宇宙时空之旅

非常精彩的科普片！了解宇宙，了解地球，更重要的是了解人类，了解自己。
第一集：从宇宙起源说到地球的起源，如果把地球的历史在时间轴上浓缩到一年的12个月的话，那么人类的历史就是那最后几秒钟的时间。
在浩瀚的宇宙中，地球就像是大洋中的一滴小水滴。地球的产生是偶然的，人类的产生也是偶然的。
第二集：物种的进化。为什么北极熊是白色的，其实白色的熊是由于基因突变而造成的，大多数情况下，基因突变本身没有优劣，但环境选择了基因，也就是说环境的因素导致某些基因因素更加容易生存。白色的北极熊更加容易在冰雪覆盖的环境中隐藏起来，这一基因元素改变了生活在北极的熊的繁衍。而狗的产生，不是由环境，而是人类的驯化产生的。狗来自于狼，由于狼体内的激素差别，某些狼可以亲近人类，并且能够慢慢和人类相处共同抗争。于是，人类驯服了这些“狼”，并且把这些“狼”驯服成人类需要的功能，比如长的可爱的“狼”，成为了人类的宠物，另一些“狼”，被驯服成了牧羊犬。物种的进化，既有随机性，又有人为性。随着人类在这个地球上的强大，人类也越来越多地控制和改变着地球物种的进化。
第三集：带领人类探索美丽宇宙的两位伟大的科学家，牛顿和哈雷。哈雷彗星，每76年出现一次，这不是巧合。建立在牛顿的理论基础上，哈雷发现了彗星的奥秘。彗星是离太阳很远很远的冰石，受到万有引力和惯性的作用，它会以椭圆形的轨迹绕太阳运动。而我们看到的长长的扫把，就是彗星遇热而挥发的气体。
第四集：当我们仰望星空，感叹繁星的时候，也许那个星星已经不存在了。它们可能离我们几万光年，以至于当光传到地球的时候，这颗恒星已经毁灭。爱因斯坦告诉我们，光速是这个宇宙中的极限速度，当另一个速度无限接近于光速的时候，时空就会发生扭曲。另一个我们并不熟悉的伟大科学家John Michell发现了暗星，也就是我们所说的黑洞。黑洞，是质量十分巨大的恒星萎缩而成的，所以它具有非常大的质量，密度和引力，以至于光也难以逃脱它。那么既然黑洞我们无法看见，那么John Michell又是如何发现它的呢？John Michell发现有一些行星围绕着某个轨迹在运动，而现代科学通过X光射线，再次证明了黑洞的存在。黑洞里面是什么？这个仍然是人类需要探究的领域。黑洞的引力足够大，以至于它可以将周围的行星都吸进去。它可能是电影中的时空隧道，带领我们到达过去，或者到达另一个星系。黑洞里面也可能是另一个宇宙，而黑洞里面可能也存在黑洞，而地球可能也是存在于某个黑洞中。宇宙太神秘，神秘到即使人类的脑洞打开，还是无法知道它的秘密。
第五集：光的奥秘。从最早发现小孔成像的墨子，到1000年后伟大的阿拉伯文明，再到牛顿发现了光谱，William Herschel发现了光谱和温度的关系，发现了不可见光-红外线。夫琅禾费制造了分光仪，揭示了宇宙中不同物质，光谱不同，通过对宇宙中物质的光谱的分析进一步探索宇宙的奥秘。人类依靠这一个个天才，一步步登上科学探索的阶梯。
第六集：微观世界。人类的历史只有几千年，而植物的历史有几亿年。叶绿体从事太阳能采集工作，是微观世界的太阳能电池。光合作用是终极能源，不会污染大气。碳原子是世界上一切生物分子的支柱，碳基分子我们称为蛋白质，组成生命的分子。氢原子的原子核中只有一个质子，所以元素表中排第一位。两个质子的原子核，就需要有中子把它们聚集在一起。质子越多，需要的中子就越多。
第七集：地球年龄。通过探测岩石来推算地球的年龄，最下面的一层是最古老的，通过把每一层的沉积时间加起来来推算地球的年龄，但是不同时期，每一层的沉积时间不同，所以科学家推算出的地球年龄差异很大。另一方面，最下面的一层岩石，也不能确定它是最古老的岩石。太阳系形成时残留的遗迹，它存在于木星和火星轨道间，这些是产生地球的原料。100万年左右之前，一个大的小行星恰巧撞击了一颗较小的，这颗铁质小行星的碎片撞击到地球上形成一个大坑，就在现在亚利桑那大峡谷所在的位置。如果我们知道这块铁的形成时间，那么就能知道地球的年龄。每种元素都有其固定的衰变时间，从铀慢慢衰变成稳定的铅，所需的时间是恒定的。要了解地球真是的年龄，最好的办法就是测量陨石的铅。
测量铅含量没有那么简单，需要在一个高度洁净的环境下，利用质谱仪，测量样本中铅和铀的含量。质谱仪利用磁场将样本中的元素分离，从而使各种元素可以被量化，最后通过测得的铅和铀的含量，知道地球的年龄是45亿年。
罗马人刚开始大量使用铅作为下水道，餐具。部分历史学家认为，罗马的灭亡和铅有关。那么为什么还要使用铅呢，因为它便宜，延展性好，制造简单。
为什么铅对我们的危害那么大？因为当铅进入我们体内时，它会假装成锌或者铁这些细胞成长的确需要的元素。细胞中的酶被铅的伪装迷惑，开始结合，这个是致命的结合，因为铅无法满足对细胞至关重要的需要。铅也会妨碍神经系统，干扰对记忆能力至关重要的神经末梢，对孩童更为有害。
直到克莱尔彼得森开始研究地球的年龄，它发现在深海中铅的含量很少，而浅海中铅的含量要高出几百倍，这是由于当时美国含铅汽油导致的。当克莱尔彼得森在自然杂志上发表了关于铅的研究后，触动了石油化工业的经济利益。坚持20年之后，克莱尔彼得森获得了最后的胜利。

