VOA标准英语2011--Fermilab Scientists Optimistic About Finding Higgs Boson Particle

Fermilab Scientists Optimistic About Finding Higgs Boson Particle

Scientists at the CERN laboratory in Geneva, Switzerland say they are encouraged by new data suggesting their Large Hadron Collider, the world's most powerful atom-smasher, is one step closer to finding an elusive¹ sub-atomic particle known as the Higgs boson. The so-called “God particle” was the object of a three-decades-long search by particle physicists² at Fermilab’s now-idled Tevatron Accelerator in suburban³ Chicago. They greeted the news from Geneva with guarded optimism.

CERN’s Large Hadron Collider is just a few years old, but data streaming in after it smashes subatomic particles together at near-light speed has scientists around the world excited.

University of Florida professor Jacobo Konigsberg has contributed to CERN’s hunt for the “Higgs boson.” If they find it, he says, it would solve one of the most enduring mysteries of physics. “The mystery of mass in the universe is one of the most fundamental questions we have," he said.

Konigsberg is on a quest to answer that fundamental question, halfway⁴ around the world from the machine that is likely to find it.

He is pouring through the results of the LHC’s latest findings at the Energy Department’s Fermi National Laboratory in suburban Chicago.

In a control room directly linked to CERN, Konigsberg watches test results and information. He says the recent announcement by his colleagues in Geneva pinpoints⁵ a specific location where the Higgs is likely to exist, if it exists at all. “The number of events we expect in the data in this region is higher than if the Higgs [boson] wasn’t there. So people are very excited about the possibility that this could be the beginning of unearthing⁶, if you will, the Higgs [boson]," he said.

But at Fermilab, scientist Robert Roser greets the news with skepticism. “These are both kind of like one in 50, one in 100 probability that the background could fluctuate up to be a signal. So not very compelling at all yet," he said.

Roser visited the CERN laboratories in the days leading up to the announcement of progress in the search for the Higgs. He says there is also caution in Europe about what the latest results mean. “And there was no popping of champagne⁷ corks… it was pretty much business as usual going on in there. People were talking about their individual analyses and what’s going on… they weren’t giving each other high fives saying we got this thing settled. So I think in Europe there is an air of caution," he said.

“You cannot yet rule out that this small axis⁸ of events is from other processes that are mimicking⁹ the Higgs. So unfortunately at the moment the situation is ambiguous," said Konigsberg.

But the development demonstrates the LHC’s power. It has eclipsed Fermilab’s Tevatron Accelerator, which went offline in September. “The LHC was meant to surpass the Tevatron. It was meant to eventually find the Higgs, and the Tevatron established a lot of the techniques that are today used by the LHC," said Konigsberg.

There is still a chance the Tevatron could yield the results scientists are looking for.

Though it’s turned off, Roser and his team are still sifting¹⁰ through data and expect to release their findings in March.

If it exists at all, Roser expects the Tevatron or the LHC to find the Higgs boson soon. “If it's there, we will find it in 2012. If it’s not there, we’ll say that too in 2012," he said.

Roser says if they do find the Higgs boson, scientists could spend the next several decades trying to understand it.

1 elusive   

adj.难以表达(捉摸)的；令人困惑的；逃避的

参考例句：

• Try to catch the elusive charm of the original in translation.翻译时设法把握住原文中难以捉摸的风韵。
• Interpol have searched all the corners of the earth for the elusive hijackers.国际刑警组织已在世界各地搜查在逃的飞机劫持者。

2 physicists   

物理学家( physicist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• For many particle physicists, however, it was a year of frustration. 对于许多粒子物理学家来说，这是受挫折的一年。 来自英汉非文学 - 科技
• Physicists seek rules or patterns to provide a framework. 物理学家寻求用法则或图式来构成一个框架。

3 suburban   

adj.城郊的，在郊区的

参考例句：

• Suburban shopping centers were springing up all over America. 效区的商业中心在美国如雨后春笋般地兴起。
• There's a lot of good things about suburban living.郊区生活是有许多优点。

4 halfway   

adj.中途的，不彻底的，部分的；adv.半路地，在中途，在半途

参考例句：

• We had got only halfway when it began to get dark.走到半路，天就黑了。
• In study the worst danger is give up halfway.在学习上，最忌讳的是有始无终。

5 pinpoints   

准确地找出或描述( pinpoint的第三人称单数 )； 为…准确定位

参考例句：

• The bombs hit the pinpoints at which they were aimed. 炸弹精确地击中了目标。
• There's really no point in arguing about pinpoints. 为芝麻绿豆般的小事争论实在毫无意义。

6 unearthing   

发掘或挖出某物( unearth的现在分词 )； 搜寻到某事物，发现并披露

参考例句：

• And unearthing the past often means literally and studying the evidence. 通常，探寻往事在字面上即意味着——刨根究底。
• The unearthing of "Peking Man" was a remarkable discovery. “北京人”的出土是个非凡的发现。

7 champagne   

n.香槟酒；微黄色

参考例句：

• There were two glasses of champagne on the tray.托盘里有两杯香槟酒。
• They sat there swilling champagne.他们坐在那里大喝香槟酒。

8 axis   

n.轴，轴线，中心线；坐标轴，基准线

参考例句：

• The earth's axis is the line between the North and South Poles.地轴是南北极之间的线。
• The axis of a circle is its diameter.圆的轴线是其直径。

9 mimicking   

v.（尤指为了逗乐而）模仿( mimic的现在分词 )；酷似

参考例句：

• She's always mimicking the teachers. 她总喜欢模仿老师的言谈举止。
• The boy made us all laugh by mimicking the teacher's voice. 这男孩模仿老师的声音，逗得我们大家都笑了。 来自辞典例句

10 sifting   

n.筛，过滤v.筛( sift的现在分词 )；筛滤；细查；详审

参考例句：

• He lay on the beach, sifting the sand through his fingers. 他躺在沙滩上用手筛砂子玩。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• I was sifting the cinders when she came in. 她进来时，我正在筛煤渣。 来自辞典例句