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Scientific Career
科研事业
While he was earning his degrees and moving his way up the academic ladder, Tyson was publishing articles and writing a column for StarDate, a science magazine published by the University of Texas. While he was attending Columbia, he worked under a professor who was supportive of Tyson's ambitions and intellect, applying for grants that gave Tyson access to the international astronomy community. Tyson traveled throughout Europe, attending meetings and learning from the best and brightest in the field around the world.
当泰森在攻读学位、攀登学术高峰时，他还在发表文章、为得克萨斯大学出版的科学杂志《行星数据》某专栏撰稿。泰森在哥伦比亚大学就读时，他在一个教授手下干活，这个教授很对泰森的志向和才学都给予了肯定，为他申请了帮助他打入国际天文学界的助学金。泰森走遍了欧洲，参加了多场会议，从该领域的各国顶尖人才身上学到了许多东西。
And Tyson's own star was starting to rise ... soon after graduating from Columbia he landed his dream job ... a position at the very Hayden Planetarium where his dreams had started. He started out as a staff scientist. It was only one year before he was named Acting Director of the planetarium. Then, only one more year until he was formally named the director of the Planetarium. Early on in his tenure as director, he made updating and modernizing the facility a keystone of his work at Hayden. The project was a 200 million dollar undertaking that gave the public a modernized, inviting look at the vastness of the universe.
泰森的星途有了开端……从哥伦比亚大学毕业后不久，他就获得了自己的理想职业……也就是在他梦想起航的地方——海登天文馆工作。他先从一名科研人员做起。一年之后，他就被任命为天文馆代理馆长。又过了一年，他被正式任命为天文馆馆长。在他刚任馆长时，更新设备是他的工作重点。该项目耗资2亿美元，它让公众能够用富有吸引力的现代化设施来欣赏浩瀚的宇宙。
And his work extended well beyond the Planetarium. In 2001, he received a presidential appointment to work on policies related to the future of the U.S. space industry. After that, he was part of a commission to work on the future of space exploration. His service on these commissions was so impressive that NASA gave him the "Distinguished Public Service Medal."
他的工作并没有局限在天文馆。2001年，他受到总统邀请制定关乎美国航空业未来的政策。之后，他加入了致力于研究太空探索的未来的委员会。他在这些委员会的工作表现十分出色，以至于NASA授予了他“杰出公共服务奖章”。
Tyson's scientific work, as well as decisions he made about the Hayden Planetarium put him into the spotlight for the general public, well beyond just those in the scientific community. He became a household name because of one decision in particular. What did he do? He removed the planet of Pluto from the Planetarium's solar system display. Schoolchildren, parents, and scientists alike were not impressed with his decision. And soon became about more than that one Planetarium's display.
泰森的科学事业以及他作出更新天文馆设备的决定令他成为公众的焦点，远远超过科学界的其他人。而且，因为一个决定，他的名字变得家喻户晓。他做了什么事呢？他将冥王星从天文馆的太阳系展示区移除了。学生、家长和科学家都觉得这个决定不是很好。没过多久，其他天文馆展示区也开始效仿。
Pluto's fate was taken up by an international organization ... the International Astronomical Union. In August of 2006 the organization made their agreement with Tyson's stance on Pluto official when they deemed Pluto a dwarf planet, officially knocking our solar system down to only 8 planets. So what does Tyson maintain is so wrong with Pluto? For one, it has the potential to grow a tail. What? Yes, a tail.
冥王星的命运最终由国际天文学联合会决定。2006年8月，该组织和泰森在冥王星问题上的立场达成协议，官方认为冥王星是矮行星，并将太阳系中的行星缩减为8个。泰森为什么要把冥王星从九大行星中移除？一方面，它有长尾巴的可能性。什么？是的，尾巴。
Here's the explanation from Tyson himself: "So Pluto is not only the littlest planet, all right, that alone shouldn't hurt it, but more than half of its volume is ice. No other planet has that. So if you moved it to where Earth is right now, heat from the sun would evaporate the ice and it would grow a tail. That's no kind of behavior for a planet!" Add to that, Pluto's orbit is much more elongated than that of the other planets, and it's so small that other planets have moons that are larger than Pluto.
泰森是这么解释的：“冥王星不仅是最小的行星，仅凭这一点是不能伤害它的，但它体积的一多半都是冰。其他行星都不是这样的。如果把它挪到现在地球所在的位置，太阳带来的热量就会使冰消失，然后它就会长尾巴。这不是行星能发生的变化！”此外，冥王星绕太阳公转的轨道比其他行星要长，而且冥王星太小了，连月球都比它大。
Though the Pluto decision was perhaps the most famous - some would say infamous - scientific assertion of Tyson's career, he has published articles, essays, and books that discuss much more than the demotion of a planet.
虽然将冥王星移出九大行星的决定可能是泰森事业中的最有名的科学论断——有些人说是最臭名昭著的论断——但他也发表了多篇文章和论文，而且还出了书。他讨论的主题远远超过一颗行星的降级。
He wrote for Natural History magazine in the 1990s, and his columns were turned into two different books, Death By Black Hole and Astrophysics for People in a Hurry. He chose the pen name of Merlin for himself when he wrote a column in the StarDate magazine, and those columns were also published as books.
上世纪90年代，他为《自然史》杂志撰稿，他的专栏文章后来出了两本书，分别为《死亡黑洞》和《给忙碌者的天体物理学》。他在为《行星数据》杂志的专栏撰稿时给自己起了个笔名，名叫“梅林”，而且这些专栏文章后来也出版成书。
