electric tales--21st century books
1. it may be the last book you'll ever buy. and certainly, from a practical standpoint, it will be the only book you'll ever need. no, it's not the bible or some new age tome promising enlightenment--although it would let you carry around both texts simultaneously. it's an electronic book--a single volume that could contain a library of information or, if your tastes run toward what's current, every title on today's best-seller list. and when you're done with those, you could refill it with new titles.
2. why an electronic book? computers can store a ton of data and their laptop companions make all that information portable. true enough. but laptops and similar portable information devices require a lot of power--and heavy batteries--to keep their lcd screens operating. and lcds are not easy to read in the bright light of the sun.
3. the fact is, when it comes to portability, easy viewing, and low power requirements, it's hard to beat plain old paper.
4. so let's make the ink electronic.
5. that's the deceptively simple premise behind a project currently coming to fruition at the massachusetts institute of technology. some hurdles--mostly having to do with large-scale manufacturing--remain, so it will be a few years before you see an electronic book for sale in stores. but the basic technology already exists, developed at the institute's media lab by a team led by physicist joe jacobson.
6. simply put, each paper page in an electronic book is coated with millions of microscopic particles encased in tiny capsules. each of these microcapsules can respond independently to an electrical charge: particles within the capsule moving to the rear appear dark while those moving toward the front look white. the direction in which the particles move depends upon whether a negative (dark) or positive (white) charge is applied. each microcapsule is about 40 microns in size (that's a little less than half the thickness of a human hair ).
7. the number of microcapsules used on a given page is enormous. for instance, about 1,000 microcapsules might be used to create the letter "a" on this page. "the smaller the size of the letter the more micro-capsules you use," says jacobson, "thereby improving resolution." the target is to have a "paper display" with a resolution higher than that offered by today's computer screens. more than static letters is at stake. theoretically, the microcapsules could be programmed to "flip" rapidly between dark and white states, providing, for example, a sense of motion in a diagram showing how a car works.
8. thanks to electronic ink, the book essentially typesets itself, receiving instructions for each page via electronics housed in the spine. from a power standpoint, this process makes the electronic book very efficient. unlike an lcd screen, which uses power all the time, energy is no longer needed to view the electronic book's pages once they are typeset. only a small battery would be required, as opposed to the large ones needed to power laptop computers and their lcds.
9. convenience, though, is still the main attraction--and that means more than simple portability. because the information is in electronic form, it can be easily manipulated. you could, for instance, make the type larger for easier reading. or you could make notes in the margin with a stylus, your observations being stored on tiny, removable flash-memory cards in the spine.
10. it's likely that electronic books will come pre-loaded with a selection of titles. new titles could be made available through flash-memory cards, for example. jacobson, though, thinks the intemet will be the delivery method of choice. imagine browsing through an online bookstore like www. amazon, com. and downloading a novel into your electronic book via the modem in its spine. transmitting moby dick would take about a minute. you could download a few titles, so you'll have a few good reads to choose from while you're relaxing at the beach. if your first choice is not to your liking, a new title becomes available at the push of a button.
11. jacobson thinks an electronic book will be affordable--around $200 for a basic read-only model to about $400 for one that would record your margin scribbles. some hurdles remain, though, before you can take an electronic book with you anywhere. paper is produced in long sheets, and jacobson is still working on the best method to integrate electronic ink into that process. to avoid having to use thousands of tiny wires on each page, the ink itself must be conductive. such ink was recently demonstrated in the lab but has yet to be produced in volume. "essentially," notes jacobson, "we're trying to print chips."
12. jacobson is confident, however, that this can be done on a large scale. if jacobson succeeds, he will have made the book for the 21 st century.
