双语时事系列30：原子钟面临“改头换面”

2009-10-16 00:00:00来源：网络

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双语时事：铯VS镱：原子钟面临“改头换面”

National Institute of Standards and Technology researchers are developing atomic clocks based on the element ytterbium that could outclass cesium atomic clocks, which currently set the standard.

美国国家标准技术研究所的研究人员正在开发一种镱原子钟，这种原子钟可能比铯原子钟更好。目前的时间标准是由铯原子钟确定的。

Cesium Clock Faces Ytterbium Challenge

You’ve given some thought to oxygen, carbon, uranium. But you’ve probably never mused about the element ytterbium, symbol Yb. A new study by scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, or NIST, says that ytterbium could find a role in super-accurate atomic clocks. The report is in the journal Physical Review Letters.

The gold standard, if you will, for atomic clocks, is the element cesium, symbol Cs. Official civilian time is kept by the cesium NIST-F1 fountain clock, accurate to within one second every 100 million years. And the international definition of the second is based on exactly how many vibrations happen when a cesium atom’s electron changes energy levels. How many? 9,192,631,770. Exactly.

Anyway, your watch is fine for getting to work about on time, but if you want your GPS to work fine, you need these atomic clocks on Earth and on satellites. And an ytterbium clock has the potential to be even more accurate and stable than the cesium chronometer. Wow, I gotta go, look at the time.

铯原子钟面临镱原子钟的挑战

你可能知道氧元素、碳元素，铀元素。但是你可能从未想到过元素镱（化学符号Yb）。来自美国国家标准技术研究所（National Institute of Standards and Technology，简称NIST）的科学家们的一项新研究说，镱可能用于超级精确原子钟。该研究发表在《Physical Review Letters》（物理评论快报）杂志上。

目前原子钟的“黄金标准”使用铯元素（元素符号为Cs）。官方民用时间是由NIST-F1铯原子钟记录，其准确度在每1亿年一秒的范围内。国际上对秒的定义就是根据当一个铯原子的电子改变能级的时候有多少振动发生。到底有多少振动呢？准确数字是：9,192,631,770。

不过对于你按时上班来说，你的手表的精度已经够了，但是如果你想你的GPS（全球定位系统）工作良好的话，在地球上和卫星上则需要这类原子钟。镱原子钟甚至可能比铯原子钟更加精确和稳定。哇，看看时间，我得走了。

Vocabulary:

Element：元素

Ytterbium：（化学元素）镱

Cesium：（化学元素）铯

Uranium：（化学元素）铀

Muse：细想

Super-accurate：超级精确的

Civilian：民用的

Definition：定义

Satellite：卫星