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And his fancy equipment did in fact come in very handy. For years, he and Madame Lavoisier occupied themselves with extremely exacting studies requiring the finest measurements. They determined, for instance, that a rusting object doesn't lose weight, as everyone had long assumed, but gains weight—an extraordinary discovery. Somehow as it rusted the object was attracting elemental particles from the air. It was the first realization that matter can be transformed but not eliminated. If you burned this book now, its matter would be changed to ash and smoke, but the net amount of stuff in the universe would be the same. This became known as the conservation of mass, and it was a revolutionary concept.
他的想像力實際上是得來全不費工夫的。多年來，他和拉瓦錫太太一直在忙于艱苦的研究工作，那些研究要求最精密的計算。比如，他們確定，生銹的物體不會像大家長期以來認為的那樣變輕，而會變重——這是一項了不起的發現。物體在生銹的過程中以某種方式從空氣中吸引基本粒子。認識到物質只會變形，不會消失，這還是第一次。假如你現在把這本書燒了，它的物質會變成灰和煙，但物質在宇宙中的總量不會改變。后來，這被稱之為物質不滅，是一個革命性的理念。
Unfortunately, it coincided with another type of revolution—the French one—and for this one Lavoisier was entirely on the wrong side.
不幸的是，它恰好與另一場革命——法國大革命——同時發生，而在這場革命中，拉瓦錫完全站錯了隊。
Not only was he a member of the hated Ferme Generale, but he had enthusiastically built the wall that enclosed Paris—an edifice so loathed that it was the first thing attacked by the rebellious citizens. Capitalizing on this, in 1791 Marat, now a leading voice in the National Assembly, denounced Lavoisier and suggested that it was well past time for his hanging. Soon afterward the Ferme Generale was shut down. Not long after this Marat was murdered in his bath by an aggrieved young woman named Charlotte Corday, but by this time it was too late for Lavoisier.
他不但是稅務總公司的一名成員，而且勁頭十足地修建過巴黎的城墻——起義的市民們對該建筑物厭惡之極，首先攻打的就是這東西。1791年，這時候已經是國民議會中一位重要人物的馬拉利用了這一點，對拉瓦錫進行譴責，認為他早該被絞死。過不多久，馬拉在洗澡時被一名受迫害的年輕女子殺害，她的名字叫夏洛特·科黛，但這對拉瓦錫來說已經為時太晚。
