原文开头
The story of the author’s extremely early career By Alan Lightman In late 1957, around my ninth birthday, the Soviet Union launched the world’s first artificial satellite, called Sputnik. I became entranced with the idea of building a rocket of my own. I imagined the lift-off, the graceful arc of the craft as it careened through space. By the age of 13 or 14 I had started mixing my own rocket fuels. A fuel that burned too fast would explode like a bomb; a fuel that burned too slow would smolder like a barbecue grill. I settled on a particular mixture of sulfur, charcoal and potassium nitrate. The body of the rocket, I built out of an aluminum tube. …
摘自《科学美国人》(Scientific American)第335卷 第1期 · 2026年7月刊,Alan Lightman。仅引用开头一小段供了解文章,版权归原刊所有,全文请阅读原刊。