A study in the journal Nano Letters shows that the well-known rules of heat transfer from a nonreflective object, called Planck's blackbody radiation law, break down if the object can be brought close enough to another object while still not touching it.

    发表在《纳米快报》（Nano Letters）杂志上的一项研究表明，众所周知的非反射性物体的热传导定律（也称为普朗克黑体辐射定律）在该物体与另外一个物体足够靠近，但仍然不接触时，这个定律就不成立了。

    Century-Old Physics Law Violated

    In 1900 legendary physicist Max Planck described the way energy gets dissipated from any nonreflective object, called a blackbody. But even Max said if something else is really, really close to the object, his law might not hold.

    Now physicists from M.I.T. have finally shown that if you can get another object near enough to the blackbody, but still not touching it, Planck's blackbody radiation law really does break down. Which is good news for you.

    The reseachers had been able to put flat plates a millionth of a meter apart. Which was still too far away to see any effect. But with glass beads, they achieved separations of only 10 billionths of a meter. And the radiation flow was up to a thousand times greater than Planck's law predicts. The study appears in the August issue of the journal Nano Letters.

    It's good news because of potential applications. For example, computer data storage and solar energy devices are all less efficient because of heat buildup. If tinier distances can be achieved in these real-world devices, such waste could be made to walk the plank.

    世纪物理定律不再成立

    1900年传奇物理学家马克斯·普朗克（Max Planck）描述了能量从任意非反射性物体（称为黑体）消散的方式。但是即使是马克斯也曾说到，如果另外一个物体真的和该物体非常接近的话，那么他的定律可能也不成立。

    目前来自麻省理工学院（M.I.T.）的物理学家们最终表明，如果你能让另外一个物体与黑体足够地靠近，但是仍然不接触的话，普朗克黑体辐射定律就真的不成立了。这对你来说是个好消息。

    研究者们曾经使让两个平的薄片处于百万分之一米的距离。但是这个距离还是太远了，以致于不能看到任何的效果。但是，研究者们使用玻璃小珠子，让它们分离的距离在100亿分之一米。这时候辐射流比普朗克定律预测到的要大近1000倍。这项研究发表在8月份的《纳米快报》（Nano Letters）杂志上。

    这是个好消息，因为这个研究具有潜在的应用前景。比如，计算机数据存储以及太阳能器件因为热累积的原因其效率都不高。如果在这些真实器件中让元件之间的距离再减少些，那么这些热损耗可能就能得到利用了。

    Vocabulary:

    Nonreflective:非反射的

    Blackbody:黑体

    Legendary:传奇的

    Dissipate:消散；浪费

    Radiation:辐射

    Potential:潜在的

    Storage:存储

    Solar:太阳能

    Buildup:逐步增加

    Plank:木板