探索科学的奥秘简单内容（科学的故事TheStory）
探索科学的奥秘简单内容（科学的故事TheStory）http://assrt.net/xml/sub/500/500263.xml?&utm_source=rlt_suggestion&utm_medium=smart&utm_campaign=subtitle&suggest_from=580878字幕下载：视频（英语发音，中文字幕）：https://www.bilibili.com/bangumi/play/ep118825/(咪咕视频APP上也可以搜索到。)
世界由什么构成 What is the world made of原子理论和量子物理是如何支撑现代技术的。
How atomic theories and concepts of quantum physics underpin modern technology.
物质的基本元素是什么?这个问题是化学的基础，古代炼金术师、化学家、量子物理学家都在思考这个问题。每揭开一层面纱，看到的都不是最后的谜底，却能彻底改变人类的生活。人造染料、真空管、晶体管都源自对这个问题的探求。究竟有那些人，在探讨物质的基本元素上，担任重要推手?还有哪些问题，等待我们探索的呢?
官方网站：http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00s9mms
视频（英语发音，中文字幕）：
https://www.bilibili.com/bangumi/play/ep118825/
(咪咕视频APP上也可以搜索到。)
字幕下载：
http://assrt.net/xml/sub/500/500263.xml?&utm_source=rlt_suggestion&utm_medium=smart&utm_campaign=subtitle&suggest_from=580878
自从人类眼中闪耀出智慧之光 There are some great questions
就有几个重要的问题 that have intrigued and haunted us
让我们为之着迷 since the dawn of humanity.
我们寻找答案的旅程 The story of our search to answer those questions
就是科学的故事 is the story of science.
在人类所有的成就中 Of all human endeavours
科学对生活的影响最为深刻 science has had the greatest impact on our lives
影响了我们对这个世界 on how we see the world
以及对我们自身的看法 on how we see ourselves.
它的思想 成就 结晶 Its ideas its achievements its results
无处不在 are all around us.
我们是如何建立起现代社会呢 So how did we arrive at the modern world?
其过程比你想象的 Well that is more surprising and more human
更神奇 更人性 than you might think.
科学的历史 The history of science
常被讲成是一个个的灵光一现 is often told as a series of eureka moments.
理性思维的最终胜利 The ultimate triumph of the rational mind.
但事实却是 权力与激情 But the truth is that power and passion
竞争与纯粹的偶然 rivalry and sheer blind chance
对科学同样重要 have played equally significant parts.
在这个系列中 In this series
我将会从另一个视角讲述科学的历程 I'll be offering a different view of how science happens.
实验室内外 It's been shaped as much
对其影响都同等重要 by what's outside the laboratory as inside.
这是一个历史造就科学 This is the story of how history made science
科学成就历史 and science made history
以及思想改变世界的故事 and how the ideas that were generated changed our world.
这个故事充满了 It is a tale of...
以及 and
本集 层层深入探寻秩序与美丽 This time delving deep to find order and beauty.
眼见未必为实 Appearances deceive.
表象之下 Beneath the surface
我们的世界隐藏着无法想象的神奇 our world is stranger than we can possibly imagine.
站在这里 我自然地会认为 Standing here it certainly feels
自己站在一个固态的表面之上 as if I am standing on a solid surface.
看似可信 其实只是错觉 But this is an illusion however convincing.
没有什么是真正固态的 Nothing is really solid.
人类呢 人体绝大部分是空的 And you and I? Well we consist almost entirely of empty space.
如果你集中全世界所有人 If you took the entire population of the world
全部60亿人 all six billion of us
然后去掉所有空白空间 and removed that empty space
我们会压缩成一个立方体 比它还要小 then we could be squeezed into a cube smaller than that.
还有更神奇的事 And it gets stranger.
手机之类不可或缺的电子设备 Mobile phones and other electronic devices which we rely on.
它们依赖于一种 Well they rely on particles that
在通常定义下 并不存在的粒子 by any normal definition simply don't exist.
这些知识全部来自于 These insights all come from
我们尝试探索世界由何组成的过程 our attempts to find out what the world is made of.
一千年中 我们的认知逐步深入 Over the millennia our understanding has moved ever deeper
解开了这个物质世界中更深层次的秘密 revealing new layers that make up the material world.
这看上去是一个学术的 深奥的问题 It may seem like an academic esoteric quest.
