科學家:火光中藏着鑽石

Each flickering candle flame contains 'millions of tiny diamonds that are created and disappear in the blink of an eye'.
　　每一個閃爍的燭火中包含着“以百萬計的微小鑽石，它們在眨眼間產生或者消失。”

Scientists have shown that a flickering flame is studded with millions of tiny diamonds.

科學家已經證實：一個閃爍的火焰裏鑲滿了數以萬計的細小的鑽石。

Roughly 1.5million of the twinkling gems are created every second.

每秒鐘大約能產生150萬塊寶石。

Sadly, for those whose eyes are lighting up the thought of making a fortune, the jewels are so small that up to 300,000 would fit on the head of a pin.

可悲的是，對於那些眼睛裏就想要動發財的念頭的人來說，這些寶石是非常小的，大約30萬塊寶石都和針頭一樣大。

And they disappear in the blink of an eye.

它們在眨眼間就會消失。

But if scientists come up with a way of harnessing the technology, people could use little more than a candle and a match to ‘grow’ diamonds from scratch.

但如果科學家能想出一種利用科技的方法的話，人們就可以只用一支蠟燭和一根火柴就能將這些寶石放大。

As well as costing a fraction of the price of ‘real’ diamonds, they would be an ethically sound alternative to the blood diamonds mined in African war zones.

一種鑽石的來源也能成爲產業的福音，他們將這種奇妙的硬石運用到了各種事物上，從刀片到截肢的假臀。

The idea comes from a St Andrews University scientist challenged to find out just what is inside a flame.

這個想法來自聖安德魯斯大學的科學家，他挑戰性的要找出火焰裏到底是什麼。

Wuzong Zhou, a professor of chemistry, said: ‘A colleague from another university said to me: "Of course, no one knows what a candle flame is actually made of."

一位化學教授Wuzong Zhou說：“另一所大學的同事告訴我說‘沒人知道火焰裏是什麼東西’。”

‘I told him I believed science could explain everything eventually, so I decided to find out.’

我告訴他說：“我相信科學可以解釋一切，因此我決定找出這個真相。”

The professor invented a filter that allowed him to successfully extract particles from the centre of the flame, where temperatures top 1,400C, and then examined them.'

這位教師發明了一種過濾器，這可以讓他成功的提取出火焰中間的微粒，它的溫度高達1400度，然後他就會檢測這些物質。

To his surprise, he discovered that the carbon in the candle wax had formed all four types of pure carbon, including diamonds and graphite, or pencil lead.

令他吃驚的是，他發現蠟燭裏的碳已經形成了純碳的四種形態，包括：鑽石、石墨和鉛筆芯。

Pure carbon can make very different structures depending on how the atoms are arranged and how they bond to each other.

純碳的結構可以使各種各樣的，而這取決於原子是如何排列和結合的。

Professor Zhou said: ‘This was a surprise because each form is usually created under different conditions.

zhou教授說：“這是個驚喜因爲每種形態通常是在不同的條件下形成的。”

In a lecture on the chemical history of the candle, delivered in London in 1860 at the prestigious Royal Society about the marvels of science, he told his audience that candlelight ‘has the glittering beauty of gold and silver, and the still higher lustre of jewels like the ruby and diamond; but none of these rival the brilliancy and beauty of flame'.

在一個蠟燭的化學歷史的講座上，該講座在1860年，由倫敦享譽盛名的皇家學會的出版的科學的奇蹟上發表，他告訴他的觀衆說：“燭光有金銀閃耀的美麗，更高檔的寶石光澤像紅寶石和鑽石，但是這些都比不上火焰的輝煌和美麗。”