（我的TE翻译练习，欢迎点评）Phew!唷！

The Large Hadron Collider
　　大型强子对撞机
　　
　　Phew!
　　唷！
　　
　　The LHC is now operating in earnest
　　大型强子对撞机正在加紧运行
　　
　　Mar 31st 2010 | From The Economist print edition
　　
　　EIGHTEEN months ago CERN, Europe’s particle-physics laboratory, based near Geneva, switched on its latest toy. The toy in question was the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), and it was going to find all sorts of wonderful things, ranging from the Higgs boson (which is needed to explain why mass exists in the first place) via dark matter (which is needed to explain why the universe is as massive as it is) to miniature black holes (the densest concentrations of mass possible, which journalists of a more scaremongering disposition confidently predicted would eat the Earth up as soon as the machine was switched on).
　　十八个月前，位于日内瓦附近的欧洲粒子物理研究所（欧洲的粒子物理实验室）启动了它的新玩物。这一热议中的玩物便是大型强子对撞机（LHC），从希格斯玻色子（用于解释为何会有质量的存在）到暗物质（用于解释为何宇宙会膨胀得如此浩大）再到迷你黑洞（宇宙间可能存在的密度最大的事物，一些好煽动的新闻记者曾自信地预言随着该对撞机的启动，迷你黑洞将吞灭整个地球），LHC被赋予了寻找到各种美妙事物的厚望。
　　
　　Nine days after the fanfare, however, a leak in the cooling system put things on hold and they did not restart until last November, with a few gentle collisions between low-energy protons.
　　在热闹的开启仪式结束后的第九天，冷却系统的一处泄露使得此事搁置，直到去年十一月大型对撞机才得以重新启动，然而也只试验了一些低能质子之间的轻微碰撞。
　　
　　Since then, the LHC has been cranking up for serious operation and on March 30th it passed a milestone. There was less trumpeting this time, but protons were made to hit each other at energies higher than any accelerator had managed before. The Tevatron, in America, has officially been relegated to second place.
　　从那时起，LHC开始为更重要的实验做准备。三月三十日，它终于有了新的突破。这一次的大肆宣传显然淡了很多，然而此次质子被加速到了更快的速度，因而产生了更高的碰撞能量，这是以往任何加速器都未曾办到的。美国的兆电子伏特加速器Tevatron，至此正式退居第二。
　　
　　Once, that might have been a signal for a bit of quiet European gloating. Hubris, however, has been followed by nemesis rather too often in this field for anybody to be making a song and dance about things. Though there was cheering and champagne in the control room when the first high-energy beams collided, sighs of relief are more the order of the day.
　　这在一定程度上象征了欧洲人低调的沾沾自喜。在这个领域里，任何骄傲自大地对自已的成就喋喋不休的人，总会受到惩罚。尽管第一次高能粒子束碰撞成功以后，控制室传来了欢呼且有人开香槟以庆祝，然而，如释重负仍然是那一天的主旋律。
　　
　　Assuming there are no further glitches, the energy of the collisions will be cranked up over the next few months and the new subatomic goodies will start pouring out of the machine and into the pages of physics journals. Finding the Higgs boson is as near a racing certainty as exists in science. For the rest, those who fancy pitting their knowledge of physics against the pros can do so. Paddy Power, an online bookmaker, is offering odds of 11 to 10 that dark matter will be found before black holes and 8 to 1 that black holes will be first. Dark energy, a mysterious force thought to drive the expansion of the universe, trails at 12 to 1. And for those who fancy a real outside bet, the firm is also offering 100 to 1 that the machine will discover God.
　　如果没有更多的故障，未来几个月内碰撞的能量仍会持续增高，并将产生新的亚原子，从对撞机里流向物理学期刊的扉页中。寻找希格斯玻色子就像是科学界的赛马，其余想要与物理学家比试一下物理学知识的人也可参与其中。在线签赌公司Paddy Power为暗物质先于黑洞被发现开出的赌赔率为11比10，为黑洞首先被发现开出的赌赔率为8比1。而被认为是导致宇宙膨胀的神秘力量暗物质首先被发现的赌赔率为12比1。除此之外，对于那些热衷于超小概率事件的赌客，该公司甚至开出了对撞机发现上帝的赌赔率：100比1。
　　
　　《经济学人》（The Economist ( http://www.economist.com ))仅同意ECO （www.ecocn.org）翻译其杂志内容，并未对上述翻译内容进行任何审阅查对。
　　
　　译者：Somers（经济学人中文论坛）
　　
　　首发链接：http://www.ecocn.org/bbs/thread-33145-1-1.html