事实并非如此 It's anything but.
每当我们前进到更深层次 Every time we've gone down a layer
获得对物质的更深入的理解 and achieved a deeper understanding of matter
得到的知识都会孕育出新的技术 that knowledge has spawned new technologies
以及巨大的财富和力量 and huge amounts of wealth and power.
最早系统地寻找组成世界的要素 The first people who systematically tried to unlock the secrets
并试图转化它们的领路人 of what the world is made of and to alter it
就是炼金术士 were the alchemists.
在中世纪晚期 他们人数众多 They flourished in the late Middle Ages
隐密地工作 working in secret
利用密码和暗语保护自己的知识 protecting their knowledge with codes and ciphers.
我们常常对炼金术士不屑一顾 It's easy to dismiss the alchemists
认为他们故弄玄虚 as deluded mystics
永远试图把铅炼成金子 forever trying to turn lead into gold.
或者 就是骗子 Or perhaps con men
利用简单的化学 欺骗无知群众 who used simple chemistry to impress the gullible.
但是对于世界组成的科学研究 But the roots of a scientific investigation of what the world is made of
就扎根在他们秘密的实验室里 lie in their secret laboratories.
炼金家的物质观 The alchemists' beliefs about matter
大多来源于古希腊人的思想 were largely based on ideas that had come down from the ancient Greeks
古希腊人认为 and the ancient Greeks believed that
你身边的所有东西 well pretty well everything around you
都是由土 火 空气和水组成 was made up of earth fire air and water.
这个系统有着令人着迷的简洁 Theirs was a system of beguiling simplicity.
世间万物只不过是 Everything in the world was a combination
四种理想元素的组合 of just four idealised elements...
土 水 Earth. Water.
空气 火 Air. Fire.
现在看来 他们的观点是完全错误的 Now they were completely wrong in that
但是其中的核心思想 but the central principle
组合简单的元素 that you can explain a complex world
来解释复杂的物质世界 by just simple building blocks or elements
却十分重要 that was important.
然而对于炼金术士 我最感兴趣的 But what really interests me about the alchemists
是他们的实际操作能力 is their practical abilities.
我试图重现一个奇异的实验 I want to try and repeat a bizarre experiment
它由一位末代炼金术士完成 performed by one of the last of the alchemists
德国人亨尼格·布兰德 a German called Hennig Brand.
布兰德相信 Brand believed he was on the brink
他就要发现贤者之石 of discovering the philosopher's stone
一种据说能将贱金属转化为黄金的物质 a substance that reputedly turned base metals into gold.
他认为自己能找到这种物质 He thought he could find it
就在人类尿液里 in human urine.
你这个放了多长时间了 -我们没有 - How long have you had this? - Well we've not had it...
上帝 不 可呛到我了 Whoa! Jeez yeah no I got a good waft of that one!
还会变得更糟 -还会更糟 - But it gets worse. - Gets worse!
我估计亨尼格·布兰德 I suspect Hennig Brand
在女士中不会很受欢迎 was not tremendously popular with the girls.
先将原料浓缩 Having boiled down our starting material
之后将它变成类似固体的东西 we will then sort of reduce it to a solid.
最后 我们将它提纯出来 Finally we'll distil it
看看我们是否可以得到什么有趣的东西 and see if we can get something interesting.
让我试着给大家解释下炼金术士的想法 Let me try and bring you into the mindset of the alchemists.
他们认为世间万物 They believed that everything on Earth
都以某种方式活着 was in some way alive
包括金属 and that included metals.
种子会在泥土里生长 金属也可以 Metals would grow in the earth like seeds and
人的尸体会腐烂 like the human body decomposing
它们也能腐烂 就是生锈 they would also decompose. They would rust.
但是金属还可以进化 But metals could also be improved.
它们可以变得更好 它们可以被纯化 They could be made better. They could be purified.
届时它们会变成金子 纯度最高的金属 And if that happened they became gold the purest metal of all.
炼金术士相信传说中的贤者之石 It was the legendary philosopher's stone that the alchemists believed
可以实现上述的转化 could bring about this transformation.
就是这个 我们... Here it is. Here it is. We've been...
我得说 这个闻起来真恶心 It looks absolutely putrid I have to say.
实话实说 即便作为一名化学家 Well I can tell you that even as a chemist
我闻过很多种物质的味道 and I've smelled a lot of stuff
这个也可称得上出奇地难闻 this is seriously seriously unpleasant.
