我10歲的女兒寶琳娜某日就寢前突然頭疼。幾分鐘後，她說：「房間裡的每一件東西看來都很小。」

I suddenly remembered: When I was young, I too would sometimes see things as if they were at the wrong end of a telescope, usually when I had a fever or was nervous. The episodes could last from a few minutes to an hour, but faded as I grew older.

我突然想起來。我小時候偶爾也會覺得好像每一件東西的大小都不對，而且通常在我發燒或緊張時。這些情形可能持續幾分鐘到一個小時，並隨我年齡漸長而逐漸消失。

The condition, as I have since learned, is called Alice in Wonderland Syndrome. Episodes usually include micropsia (objects appear small) or macropsia (objects appear large). Some sufferers perceive their own body parts to be larger or smaller.

我此後得知，這種症狀名為「愛麗絲夢遊仙境症候群」，主要症狀通常包括視物顯小症與視物顯大症。部分患者會覺得自己身體的某一部分變大或變小。

Dr. John Todd, a British psychiatrist, gave the disorder its name in a 1955 paper, noting that the misperceptions resemble Lewis Carroll’s descriptions of what happened to Alice. It’s also known as Todd’s Syndrome.

英國精神病學家陶德在1955年發表的研究報告中為這種症狀取了前述名稱。他指出，這種錯覺符合英國作家路易斯•卡羅對愛麗絲眼中所見景象的描述。它也稱「陶德症候群」。

Its possible triggers are infections, migraine, stress and drugs, particularly some cough medicines. Epilepsy and stroke were sometimes linked as well, the researchers said. Some even believe that Lewis Carroll, who described his migraines in his journal, may have suffered from it.

可能的原因包括感染、偏頭痛、壓力與藥物，尤其是某些咳嗽藥。研究人員說，癲癇與中風有時也有關係。部分人士甚至認為，卡羅曾經在他的日記中描述自己的偏頭痛，可能也曾經面臨同樣的困擾。

Alice in Wonderland Syndrome is not an optical problem or a hallucination. Instead, it is most likely caused by a change in the brain’s parietal lobe, which processes perceptions of the environment. Some specialists consider it a type of aura, a sensory warning preceding a migraine. And the doctors confirmed that i t usually goes away by adulthood.

「愛麗絲夢遊仙境症候群」不是視力問題或幻覺。它極可能是大腦的頂葉出現變化所引起。頂葉負責處理對周遭環境的感覺。部分專家認為，它是一種預兆，是偏頭痛出現之前的一種感覺預警。醫學界已經證實，它通常會在當事人成年後消失。

Several neurologists have done M.R.I.s on patients with the condition, though once the bout has passed, there’s usually no sign of unusual brain activity.

部分神經科專家曾對有這種症狀的病人做磁振造影（MRI）掃描，可是症狀消失後大腦通常不會出現活動異常的徵兆。

Dr. Sheena Aurora, a neurologist and migraine specialist at Stanford University in California, was the first to do an M.R.I. scan of the brain of someone — a 12-year-old girl — in the middle of an episode.

席娜•奧洛拉是加州史丹福大學的神經科醫師兼偏頭痛專家，是第一個對出現幻覺時的病患做大腦MRI掃描的專家，病患是個12歲的女孩。

According to Dr. Aurora’s 2008 report, electrical activity caused abnormal blood flow in the parts of the brain that control vision and process texture, shape and size.

奧洛拉在她2008年發表的報告中指出，電的活動足以使大腦一些部位血液流動異常，這些部位負責控制視覺並處理質地、形狀及大小。

Dr. Grant Liu, a pediatric neuro- opthalmologist at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, said his research into the syndrome shows that even small changes to the brain can yield dramatic effects. When those areas involved in determining size, shape and distance malfunction, he said, “the resulting visual experience can be extraordinary.”

費城兒童醫院小兒神經眼科專家葛蘭特•劉表示，他對這種症狀進行研究後發現，大腦的細微變化也可能產生很大的效應。他說，一旦涉及判斷大小、形狀與距離的大腦部位機能失常，可能就會產生「十分特別的視覺經驗」。

Dr. Liu said 33 percent of 48 cases he studied were traced to an infection, 6 percent to migraine and another 6 percent to head trauma. Otherwise, no cause was found.

