与摩根·弗里曼一起穿越虫洞（2010）

生命的意义何在？
What is the meaning of life?
你是否相信我们的存在是原因的？
Don't you believe there's a reason for us being here?
欢迎加入绿叶社区
Join the Greenleaf community.
我们终究是如此复杂的生物
We are, after all, such sophisticated creatures,
是数十亿年进化的成果
the result of billions of years of evolution.
生命当然不止关乎生理需求
Surely life is about more than just our biological needs,
以及激烈的竞争
more than the daily rat race.
我们一代又一代所获得的全部知识
Is all the knowledge we've gained
是否针对于什么最终的目标？
over the generations aiming towards some final goal?
我们是自己命运的建筑师
Are we architects of our own fate?
还是生命只是一连串的随机事件？
Or is life just a series of random accidents?
我们的存在只是大自然的侥幸吗？
Is our existence just a fluke of nature?
抑或我们的存在是有缘由的？
Or are we here for a reason?
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（S06E03）
Through The Wormhole With Morgan Freeman (S06E03)
我们的存在是有原因的？
Are We Here For A Reason?
我们为什么在这里？
why are we here?
你肯定思考过
I know you've thought about it.
我们都思考过
We all have.
我们有什么目的？
What is our purpose?
我们的命运是怎样的？
What is our destiny?
我们出生
We're born.
幸运的话，我们繁衍
If we're lucky, we reproduce,
然后我们死去
and then we die.
将上述过程重复几十亿次
Repeat that a few billion times,
地球上最原始的简单生命形式
and you get from the first simple life forms on Earth
就变成了我们
to us.
从达尔文开始
Ever since Darwin,
科学家们致力于回答我们是怎么来的
scientists have been working on how we got here.
但现在他们在琢磨另一个
But now they're asking the question
我们都在寻找答案的问题：为什么？
we all seek the answer to -- Why?
我们如此精妙而又复杂
Is all our wonderful complexity
是否指向了某个更宏大的目标？
directed towards some greater goal?
我们的生命是否有一个终极的目的？
Do our lives have an ultimate purpose?
对于英国生化学家李·克罗宁来说
To English biochemist Lee Cronin,
万物存在皆有其原因
everything exists for a reason.
即使是肉馅羊肚，用羊肚做成的一道古怪的菜
Even haggis, the bizarre sheep stomach dish
苏格兰人永远吃不够
that the Scots can't get enough of.
肉馅羊肚的存在是因为它是苏格兰的特色佳肴
Haggis exists because it's the Scottish national dish.
而且已经被改善了数百年之久
And it's been refined for hundreds of years.
这实际上和生物学有很多共通之处
And that has a lot of parallels with, actually, biology.
35亿年前，第一个有生命的细胞诞生了
3.5 billion years ago, the first living cell appeared.
在那之前，地球只是各种化学物质的一锅大乱炖
Before that, Earth was just a vast soup of chemicals.
为什么这些化学物质以刚好合适的剂量、
Why did those chemicals combine in just the right amounts
刚好合适的序列组合成了生物呢？
in just the right sequence to become living things?
李相信这绝不只是狗屎运而已
Lee is convinced that it couldn't have been dumb luck,
就好像厨师把原材料随机地扔到一块儿
just as a chef can't invent haggis
是做不出肉馅羊肚的一样
by randomly throwing ingredients together.
发明肉馅羊肚的做法，需要反馈
The invention of the haggis recipe required feedback.
所以，信息不断地传达过去
So as information passed back over time,
顾客会说，“不，不对不对”
and the customer, if you like, is going, "no, that's wrong,
“太难吃了”
that's wrong, that's awful."
久而久之，这道菜的做法越来越好
And this gets better and better and better,
得到了完美的肉馅羊肚
until we get to the perfect haggis.
李认为早期地球上的环境就扮演了
Lee thinks the environment on early Earth played the role
厨师的顾客这一角色
of the chef's customer.
我们认为，进化有其自然法则
What we think happened is there is a natural law of evolution,
化学成分一步一步不断改进
that it refines the chemicals in steps over time,
我们从最简单的开始
where we can go from this easy, to start with,
可以做出这道特色菜肴
to this very special dish.
如果李是正确的，早在第一个细胞之前
If Lee is right, the forces of evolution
进化就已经在进行中了
were at work long before the first cell.
化学物质之间相互竞争
Chemicals competed against other chemicals.
