It's been nearly 80 years since two nuclear bombs were detonated over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing at least 129,000 people, and causing devastating, long-term health effects.

距离2颗原子弹在日本广岛和长崎爆炸已经过了近80年。当时的原子弹爆炸致使至少12.9万人死亡并对人们的健康造成了致命的长期影响。

Detonate：使爆炸、引爆

To date, those are the only instances of nuclear weapons being used for warfare, but the reality is there are roughly 12,700 warheads remaining in the world today. So, what would happen if nuclear war broke out tomorrow?

迄今为止，在战争中使用核武器仅此一例。但实际上，在当今，全球还有大约12.7万个弹头。那么，如果明天爆发了原子战争，又会发生什么呢？

Warhead：弹头

Don't panic – this is just a hypothetical. But in the paper below, the team from AsapSCIENCE breaks down the science of nuclear bombs to predict how likely you'd be to survive. Let's just say, in the case of a nuclear blast, you would want to be wearing white.

不要惊慌-这只是一种假设。在以下的文章中，来自AsapSCIENCE的团队会详细解释核弹的原理并会预测出如何才可以从核爆炸中幸存。这么说吧，如果出现核爆炸，你肯定希望自己穿的是白色的衣服。

First, let's get this out of the way – there is no clear-cut way to estimate the impact of a single nuclear bomb, because it depends on many factors, including the weather on the day it's dropped, the time of day it's detonated, the geographical layout of where it hits, and whether it explodes on the ground or in the air.

首先，让我们来解决第一个问题-没有哪一种方法可以明确预估一个核弹所造成的影响，因为这取决于很多因素，比如投下核弹当天的天气情况，核弹爆炸的时间，核弹落下的地理位置以及核弹是在空气中爆炸还是在落在地面后爆炸。

But, generally speaking, there are some predictable stages of a nuclear bomb blast that can affect the likelihood of your survival. 

但是，总的来说，核弹的某些阶段是可以预测的，而这会影响到你存活的几率。

Approximately 35 percent of the energy of a nuclear blast is released in the form of thermal radiation. Since thermal radiation travels at approximately the speed of light, the first thing that will hit you is a flash of blinding light and heat.

核爆炸所产生的能量中大约有35%会以热辐射的形式排放。由于热辐射的传播速度大约和光速接近，所以首先击中你的就是一道刺眼的光和热。

The light itself is enough to cause something called flash blindness – a usually temporary form of vision loss that can last a few minutes.

这道光足以引起闪光失明-一种临时性的失明，通常会持续几分钟。

flash blindness：闪光失明

The AsapSCIENCE video considers a 1 megaton bomb, which is 80 times larger than the bomb detonated over Hiroshima, but much smaller than many modern nuclear weapons.

 AsapSCIENCE的视频里所介绍的是1百万吨级的炸弹，其比投向广岛的原子弹大80倍，但是要比许多现代化的核武器小得多。

For a bomb that size, people up to 21 km (13 miles) away would experience flash blindness on a clear day, and people up to 85 km (52.8 miles) away would be temporarily blinded on a clear night.

对于一个这样大小的炸弹，远在21km（13英里）以外的人会在晴天遭受闪光失明，而远在85km（52.8英里）外的人则可能在晴朗的夜晚遭受暂时失明。

Heat is an issue for those closer to the blast. Mild, first-degree burns can occur up to 11 km (6.8 miles) away, and third-degree burns – the kind that destroy and blister skin tissue – could affect anyone up to 8 km (5 miles) away. Third-degree burns that cover more than 24 percent of the body would likely be fatal if people don't receive medical care immediately. 

热量对于离爆炸更近的人而言是一个大问题。轻度1级烧伤可能出现在离爆炸11km的地方，而3级烧伤-那种可以破坏并涨破皮肤组织的烧伤可能会影响到距离爆炸8km（5英里）远的任何人。当3级烧伤占身体表面24%以上的面积时，如果不立即接受治疗，则很可能是致命的。

Blister：涨破、爆裂

Those distances are variable, depending not just on the weather, but also on what you're wearing – white clothes can reflect some of the energy of a blast, while darker clothes will absorb it.

