Tiberium: A gift or a curse?

Tiberium is a scientific curiosity, a vastly powerful resource, an unprecedented environmental cataclysm, a catalyst for war, and much more. It's like nothing we've ever seen before and it is constantly transforming itself.

We are almost certain Tiberium is extraterrestrial in origin; it is not man-made and there is no evidence of the substance on Earth prior to its first appearance half a century ago. Early forms of Tiberium were almost organic, sprouting out of the ground in what seemed to be plant-like pods, leaching minerals out of the earth and emitting clouds of toxic gas. Over time, Tiberium showed it had the ability to evolve and change.

By 2047, most Tiberium on Earth has manifested in what we know as its most common form: A self-replicating proton lattice that turns any matter it touches into more of itself, giving off powerful radiation in the process. It can change anything it comes into contact with into more Tiberium.

Is Tiberium terraforming the Earth into a planet suitable for alien life? Is it a weapon? Is it a creature of some kind? Perhaps some form of consciousness resides in the crystal lattices, a quantum crystalline brain that grows ever smarter as it grows and grows. There are many theories about what Tiberium actually is...and why it is here. Ultimately its origin and its purpose - if it has one - are still a mystery.

GDI has not given up on trying to contain the spread of Tiberium. With Tiberium infestation reaching critical levels and new, more sinister variants of the substance turning up, things started to look pretty grim for planet Earth in the middle of the 21st century. However, GDI has found a vulnerability in the green crystal that they have begun to exploit. GDI engineers have found the resonant frequency for Tiberium...and they have created sonic resonators that are capable of breaking up Tiberium crystals.

A high level scientific explanation of the alien substance is included here for students, engineers, and scientists: The most recent form of Tiberium is a dense "dynamic proton lattice" held together by exotic heavy particles. When Tiberium comes into contact with other matter, the heavy particles randomly collide with the nuclei of the target matter, smashing it to pieces (in the case of smaller nuclei) or incrementally knocking off protons or neutrons (in the case of heavier nuclei). Tiberium captures a fraction of the protons that are ejected during this collision process and incorporates them into its own structure, thus transmuting matter into more Tiberium. Whenever one of the heavy particles - a muon or tauon - collides with an atomic nucleus, fission occurs, which results in the production of alpha, beta, and gamma radiation as well as other forms of electromagnetic radiation (like infra-red). During the transmutation process, nuclei that Tiberium has come into contact with may be changed into nuclei with different (usually fewer) numbers of protons or neutrons.

泰伯利亞：是禮物還是詛咒？

泰伯利亞是一種科學(xué)珍品，一種非常強(qiáng)大的資源，一種前所未有的環(huán)境災(zāi)難，一種戰(zhàn)爭的催化劑，還有更多。這種東西我們之前從未見過，同時它在不斷改造它自己。

我們幾乎可以肯定泰伯利亞來自地外；它并非人造物，在半個世紀(jì)前它首次出現(xiàn)，而在那之前沒有跡象表明地球上有該物質(zhì)。泰伯利亞的早期形式幾乎是有機(jī)的，從地下發(fā)芽生出植物豆莢般的東西，從土壤中濾出礦物，放出有毒氣體的云團(tuán)，隨著時間推移，泰伯利亞展示出其具有進(jìn)化和改變的能力。

到2047年，大多數(shù)地球上的泰伯利亞已經(jīng)表現(xiàn)出我們已知最常見的形式：一種自我復(fù)制的質(zhì)子晶格，能將其接觸到的任何物質(zhì)變?yōu)樗囊徊糠?，在此過程中放出大量輻射。它能將接觸的任何東西變?yōu)楦嗟奶┎麃啞?/span>

泰伯利亞是否正在將地球轉(zhuǎn)變?yōu)檫m宜外星生物的星球？它是武器嗎？是某種生物？或許某種形式的意識存在于晶格里，一個量子晶體大腦隨著泰礦的增長而越來越聰明。關(guān)于泰伯利亞到底是什么有很多理論……以及它為什么在這。說到底它的起源和目的——如果它有的話——仍是一個謎。

GDI并未放棄試圖遏制泰伯利亞的擴(kuò)散。隨著泰礦污染達(dá)到臨界水平，新的，更邪惡的變種物質(zhì)出現(xiàn)了，在21世紀(jì)中期，地球的環(huán)境變得相當(dāng)嚴(yán)峻。然而，GDI已經(jīng)在綠晶中發(fā)現(xiàn)了一個弱點，而且他們已經(jīng)開始利用了。GDI工程師們已經(jīng)找到了泰礦的共振頻率……他們已經(jīng)創(chuàng)造了能夠分解泰礦晶體的聲波共振器。

這里為學(xué)生、工程師和科學(xué)家提供了關(guān)于外星物質(zhì)的高級科學(xué)解釋：泰伯利亞的最新形態(tài)是由外來的重粒子組成的密集的“動態(tài)質(zhì)子晶格”。當(dāng)泰伯利亞與其他物質(zhì)接觸時，重粒子隨機(jī)地與目標(biāo)物質(zhì)的原子核碰撞，將其粉碎(在原子核較小的情況下)，或者逐漸地撞擊掉質(zhì)子或中子(在原子核較重的情況下)。泰伯利亞捕獲了碰撞過程中噴射出來的一小部分質(zhì)子，并將它們整合到自己的結(jié)構(gòu)中，從而將物質(zhì)轉(zhuǎn)化為更多的泰伯利亞。每當(dāng)其中一種重粒子——介子或陶子——與原子核碰撞時，就會發(fā)生裂變，從而產(chǎn)生阿爾法、貝塔和伽馬輻射以及其他形式的電磁輻射(如紅外線)。在變化過程中，泰伯利亞接觸到的原子核可能會變成質(zhì)子或中子數(shù)量不同(通常更少)的原子核。