When I was a child, after bedtime I would often get out of my bed in my pajamas, go to the window and stare at the stars. I had so many questions. How far away were those tiny points of light? Did space go on forever and ever, or was there some end to space,some giant edge? And if so, what lay beyond the edge? Another of my childhood questions: Did time go on forever? I looked at pictures of my parents and grandparents and tried to imagine their parents, and so on, back through the generations, back and back through time. Does time go on forever? Or is there some beginning of time? And if so,what came before? When I grew up, I became a professional astrophysicist. Although I never answered any of these questions, they continued to challenge me, to haunt me, to drive me in my scientific research, to cause me to live on tuna fish and no sleep for days at time while I was obsessed with a science problem.
小時候，我常常在入睡前裹著睡衣溜下床，來到窗前凝視滿天星斗。我曾有很多的疑問：那些小亮點離我們有多遠?太空會永恒地存在嗎?沒準兒太空也有盡頭，有著某種巨大的邊緣?如果是這樣，置身于邊緣之外的是什么呢?我童年時代的另一個疑問是：時間是永不停息的嗎?我注視著父母和祖父母的相片，努力想像他們的父母是什么樣子，就這樣一直想下去回溯數代，追溯久遠。時間是不停息的嗎?沒準時間也有起點?如果是這樣，在時間之前又會是什么樣的情形呢?長大之后，我成了一名職業的天體物理學家。盡管我從沒能回答這些問題中的任何一個，可它們仍不斷地激勵著我、縈繞著我、驅使著我繼續從事科研究，讓我在著迷于某個科學難題時以金槍魚罐頭為食，連日不眠不休。
These same questions, and questions like them challenge and haunt the leading scientists of today. Einstein once wrote that "the most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science." What did Einstein mean by “the mysterious?" I don’t think he meant that science is full of unpredictable or unknowable or supernatural forces. I think that he meant a sense of awe, a sense that there are things larger than us, that we do not have all the answers at this moment. And a sense that we can stand right at the boundary between known and unknown and gaze into that cavern and be exhilarated rather than frightened.
這些同樣的問題和諸如此類的問題，時至今日仍激勵并縈繞著最頂尖的科學家。愛因斯坦曾寫道：“我們擁有的最動人心弦的經歷莫過于探索神秘世界。這種基本情感正是孕育純粹藝術和揭示科學真理的搖籃。”愛因斯坦所指的“神秘世界”是什么?我認為他并不是說科學是不可預測的、不可知的，或是超乎自然的力量。我認為他指的是一種敬畏感，是一種意識世界上存在著比我們人類更博大的事物，而我們現在遠未達到無所不知的境界。愛因斯坦所說的還是一種感覺，即我們恰好可以站在可知與不可知的分界線上注視著未知洞穴深處，我們感到歡欣鼓舞，而并不畏懼膽怯。
Scientists are happy, of course, when they find answers to questions. But scientists are also happy when they become stuck, when they discover interesting questions that they cannot answer. Because that is when their imaginations and creativity are set on fire. That is when the greatest progress occurs. One of the Holy Grails in physics is to find the so-called "Theory of Everything," the final theory that will encompass all the fundamental laws of nature. I, for one, hope that we never find that final theory. I believe in the creative power of the unknown. I believe in the exhilaration of standing at the boundary between the known and the unknown. I believe in the unanswered questions of children.
當然了，科學家們探尋到問題的答案時是快樂的。但是，當科學家們受難題困擾進退維谷時，當他們發現了自己不能解答的新奇問題時，他們也很快樂。因為正是這個時候他們的想像力和創造力被激活了，這正是最偉大的進步來的時刻。物理學的“圣杯”之一就是尋找我所謂的“萬物理論”一種涵蓋所有基本自然法則的終極理論。就我而言，我希望我們永遠不要找到那個終極理論。我堅信源自未知世界的創造力，我欣賞身處已知與未知交界的喜悅，我贊許孩子們提出的哪些認人啞口無言的問題。
（兼職編輯：楊帆）