这部片子的视角更偏重文艺片——宇宙发现的历史，就是人的困惑和斗争的历史。不断地探索科学，摸索科学的精神，是我们人类不断迈向宇宙的动力。
此片制作精良，从自然科学角度也特别适合作为中小学生的启蒙之作。生物学、物理学、化学课的许多概念都可以完美呈现，而且极富趣味。
最后，以第13集收官之语来表达我滔滔不绝的敬意。花了接近半个小时才手打出这些字。字字精华。
        That's here. That's home. That's us.
        On it, everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, live out their lives.
        The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every father and mother, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of moral, every corrupt politician, every superstar, every supreme leader, every saint and sinner in the history of our species, live there...on the mote of dust suspended...in a sunbeam.
        The earth is a every small stage in a vast, cosmic arena.
        Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that in glory and triumph so they could become the momentary masters of a fraction... of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner. How frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe, are challenged by this point of pale light.
        Our planet...is a lonely speck in this great, enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. The Earth is the only world know so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment, the Earth is where we make our stand.
        It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than the distant image. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another and to preserve and cherish the pale dot, the only home we've ever know.
        How did we, tiny creatures living on this speck of dust, ever manage to figure out how to send spacecraft out among the stars of the Milky Way? Only a few centuries ago, a mere second of cosmic time, we knew nothing of where or when we were. Oblivious to the rest of the cosmos, we inhabited a kind of prison--a tiny universe bounded by a nutshell. How did we escape form the prion? It was the work of generates of searchers who took five simple rules to heart:
        Question authority. No idea is true just because someone say so, including me. Think for yourself.
        Question yourself. Don't believe in something just because you want to. Believing something doesn't make it so.
        Test ideas by the evidence gained from observation and experiment. If a favorite idea fails a well-designed test, it's wrong! Get over it.
        Follow the evidence, where ever it lead. If you have no evidence, reserve judgement.
        And perhaps the most important rule of all...Remember you could be wrong. Even the best scientists have been wrong about somethings. Newton, Einstein, and every other great scientist in the history, they all made mistakes. Of course they did--they are human. Science is a way to keep from fooling ourselves...and each other. Have scientists know sin? Of cause. We have misuse science, just as we have misuse every other tool at our disposal, and that's why we can't afford to leave it in the hands of a powerful few. The more science belongs to all of us, the less likely it is to be misused. These values undermine the appeals of fanaticism and ignorance and, after all, the universe is mostly dark, dotted by islands of light.

依个人喜好摘录，绝大部分采集自网上下载的本片英文字幕，经过排版格式编辑整理，仅粗略核对过，不保证完全正确。


E2

Evolution really happened. Accepting our kinship with all life on Earth is not only solid science. In my view, it's also a soaring spiritual experience.

Science works on the frontier between knowledge and ignorance. We're not afraid to admit what we don't know. There's no shame in that. The only shame is to pretend that we have all the answers.


E3

The human talent for pattern recognition is a two-edged sword. We're especially good at finding patterns, even when they aren't really there -- something known as "false pattern recognition." We hunger for significance, for signs that our personal existence is of special meaning to the universe. To that end, we're all too eager to deceive ourselves and others, to discern a sacred image in a grilled cheese sandwich or find a divine warning in a comet.

……

It's called the Oort Cloud, after Jan Oort, the Dutch astronomer who foretold its existence back in 1950. ...... Oort was also the first to correctly estimate the distance between the Sun and the center of our galaxy. That's a big deal -- finding out where we are in the Milky Way. Our star is about 30,000 light-years from the center. Oort was also the first guy to use a radio telescope to map the galaxy's spiral structure. And he discovered that the center of our galaxy was a place of titanic explosions, the first indication that there might have been a supermassive black hole lurking there.
Does the fact that most of us know the names of mass murderers, but never heard of Jan Oort, say anything about us?

