我們死后，我們的原子會怎樣

文◎Dave Consiglo 譯◎小梨同學 繪◎馬豆子

我們死后，我們的原子會怎樣

What Kind of Life Will Our Atoms Live after Ours Is Over

文◎Dave Consiglo 譯◎小梨同學 繪◎馬豆子

You are only here temporarily①temporarily 英 ['temp(?)r(?r)?l?] 美 ['t?mp?,r?rili] adv. 臨時地，臨時, but most of the atoms in your body are forever. We will deal with the tiny exception at the end of the answer, but let's look at what happens to most of you:

You die. I'm very sorry.

You are either buried (embalmed②embalm 英 [?m'bɑ?m; em-] 美 [?m'bɑm] vt. 銘記于心；使不朽；防腐；使充滿香氣or not) or burned. There are a few other options, but they are rare.

If you are buried, your soft tissues③tissue 英 ['t??u?; 't?sju?] 美 ['t??u] n. 組織；紙巾；薄紗；一套vt. 飾以薄紗；用化妝紙揩去are eventually eaten by bacteria④bacteria 英 [b?k't??r??] 美 [b?k't?r??] n. 細菌and small organisms⑤organism 英 ['??g(?)n?z(?)m] 美 ['?rɡ?n?z?m] n. 有機體；生物體；微生物. Much of that becomes carbon dioxide⑥carbon dioxide 二氧化碳, and the rest becomes the bodies of these organisms or their children.

If you are burned, your soft tissues are consumed by oxygen and mostly turned into carbon dioxide, water, and some nitrogen⑦nitrogen 英 ['na?tr?d?(?)n] 美 ['na?tr?d??n] n. [化學] 氮and sulfur oxides.

In both cases, though, the long term destination for those chemicals is the biosphere. You become food for otherorganisms.

Even your bones decay, albeit much more slowly. The calcium⑧calcium 英 ['k?ls??m] 美 ['k?ls??m] n. [化學] 鈣and phosphorus in bones will be incorporated into plants.

Some day the plants will be consumed by animals. Those animals will eventually die, be consumed, and cycle through the biosphere over and over again.

Eventually, tiny bits of you will end up in your great grandchildren’s corn fl akes or pork chop.

You really WILL live on - in the life on this planet.

Oh, the exception: radioactive elements. You don't have many, but a few of your elements will decay into other elements before entering the biosphere. Radioactive potassium will turn into calcium. Tiny amounts of thorium and uranium will eventually become lead. With most of this decay, the new elements formed stay here on earth.

But with that last set, helium is formed. Earth's gravity isn't strong enough to hold helium, and so tiny bits of what once was you will fl oat off into space.

Some will be captured by the sun and Jupiter. A little will escape the solar system and drift off to the stars.

Your atoms have an exciting life after yours is over!

你在這個地球上只是暫時逗留，而你身體里大多數的原子則是永遠。我會在文中最后的部分說一下那一小撮，現在先說說那些大多數：

你掛了，深表遺憾。

你抑或是被埋入土里（防腐處理，或者沒有），抑或是焚燒成灰。可能還有其他的做法，但畢竟只是少數。

如果你被埋，身體里的軟組織會被細菌和微生物吃掉，很多轉化為二氧化碳，其他的部分會成為它們身體的一部分，或者是它們的孩子。

如果你被焚燒了，你體內的軟組織會和氧氣反應，變成二氧化碳、水和一些氮、硫氧化物。

就算是這兩種情況，這些化學物質都會慢慢去到最后的目的地：生物圈。你將會成為其他生物的養料。

盡管很慢，你的骨頭也終會被降解。骨頭里的鈣和磷會被植物吸收。

某一天，植物會被動物吃掉，這些動物最后也會死去，被腐蝕，原子們在生物圈中周而復始，長此以往。

最終，你的每一小部分或許會成為你外孫早餐里的玉米片或是午餐里的豬排肉。

你的確會在這顆星球上永遠存在，在這些生命之中。

噢，差點忘了，有個例外是放射性元素。你身體里不會有很多，它們在進入生物圈之前會衰變成其他的元素。放射性的鉀會變成鈣。一丟丟的釷和鈾會成為鉛。因為有這種衰變，新的元素會形成，然后永久地在地球上安居。

但還有最后的一小部分，氦氣會形成。地球的重力還不足以留住它們，這曾是你身體一部分的氦會飛入宇宙。

這些氦氣可能會被太陽和木星捕捉，另外一小部分則會逃離太陽系，去往下一站星系。

話說，你走之后，你的原子們真的過得頗為精彩呢！