与摩根·弗里曼一起穿越虫洞（2010）

Through The Wormhole With Morgan Freeman S02E09

Part 1 April 19, 2021, 2:37 p.m.

星际里的世界千奇百怪
Across the galaxy lie exotic worlds...
有些全都是水
some made entirely of water,
还有喷涌着毒气的
others stewing with poisonous gas.
何种生物能茁壮成长于斯地呢？
What kinds of creatures thrive in these places?
他们会类似于地球上的生命么
Would they resemble beings on Earth...
抑或生命会呈现新的意想不到的形式么？
...or could life take on new and unexpected forms?
外星人是何模样呢？
What do aliens look like?
空间，时间，生命本身
Space, time, life itself.
宇宙之谜，尽在穿越虫洞
The secrets of the cosmos lie through the wormhole.
与摩根·弗里曼一起穿越虫洞（S02E09）
Through The Wormhole With Morgan Freeman (S02E09)
外星人是何模样？
What Do Aliens Look Like?
它们就在那里
They're out there.
我们能够看到它们
We can see them.
人类史上首次
For the first time in human history,
我们知道了宇宙遍布行星
we know the Universe is filled with planets
其怪异超过了我们的想象
stranger than we could ever have imagined --
行星有可能定居有外星生命
planets that might be home to extraterrestrial life.
但是这些生物会是何种模样呢？
But what will these creatures look like?
我们都是我们环境的产物
We're all products of our environment.
如果生我养我的星球充满二氧化碳气体
If I was born on a planet with carbon dioxide air
重力比我们地球弱三倍
and gravity three times weaker than the Earth's,
我的模样有可能是…这样
I might look like...this.
在一颗行星重力是地球的五倍
On a planet with five times more gravity than Earth,
恒星持续不断以太阳风轰击它
and a star that constantly blasted it with solar storms,
我可能看上去是这样
I might look like this.
我们无法知道外星人的真面目
We can't know the face of an alien
除非我们亲眼所见
until we're staring at it.
不过如搜寻嫌疑犯的侦探一样
But like detectives on the hunt for an unknown suspect,
生物学家和行星科学家
biologists and planetary scientists
正着手拼凑谜团
are beginning to piece the puzzle together.
有些线索在外头
Some of the clues are out there,
但其中很多就在这里
but a lot of them are right here.
每天放学回家
To get home from school every day,
我都得穿过一座阴森老宅
I had to cut through the yard of a scary, old house.
我从未见到有人进出过
I never saw anyone come in or out of it,
但有人或什么住在里头
but someone or something lived there.
我只能想象谁或者什么有可能在那里
I could only imagine who or what it might be.
哈佛大学古生物学家安德鲁·诺尔
Harvard paleontologist Andrew Knoll
毕生都在研究
has spent his life
超乎我们想象的生物
studying creatures beyond our wildest imaginations.
你步入这样的博物馆
One of the things you learn
所获悉的一件事情
when you go through a museum like this is
那就是很难想象
that not only is it hard to imagine
生命有可能存在于另一个星球
what life might be on another planet,
然而，更难想象的是其中有些生命
but it's hard to imagine some of the life
已经存在于这个星球上了
that has existed on this planet.
有谁想得到有过恐龙这样的东西
Who would guess that there were things like dinosaurs
居然没有骨骼？
in the absence of their bones?
在过去8年里
For the past eight years,
安德鲁担当了航♥天♥局的火星漫游者任务的
Andrew has served as mission biologist
生物学家
on NASA's Mars Rovers.
此角色唯有他能胜任
It's a role he's uniquely suited for
因为他具有广泛的地球生命的专业知识
because of his expertise in the vast array of life on Earth,
他能够从其岩石中
and his ability to read the history of a planet
读出行星的历史
from its rocks.
我们往往认为地球
There's a tendency for us to think about the Earth
就是我们今天看到的周围的这些东西
in terms of the things we see around us today.
但是地质记录所告诉我们的一件事
But the one thing that the geologic record tells us
是一直存在着一系列的地球
is that there have been a series of earths,
我们所看到的身边的地球
and that the Earth that we see around us --
所有的植物动物
all the plants and the animals
大气层的成分
and the composition of the atmosphere --
都已经是最终成员了
are really an end-member,