上面说到的距离并非一成不变，其具体取决于当天的天气以及你穿着的衣服-白色的衣服可以反射掉部分爆炸所产生的能量，而深色的衣服则会吸收这些能量。

That's unlikely to make much difference for those unfortunate enough to be at the center of the explosion, though.

而对于那些不幸处在爆炸中心地带的人们，则穿什么都不会有太大用处。

The temperatures near the site of the bomb blast during the Hiroshima explosion were estimated to be 300,000 degrees Celsius (540,000 degrees Fahrenheit) – which is roughly 300 times hotter than the temperature bodies are cremated at, so humans were almost instantly reduced to the most basic elements, like carbon.

在广岛原子弹爆炸中，核弹爆炸地附近的温度预计达到了30万摄氏度（54万华氏度）-这大约是焚烧尸体的温度的300倍，因此人几乎会在瞬间被蒸发为最为基本的元素，比如碳。

But for those slightly farther away from the center of the blast, there are other effects to consider aside from heat. The blast of a nuclear explosion also drives air away from the site of the explosion, creating sudden changes in air pressure that can crush objects and knock down buildings.

但是，对于离爆炸中心稍远一些的人而言，除了热能外，还有其他影响。核爆炸会赶走爆炸地的空气，并导致气压突然发生变化并从而可以摧毁物体并掀翻建筑物。

Within a 6-km (3.7-mile) radius of a 1-megaton bomb, blast waves would produce 180 metric tons of force on the walls of all two-story buildings, and wind speeds of 255 km/h (158 mph). In a 1-km (0.6-mile) radius, the peak pressure is four times that amount, and wind speeds can reach 756 km/h (470 mph).

在一个1百万吨炸弹爆炸的半径内（6公里），爆炸波会对一个2层建筑物的墙壁产生180立方吨的力，而风速则可达到255 km/h。在1公里的半径内，峰值压力是上述数值的4倍，而风速则会达到 756 km/h。

Technically, humans can withstand that much pressure, but most people would be killed by falling buildings.

从技术上讲，人类是可以承受这么大的压力的，但是绝大多数人可能会被倾倒的建筑物砸死。

If you somehow survive all of that, there's still the radiation poisoning to deal with – and the nuclear fallout. AsapSCIENCE touches on this in the video above, but the ongoing effects on the planet are longer-lasting than you might expect.

如果您有幸躲过了上述的影响，那么还要面对辐射中毒和核爆炸微粒沉降。 AsapSCIENCE 在上面的视频中已经谈到了这一点，但是这对地球的持续影响要比你所认为的要长。

radiation poisoning：辐射中毒/辐射病

For example, a simulation study published in 2019 found that a nuclear war between the United States and Russia would plunge Earth into a nuclear winter within days, due to the levels of smoke and soot released into the atmosphere.

比如说，在2019年发表的模拟研究发现，如果美国和俄罗斯之间发生核战争，则地球会由于高浓度的烟雾和粉尘排入大气而在数天内形成核冬天。

We also know that radioactive particles can travel remarkably far; a recent study found that remnants of radioactive carbon from Cold War nuclear bomb tests have been found all the way down in the Mariana Trench, the deepest point of the world's oceans.

我们还知道放射性粒子可以传播得非常远。最近的研究发现，冷战期间原子弹试验所产生的放射性碳的残余物还可以在马里亚纳海沟中找到，而马里亚纳海沟是世界上最深的海洋。

Again, all of this is hypothetical – there are international treaties in place to stop the spread and use of nuclear weapons, so we hope you never need to know any of this information for real.

再次申明，所有这一切均为假设-目前我们还有阻止核武器扩散和使用的国际公约，所以我们希望您永远不需要真的了解任何这类信息。

文章来源：ScienceAlert

翻译&编辑：上海译锐翻译