现在我们把大概半升的尿液浓缩成了这个 So we've boiled down about half a litre of urine to this
你可以看到它开始有点呈现糊状了 and you can see that it's starting to get a bit pasty.
里面是大小不一的白色固体 There's all sort of white solids.
上帝 太难闻了 Oh God! Oh God that is bad!
真的是太难闻了 That is really bad! Oh.
他接下来必须要做的是 But what he would have had to do
把它移到这个曲颈瓶里面 was to transfer it into this retort.
我们把它从上面倒进去 So we're going to pour it in through the top.
让它顺着导流棒流下来 I'm just going to run it down this glass rod.
然后是高温加热 对吧 And the next thing presumably is extreme heat?
真金不怕火炼 And now the trial by fire if you will.
这涉及到了很专业的实验技能 It involved great technical skill.
控制温度 制造熔炉和玻璃曲颈瓶 Controlling temperature making the furnace and glass retorts.
但是他强大的决心和不懈的坚持 But his strong constitution and persistence
带来了神奇的结果 produced strange results.
他从尿液中到底提炼出了什么 So what had he extracted from the urine?
我可以展示给你 仔细看 I can show you and if you look
实际上我们把它储存在水里 we've actually got it stored under water
布兰德可能也这样做 much as Brand probably would have stored it.
我认为我们应该观察它燃烧时的现象 I think what we should do is actually see what happens when it burns.
你可以看到羽毛状的白烟 You can see the plumes of white smoke.
上帝啊 我可以碰它吗 Good Lord! Am I OK to touch?
事实上你可以举起它 对 You can in fact lift it yes.
上帝啊 太漂亮了 Good Lord. It's beautiful
不过我同时也觉得有点可怕 and I think terrifying at the same time.
如梦似幻 是不是 It is phantasmagorical isn't it?
不似凡间之物 I mean it really is unearthly.
这是最高级的魔术 It's magic of the highest order.
显然 布兰始终没能找到贤者之石 Brand of course never found the philosopher's stone.
他的发现被命名为"赐光者" His discovery was named "Giver of Light"
或磷 or phosphorous.
这一发现十分重要 It became rather important.
后来 它被用来制造火柴 It was later used to make the match.
人们很可能认为炼金术士 It's tempting to think of the alchemists
不过是偶尔被馅饼砸到了的神秘主义者 as a bunch of mystics who made a few lucky discoveries
但是如果看看我身后的这些实验器材 but if you look at the equipment behind there
就会发现事实绝不是那样 it tells a very different story.
你会发现天平 炉子 曲颈瓶 You have scales oven retort -
都是现代化学实验室必备的器材 equipment you would find in any modern chemistry lab.
我绝不怀疑 I have absolutely no doubt
在寻找世界组成要素的过程中 that the quest to understand what the world was made of
炼金术士在那漫长的岁月里 was hugely helped by the work done down the years
做出了卓越的贡献 by the alchemists.
但到了布兰德的时代 炼金术正逐渐衰落 But by Brand's time the alchemists were on the wane.
世界由四种物质组成的古老观念 And the ancient idea of a world made up of just four forms of matter
也将被颠覆 was about to be demolished.
在欧洲逐渐走出中世纪的时候 As Europe moved out of the Middle Ages
新的力量开始塑造科学 new forces started to shape science.
强大而专制的君主政权主宰了整个大陆 Powerful absolute monarchies ruled the continent.
他们渴求武器以争夺霸权 They were hungry for weapons as they battled for supremacy.
这带来了对大批高质量金属的战略需求 That led to a strategic interest in more and better metals.
对金属的需求永无餍足 The hunger for metals was insatiable
从深深的地下挖掘金属矿石的肮脏生意 and the dirty business of getting metal ores out from deep underground
变得前所未有的重要 became ever more important.
矿井 Mines were one of the places
是开始挑战古老信仰的地方之一 where challenges to the age-old beliefs started to emerge.
长久以来 人们一直以为 Air had long been considered
空气是单一不可再分的物质 a single indivisible substance
是组成世界的基石 a basic building block of the world.
但是随着欧洲的工业化进程 But as Europe industrialised
人们逐渐认识到 it became increasingly obvious
事实远不止如此 that this was far from the truth.
