The Hope Diamond’s 45.52 sparkling, steely blue carats make it the most famous diamond in the world – shrouded in mystery and intrigue since it was pulled out of the ground in 17th-century India. Scientists also look upon the diamond as a mysterious treasure, but for different reasons. They would like to use it to study more than a billion years of the Earth’s history.
散發鋼鐵藍光芒的「希望之鑽」重達45.52克拉，使它成為舉世最著名的鑽石，而且自17世紀在印度出土以來，始終被神秘的色彩和情節錯綜複雜的故事所籠罩。此外，科學家同樣認為它是一件神秘寶藏，只是根據的理由不同。他們希望透過它研究超過10億年的一段地球歷史。

“It sort of gets lumped into this category of being really a piece of jewelry, a cultural icon, a cursed gem, whatever,” said Jeffrey E. Post, a geologist and curator at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., where the Hope Diamond is on display. “It has a natural history that goes way beyond its human history.”
「希望之鑽」正在華府史密森學會的國立自然歷史博物館展出，該館策展人、地質學家波斯特說：「它兼具珠寶首飾、文化圖騰，以及受詛咒寶石的身分。它在自然界的歷史遠遠超越它在人類世界的歷史。」

In January, writing in the journal American Mineralogist, Dr. Post and his colleagues report the latest scientific tidbit about the Hope Diamond: It contains surprisingly high levels of the element boron. Scientists already knew that natural blue diamonds had a smattering of boron. It gives them their color, and other unusual properties: The Hope, for example, glows orange-red when irradiated with ultraviolet light.
波斯特博士與研究夥伴上個月透過《美國礦物學家》期刊發表一項報告，說明有關「希望之鑽」的最新科學研究發現，包括它化學元素硼的含量高得驚人。科學家原本已知天然藍色鑽石含有少量的硼。硼使它們產生藍彩與其他不尋常的特性。以「希望之鑽」為例，如果以紫外光照射，它會散發橘紅色光芒。

But other blue-diamond questions remain unanswered. For one, why are there any at all?
然而藍鑽仍有一些其他疑點尚待解明。例如，它們為什麼會形成？

“If you go in your local jewelry store, they’re not blue,” Dr. Post said. “We’re talking maybe one out of millions of diamonds that are found each year that are in fact blue enough to be called a blue diamond.”
波斯特說：「如果你走進在地的珠寶店，店裡的珠寶不會是藍色。這裡說的是，每年在全球各地出土的數百萬顆鑽石當中可能只能找到一顆的那種藍到配稱為藍鑽的鑽石。」

To better understand the blue diamonds, the scientists wanted to better understand the boron in them. They placed 78 blue diamonds, including the Hope, in an apparatus that fired gallium ions, which peeled off atoms from a minute patch. These exfoliated atoms – hundreds of millions of them – were then sorted by weight to reveal how many were boron.
為了深入瞭解藍鑽，科學家必須更深入瞭解它們所含的硼。他們把包括「希望之鑽」在內的78顆藍色鑽石放在一部會發射鎵離子的儀器內，它使原子從一個極微小的區塊剝離。這些剝落的原子數以億計。科學家接著把這些原子按重量分類，以得知其中究竟有多少是硼。

Even hundreds of millions of atoms correspond to only a few atomic layers, and the researchers tested other blue diamonds first to make sure that even under high-powered microscopes, no perceptible marks would be etched.
即使數以億計的原子也只來自有限的幾個原子層。研究人員首先測試其他藍色鑽石，以確定即使在高倍數顯微鏡下，它們也不會產生可見的蝕刻痕。

“We don’t really want to have the Hope Diamond weighing less afterward than when it went in,” Dr. Post said.
波斯特說：「我們真的不願意看到『希望之鑽』接受檢驗後，重量減少。」

Previous studies of blue diamonds had reported levels of boron of less than one in a million. But in parts of the Hope Diamond, boron levels were as high as eight per million atoms; in other parts, there was hardly any. Curiously, diamonds with more boron were not necessarily bluer.
此前有關藍色鑽石的研究顯示，硼原子的比率不到100萬分之一。不過以「希望之鑽」而言，有些部分硼原子的比率可達100萬分之8，其他部分則幾無硼的成分。有趣的是，硼原子更多的鑽石不見得更藍。

The boron data was intriguing, but ultimately the scientists would like to precisely count two versions of boron, one a slightly heavier isotope with an additional neutron. Rocks from the seafloor have more of the heavier boron than what is found in the earth’s mantle; that measurement would give strong clues to the origin of the boron.
有關硼的數據令人好奇，然而科學家最終決定精確計算兩種硼的數量，其中一種是多一個中子的稍重同位素。來自海底的岩石硼同位素的數量比取自地幔的要多。這種數值可為硼的來源提供強有力的線索。

Steven B. Shirey, a geochemist with the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington, D.C., believes that the boron came from an ocean plate that was pushed downward near where the diamonds formed.
華府卡內基科學研究所的地球化學家薛里認為，硼來自一個往下擠壓的大洋板塊，藍色鑽石就在附近形成。

But to count the boron isotopes precisely would require a much longer experiment – days instead of hours – and that runs into logistical problem of conducting science on famous museum artifacts. “The public gets really surly when the Hope Diamond is not there on public display,” Dr. Post said.
然而精確計算硼同位素的必要條件是，必須進行時間更長的實驗，連續數日而不只是數小時，而若想針對博物館裡著名的工藝品進行科學實驗，會碰上後勤問題。波斯特說：「如果『希望之鑽』突然自展覽區消失，民眾一定會不高興。」

So to perform their experiments on the Hope Diamond, the scientists had to pull all-nighters. After the museum closed, a jeweler removed the diamond from its ornate necklace setting to allow the scientists to make their measurements. It was returned to its display before the next morning.
基於這層顧慮，科學家必須通宵工作。博物館開放時間結束後，一名珠寶匠自精美華麗的項鍊上取下「希望之鑽」，供科學家測定，次日早晨之前再物歸原處。

Still, Dr. Post hopes the science shows that there is much more to the Hope Diamond than a curse.
儘管如此，波斯特還是希望，科研結果有朝一日顯示，「希望之鑽」不只是與詛咒有關而已。

“What this study, I hope, kind of reminds people,” he said, “is that it is also an incredibly interesting and perhaps almost unique scientific object.”
他說：「我希望這項研究能夠讓人們明白，它也是一件極其引人入勝，而且可能幾乎獨一無二的科學研究標的。」

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/31/science/scientists-examine-hope-diamond-for-clues-to-its-blue.html 

2012-02-14聯合報/G5版/UNITEDDAILYNEWS 陳世欽譯 原文參見紐時週報十版右