我一生大部时间
I've spent most of my life
都用于探究塑造地球的力量
trying to understand the forces that shaped our planet.
身为地质学家
As a geologist, it always seemed to me
按说研究岩石才是我的本份
that rocks were right at the heart of things.
伊安·斯图瓦特 教授
但此刻我意识到
But now, I'm discovering
并非只有火山或板块撞击
it's not only volcanoes and colliding continents
才造就了沧海桑田
that have driven the Earth's greatest changes,
因为在地球史的重要时刻
because at crucial moments in its history,
还有另一种力量孕育出我们的家园
another force has helped create the planet we live on...
这便是植物
..plants.
看看这粒种子
Just look at this seed.
身躯渺小 色泽黯淡 轻若无物
It's small, it's brown. It weighs hardly anything.
看似平庸
Looks pretty ordinary,
却绝非如此简单
but actually nothing can be further from the truth
因为 它将长成参天大树
because what it will become is truly extraordinary.
这些是美洲巨杉
These are giant sequoias.
有些树龄已逾3000年
Some are over 3,000 years old.
巨杉是地球孕育出的最大单体生命
And sequoias are the largest single life form on Earth.
就来自这一粒渺小的种子
All from a tiny seed.
但较之于地球发展史中
Yet even that pales into insignificance
植物王国的辉煌贡献
when compared to what the whole of the plant kingdom has done
这不过是沧海一粟
throughout the history of our planet.
绿色植物吸收日光
They harness light from a star,
为地球带来能量
bringing energy to our world.
植物及其先祖改造出生命赖以存活的大气
They and their ancestors created our life-giving atmosphere.
我吸入的氧气
I'm breathing oxygen that
产生于25亿年之前
was made two and a half billion years ago.
植物刻画出地球每一寸肌肤
They sculpted the very surface of the Earth
推动了动物的进化
and they drove the evolution of all animals...
包括我们人类的鼻祖
..including our own ancestors.
植物掀开了地球史上崭新篇章
It's a whole new story about our Earth...
我将用这些前所未有的
..told through remarkable images,
一幕幕精彩画面
captured for the very first time,
及最新科学发现讲述植物的故事
and the latest scientific discoveries.
祝我好运吧
Wish me luck.
我们的故事从这里开启
This is the start of that story.
植物如何占据早期万物不生的荒岩
How plants took a barren alien rock, our planet,
将其改造为如今勃勃的家园
and transformed it into the home we know today.
植物之歌♥
第一集 光与生命
下面挺深啊
It's a long way down.
这里地处越南中部
I'm in Central Vietnam
我正在绳降进全球最宏伟的洞穴之一
and I'm descending into one of the largest caves in the world.
地质结构真是千姿百态
The structure's absolutely fantastic.
行至7公里的此处 名为"韩松洞"
At 7km long, this is known as Hang Son Doong.
韩松洞: 世界上最大的洞穴
漆黑一片 光怪陆离
It's a dark, alien world.
在这一深度 罕有生命迹象
Down here, very little is alive.
可我到这里并非探洞
But I'm not here for the cave.
瞧 看那边
Oh! Look at that!
天哪
For goodness' sake!
像是洞顶坍塌
It looks like the roof has collapsed
雨林藉此而入
and the rainforest has just invaded.
穴居雨林啊
It's a rainforest inside a cave.
黑暗中摸索良久 忽而眼前一亮
After being in the darkness and the black for ages, look at that.
眼前忽现一片苍翠
You just suddenly see brilliant green.
这不是洞口
This isn't the entrance.
距离洞穴系统的核心尚有3公里
We're three kilometres into the heart of the cave system.
这只是一个暗罗丛生的失落世界
It's a thriving lost world with towering Polyalthia trees.
也是某些罕见物种的乐园
And home to strange creatures
例如这种越南蜈蚣
like this Vietnamese flat-backed millipede.
没见过吧 小东西还长着角呢
Isn't that incredible! It's got antlers.
你肯定以为已经跨出了洞穴
You really feel as if you've left the confines of that cave
步入了一处世外桃源
and just escaped really into this fantastic forest.
如同仙境一般
It's a wonderland, really.
这片雨林能依旧如此郁郁葱葱
This rainforest exists because of one thing above all.
只因这使得地球遍布
Something which has enabled plants to colonise
绿色茵茵的
almost everywhere on Earth...
阳光
..light.