从个人经验中人们意识到 People realised from personal experience
气体的种类众多 that there were lots of different airs
它们的性质也大不相同 with very different properties.
有"坏"气体 可以在矿井中置人于死地 There was bad air which killed men down mines
也能神秘地熄灭蜡烛 and mysteriously extinguished candles.
还有"火"气 There was fire damp
毫无预兆便可突然燃烧 which ignited below ground without warning.
还有由燃烧产生的 And the wonderfully-titled
名字神奇的"去燃素空气" Phlogisticated Air produced by combustion.
所有这些都向人类提出了问题 All of this raised questions.
它们是什么气体 What were these airs?
这些气体存在多少 How many were there?
整个欧洲大陆上的实验家都在寻找答案 Across Europe experimenters went looking for answers.
在约克郡 一位自然哲学家接受了这一挑战 In Yorkshire the challenge was taken up by the natural philosopher
约瑟夫·普利斯特里 Joseph Priestley
他准备探究大自然隐藏的奥秘 A man who set out to probe the hidden mysteries of nature.
约瑟夫·普利斯特里少年老成 Joseph Priestley was a precocious youth.
他四岁时 便能准确背诵出 By the age of four he could recite perfectly
107个问题及其答案 all 107 questions and answers
他虽然加入了教会 He joined the church
但并不影响他成为一位天才实验家 but he also became a brilliant experimenter.
他不仅从《圣经》中寻找上帝 He was looking for God not just in the Bible
更从自然世界中寻找 but in the natural world.
普利斯特里是当时 Priestley was amongst the foremost
最早的气体实验家之一 air experimenters of the day.
正是这些新型的空气或气体 And it was these new airs or gases
帮助人类重新认识了 that would help create a new vision
世界的组成 of what the world is made of.
普利斯特里一开始是通过 Priestley set out to study airs
加热不同物质来研究气体 by heating different substances...
其中就有古代炼金术师最爱的氧化汞 ..Including an old alchemist favourite red calx.
我很喜欢颜色的变幻方式 I love the way the colour changes
从橙色变成深红色 as it's going from a sort of orange to a very rich red.
普利斯特里将其加热到很高的温度 Priestley heated it to a high temperature
于是橙色粉末变成有光泽的金属 and the orange powder transformed into a shiny metal.
也就是汞 Mercury.
借助一种新型仪器 And with a new piece of equipment
集气槽 普利斯特里收集到一种新气体 the pneumatic trough he collected a new air.
好了 就是这个 OK and here it is.
装满神秘气体的珍贵容器 现在测试一下 A precious container full of mystery gas. Now to test it.
把它倒过来 Turn it upside down
然后迅速移开玻璃盖 -好 and then quickly remove the lid. - OK.
准备好 移开盖子 Ready? Lid.
又燃烧了 -太棒了 -确实很棒 - And it reinflames... - Gorgeous. - Right. ..Quite nicely.
再拿出来 又重新燃烧 Goes out again and then it burns.
他把自己收集到的气体称为"好"气体 He described what he'd collected as "Good air".
并且对其助燃性非常着迷 And he was enchanted by its fiery properties.
事实证明 这种新气体是迄今为止 It turned out to be the most important
人类发现的最重要的气体 of the new airs yet discovered.
1774年在命运的指引下 他来到巴黎 In 1774 Priestley went on a fateful trip to Paris.
虽然按理说他负担不起这次旅行 Now he could never ordinarily have afforded such a thing
但他是以 but on this occasion
一位英国贵族的客人的身份去的 he went as the guest of a British aristocrat
并且他还带去了关于新发现的知识 and he took with him knowledge of his new discovery.
普利斯特里到达巴黎后 When he arrived in Paris
他受邀与一对研究实验科学的 Priestley was invited to dine with the golden couple
法国金牌夫妻档共进晚餐 of French experimental science
安托万·拉瓦锡和玛丽-安娜·拉瓦锡 Antoine and Marie-Anne Lavoisier.
他们建造了 They had created
当时欧洲 设备最先进的私人实验室 the best-equipped private laboratory in Europe
致力于精准的测量 dedicated to measurement and precision.
拉瓦锡野心勃勃 He had a vaulting ambition
想开创一门新的科学 to define a new science
化学 of chemistry.
他对现在人类生活方式的贡献 His contribution to how we live now
和牛顿或者达尔文不相上下 is arguably as great as that of Newton or Darwin.
