復仇者聯盟4被科學界闢謠：時間旅行可以，但人不行
2019.06.02
週日 Sunday
reverse [rɪ'vɜːs]
v. （使）反轉
In “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” a story by F. Scott Fitzgerald and then a movie starring Brad Pitt, a man ages backward: He is born an old man, regresses over the years and dies an infant.
《本傑明·巴頓奇事》是菲茨傑拉德所創作的小說，隨後被翻拍成布拉德·皮特主演的電影，在這個故事裏有個男人的年齡是倒退的：他生來是個老人，隨後一直逆生長直至以嬰兒狀態死去。
This is not typically seen in regular life. The question is, why not?
這在日常生活中並不常見，但問題是，爲什麼不呢？
In what amounts to a technological triumph for the aspiring Benjamin Buttons of the virtual world, a team of quantum physicists reported earlier this year that they had succeeded in creating a computer algorithm that acts like the Fountain of Youth.
今年早些時候，一組量子物理學家報告稱，他們成功地創造出了一種電腦算法，其功能就像不老泉一樣。這對希望實現虛擬世界中的本傑明•巴頓的人來說，在技術上是一場勝利。
Using an IBM quantum computer, they managed to undo the aging of a single, simulated elementary particle by one millionth of a second. But it was a Pyrrhic victory at best, requiring manipulations so unlikely to occur naturally that it only reinforced the notion that we are helplessly trapped in the flow of time.
利用IBM量子計算機，他們成功地將單個模擬的基本粒子的老化過程倒退了百萬分之一秒。但這充其量是一場代價巨大的勝利，需要的操作基本不可能自然發生，這隻會強化這樣一種觀念：我們被牢牢困在時間的洪流中，沒救。
Most of us already sense that the atoms of a scrambled egg can’t be unscrambled back inside a pristine shell. Now it seems that, under general conditions, even a single particle probably can’t go backward without help and careful tinkering.
我們大多數人已經意識到，炒蛋的原子無法被重新放入一個原始的殼內。現在看來，在一般情況下，如果沒有幫助和仔細的修補，即使是單個粒子也可能無法倒退。
“We demonstrate that time-reversing even ONE quantum particle is an unsurmountable task for nature alone,” Valerii M. Vinokur, of Argonne National Laboratory, said in an email message; he is one of the five aspiring time lords led by Gordey B. Lesovik of the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology.
阿貢國家實驗室的Valerii M. Vinokur在一封電子郵件中說，“我們證明，即使是對一個量子粒子來說，自然狀態下，時間逆轉也是一項無法克服的任務。”他是由莫斯科物理與技術學院的Gordey B. Lesovik所領導的五個有抱負的時間領主之一。
“The system comprising two particles is even more irreversible, let alone the eggs — comprising billions of particles — we break to prepare an omelet.”
“由兩個粒子組成的系統更不可逆，更不用說我們做蛋餅時打碎的雞蛋裏那數十億個粒子了。”
今日詞彙
reverse [rɪ'vɜːs]
v. （使）反轉
文中的” time-reverse”，時間倒轉
to reverse a car倒車
reverse one’s decision 改變決定
後文出現的irreversible，adj.，不可逆的; 不能翻轉的
irreversible brain damage
不可逆轉的大腦損傷