劉醫師說，他研究的48個個案33%與感染有關，6%與偏頭痛有關，6%與頭部傷害有關。其他案例則查不到原因。

A quarter of the subjects eventually developed migraines, Dr. Liu also found.

他還說，四分之一的病人最後出現偏頭痛的問題。

Dr. Liu said it took time for family members of those studied to admit that they too had the syndrome, which leads him to believe that it may be more widespread than people think. Indeed, I soon discovered my 14-year-old son, Dean, had episodes for years — though he had never mentioned it .

劉醫師表示，必須花費相當時間才能讓這些個案當事人的家人承認，他們自己也有同樣的症狀。他因此認為，這個問題可能比人們所想像的還要普遍。的確，我很快就發現，我14歲的兒子狄恩雖然從未提起，卻曾經多年承受相同的困擾。

“A lot of family members didn’t own up to it on the first go-round,” said Dr. Liu. “They were almost too embarrassed. People want to be told that they’re not crazy.”

他說：「許多病人的家屬最初不承認。他們幾乎感到太難為情。人們希望別人說，他們並未發狂。」

它已在太空孤獨漂泊17年。這艘太空船在迪斯可盛行的時代發射，1997年關閉，如今即將重回當初遺棄它的文明的懷抱。

A group of civilians headquartered in a decommissioned McDonald’s have reached out and made contact with it — a long-distance handshake that was the first step toward snaring it back into Earth orbit. The zombie spaceship is coming home.

一群以一間廢棄麥當勞餐廳為總部的民間人士已經與它搭上線。這種長距離握手是將它引回地球軌道的第一步。這艘僵屍太空船要回家囉。

After 36 years in space the International Sun-Earth Explorer- 3 appears to be in good working order. The main challenge, the engineers say, is commanding it. Its fragmented operating manual is sometimes contradictory.

「國際太陽-地球探險家3號」（ISEE-3）太空船進入太空已36年，狀況似乎還很好。工程師說，主要挑戰在於如何指揮它。它不完整的操作手冊裡時有矛盾。

“We call ourselves techno-archaeologists,” said Dennis Wingo, an engineer and entrepreneur who, along with his company, Skycorp, took on the project as if it were a stray puppy.

工程師兼創業家溫戈與他的「天空公司」執行這項計畫，彷彿照顧一隻流浪幼犬。他說：「我們以科技考古學家自居。這事別人不會做，卻似乎該做。」

“No one else was going to do it,” he said, “and it seemed like the right thing to do.” In May, using the Arecibo Observatory radio telescope in Puerto Rico, the team communicated with the spacecraft , making it the first private organization to command a spacecraft outside Earth orbit, he said. Mr. Wingo said the team should be ready to fire the engines within weeks.

他說，該團隊五月以波多黎各艾里塞波觀察站無線電望遠鏡連絡ISEE-3，成為第一個指揮地球軌道外太空船的民間團體。溫戈說，該團隊應可在數周內做好發動引擎的準備。

NASA, the American space agency, launched ISEE-3 in 1978. The craft orbited the sun between the sun and the Earth, allowing scientists to observe for the first time the high-speed stream of particles known as the solar wind before it reached Earth. Then i t was aimed at Comet Giacobini-Zinner, passing through the tail in September 1985.

美國太空總署（NASA）1978年發射ISEE-3。它在太陽與地球之間環繞太陽飛行，使科學家首次得以在又名太陽風的高速太陽粒子群抵達地球之前，觀察它們。它接著鎖定賈科比尼辛納彗星，並於1985年9月穿越它的尾部。

Since its retirement in 1997 , the craft has been looping around the sun on a 355-day orbit. Like a faster racecar lapping the rest of the field, ISEE-3 will catch up to and pass Earth in two months.