参考译文：21世纪的电子书籍
1．这可能是你将要购买的最后一本书。当然，从实用的角度来看，这也 是你需要的唯一书本。不过，这既不是单本《圣经》，也不是某一本会给人以 启迪的新时代巨著——尽管它能使你随身同时携带这两类书的内容。这是一 本电子书籍——一本能容纳一个图书馆信息资料的书：或者，假如你喜欢追 求新潮的话，它可以囊括当今畅销书目中所有篇名和内容。而且当你看完这 些内容时，你可以重新载入一寸比新的书籍。
2．为什么要有一‘本电子书籍呢?电脑可以储存大量的数据资料，而且便 携式电脑使所有资料便于携带。这是事实。然而便携电脑及类似的便携式信 息物件需要大量电源——笨重的电池——才能使液晶显示屏工作，而且液晶 显示屏在明亮的阳光下读看很费力。
3．事实上，谈到轻便、易读和低耗，它很难胜过旧式普通纸张。
4．所以，我们要让油墨电子化。
5．简单地说，这似乎就是麻省理工学院一项科研项目的前提，该项目近 来已取得成果。但有些难题——大多同规模生产有关——仍然没有得到解决， 所以，还得再过几年，你才能看到电子书籍在书店里出售。但是基本技术业 已具备，它是由该学院传播媒介实验室的物理学家乔·雅各布森为首的小组 研制出来的。
6．简而言之，电子书的每一页纸上都配有数以百万计用微小胶囊包着的 显微粒子，每个显微小囊都能独立地对一个电荷发生反应，小囊内的微粒向 后移动呈黑色，向前移动则呈白色。显微粒子移动的方向取决于加上正电荷 (白色)还是负电荷(黑色)。每个显微小囊大小约为40微米(不到人发粗 细的一半)。
7．一个电子书页上使用的小囊数量巨大，例如，在这种书页上要写出字 母“a”要占用大约1000个小囊。“字母越小，用的小囊越多”，雅各布森说，“这样可以提高分辨率。”他们的目标是制造一种分辨率比现今电脑显示屏分 辨率更高的“纸显示器”。成问题的不仅仅是静态字母显示。从理论上讲，这 些显微小囊可按照程序编排，使其黑白状态快速“跳动”，产生一种象汽车工 作原理图解那样的动感。
8．有了电子油墨，电子书即可通过内置于书脊的电子元件接收发给每一 页的指令，基本—i二是自行排版。从电源的角度看，这种方法可以极大地提高 电子书的工作效率。液晶显示屏时时都离刁二开电源，而电子书则不然，一旦 排好版，阅读电子书页便不再需要电源。电子书籍只需一个小电池，而便携 式电脑及其液晶显示则需要较大电池供电。
9．不过便捷仍是该书的主要魅力——这就是说电子书不只是携带方便。 由寸：信息采用电子形式，因此可以进行自如操作。例如，为便于阅读，你可 以把字体放大一些。你还可以用尖笔在空白处作批注，这些批注储存在书脊 中可以随时装卸的微型的瞬时储存卡上。
10。电子书的发展趋势是，预装了一些书籍，而新的书籍可以通过瞬时储 存卡等元件加载。不过，雅各布森认为人们会选择因特网作为传输手段。试 设想刘览一家在线书店，如www．amazon．com，并通过内置于书脊的调制解 调器将一部小说下载到你的电子书里。下载一部《莫拜·迪克》只要花一分 钟左右。你可以下载几本书，以便在海滩消遣时有好书可读。要是开始所选 的书不爱读，只要轻触按钮，即可另选新书。
11．雅各布森认为电子书一‘般人都能买得起，一本普通的只读型电子书约 200美元左右，一本可在边缘随意批注的电子书约400美元左右。尽管如此，要把一本电子书随身携带，尚有困难。现在生产的纸是单张长条形的，雅各 布森仍在研究电子油墨同纸生产流程相统一的最佳方法。为了避免每一页上 使用繁多的微型导线，油墨本身必须能够导电。这种油墨最近在实验室演示 过，但距批量生产尚需时日。雅各布森指出：“从根本上说，我们是在印制芯 片。”
12．不过，对于这种产品的批量生产，雅各布森充满信心。如果雅各布森能够成功，他便成了21世纪新型书籍的发明者。