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The term supernova was coined in the 1930s by a memorably odd astrophysicist named Fritz Zwicky. Born in Bulgaria and raised in Switzerland, Zwicky came to the California Institute of Technology in the 1920s and there at once distinguished himself by his abrasive personality and erratic talents.
超新星這個名字，是一位脾氣極其古怪的天文物理學家在20世紀30年代創造的，他的名字叫弗里茨·茲威基。他出生在保加利亞，在瑞士長大，20世紀20年代來到加州理工學院，很快以粗暴的性格和卓越的才華聞名遐邇。
He didn't seem to be outstandingly bright, and many of his colleagues considered him little more than "an irritating buffoon." A fitness buff, he would often drop to the floor of the Caltech dining hall or other public areas and do one-armed pushups to demonstrate his virility to anyone who seemed inclined to doubt it.
他似乎并不特別聰明，他的許多同事認為他只不過是個"惱人的小丑"。他是個健身狂，經常會撲倒在加州理工學院飯廳或別的公共場所的地板上做單臂俯臥撐，向任何表示懷疑的人顯示他的男子氣概。
He was notoriously aggressive, his manner eventually becoming so intimidating that his closest collaborator, a gentle man named Walter Baade, refused to be left alone with him. Among other things, Zwicky accused Baade, who was German, of being a Nazi, which he was not. On at least one occasion Zwicky threatened to kill Baade, who worked up the hill at the Mount Wilson Observatory, if he saw him on the Caltech campus.
他咄咄逼人，最后變得如此氣勢洶洶，連他最親密的合作者--性格溫和的沃爾特·巴德--也不愿意跟他單獨在一起。茲威基還指責巴德是個納粹分子，因為他是德國人。其實，他不是。巴德在山上的威爾遜山天文臺工作。茲威基不止一次揚言，要是他在加州理工學院校園里碰上，他要把巴德殺了。
