今天,“激波”这个字眼,不论从比喻上或者从字面本来意义上都被广泛使用着。我们每天看报,看到有一件惊心动魄的事件发生时,就说“它把激波传遍全世界”。幸好,这种情况瞬时造成的实际损害,比起自然界的激波,如闪电、火山爆发、陨星撞击、地震,以及由化学武器和核武器产生的人造激波所造成的实际损害要小。 虽然如此,我们决不能认为激波和爆炸只会引起破坏,因为如果没有激波和爆炸,便不会有宇宙和生命本身的演化。据我们所知,宇宙被认为是由一次空前的最大爆发,即大爆炸所创造出来的。虽然这个科学模型不象《圣经》的《创世纪》中所描绘的那样具有戏剧性和神奇性,但它还是解释了许多重要的科学观察现象。地球上的生命,茫茫宇宙 Today, the term “shock wave” is widely used both in metaphor and in literal sense. When we read a newspaper every day and saw a thrilling incident, we said “it spreads the shock waves all over the world.” Fortunately, the instantaneous damage caused by this situation is less serious than the natural shocks such as lightning, volcanic eruptions, meteorite strikes, earthquakes and man-made shocks caused by chemical and nuclear weapons. Nonetheless, we must not assume that shocks and explosions can only cause destruction, because there can be no evolution of the universe and life itself without shocks and explosions. To our knowledge, the universe is thought to have been created by an unprecedented explosion, the Big Bang. Although this scientific model is not as dramatic or magical as the one depicted in The Bible’s Genesis, it explains many important scientific observations. Life on earth, vast universe