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.

泰伯利亚：是礼物还是诅咒？

泰伯利亚是一种科学珍品，一种非常强大的资源，一种前所未有的环境灾难，一种战争的催化剂，还有更多。这种东西我们之前从未见过，同时它在不断改造它自己。

我们几乎可以肯定泰伯利亚来自地外；它并非人造物，在半个世纪前它首次出现，而在那之前没有迹象表明地球上有该物质。泰伯利亚的早期形式几乎是有机的，从地下发芽生出植物豆荚般的东西，从土壤中滤出矿物，放出有毒气体的云团，随着时间推移，泰伯利亚展示出其具有进化和改变的能力。

到2047年，大多数地球上的泰伯利亚已经表现出我们已知最常见的形式：一种自我复制的质子晶格，能将其接触到的任何物质变为它的一部分，在此过程中放出大量辐射。它能将接触的任何东西变为更多的泰伯利亚。

泰伯利亚是否正在将地球转变为适宜外星生物的星球？它是武器吗？是某种生物？或许某种形式的意识存在于晶格里，一个量子晶体大脑随着泰矿的增长而越来越聪明。关于泰伯利亚到底是什么有很多理论……以及它为什么在这。说到底它的起源和目的——如果它有的话——仍是一个谜。

GDI并未放弃试图遏制泰伯利亚的扩散。随着泰矿污染达到临界水平，新的，更邪恶的变种物质出现了，在21世纪中期，地球的环境变得相当严峻。然而，GDI已经在绿晶中发现了一个弱点，而且他们已经开始利用了。GDI工程师们已经找到了泰矿的共振频率……他们已经创造了能够分解泰矿晶体的声波共振器。

这里为学生、工程师和科学家提供了关于外星物质的高级科学解释：泰伯利亚的最新形态是由外来的重粒子组成的密集的“动态质子晶格”。当泰伯利亚与其他物质接触时，重粒子随机地与目标物质的原子核碰撞，将其粉碎(在原子核较小的情况下)，或者逐渐地撞击掉质子或中子(在原子核较重的情况下)。泰伯利亚捕获了碰撞过程中喷射出来的一小部分质子，并将它们整合到自己的结构中，从而将物质转化为更多的泰伯利亚。每当其中一种重粒子——介子或陶子——与原子核碰撞时，就会发生裂变，从而产生阿尔法、贝塔和伽马辐射以及其他形式的电磁辐射(如红外线)。在变化过程中，泰伯利亚接触到的原子核可能会变成质子或中子数量不同(通常更少)的原子核。