为了更清楚地搞明白，李觉得，何不当一把上帝
To find out for sure, Lee thought, why not play god
试着让化学物质在实验室里进化出生命形态呢？
and try to evolve chemicals into life forms in the lab?
这台机器模拟了
This is a machine that simulates
百万年的化学进化
millions of years of chemical evolution
只需大约几星期
in a matter of weeks.
李从四种简单化学物质开始
Lee starts with four simple chemicals
可以形成1千7百万种可能的组合
that can be mixed in 17 million possible combinations.
第一步
So in the first step,
这些原料由机器选择
the ingredients are selected by the machine.
然后它们被灌入这些容器里
And then, they are pumped into the Wells here.
它们用随机的配方
And they make random recipes.
选择随机的剂量
They just select random amounts.
然后机器从每一种化学鸡尾酒中
The machine then squirts out tiny blobs
向一个盛满水的培养皿中喷出一小滴
of each chemical cocktail into a water-filled petri dish.
它把小滴的行为录制下来
It's videoing the actual droplet behavior.
看看这些小滴移♥动♥了多少
So it's looking at how much the droplets are moving.
这是我们想要的一个特征
So that's one feature that we want.
我们找的另一个特征是小滴会分♥裂♥
Another feature we're looking for is droplets that divide,
就像是复♥制♥
so it's like replication.
我们找的另一个性质是小滴会振动
Another property we're looking for is droplets than can vibrate
并感知环境
and sense the environment.
如果小滴呈现出了生命的迹象
When the blobs show signs of life,
它的配方就被选择用于复♥制♥
that recipe is selected for replication.
低级的配方则被销毁
And the inferior recipes are destroyed.
在每一次的叠代中
Then, with each generation,
机器都对配方作出微小的随机改变
the machine makes small, random changes to the recipe.
经过数星期的选拔
After several weeks of trial and error,
李的化学小滴变活了
Lee's chemical blobs come alive.
它们可以移♥动♥
They get mobile.
可以捕获其他的小滴
They hunt and capture other droplets.
哦，这个……发生了融合
Oh, that one... There was a fusion.
它做到了，漂亮
Oh, it's done it. That was nice.
它们甚至可以繁殖
They even reproduce.
如果你在实验室之外发现了它们，你说不定误以为
If you found them outdoors, you would probably mistake them
它们是胶状的小型生命
for little gelatinous life forms,
然而它们并不是——至少现在还不是
even though they're not -- At least, not yet.
接下来我们希望能够做的是
The next thing we want to be able to do
让这些小滴自己培养自己
is to feed the droplets on their own
使它们可以从环境中摄取食物
so they can take food naturally from the environment
生长，变大，然后分♥裂♥
and grow and get bigger and divide.
这样，我们就真的通向
Then, we're really on the pathway
把随机化学品变成有生命的化学品
to turning this random chemistry into living chemistry,
变成生物
into biology.
进化生物学家
Evolutionary biologists
表示基因中的DNA给了生命基础的目的
say that DNA in genes gives life its foundational purpose,
生存下来并进化得更擅长生存
to survive and evolve to be better at surviving.
但如果李是对的
But if Lee is right,
DNA并不是唯一为此目的而存在的物质
DNA is not the only chemical that can exist for this purpose.
这就是为什么我们非常兴奋，因为我们可以展现
This is why we're really excited, because we can show
进化可以发生在自然世界中
that evolution can occur in the natural world
即使没有基因材料
without genetic material.
李相信我们的存在的确是有原因的
Lee believes we are here for a reason,
这个原因为所有生命形态
a reason shared with all life forms
以及构成它们的物质所共有
and the chemicals that constitute them --
活下去，生存，进化
To live, to survive, and to evolve.
有了能量和物质
Where there is energy and there is matter,
化学物质就不断地转化成为生物
chemistry transforms into biology over time.
这是自然的法则
And this is a natural law.
在最深的层次上，在我们体内的每一个细胞中
At the deepest level, inside every cell in our body,
我们都被
we are driven
化学物质永不停息的奋斗所驱动
by the never-ending struggle of chemicals
制♥造♥着它们的复♥制♥品
to make copies of themselves.
但是如果生命唯一的目的就是制♥造♥更多的化学物质
But if the only purpose of life is to make more chemicals,
我们何必变得比这个更复杂呢？
why did we ever become more complex than this?
这家伙一天之中就能复♥制♥几十次
This guy can replicate dozens of times a day,
复♥制♥出一袋子物质
reproducing its bag of chemicals