历经1.5亿公里至此太阳的光芒
Light which has travelled 150 million kilometres from the sun.
植物凭藉其非凡的能力
Plants have this truly remarkable ability
将外太空的能量转化为养分
to harness energy from outer space to produce food.
正是这种能力 吸收日光 创造生命
It's this ability to eat the sun, to manufacture life from light,
得以令植物泽被天下
that's allowed plants to dominate our planet.
这是地球最为重要的自然进程
This is the most important natural process on Earth.
也是植物在一个死寂星球 孕育生机的
It's how the plant kingdom has transformed a lifeless planet
奥妙所在
into a living world.
然而 万物发展皆有过程
But it wasn't always like this.
让我们追溯往昔
And to see how it started,
看看30亿年之前的情况
we need to go back three billion years.
那时地球仅是一片寂寂荒原
To begin with, our planet was like an alien world.
几乎没有氧气
There was very little oxygen.
大气是一团有毒气体的混合物
The atmosphere was a cocktail of toxic gases,
如甲烷和二氧化硫等
like methane and sulphur dioxide.
陆地上了无生息
The land was lifeless.
肯尼亚南部这片寸草不生的盐池
This barren saltpan in southern Kenya
大概是如今回溯30亿年前
is about as close as you can get in the modern day Earth
远古地球的最好样本
to that ancient world three billion years ago.
但当时与现在
But the one crucial difference
地球的最大不同就在于
between the planet then and the planet now
如果我身处远古定会被烤焦
is that back then I'd have been burnt to a crisp.
因为原始大气无法过滤掉
That's because the primitive atmosphere couldn't screen out
日光中强烈的紫外线
the sun's powerful ultraviolet rays.
当时的紫外线强度
Back then, these UV rays
是如今的几百倍
were hundreds of times stronger than they are now.
陆地上任何生物都难以存活
Nothing could survive on land.
然而 生之契机近在咫尺
Yet all this was about to change.
一个伟大事件
A momentous event
即将孕育出地球上第一缕支持生命的气体
that would create the planet's first life-supporting atmosphere.
这一事件发生在25至30亿年之前
This event, between three and two and a half billion years ago,
是地球生命史上
was the single greatest turning poin
峰回路转最为灿烂一笔
in the history of life on Earth.
一切均得益于植物的早期先祖
And it was all brought about by the earliest ancestors of plants.
这里是南非赛申铁矿
Here at the Sishen iron mine in South Africa,
那一历史的见证尚在地下沉睡
evidence of that epic event can still be unearthed today.
拨开迷雾还要做些工作
But to get to it, you need a bit of help.
30秒
Thirty seconds.
10
Ten.
20万吨♥铁矿石瞬间被炸开
That is 200,000 tonnes of iron ore just been blasted apart.
爆破炸出了一个远古时期的地质断层
These explosions open a cross section back in time
揭示出当时植物王国的隐秘
to the distant origins of the plant kingdom.
这是块铁矿石
This is iron ore.
相当重
It's so heavy.
纯铁有这样的金属光泽 闪闪发光
Pure iron's got this metallic glint, it's shiny,
但这块矿石中还能看到不少红色物质
but you can see that this has got loads of red in it.
红色很好理解 就是铁锈
And it's red for a really simple reason. It's rusted.
生锈是因为与氧气发生接触
It's rusted because it's come into contact with oxygen.
生命首次大爆发产生的氧气
Oxygen produced by the very first burst of life.
矿场为了提炼铁而采掘矿石
The miners want the ore for its iron content.
但我要用这些氧化铁作其它用途
But I'm going to use this iron oxide for a very different reason.
应该是还没被他人采纳过的用途
Something I don't think has ever been done before...
所以我有些兴奋
which is why I'm a wee bit excited.
我带了一大块铁矿石
I've taken a chunk of the iron oxide rock
将其研磨为细小的粉末
and had it ground up into fine powder.
然后溶解至酸液中
It's then been turned into a solution.
我希望能够
One I'm hoping will allow me
尝尝地球上早期氧气的滋味
to take a breath from the planet's earliest oxygen.
那些植物早期先祖产生的氧气
Oxygen made by the ancient ancestors of plants.
现在要做的就是加电了
And now what I'm going to do is kind of jump start it, really,
接上电池 拴上导线
with this battery. I'm going to attach a lead
将电流接通
and pass an electric current through it.
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