攝影師顯微鏡下揭開霧霾真面目

It has been two years since China Daily last interviewed 31-year-old Zhang Chao. The Beijing-based micrograph enthusiast still wears the same hair style, even the same coat.

中國日報兩年之前曾經採訪過31歲的攝影師張超。如今，這個北京顯微攝影的狂熱愛好者依然留着同樣的髮型，甚至穿着同樣的衣服。

But one thing is very different: He's become a celebrity in cyberspace almost overnight, after his pictures, which depict what the rampant smog in Beijing looks like under his microscope, spread like a virus on China's major micro-blogging site Sina Weibo, since he posted them last Friday. Now the media is hounding him for interviews.

但有一件事和以前有了很大的不同。自從他在3月25日把拍攝到的顯微鏡下的北京霧霾照片發到網上後，這些照片就在新浪微博上瘋傳。他也在一夜之間成爲了網絡名人。現在，許多媒體在追着他進行訪問。

"Why do I become famous when I took pictures of the smog?" he asks with a wry smile. "I have taken numerous pictures of beautiful nature whenever I have spare time, but there are no more than 10 interview requests for me every year before. Now, I have to answer dozens of phone calls from media every day.

“爲什麼我拍了霧霾照片就變得有名了？”他笑着問道。“之前我一有空閒時間就去拍攝美麗的自然風景，已經拍了許多張照片，但每年接到的採訪不足10次。現在，我每天都得回覆數十次媒體的電話。”

"But I only gained 2,000 more followers over the weekend. I guess the micro blog is not as popular as before," he says, jokingly.

“不過整個週末，我的粉絲只增加了2000多人，看來微博不如之前流行了。”他開玩笑地說。

On Monday morning, a camera crew from a TV station based in southern Hunan province even took a flight to Beijing just to record how Zhang takes pictures of the Beijing's most-talked about feature: the floating enemies in the air.

在4月1日，湖南省南部的一家電視臺甚至派了一位攝影師，專程飛到北京拍攝他如何對這些漂浮在空氣中的健康敵人，北京常被提及的特徵——霧霾進行拍照。

The process is not complicated: He puts microscope slides on his windowsill and collects the samples covered by fallen dust after 10 hours.

整個過程並不複雜。他把顯微鏡載片放在他的窗臺上，收集10個小時後的落灰樣品。

Zhang's apartment is on the eighth floor, which he says is perfect for capturing the densest levels of smog.

張超的房子在8層，他認爲在這個位置可以很好地收集到最嚴重的霧霾樣品。

As a Beijing native, Zhang explains his original purpose is to "deconstruct" Beijing's smog and unveil its shroud of mystery.

作爲一個北京人，張超說他的初衷是“解構”霧霾並揭開霧霾的神祕面紗。

"People have higher and higher standards for the environment," he says. "When I was a child, I was annoyed by the frequent sandstorms, so I feel Beijing's air seems much better now all in all because there are hardly any sandstorms in recent years. Now, we've noticed PM2.5, which has long been neglected."

張超說：“人們對環境標準的要求越來越高了。在我小的時候，最煩的是經常出現的沙塵暴。現在北京的空氣質量看起來好了很多，因爲沙塵暴在近幾年很少出現了。如今，我們又開始關注被長期忽略的PM2.5。”

Although he graduated as a science major from Beijing Normal University, Zhang says it is difficult for him to give an exact definition of what smog is in Beijing. "It's too complicated, and its ingredients keep changing."

雖然張超畢業於北京師範大學科學類專業，但他也很難解釋清楚北京霧霾到底包含什麼成分。他說：“霧霾成分太複雜了，而且一直處於變化之中。”

Under his scope, which magnifies the sample 1,000 times, the smog is found to contain minerals, fragments of animal fur and insects, seeds and burnt dust. But many are compounds, he says, which are more difficult to identify.

在他的顯微鏡下，霧霾顆粒樣本放大了1000倍，可以看到霧霾中包含了礦物質、動物皮毛和昆蟲的碎片、種子和燃燒後的粉塵等物質。但張超指出，還有很多是複合物，很難辨別是什麼物質。

"I wanted to know if there are many pollen grains in the early spring's smog, and my guess turns out to be right," Zhang says, noting there are on average 10 pollen grains found on each slide.

張超說：“我想知道在早春的霧霾中是不是有花粉顆粒，我的猜測應驗了。平均每個載片上有10個花粉顆粒。”

"Though the number is low compared with other ingredients of smog, it may partially explain why smog makes us feel uncomfortable because many people are allergic to pollen."

“雖然與霧霾中的其他成分相比，花粉所佔比例較低，但這也部分地解釋了爲什麼霧霾讓我們感覺不舒服，因爲很多人對花粉過敏。”

Zhang realizes that he may have disappointed the public because he can't show the inner construction of PM2.5, today's most notorious element in smog. It is beyond the capacity of his microscope and camera to explore such tiny grains.

張超意識到他可能會讓公衆失望，因爲他沒能展示出PM2.5的內部結構。PM2.5纔是霧霾成分中最臭名昭著的。但由於PM2.5顆粒過小，他的顯微鏡和相機無法顯示和拍照。

Working as a freelancer and editor for an astronomy magazine affiliated with the National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, his regular job is to stare at the starry firmament and write popular-science articles. However, he is proud to have stirred equal interest by observing the micro world.

張超是自由職業者和《中國國家天文》雜誌編輯。這家雜誌由中國科學院國家天文臺主辦。他的日常工作就是盯着天空，然後寫一些科普文章。不過，他對微觀世界也有着同樣的興趣。

"You cannot imagine how splendid the micro world is until you fall in love picturing bugs in the garden, different kinds of sand grains, or some tiny corners in our daily lives.

“你無法想象微觀世界是多麼精彩，除非你愛上拍攝花園裏的蟲子、不同類型的沙子和一些我們日常生活的角落。”

"My favorite is to shoot snowflakes. I would love to compile my snowflake pictures to publish a book. But you know how much warmer Beijing was in the past winter - I should have traveled to northeastern China to get more pictures."

“我最喜歡給雪花拍照。我希望將我拍攝的雪花照片出版一本書。但你也知道去年北京多麼暖和，我本應到中國的東北多拍一些照片。”