白宮裏的科學狂 讀《三體》的奧巴馬
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama has started initiatives to study the brain and gene-based diseases. He has led attacks on the Ebola virus and antibiotic resistance. Last month, he wrote an academic article in a prominent medical journal.
華盛頓——美國總統貝拉克·奧巴馬(Barack Obama)發起了研究大腦和遺傳類疾病的計劃。他領導着針對埃博拉病毒和抗生素耐藥性的攻堅戰。上個月，他還在一本一流醫學期刊上發表了一篇學術論文。
But the science event many in the White House remember most powerfully was the kid with the marshmallow cannon.
但對白宮許多人而言，最令人印象深刻的科學事件，要數那個帶來了棉花糖大炮的小男孩。
“So would it, like, hit the wall up there?” Obama asked during the 2012 White House Science Fair when he came upon Joey Hudy, 14, standing before his homemade Extreme Marshmallow Cannon.
“那麼，它會擊中那邊的牆壁嗎？”在2012年的白宮科學展(White House Science Fair)上遇到14歲的喬伊·胡迪(Joey Hudy)時，奧巴馬這樣問道。胡迪當時站在自己製作的“超級棉花糖大炮”前。
“Yeah,” Joey answered.
“是的，”胡迪回答。
“Would it stick?”
“它會黏在上邊嗎？”
“I don’t know.”
“我不知道。”
“Let’s try it,” Obama said with glee.
“讓我們試試吧，”奧巴馬興高采烈地說道。
And so, for what may have been the first time since the British burned the house down in 1814, a fast-moving projectile hit the State Dining Room wall. The marshmallow did not stick.
於是，一枚高速射出的炮彈擊中了國宴廳的牆壁——自英國人在1814年火燒白宮之後，這種事或許還是第一次發生。棉花糖炮彈並未黏在牆上。
Obama has changed in many ways since winning the presidency. His hair is speckled with gray. He is more skeptical of military solutions to intractable foreign problems. His teenage daughters, he has said many times, no longer think he is cool.
贏得總統大選以後，奧巴馬在很多方面都發生了變化。他的頭髮染上了霜華。他愈發懷疑能否以軍事手段解決棘手的外交問題。再有，他說過好些遍，兩個十幾歲的女兒再也不覺得他有多酷了。
But another change that has received far less attention has been Obama’s embrace of science.
但還有一個關注度小得多的變化，那就是奧巴馬開始涉足科學領域。
He began an annual tradition of science fairs, arguing that if he celebrates the nation’s top athletes at the White House, he should do the same for the best young scientific talent. He often mentions the students he has met at the fairs, including Elana Simon, who at age 12 survived a rare form of liver cancer and before graduating high school helped discover its genetic cause.
他創立了每年舉辦科學展的傳統，他的理由是，既然他會在白宮祝賀美國的頂級運動員，就應當爲最優秀的年輕科學人才做同樣的事情。他經常提及自己在科學展上遇到的學生，其中包括埃萊娜·西蒙(Elana Simon)，她在12歲時成爲一種罕見肝癌的倖存者，並在高中畢業前幫助發現了這種疾病的遺傳基因。
Obama’s presidential science advisory committee has been the most active in history, starting 34 studies of subjects as varied as advanced manufacturing and cybersecurity. Scientists on the committee said they worked so hard because Obama was deeply engaged in their work.
奧巴馬總統的科學顧問委員會是有史以來最活躍的，總共啓動了34項研究，涉及從尖端製造技術和網絡安全的多種課題。該委員會的科學家說，他們如此勤奮工作是因爲奧巴馬深度參與其中。
In a recent interview with Bloomberg Businessweek, Obama listed science as one of the few subjects he intends to pursue after the presidency.
近日接受《彭博商業週刊》(Bloomberg Businessweek)採訪時，奧巴馬錶示，科學是他在總統任期結束後想要追尋的幾個目標之一。
“The conversations I have with Silicon Valley and with venture capital pull together my interests in science and organization in a way I find really satisfying,” Obama said. Of the potential breakthroughs in genomic sequencing, “That’s just an example of something I can sit and listen and talk to folks for hours about,” he said.
“通過與硅谷人士以及一些風險資本家交談，我對科學和組織的興趣被點燃了，這讓我有一種真正的滿足感，”奧巴馬說。談及基因測序取得突破的可能性，他說，“這就是那種可以讓我坐下來傾聽和交談幾個小時的話題。”
Obama has always loved science fiction — he was a “Star Trek” fan as a kid, and grew up reading comic books like “Spider-Man.” His favorite movie last year was “The Martian,” according to the White House.
