For a long time the Big Bang theory had one gaping¹ hole that troubled a lot of people 很长时间以来，大爆炸理论有个巨大的漏洞，许多人对此感到不解

namely that it couldn't begin to explain how we got here. 那就是，它根本无法解释我们是怎么来到这个世界上的。

Although 98 percent of all the matter that exists was created with the Big Bang, 虽然存在的全部物质中有98％是大爆炸创造的，

that matter consisted exclusively of light gases: the helium, hydrogen, and lithium that we mentioned earlier. 但那个物质完全由轻的气体组成：我们上面提到过的氦、氢和锂。

Not one particle of the heavy stuff so vital to our own being 对于我们的存在至关重要的重物质

carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and all the rest 碳、氮、氧以及其他一切，

emerged from the gaseous² brew³ of creation. 没有一个粒子是宇宙创建过程中产生的气体。

But, and here's the troubling point 但是难点就在这里

to forge these heavy elements, you need the kind of heat and energy of a Big Bang. 若要打造这些重元素，你却非要有大爆炸释放出来的那种热量和能量不可。

Yet there has been only one Big Bang and it didn't produce them. 可是，大爆炸只发生过一次，而那次大爆炸没有产生重元素。

So where did they come from? 因此，它们是从哪儿来的？

Interestingly, the man who found the answer to that question was a cosmologist who heartily⁴ despised the Big Bang as a theory 有意思的是，找到这个问题答案的人却是一位压根儿瞧不起大爆炸理论的宇宙学家，

and coined the term "Big Bang" sarcastically⁵, as a way of mocking it. 他还创造了大爆炸这个词来加以讽刺挖苦。

We'll get to him shortly, but before we turn to the question of how we got here, 我们很快就会讲到他。不过，在讨论我们怎么来到这里之前，

it might be worth taking a few minutes to consider just where exactly "here" is. 我们先花几分钟时间来考虑一下到底什么是"这里"，这也许是很值得的。