英语美文阅读：Stephen Hawking

 斯蒂芬•霍金

His mind has grappled with space and time, and explored the strange beauty of black holes aglow, but in recent days a more earthly problem has occupied the world's most famous scientist.

他的思想已经掌握了空间和时间，并探索过黑洞发出红光的奇怪美景，但最近几天一个更加实际的问题已经使这位世界上最著名科学家忙碌起来。

Stephen Hawking, the former Lucasian professor of mathematics at Cambridge University, must ponder how to spend $3m (£1.8m) that has landed in his bank account after winning the most lucrative science prize ever established.

斯蒂芬•霍金，前剑桥大学卢卡逊数学教授，在获得自设立以来最有钱的科学奖之后，必须得考虑如何花完落在他银行账户的300万美元(即180万英镑) 。

The renowned physicist who missed his 70th birthday celebrations through illness in January, has won the Special Fundamental Physics Prize for a lifetime of achievements, including the discovery that black holes emit radiation, and his deep contributions to quantum gravity and aspects of the early universe.

这位因病错过了他在1月的70岁生日庆典的著名物理学家，因其一生的成就（包括发现黑洞会发出辐射以及他在量子重力和早期宇宙各个方面的深入贡献）赢得了这一特殊的基础物理学奖。

The award is one of several set up in July by Yuri Milner, a Russian internet mogul, who quit his PhD in physics and made a billion dollars from investments in social media and other companies, such as Twitter, Facebook and Groupon.

这个奖项是由Yuri Milner7月份设立的几个奖项中的其中一个，一位俄罗斯的互联网大亨，他放弃了物理学博士学位，从投资社会媒体和其他公司比如Twitter、Facebook和Groupon中挣得了十亿美元。

The prize winners were selected by an independent committee of physicists, such as d Witten, the string theorist, and Alan Guth, who proposed the theory of cosmic inflation. The awards can go to much younger researchers than typically receive the Nobel prize, as experimental proof of theoretical work is not required.

获奖者是由物理学家组成的独立委员会选定，例如艾德•威滕，弦理论学家和提出了宇宙膨胀理论的Alan Guth。这个奖项可以颁给更年轻的研究人员相比通常获诺贝尔奖来说，因为理论工作的实验证明不是必须的。

In an email to the Guardian, Professor Hawking said he was "delighted and honoured" to receive the prize. "No one undertakes research in physics with the intention of winning a prize. It is the joy of discovering something no one knew before. Nevertheless prizes like these play an important role in giving public recognition for achievement in physics. They increase the stature of physics and interest in it," he wrote.

在给《卫报》的一封电子邮件中，霍金教授表示他"很高兴和荣幸"领取奖金。"没有人会带着获奖的目的进行物理研究。它是发现前人不知道的东西的一种快乐。然而这样的奖项在让公众认识物理学成就中扮演着重要的角色。它们提高了物理学的地位和其中的兴趣，"他写道。

"Although almost every theoretical physicist agrees with my prediction that a black hole should glow like a hot body, it would be very difficult to verify experimentally because the temperature of a macroscopic black hole is so low," he added.

"虽然几乎每个理论物理学家都同意我的预测，黑洞应该像一个发热体那样发光，实验验证将是非常困难的，因为肉眼可见的黑洞温度是如此之低，"他补充道。

The physicist, who rose to fame with his 1988 book, A Brief History of Time, and made guest appearances on The Simpsons and Star Trek, has not settled on how to spend the windfall. "I will help my daughter with her autistic son, and maybe buy a holiday home, not that I take many holidays because I enjoy my work in theoretical physics," he wrote.

这位物理学家以他1988年的著作《时间简史》一举成名，客串过《辛普森一家》和《星际迷航》，还没有决定如何花费这笔意外之财。"我将帮助我的女儿和她患有自闭症的儿子，也许会买一个度假别墅，不是我有很多假日，因为我喜欢从事理论物理的工作，"他写道。

Nima Arkani-Hamed, a member of the selection committee, said: "In the case of Hawking, what can you say? This is an absolutely true giant of modern physics. He's done massive, massive things."

Nima Arkani-Hamed，评选委员会的一个成员，他说："对于霍金，你能说什么呢？这是一个绝对真实的现代物理学巨人。他所做的是重大的、重大的事情。"

Milner, 51, holds an advanced degree in theoretical physics from Moscow State University, but abandoned a PhD at the Russian Academy of Sciences for an MBA at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. He remains a physics enthusiast though, and established the awards to recognise the greatest minds in fundamental physics, and help them to make significant contributions in the future.

Milner，51岁，拥有一个从莫斯科州立大学获得的理论物理学高等学位，但为了宾夕法尼亚大学沃顿商学院的MBA放弃了在俄罗斯科学院的博士学位。但他仍然是一个物理爱好者，并设立了在认可基础物理学方面最伟大的奖项，帮助他们在未来作出卓越的贡献。

The conditions attached to the prizes require the winners to give at least one annual public lecture on their field. Most of the talks will be recorded and posted on the website.

这一奖项的附加条件要求获奖者关于他们的领域至少做一次年度公开演讲。大多数演讲将被录下来并在网站上发布。