奧巴馬一直都很喜歡科幻小說——他從小就是《星際迷航》(Star Trek)的擁躉。《蜘蛛俠》(Spider-Man)之類的漫畫書陪伴他長大成人。來自白宮的消息稱，他去年最愛看的電影是《火星救援》(The Martian)。
After Leonard Nimoy, the actor who made the character Spock famous in the original “Star Trek” series, died last year, Obama released a statement: “Long before being nerdy was cool, there was Leonard Nimoy.”
出演最初的《星際迷航》電視劇，並讓斯波克(Spock)一角聞名遐邇的演員倫納德·尼莫伊(Leonard Nimoy)去世後，奧巴馬發表了一份聲明：“早在書呆子氣被視爲一種酷之前，我們有倫納德·尼莫伊。”
Obama described Spock with many of the same adjectives often used to describe Obama: “Cool, logical, big-eared and levelheaded, the center of Star Trek’s optimistic, inclusive vision of humanity’s future.”
人們常常用來形容奧巴馬的很多言辭，都被奧巴馬用來描繪斯波克：“酷，有邏輯，耳朵大，頭腦清醒，是《星際迷航》關於人類未來的樂觀包容願景的核心。”
“I loved Spock,” Obama concluded.
“我愛斯波克，”奧巴馬總結道。
Obama’s reading lists are peppered with science and science fiction titles such as Elizabeth Kolbert’s “The Sixth Extinction,” Atul Gawande’s “Being Mortal” and Liu Cixin’s “The Three-Body Problem.”
奧巴馬的閱讀書目中，穿插着一些科學讀物和科幻小說的名字，比如伊麗莎白·科爾伯特(Elizabeth Kolbert)的《第六次滅絕》(The SixthExtinction)，阿圖爾·加萬德(Atul Gawande)的《身爲凡人》(Being Mortal)，以及劉慈欣的《三體》。
But Obama’s grasp of real science before becoming president was sketchy. He once admitted to a room full of scientists to not doing “well enough in chemistry or physics to impress you much on those topics.” And some scientists who met Obama before the presidency said they were not wowed by his grasp of their fields.
但當上總統前，奧巴馬對真正的科學只有粗略的瞭解。有一次，他在一屋子科學家面前承認，他的“化學或物理”並未“好到在談論這類話題時能讓你們印象深刻的程度”。和出任總統前的奧巴馬有過接觸的一些科學家說，那時候，他對他們所在領域的瞭解，是讓他們不以爲然的。
“His views at the time were just sort of developing,” said Michael Oppenheimer, a professor of geosciences and international affairs at Princeton.
“當時，他的觀點在某種程度上還處於形成階段，”普林斯頓大學(Princeton University)地球科學及國際事務教授邁克爾·奧本海默(Michael Oppenheimer)說。
But he was always enthusiastic, several top government scientists said. Within days of his election in 2008, Obama became enmeshed in selecting those who would serve on his science advisory board.
但政府的幾位首席科學家說，他一直充滿熱情。2008年當選總統不久後，奧巴馬就開始沉迷於爲他的科學顧問委員挑選成員。
“I was really surprised by the avidity of his interest,” said Dr. Harold Varmus, who was a chairman of the board in its early days and was the director of the National Institutes of Health during the Clinton administration.
“他的興致勃勃讓我十分驚訝，”曾在奧巴馬的科學顧問委員會運行之初擔任主席、還在克林頓治下擔任過國立衛生研究院(National Institutes of Health)院長的哈羅德·瓦默斯(Harold Varmus)博士說。
Researchers on the campus of the National Institutes of Health were abuzz for months after Obama’s visit there in December 2014, when he spoke extemporaneously about a lab he had just visited using such terms as “gel electrophoresis,” “microplate” and “multiparameter flow cytometer.” The crowd gave a quiet science roar.
奧巴馬曾於2014年12月到訪國立衛生研究院，此後好幾個月，那裏的研究人員都在談論他的來訪。當時，他即興談及剛剛去過的一個實驗室，口中不時冒出“凝膠電池”、“微孔板”、“多參數流式細胞術”之類的詞語。人羣發出了科學界特有的那種不甚響亮的驚呼。
“I’d seen his speech, so I knew his remarks were impromptu,” said Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. “Boom, he starts talking like a fundamental basic scientist, and he just blew everybody away.”
“我看過他的演講，因此我知道他的發言是即興的，”國家過敏及傳染性疾病研究所(National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases)所長安東尼·S·福奇(Anthony S. Fauci)博士說。“忽然間，他開始像個地地道道的基礎科學家一樣說話，讓所有人都大爲驚訝。”
