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This week a massive quake off the coast of Chile killed six and forced hundreds of thousands to evacuate in fear of a tsunami.
這周智利沿海一帶的地震造成6人死亡，成百上千人因恐懼海嘯爆發而被疏散。
The shaking evoked memories of the events off the coast of Japan in 2011 that triggered meltdowns at a nuclear power plant that the country is still struggling with.
而這次地震喚醒了人們對于2011年日本沿海地震海嘯爆發引起核電站倒塌熔毀的那段恐怖記憶，而且那個國家至今仍然沒有完全走出那段陰影。
Scientists have long dreamed of ways to predict and even protect regions from such devastation.
科學家們一直以來夢想著找到預測甚至是保護地區免受自然災害的有效途徑。
Now a group of French scientists hopes to help, building on work that showed how light can be manipulated to make objects invisible.
現在一組法國科學家希望能找到可靠的辦法來幫助人們，他們便是利用光使得物體隱形。
The cloaking technique renders an object invisible by bending light of specific frequencies around the target.
這一隱身技術通過將圍繞物體特殊頻率的光線彎曲使得該物體消失。
In theory, the same principles might be used to deflect incoming seismic waves.
理論上講，這種原理也可以用于使得即將到來的地震波發生偏斜。
A precisely tuned array of boreholes around a city or a nuclear power plant that resonate at the frequencies characteristic of quakes could thus dampen the vibrations and shield objects.
在城市或核電站周圍地上通過一系列精確調整過的鉆孔可以起到與即將到來的特征地震波產生共鳴的效果，從而因此起到減震緩沖并且屏蔽物體免受傷害的作用。
The French team's small demo with acoustic waves in soil worked, deflecting the incoming energy around the target area.
這一法國團隊制作的埋于土壤中聲波減震的模擬演示起到了效果，該措施確實將接近目標區域周圍的能量成功偏離原路線。
That research is in the journal Physical Review Letters.
這項研究已在《物理評論信函》雜志上發表。
Of course, that energy still has to go somewhere.
當然，這些到來的能量還是要到達某個地方的。
Should this work pan out, the trick will be to find a way to absorb the massive energy of a major earthquake—or find a better place to send it.
該項研究工作應該是有進展的，訣竅就是找到一種可以吸收大地震帶來的能量的方法—或者是找到另外一個可以安全接受這些能量的地方。
