Foreign Language Translation

Disclaimer

Important Notice: If you're already translating this site, DO NOT re-translate the site again. Re-translating the site may corrupt the translation. Please read the disclaimer below, before continuing to fully understand any issues with machine translation. This online foreign language translation application works with all the latest versions of Microsoft Internet Explorer, FireFox and Netscape, but does not always work correctly in Safari on some languages.

The information on the Brookhaven National Laboratory website is originally published in English, but can be translated using AltaVista - Babel Fish Online Translation. This translation service uses enterprise level machine translation to dynamically translate our site on-the-fly into French, German, Spanish, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Korean, Russian, Japanese, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, and Greek with no modification to the original HTML content. Readers may also use AltaVista - Babel Fish Translation to translate blocks of text, email or other individual websites.

Translations from English may not always be accurate. Brookhaven National Laboratory does not warrant such translations and does not disclaim any responsibility, including all alleged direct and consequential damages, for inaccurate translations. Readers relying on accurate and precise information should check the original English versions.

As an automatic translator, Machine Translation works best when the text you wish to translate uses proper grammar. Slang, misspelled words, poorly placed punctuation and complex or lengthy sentences can all cause a page to be translated incorrectly. Automatic translators will allow you to grasp the general intent of the original, not to produce a polished translation.

Benefits

• This method allows for translation of the entire website which would otherwise be impossible due to limited resources. It does not, however, allow for the translation of PDF files, embedded text in images or translation of pop-up windows.
• Updates to content are processed when posted rather than delayed awaiting a human translation.
• Translations are handled uniformly -- rather than allowing for human interpretation -- one translator's choice may not be the same as another's. Many different dialects exist and a perfect translation is almost impossible -- this allows us to begin at the same point and improve as we can.
• The software can also be told when a word or phrase should NOT be translated -- leaving it as English if that is the most appropriate solution.

Issues

• Machine translation is not perfect and may create some poor translations.
• We are limited in what we can affect on the entire site -- we can enter individual words or phrases -- but not entire paragraphs or pages.
• We do not have the ability to create supplemental dictionaries -- such as proper names, mining terms, job titles and idiomatic expressions since we are using dictionaries used by the translation site.

Comments

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Last Modified: February 5, 2008
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One of ten national laboratories overseen and primarily funded by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Brookhaven National Laboratory conducts research in the physical, biomedical, and environmental sciences, as well as in energy technologies and national security. Brookhaven Lab also builds and operates major scientific facilities available to university, industry and government researchers. Brookhaven is operated and managed for DOE’s Office of Science by Brookhaven Science Associates, a limited-liability company founded by Stony Brook University, the largest academic user of Laboratory facilities, and Battelle, a nonprofit, applied science and technology organization.

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