the first step in the development of modem atomic theory.

在新领导J. J.汤姆生的领导下，卡文迪什实验室己经发展成了一个杰出的机构，世界上顶尖的物理学家要么在这里接受培训，要么在这里进行研究。虽然汤姆生本身不是一个杰出的实验员，他却能用简陋的 的设备发现原子能的许多秘密。汤姆生还发现了电子，这一发现是现代原子理论发展的第一步。

One of the scientists who was attracted by the reputation of the Cavendish was the young New Zealander, Ernest Rutherford. He succeeded Thomson as professor of physics in 1918. Many of his famous experiments which helped explain the nature of radioactivity and the structure of the atom were conducted with apparatus⁷ of astonishing simplicity⁸, in keeping with the traditions of the laboratory.

很多科学家被卡文迪什实验室的声望所吸引，年轻的新西兰学者欧内斯特卢瑟福就是其中之一。1918年，他成为继汤姆生之后的实验物理学教授。他的许多有助于解释放射能本质和原子结构的著名实验都是用极为简单的设备完成的，和卡文迪什实验室的传统保持了一致。

The list of Nobel Prize winners who passed through the Cavendish in the time of Thomson and Rutherford is imposing⁹, the 50 years of their combined tenures marking a period in which the laboratory played a central role in the development of nuclear science.

在汤姆生和卢瑟福领导时期，获得诺贝尔奖的卡文迪什实验室的科学家名单数量惊人。汤姆生和卢瑟福在任的50年里，卡文迪什实验室始终在世界核科学的发展中占据核心地位。

The next phase of development is the reconstruction¹⁰ of the Laboratory to meet the challenges of the 21st century. The major redevelopment program continues the tradition of innovation and originality¹¹ that has been at the heart of the Laboratory’s program since its foundation.

卡文迪什实验室的下一个发展时期则是重组、改造以适应21世纪挑战的时期。主要的改造项目延续了创新和原创的传统，自成立以来，这一直是卡文迪什实验室项目的核心本质。

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