万物简史 第278期:砰!(13)

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　　The amount of iridium in the Alvarez sample was more than three hundred times normal levels—far beyond anything they might have predicted. 阿尔瓦雷斯的样品里铱的数量竟然超过通常水准300多倍──远远在大家的预料之外。

　　Over the following months Asaro and his colleague Helen Michel worked up to thirty hours at a stretch 在此后的几个月里，阿萨罗和他的同事海伦·米歇尔经常一口气工作达30小时

　　("Once you started you couldn't stop," Asaro explained) analyzing¹ samples, always with the same results.  （“一旦开始，你就停不下来。”阿萨罗解释说），分析样品，总是得出同样的结果。

　　Tests on other samples—from Denmark, Spain, France, New Zealand, Antarctica, 他们还测试了来自别的地方──来自丹麦的、西班牙的、法国的、新西兰的、南极洲的──样品。

　　showed that the iridium deposit was worldwide and greatly elevated everywhere, sometimes by as much as five hundred times normal levels. 结果表明，铱的沉积是世界性的，数量到处都很大，有时候多达通常水准的500倍。

　　Clearly something big and abrupt², and probably cataclysmic, had produced this arresting spike³. 显然，突然发生过什么大事，很可能是灾难性的事，才产生了这样令人瞩目的示踪同位素。

　　After much thought, the Alvarezes concluded that the most plausible⁴ explanation, 经过反复思考以后，阿尔瓦雷斯父子得出结论，最说得通的解释，

　　plausible to them, at any rate—was that the Earth had been struck by an asteroid⁵ or comet. 反正在他们看来是说得通的，是一颗小行星或彗星撞击了地球。

　　The idea that the Earth might be subjected to devastating⁶ impacts from time to time was not quite as new as it is now sometimes presented. 地球有时会遭到破坏性极大的撞击，这种看法并不像现在有时候会觉得的那么新鲜。

　　As far back as 1942, a Northwestern University astrophysicist named Ralph B. Baldwin  早在1942年，西北大学的天文学家拉尔夫·B·鲍德温

　　had suggested such a possibility in an article in Popular Astronomy magazine. 已经在《通俗天文学》杂志上的一篇文章里提出了这种可能性。

　　(He published the article there because no academic publisher was prepared to run it.) （他的文章之所以发表在这本杂志上，是因为没有哪个学术出版社愿意经营这类杂志。）

　　And at least two well-known scientists, the astronomer⁷ Ernst Opik and the chemist and Nobel laureate Harold Urey, 至少有两名科学家──天文学家恩斯特·奥皮克和化学家、诺贝尔奖获得者哈罗德·尤里，

　　had also voiced support for the notion at various times. 也在不同的时刻对这种见解表示支持。

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