The story of The Three-Body Problem follows how humans contact aliens in a faraway solar system. Liu Cixin’s modern sci-fi classic shows that after making contact, people on Earth will face many problems – including the danger of invasion!
《三體》講述了人類如何與遙遠(yuǎn)星系的外星人接觸。劉慈欣的這部現(xiàn)代經(jīng)典科幻小說(shuō)表明，地球人一旦與外星人接觸，將面臨許多問(wèn)題——包括遭到入侵的危險(xiǎn)!

Similar to the novel, a team from the United States’ NASA space agency, led by scientist Jonathan Jiang, wants to send a new message into the stars.
與小說(shuō)情節(jié)類似，科學(xué)家喬納森·姜領(lǐng)導(dǎo)著一個(gè)來(lái)自美國(guó)國(guó)家航空航天局（NASA）的團(tuán)隊(duì)，該團(tuán)隊(duì)想要向外星發(fā)送新的信息。

According to Scientific American, the technology needed to send the message is not yet ready. Regardless, the scientists hope humanity can now have a serious discussion about if and how we should talk to aliens, reported the US-based science magazine.
據(jù)《科學(xué)美國(guó)人》報(bào)道，發(fā)送信息所需的技術(shù)尚未成熟。這家美國(guó)科學(xué)雜志報(bào)道稱，無(wú)論如何，科學(xué)家們希望人類現(xiàn)在可以就“是否聯(lián)系外星人”以及“如何與外星人對(duì)話”展開嚴(yán)肅的討論。

Even if we send a message, none of us will be around for the reply. It will take millennia to reach the target galaxy. So, why should we send it at all?
即使我們發(fā)了一條信息，也沒(méi)有人能等到回復(fù)，因?yàn)樾畔⒁ㄉ锨瓴拍艿竭_(dá)目標(biāo)星系。那么，我們?yōu)槭裁催€要發(fā)送信息呢?

“We want … to say, ‘Hey, we are here,’ even if we are not here some years later,” Jiang, an astrophysicist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California, told Live Science.
美國(guó)國(guó)家航空航天局噴氣動(dòng)力實(shí)驗(yàn)室（JPL）的天體物理學(xué)家喬納森·姜在接受《生活科學(xué)》采訪時(shí)稱:“我們想……說(shuō)‘嘿，我們?cè)谶@里’，哪怕多年后我們不在了?！?/span>

Humans have long sought ways to contact other worlds. In the early 19th century, Austrian astronomer Joseph Johann von Littrow said we should communicate with space by making giant geometric patterns in the sands of the Sahara Desert, filling them with kerosene and lighting them on fire.
人類一直在尋找與其他世界聯(lián)系的方法。在19世紀(jì)早期，奧地利天文學(xué)家約瑟夫·約翰·馮·利特羅曾說(shuō)，我們應(yīng)該在撒哈拉沙漠的沙子上畫出巨大的幾何圖案，用煤油填充圖案并點(diǎn)火，從而與太空進(jìn)行交流。

It never happened, but the invention of radio has allowed us to try other ways to communicate, said Live Science.
《生活科學(xué)》報(bào)道稱，雖然馮·利特羅的想法沒(méi)有變成現(xiàn)實(shí)，但由于無(wú)線電這一發(fā)明，我們可以嘗試其他的交流方式。

According to Scientific American, there remains a basic problem: what do we say and how?
據(jù)《科學(xué)美國(guó)人》報(bào)道，一個(gè)基本問(wèn)題仍待解答：我們說(shuō)什么、怎么說(shuō)?

Nearly all the messages humans have sent so far start with some basic science and math information – two topics that aliens with a radio telescope would understand.
迄今為止，幾乎所有人類發(fā)出的信息都是由一些基礎(chǔ)科學(xué)和數(shù)學(xué)信息展開的——擁有射電望遠(yuǎn)鏡的外星人應(yīng)該能理解這兩個(gè)主題。

How do we send our messages?
我們?nèi)绾伟l(fā)送信息？

As early as 1974, a team sent a radio message from the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. It was an image, in binary code, of a cartoon person and some chemistry diagrams. Three years later, the two capsules on Voyager spacecraft, launched by NASA, carry golden phonograph records full of images and sounds of Earth.
早在1974年，波多黎各的阿雷西博天文臺(tái)的一個(gè)團(tuán)隊(duì)就發(fā)送了一條無(wú)線電信息。該信息是由二進(jìn)制數(shù)字編碼而成的圖像，含有卡通化的人物和一些化學(xué)圖形。三年后，美國(guó)國(guó)家航空航天局發(fā)射了兩艘旅行者號(hào)宇宙飛船，其上的太空艙攜帶著裝滿地球圖像和聲音的金唱片。

Images in binary code are called “bitmaps”. They allow “the maximum amount of information … in the minimal amount of message”, according to Jiang.
姜表示，二進(jìn)制編碼的圖像稱為“位圖”，位圖能夠“以最少的數(shù)據(jù)傳遞最多的信息”。

Will the NASA team use bitmaps? Jiang hopes not. “With improvements in digital technology, we can do much better,” he said.
美國(guó)國(guó)家航空航天局的團(tuán)隊(duì)會(huì)使用位圖嗎？姜希望不要，他說(shuō)：“隨著數(shù)字技術(shù)的進(jìn)步，我們可以做得更好?！?/span>

以上文章內(nèi)容選自《21世紀(jì)學(xué)生英文報(bào)高中版》，詳情請(qǐng)見《21世紀(jì)學(xué)生英文報(bào)高中版》高二866期