与摩根·弗里曼一起穿越虫洞（2010）

Through The Wormhole With Morgan Freeman S04E02

Part 1 April 19, 2021, 2:52 p.m.

每个人都有一个起点
Everyone has a beginning.
什么时候才算这个起点的开始呢？
But when does that beginning begin?
是两个细胞融合的瞬间？
Is it the instant two cells fuse together?
还是我们出现在这个世界上的时候？
Or the moment we enter the world?
科学家和宗教领袖对于
Scientists and religious leaders don't agree
何时首次出现生命的火花仍有分歧
on when the first spark of life occurs.
生命是仅仅的生物学过程
Is life just biology
还是我们的意识感
or does our sense of consciousness
决定了我们是否实在的活着？
dictate whether we are truly alive?
如果我们能够创造意识
If we can create consciousness,
我们能否在非生命躯体内创造生命，来了解何时生命才算诞生？
can we build life out of nonlife and understand when life begins?
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（S04E02）
Through The Wormhole With Morgan Freeman (S04E02)
生命何时才算诞生？
When Does Life Begin?
生命是一个奇迹
Life is a miracle.
这个词经常被用于让我们感动的时候
That's a word we use when we are moved by something
或是在我们不知道发生了什么的时候
and when we don't understand how it happens.
一个孩子出生前的九个月
Nine months before a child is born,
仅仅是少量的细胞
it's just a handful of cells,
很明显，并不比生活在
no more complex, apparently,
我们皮肤上的细菌复杂多少
than the bacteria that live on our skin.
这些细胞团都拥有基因
Both these clumps of cells have genes.
都可以增殖
They both reproduce.
只是一个变成了我们认为非常有价值的东西
One turns into something we value greatly.
另一个会让我们得病
The other just makes us sick.
但它们都是奇迹
But they are both miracles --
擦出生命神秘火花的化学反应的集♥合♥
a collection of chemicals with a mysterious spark of life.
小时候你是否为自己做过午餐？
Did you ever make your own lunches growing up?
我一般都会做花生黄油三明治
I used to make peanut-butter sandwiches.
有时候，我发现面包上有发霉的部分
Every once in a while, I'd find a moldy slice of bread.
我想，“这些绿色绒毛来自哪里呢？”
"Where did this green fuzz come from?" I wondered.
看起来似乎是从空气中来
Just seemed to have appeared from thin air.
我好奇如果我不管它的话会发生什么
I wondered what would happen if I left it alone.
这些霉会继续生长成为一个毛绒的霉菌怪兽吗？
Would the mold keep growing into a fuzzy mold monster?
但它不会
It didn't.
它是活的，但不是我幻想的那样
It was alive, but not in the way I was.
那我身体内有什么能让我成长为一个男孩？
What was it inside me that made me grow into a boy?
莫林·康迪克是一名生物学家
Maureen Condic is a biologist
就职于犹他大学医学院
at the University of Utah School of Medicine.
她花了整个周末
She spends her weekends traversing
横跨犹他州瓦萨奇山脉
the Wasatch Mountains of Utah,
这里生命繁茂
where life springs up all around her.
作为一名生物学家
As a biologist,
来到这些山脉中总是很吸引人
it's always fascinating to come to the mountains,
因为在你身边会有如此多样的生命
because there's such a diversity of life around you,
而它们又以完全不同的方式成长为现在这样
and it all comes into being in radically different ways.
所有的生物体都会繁殖
All organisms reproduce,
但它们都以不同的方式繁殖
but they have different ways of doing it.
白杨树通过复♥制♥自身
The Aspen trees that pervade the mountains of Utah
遍布犹他山脉
clone themselves.
它们的后代从成熟树木的根部发出芽
Offspring grow as shoots from the roots of more mature trees,
接着长成同样的树木
creating growths that are really the same tree
这样不停的重复
grown over and over again.
另一方面，一些虫子
Some worms, on the other hand,
则以不同的方式创造它们的下一代
create their next generations in a different way.
有一个完整的纲概括了所谓的涡虫
There's a whole class of worms known as planaria.
它们的繁殖是通过将身体背面贴在石头上
They reproduce by attaching the back of their body to a rock
把自己的身体伸长
and stretching themselves out
直到把自己撕裂成两个
until they literally tear themselves in two.
接着这两个一半就会发育成一个完整的虫子
And then each of the two halves produce a full worm.
大自然为生命的开始创造了无数种方式
Nature offers myriad ways for life to begin.
但使莫林着迷的是一种
But the one that fascinates Maureen
发生在你和我身上的繁殖方式
