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The first one to form is Hydrogen. Then, over the next 3 minutes the Universe begins to create two more elements, helium and lithium.We went from a Universe that was infinitely small to a Universe that was light-years in size. In the first 3 minutes, essentially everything interesting that was going to happen in the Universe happened.
形成的第一种元素是氢。在接下来的3分钟里宇宙内开始形成其他两种元素：氦和锂。我们赖以生存的宇宙从无比渺小扩大到以光年来衡量大小。从本质上来说，在最初的3分钟宇宙内该发生的有趣的事情都发生了。
Well, not quite. If you were there, you couldn't see it.When we look at the night sky, we can see a literally billions of years into the past. And we think it's always been that way. Nope, not true. 380 thousand years after the Big Bang, that's when the Universe began to become transparent. But before then, it was milky.
其实，也未必。就算你在这里，也看不见。当我们望向夜空，我们能看见过去几十亿年前星球发出的光，从字面上来说是几十亿年前。而且我们认为自古以来就是这样。不，其实不是这样。宇宙大爆炸38万年后，宇宙开始变得透明起来。但是之前，宇宙内部则浑浊不清。
There was a milky soup of loose electrons. The young Universe has to cool down enough for the electrons to slow down and stick to new atoms. It took a long time for all of the hydrogen, helium and lithium atoms in the Universe to form. Scientists calculate it took 380 thousand years for the electrons to slow down enough so that the Universe could start mass producing atoms. When that happens, the milky fog clears. The first light escapes and raises across the Universe.
就像一锅充满松散电子的浓汤。年轻的宇宙渐渐冷却，电子也随之放慢速度，粘附于新生代原子。经过了很长时间，宇宙内氢原子，氦原子和锂原子才全部形成。科学家们计算，电子经过38万年才将速度减得足够慢，这样宇宙才开始大量生产原子。批量生产原子的同时，宇宙内浑浊的迷雾也开始消散。第一束光逃逸出来，在宇宙内无限延伸。
Nearly 14 billion years later, two young scientists in New Jersey picked it up by accident.In 1964, Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson were mapping radio signals across our galaxy. Everywhere they looked, they picked up a strange background hum. They first suspected their equipment, maybe pigeon droppings on the antenna were causing the strange signal. But after cleaning the antenna, the mysterious hum remained, so much for pigeon droppers.
大约140亿年后，两位年轻的科学家在新泽西偶然接收到这束光波。1964年，阿诺·彭齐亚斯和罗伯特·威尔逊在映射银河系的无线电信号。不论从哪个方向，他们都会接收到一种奇怪的背景辐射噪音。开始他们怀疑是设备的问题，也许是鸽子落到天线上的粪便导致的。但是清理完天线后，那种神秘的嗡嗡声依然存在，也就排除了鸽子粪便这一因素。
Penzias delivered a talk at Princeton University. And according to law, one person in the back said,"either you have discovered the effects of bird-droppings or the creation of the Universe."
彭齐亚斯在普林斯顿大学的举行了一场讲座。根据物理定律，一位后排的人说道：“要么你发现了鸟粪的作用，要么你发现了宇宙的起源。”