At the time, the World Society of London was the world's clearinghouse of scientific discovery. Its motto, "Nullius in verba," sums up the heart of the scientific method. It's Latin for "see for yourself." In other words, "question authority."


E6

Democritus of Abdera was a true scientist, a man with a passionate desire to know the cosmos and to have fun. This is the man who once said, "a life without parties would be like an endless road without an end."
- "You mean, that's it? That's all there is? Just a bunch of atoms in a void?"
- "Yep. Well, think about it. The world has to be made of countless indivisible particles in a void. Otherwise, nothing could move or grow, be divided or changed without atoms and empty space for them to move in. So don't be sad, my friends. Just think of the infinite possibilities that arise from different arrangements of those atoms. Hails to the atoms, in this cup and in this wine... And to the laughter they make possible."


E9

Each of us is a tiny being riding on the outermost skin of one of the smaller planets for a few dozen trips around the local star.


E11

Human intelligence is imperfect, surely, and newly arisen. The ease with which it can be sweet-talked, overwhelmed, or subverted by other hard-wired tendencies, sometimes themselves disguised as the light of reason, is worrisome. But if our intelligence is the only edge, we must learn to use it better. To sharpen it. To understand its limitations and deficiencies. To use it as cats use stealth before pouncing. As walking sticks use camouflage. To make it the tool of our survival.
If we do this, we can solve almost any problem we are likely to confront in the next 100,000 years.

Our remote descendants, safely arrayed on many worlds throughout the solar system and beyond, will be unified by their common heritage, by their regard for their home planet, and by their knowledge that, whatever other life may be, the only humans in all the universe came from Earth.
They will gaze up and strain to find the blue dot in their skies. They will marvel at how vulnerable the repository of all our potential once was, how perilous our infancy, how humble our beginnings, how many rivers we had to cross... before we found our way.


E13

We call it "dark energy," but that name, like "dark matter," is merely a code word for our ignorance. It's okay not to know all the answers. It's better to admit our ignorance than to believe answers that might be wrong. Pretending to know everything closes the door to finding out what's really there.

---------- (↓ Carl Sagan, "Pale Blue Dot") ----------

That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that in glory and triumph they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner. How frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity – in all this vastness – there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

The Earth is the only world known, so far, to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment, the Earth is where we make our stand. It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.

---------- (↑ Carl Sagan, "Pale Blue Dot") ----------

How did we, tiny creatures living on that speck of dust, ever manage to figure out how to send spacecraft out among the stars of the Milky Way?
Only a few centuries ago, a mere second of cosmic time, we knew nothing of where or when we were. Oblivious to the rest of the cosmos, we inhabited a kind of prison -- a tiny universe bounded by a nutshell. How did we escape from the prison? It was the work of generations of searchers who took five simple rules to heart:

Question authority - No idea is true just because someone says so, including me. Think for yourself.
Question yourself - Don't believe anything just because you want to. Believing something doesn't make it so.
Test ideas by the evidence gained from observation and experiment - If a favorite idea fails a well-designed test, it's wrong! Get over it.
Follow the evidence, wherever it leads - If you have no evidence, reserve judgment. And perhaps the most important rule of all...
Remember, you could be wrong - Even the best scientists have been wrong about some things. Newton, Einstein, and every other great scientist in history, they all made mistakes. Of course they did -- they were human. Science is a way to keep from fooling ourselves... and each other.

Have scientists known sin? Of course. We have misused science, just as we have every other tool at our disposal, and that's why we can't afford to leave it in the hands of a powerful few. The more science belongs to all of us, the less likely it is to be misused.


附：本片的一个英文的 Episode Guide 加各集内容概要（概要其实相当详细，但并不是解说词的拷贝）：
http://evolution.about.com/od/Cosmos/

刚开始以为和小时候看的星球科普片一样，后来发现更多的融入了科学故事的科学史片。印象比较深的有：

1)哈雷帮助牛顿出版了原理，并和胡克撕逼.通过计算预测哈雷彗星76年一次解除了人们历来的恐惧，还牛逼的发明了潜水钟

2)发现地球年龄的博士, 这哥们的不幸实在是人类的幸。古希腊竟然用铅做餐具等

3)法拉第的故事(最喜欢的一个)，一步步的进入科学殿堂，即使被自己的导师戴维打压,被抑郁症折磨也不断的研究，电磁转换(麦克斯韦完善了数学公式)将人类带到了自动化时代,对光的电磁属性的研究又帮爱因斯坦的研究打下了基础，通过圣诞演讲不断的分享知识


4）其他：牛顿对光进行了分解，后来又有人发现了光谱的不连续性，原子内电子的跃迁需要电子吸收光子，因此通过分析光谱可以发现各个星球有哪些元素构成，金星的引力导致了冰河世纪


即使浩瀚宇宙中地球很渺小，生命依旧一点点的繁衍，即便人类有很多的恶，仍然有一位位的天才或凡人推动文明与技术的发展。