9
F
Fluorine
18.9984

The Message
信息

The John Birch Society was right. Fluoridation is a plot. Not of Communists, however.
约翰·伯奇协会是对的。往饮用水里加氟的确是个阴谋。但是，不是共产主义者们干的。

Toothpaste, it turns out, is a virus from outer space.
事实证明，牙膏是一种来自外太空的病毒。

Impossibly distant, wonderfully evolved aliens detected our existence long eons ago. Benevolent creatures of ethereal purity, they resolved to do what they could to improve our lives. At enormous cost, they devised viral messengers of great subtlety and launched them across the void.
在遥不可及的外星上，进化出色的外星人早在很久以前就发现了我们的存在。他们是仁慈纯洁的生物，因此决心尽其所能改善我们的生活。他们付出了巨大的代价，设计出了非常细微的病毒使者，并将其发射到真空中。

For a million years, the dust floated between stars. Hominids emerged from the African veldt and, as foreseen, built civilizations. Finally, in the late 1950s and early 1960s, the viral messengers arrived, floating down unnoticed from the night sky.
一百万年来，尘埃在恒星之间漂浮。原始人类从非洲草原发源，并且如外星人们所预见的那样建立了文明。最终，在20世纪50年代末和60年代初，病毒使者到达了，从夜空中不被注意地飘落下来。

Nanomachines unpacked themselves. Insights spontaneously blossomed within human brains. By a series of what seemed logical decisions, fluoride was introduced into the drinking water.
纳米机器自行打开包装。洞察力自动在人脑中迸发。在一系列看似合理的决定之后，氟化物被引入到饮用水中。

Unfortunately, the aliens had conquered their baser instincts so long ago that they had completely forgotten about war, racism, aggression, and all the myriad woes we humans bring upon ourselves. These they could easily have cured. But they knew nothing of them. So they gave us the greatest gift they could think of.
不幸的是，外星人早已征服了他们的卑鄙本能，以至于他们完全忘记了战争、种族主义、侵略以及种种人类自身所带来的祸患。这些他们本来也可以治愈的。但是他们对此一无所知。因此，他们给了我们他们能想到的最伟大的礼物。

The purpose of fluoridation is to prevent tooth decay.
氟化的目的是防止蛀牙。