这个最终状态经过了漫长地变迁
the end state of a long series of transitions
历经了40多亿年
that have happened over 4 billion years.
比如这块石头
For example, this rock,
它形成于35亿年前
which formed about 3.5 billion years ago,
全是铁矿物
is full of iron minerals,
这表示铁必须得通过海水来运送
which means that iron had to be able to be transported
它唯有在缺氧的海水里
through seawater, and it can only do that
才能做到这一点
in seawater that contains no oxygen.
发现此类石头遍布全球
The discovery of rocks like this all over Earth
表明它存在的
shows that for nearly the first 4 billion years
近40亿年里
of its existence,
我们的大气层几乎没有氧气
our atmosphere had almost no oxygen.
就是说地球对我们一直是有毒的
That Earth would have been toxic to us.
现在还有些事情有点出乎意料
Now, there are other things that are sort of unexpected
就在我们往深里看地球的历史时
when we actually look at deep-earth history.
这块石头实际上是冰川沉积物
This rock was actually deposited by glacial ice
已经超过6.35亿年了
about 635 million years ago.
此类石头确实形成在
There are rocks like this
此时的整个地球上
that formed literally all over the world at this time,
它向我们表明冰川曾到达了
and it shows us that there was glacial ice
赤道的海平面
at sea level at the equator.
事实上大部分地球
In fact, much of the Earth --
没准是整个地球——都覆盖着冰
perhaps most of the Earth -- was covered with ice,
有时也称为雪球地球
sometimes called a snowball Earth.
这各种地球
These various earths --
炎热的，寒冷的，或多或少的氧气
hotter, colder, with more or less oxygen --
基本上就是异域世界
were essentially alien worlds.
因此对于安德鲁来说探索外星人
So, for Andrew, the best place to discover
会是何种模样的最佳点就在我们自己的化石记录中
what aliens might look like is in our own fossil records.
这些是三叶虫
These are trilobites.
现在你看这个
Now, when you look at this,
你会看到很熟悉的东西
you'll see things that are familiar.
有接缝的分段身子
There is a jointed, segmented body.
有接缝的分段肢体
There are jointed, segmented legs.
你可能会说
And you might say,
“啊看上去像是虾或是昆虫”一点没错
"Well, that looks like a shrimp or an insect," and that's right.
生物学家
Biologists
称这些地球史上的生命形式的重复性为
call these repeated similarities of life-forms
“会聚”
over Earth's history "convergence."
一个行之有效的形状
One shape that works well
会一而再再而三地重复
gets repeated over and over again.
这种巨大的海洋生物看上去像是鲸鱼
This giant sea creature looks like a whale,
但它实际上是已经绝种的蜥蜴
but it is actually an extinct lizard.
在过去2.5亿年间一再重复
Repeatedly over the last 250 million years,
陆地上的脊椎动物再次侵入海洋
vertebrate animals on land have re-invaded the oceans.
每次它们如此做时
And every time they've done so,
都会产生出这样巨大的海洋怪物
they've given rise to these giant sea monsters.
长头龙
Kronosaurus.
7000万年前海洋里有过蜥蜴
70 million years ago, there were lizards in the sea.
它们同样是大型的
They were equally large.
在我们有生之年里存在有鲸鱼
In our own lifetimes, there's whales.
如果过去的地球
If Earth in the past
一直就如围绕其它恒星的行星那么异样
has been as alien as planets orbiting other stars,
那么外星人就是你在电影里所见到的
then aliens you've seen in movies --
蜥蜴有两只眼睛两条胳膊两条腿
lizards with two eyes, two arms, and two legs --
大差不离
might be pretty close to the mark.
我必须承认
I must admit,
我看过大量的50年代以来的老的怪物电影
I watch a lot of old monster movies from the 1950s
专门从物理学角度去看
specifically looking at the physics
说道不不不不是那回事
and saying, "No, no, no. That's not gonna work,"
或者说噢那很出色
or "Ooh, that's really good."
芝加哥大学的教授迈克尔·拉巴贝拉
University of Chicago Professor Michael Labarbera
是一位生物力学专家
is an expert in biomechanics.
他试图预测
He's trying to predict
外星人是如何行走飞翔和游水的
how aliens will walk, fly, and swim
通过搜寻动物运动的基本规律
by searching for the basic rule of how animals move.
你可以称其为
You could call it