原文取自： http://www.universetoday.com/2008/01/03/setihome-needs-you/ written by Nancy Atkinson SETI@home Needs You! SETI@home需要你 If your New Year’s resolutions include trying something new, expanding your horizons, or doing something to benefit humanity, this is for you: SETI@home needs more volunteers to help crunch data in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI). And the easy part is that your desktop computer does all the work. 如果你的新年新希望包括尝试些新东西、扩展你的视野，或作些有益於人类 的事，这正是你想要的：SETI@home急需更多志愿者来处理搜寻外星生命的资料。 简单的是，你的桌上型电脑就能完成所有差事。 SETI uses radio telescopes to listen for narrow band-width radio signals from space. Since these signals don’t occur naturally, a detection of such a signal would indicate technology from an extraterrestrial source. SETI计画利用电波望远镜聆听来自太空的窄波段电波讯号。由於这些讯号不会 自然产生，若侦测到它们，就表示可能来自於地球外的科技。 The SETI project at the University of California-Berkley gets data from world's largest radio telescope in Arecibo, Puerto Rico, which has recently been updated with seven new and more sensitive receivers. The improved frequency coverage for the telescope is now generating 500 times more data for the SETI project than before, and more volunteers are needed to handle the increase in data. 由加州大学柏克莱分校主持的SETI计画，从位於波多黎各阿雷锡波的电波望远镜 获取资料。这个世界最大的电波望远镜最近又新增了七个更加敏锐的接收器。 改进後的频率涵盖范围所产生的资料是原先的五百倍，也更需要志愿者来处理暴 增的资料。 According to project scientist Eric Korpela, the new data amounts to 300 gigabytes per day, or 100 terabytes (100,000 gigabytes) per year, about the amount of data stored in the U.S. Library of Congress. "That's why we need all the volunteers," he said. "Everyone has a chance to be part of the largest public participation science project in history." 计画科学家艾利克‧柯佩拉 (Eric Korpela) 表示，新资料的份量每天可达三千亿 位元组，或每年一百兆位元组，相当於美国国会图书馆所储存的资料总量。「所以 我们需要更多志愿者，」他说：「每个人都有机会参与史上最大的公众科学计画。」 The SETI@home premise is simple but brilliant: Instead of using a monstrously huge and expensive supercomputer to analyze all the data, it uses lots of small computers, all working simultaneously on different parts of the analysis. Participants download a special screensaver for their home computers, and when the computer is idle, the screensaver kicks in to grab data from UC Berkley, analyze the data and send back a report. SETI@home was launched in May of 1999. SETI@home的概念简单又高明：它不用庞大又昂贵的超级电脑来分析资料，而是改由 许多小电脑同时处理不同的部份。参与者只需在家用电脑下载一个特别的萤幕保护 程式，当电脑闲置时，萤幕保护程式便会从柏克莱加大读取数据，分析并回传结果。 SETI@home自1999年五月开始营运。 The SETI@home software has now been upgraded to deal with all the new data generated by the updated Arecibo telescope. The telescope can now record radio signals from seven regions of the sky simultaneously instead of just one. It also has greater sensitivity and 40 times more frequency coverage. 现在SETI@home软体已升级，能处理更新後的阿雷锡波望远镜的资料。望远镜目前已 可同时记录来自七个不同天空区域的电波讯号。它也拥有更强的灵敏度，及四十倍的 频率涵盖范围。 So, if the phrase “to search out new life and new civilizations” inspires you, here’s your chance to be part of the largest community of dedicated users of any internet computing project. Currently SETI@home has 170,000 individuals donating time on 320,000 computers. 所以，如果这句台词「找寻新的生命，及新的文明」激励了你，这是你参与最大的 网路运算计画社群的绝佳良机。目前SETI@home包含十一万名使用者及其所贡献的 三十二万部电脑。 "Earthlings are just getting started looking at the frequencies in the sky; we're looking only at the cosmically brightest sources, hoping we are scanning the right radio channels," said project chief scientist Dan Werthimer. "The good news is, we're entering an era when we will be able to scan billions of channels. Arecibo is now optimized for this kind of search, so if there are signals out there, we or our volunteers will find them." 「人们对来自太空中波频的调查才刚起步；我们目前只注意宇宙中最亮的源， 并期望所看的是正确的电波频道。好消息是，我们正迈入一个可扫瞄亿万个 频道的新时代，而阿雷锡波现在已可有效进行此类搜寻。所以，若真有讯号 存在，我们或这些志愿者将会找到它们。」计划首席科学家丹‧魏席玛 (Dan Werthimer) 说。 --

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