is the way it happens for you and me.
这当然不会涉及到鹳
And, no, it doesn't involve a stork.
人类生命的存在
So, human life comes into existence
发生在短短的一瞬
in just a fraction of a second.
一个人类卵细胞和一个人类精♥子♥
You have a human egg and a human sperm,
它们存活的唯一目的就是找到对方并融合
and their sole purpose in life is to find each other and fuse.
它们结合到一起，就在这一瞬间
So, they come together, and in that one instant,
就诞生了一个新的细胞——一个单细胞的人类胚胎
you create a new kind of cell -- a one-celled human embryo.
这个新细胞拥有它自己的遗传信息，DNA
This new cell has its own genetic code, its own DNA,
是卵细胞和精♥子♥组成的唯一的一个复合体
that is a unique mixture of the egg and the sperm.
这个单个细胞
And within this single cell,
就有成长发育的完整计划
there's a complete plan for development.
成长过程并不创造新的遗传信息
Development doesn't create that information.
遗传信息的创造就在精卵结合的开始
It's there from the very beginning.
从她对胚胎学的了解出发
From her understanding of embryology,
莫林认为一个人类个体的生命
Maureen concludes that the life of a unique human individual
出现在1/4秒内
begins within the 1/4 of a second
就是精♥子♥和卵细胞结合的时间
it takes the sperm and the egg to unite.
这个单细胞胚胎
That single-celled embryo
包含了一套复杂的发育指南
contains an elaborate instruction manual
即成长为一个人类
with all of the information
所需的所有信息
needed to create a human being.
你可以想象成
You can think of it like
一个可以自♥由♥组装的帐篷
a camping tent that builds itself.
那么我们的帐篷可以自我组装
So, our tent is self-assembling because it has
因为它的组成部分全放在这里了
all of the parts it needs to put itself together
而且还有一套说明书
and because it has a set of instructions built into it
能够将其组装成最终状态
that allow it to assemble into its final state.
生命就像这个帐篷
Life is like this tent,
只是比它复杂十亿倍
only a billion times more complex.
在单细胞胚胎形成后
After the single-celled embryo is formed,
它就随着输卵管向下移♥动♥
it takes a journey down the fallopian tubes
进入子♥宫♥
to the uterus,
在这里它开始了细胞分♥裂♥
where it begins the process of cell division,
从2个细胞到4个，再到8个，到16个这样
from 2 cells to 4 to 8 to 16 and so on.
大约一周之后
After about one week,
胚胎到达了子♥宫♥壁
the embryo arrives at the uterine wall
并将自己埋藏于其中
and implants itself.
一周后，胚胎中的细胞
A week later, the cells of the embryo
开始重排成为原始的身体
begin to reorganize themselves into a primitive body.
三周后
After three weeks,
神经系统开始出现
the beginning of the nervous system is in place.
随着时间的推移，细胞持续复♥制♥
As days go on, cells continue to multiply,
形成血管，心脏开始跳动
blood vessels form, the heart starts to beat,
脊椎骨开始成形
the backbone takes shape,
手臂和腿开始膨出
arms and legs begin to bulge out.
这个时候
During that time,
脑开始形成
the formation of the brain begins.
胚胎的细胞和组织
The cells and tissues of the embryo
通过这些神奇的复杂细胞行为
undergo these amazingly complex cellular gymnastics
形成了不同结构和器官
to give rise to structures, organs,
它们之间的相互关系使得简单的胚胎
complex relationships that turn that flat embryo
变成了它形成的复杂的东西
into something that has form.
莫林对人类胚胎的
Maureen's biological understanding
生长发育的生物学见解
of the development of a human embryo
使得她确定什么时候才是
leaves her with little doubt
一个新的人类生命的产生
about when a new human life begins.
我们全都可以将自身的起源追溯到这个
We all trace our own origins back to this single cell
通过精卵融合产生的单细胞
that came into existence at sperm-egg fusion.
这正是我们应该尝试理解的
It's something we should try to understand
作为自我发现的过程
as a process of self-discovery,
认识我们本质的过程
as a process of understanding our natures.
这就是我们的开始
This is where we began.
但并不是所有的科学家都将个体起源
But not all scientists trace an individual's origins
归于两个细胞的融合
back to just two cells.
事实上，一些科学家认为一个个体中
In fact, some scientists believe within one individual
可以存在多个生命的痕迹
there could be the ghosts of multiple lives,