1997年除役後，ISEE-3不斷在一個355天的軌道環繞太陽飛行。它有如一輛繞著賽車場飛馳的更快速賽車，預計2個月後就會飛越地球。

That is exactly what Robert W. Farquhar, the craft’s flight director, intended. Dr. Farquhar came up with the intricate orbits that moved ISEE-3 to various locations in the solar wind, and then with the idea of using ISEE-3 to visit Giacobini- Zinner.

這正是ISEE-3飛行計畫主管法庫哈爾的打算。他算出使ISEE-3移動到太陽風不同位置的複雜軌道，然後想到導引它去拜訪賈科比尼辛納彗星。

Three rocket burns in 1986 set it on a course to zoom about 50 kilometers above the surface of the moon 28 years later, on August 10, 2014, swinging ISEE- 3 into orbit around Earth. Dr. Farquhar suggested that a space shuttle could bring it to the ground.

1986年火箭三次點火使ISEE-3預計在28年後，也就是2014年8月10日，進入可使它抵達距月球表面約50公里的軌道，同時使它進入地球軌道。法庫哈爾說，應該可以用太空梭把它帶回地面。

The rest of NASA was not looking that far ahead. In 1999, the agency upgraded its Deep Space Network, the system that communicates with distant space probes. The old transmitters that could talk with ISEE-3 were thrown away. But ISEE-3 was never turned off; it was still broadcasting, waiting for its next command.

NASA並未想到這麼遠。1999年NASA把連繫遙遠太空探測器的「太空深處網絡」升級，並丟棄可與ISEE-3溝通的舊傳送器。然而ISEE-3從未關機，還在發送訊號，等候新指令。

NASA looked into reviving contact for the 2014 flyby, but concluded that the scientific payoff would not be worth the effort and money. In February, Leonard N. Garcia, a NASA employee who had set up a Facebook page promoting ISEE-3, conceded new transmitters “would be at a price no one is willing to spend.”

NASA曾經考量趁2014年這次飛掠恢復接觸，最後認為科學上的回報有限，不值得投入如此大量的努力與金錢。NASA員工賈西亞今年二月設立一個有關ISEE-3的臉書網頁。他說，新傳送器價格高到「沒人願意負擔」。

Mr. Wingo and Keith Cowing, the editor of NASA Watch, decided reviving contact with ISEE- 3 was a worthy effort. “Not only is it not impossible,” Mr. Wingo said, “I think it can work, and I know how to do it.”

溫戈與「NASA觀察」雜誌主編柯文認為，與ISEE-3恢復接觸值得嘗試。溫戈說：「我認為，這不僅不是不可能，而且可行。我知道如何辦到。」

About 20 others joined the effort, including many members of the first ISEE-3 team. On RocketHub, a crowdfunding website, they asked for $125,000 to help pay the costs. They collected nearly $160,000, from 2,238 donors.

大約另有20人加入這個行列，許多是ISEE-3最初團隊的成員。他們上群眾募資網站RocketHub籌募12.5萬美元以支應成本，最後獲得2238名捐款人捐贈將近16萬美元。

Mr. Wingo has now persuaded NASA to use the Deep Space Network to pinpoint ISEE-3’s trajectory, to calculate the rocket burn required to put it on a path to Earth orbit. Dr. Farquhar’s 1986 calculations were close, but not exact. Slight errors are magnified over time, and now the spacecraft could be on course to splat into the moon.

溫戈已經說服NASA利用「太空深處網絡」精準標出ISEE-3的軌道，同時計算使它進入地球軌道途徑所需的火箭點火。法庫哈爾1986年的計算結果非常接近，但不夠精準。經過一段時間後，細微的錯誤會放大。如今，ISEE-3可能已經進入衝向月球的路徑。

Now 81, Dr. Farquhar is half-retired but collaborating with the reboot effort . He wants to send ISEE-3 out to visit yet another comet. Mr. Wingo protests that it would cost too much money.

高齡81的法庫哈爾已經半退休，卻參與這項重新啟動的計畫。他想讓ISEE-3去與另一顆彗星相會。溫戈則認為，這勢必花費太多。

“We’ll go to the comet,” Dr. Farquhar said. “Trust me.”

法庫哈爾說：「我們一定會拜訪彗星。相信我。」