拉瓦锡年轻的时候说过 When he was a young man Lavoisier said
我渴望荣耀 I am avid for glory.
尽管付出了巨大的代价 但是他成功了 And he achieved that though at huge personal cost.
阅历丰富的巴黎人和约克郡的工人阶层 They couldn't have been less alike the Paris sophisticate
他们是那么格格不入 and the working-class Yorkshire man.
我想普利斯特里肯定 I imagine that Priestley was rather
被当时的场合搞得不知所措 overwhelmed by the occasion
华丽的布置 上好的葡萄酒 by the magnificent setting the fine wines
还有安托万·拉瓦锡及其尊贵的客人 by Antoine Lavoisier and by his brilliant guests.
普利斯特里后来写信给他妻子说 As he later wrote to his wife
城内贤者 多聚于此 Most of the philosophical people of the city were present.
随着夜色加深 And as evening developed
话题转向气体问题 the conversation turned to the subject of airs.
于是普利斯特里告诉了大家 Priestley soon told them about
他最近的发现 一种可以助燃的气体 his recent discovery an air with fiery properties
并且详细说明了制造方法 and then he also told them exactly how to make it.
坐在桌对面的拉瓦锡听得很专注 Across the table Lavoisier listened intently.
普利斯特里后来写到 As Priestley later noted
闻者皆惊 Everyone round that table expressed great surprise.
借用普利斯特里的成果 Armed with Priestley's knowledge
拉瓦锡开始着手重复实验 Lavoisier set off to repeat the experiment.
随之很快便到处夸耀自己的发现 And was soon boasting of his discovery
虽然是同一种气体 但是却改了名字 the same air but with a new name.
拉瓦锡将之命名为"氧气" Lavoisier called it "Oxygen".
即为生命之气 It is the gas of life.
但是我觉得随后拉瓦锡所做的 But what Lavoisier did next is I think
是科学史上一个决定性的时刻 a defining moment in the story of science.
他决定逆向做一次普利斯特里的实验 He decided to run the Priestley experiment in reverse
用氧气和光泽金属重新合成氧化汞 the gas and the shiny metal recombined to form red calx.
这才是真正伟大的时刻 Now the really significant bit...
他发现实验前后物质的质量完全一样 He found it weighed exactly the same as before.
之后不久这成了现代化学的 This was to become a fundamental principle
一个基本定律 of modern chemistry.
这是划时代的 This was momentous.
拉瓦锡发现物质守恒 Lavoisier had discovered that everything balances.
把某种物质分解为更简单的元素后 You can take a substance split it down into simple elements
再把这些元素重新化合 then recombine those elements
得到的还是一开始的物质 and you get back to where you started.
对我来说 这标志着开始用现代的眼光 For me this marks the beginning of a modern understanding
理解物质 理解万物的组成 of matter of how the world is really made.
化学科学诞生了 The science of chemistry now emerged.
它诞生于三者的结合 Out of connections
炼金术士的实用技能 between the practical skills of the alchemists
新气体的发现 the discovery of new gases
以及对精确测量的追求 and a dedication to precise measurement.
新科学化学可以帮助人类 The new chemistry would help create a new vision
重新认识世界的组成 of what the world is made of.
与此同时 在富人的实验室之外 Meanwhile outside the laboratories of the rich
科学创造的奇观开始吸引大批观众 science was developing a taste for the spectacular
这主要得力于对气体的新研究 powered by the new interest in airs.
我们即将重新上演 We're about to re-enact
科学史上一个非常重要的时刻 a very important moment in the history of science.
会有火焰 呐喊 尖叫 There should be flames shouts screams and
很明显 这也是大家都穿着滑稽服装的原因 obviously this is why we're all wearing funny costumes.
在法国小镇阿诺奈 In the small French town of Annonay
著名造纸家族孟格菲家族的后人们 descendents of a famous family of papermakers the Montgolfiers
重现人类古老的飞天梦 recreate the time when an ancient dream of taking to the skies
成真的那一刻 became a reality.
这底下真是又热又呛人 It's incredibly hot and smoky under there.
孟格菲兄弟首次做这个实验的时候 The Montgolfier brothers when they originally did this experiment
对其原理一无所知 they had no idea about the theory.
他们很实际 只是想赚钱 They were practical men who wanted to make money
他们以为稻草燃烧 and they thought what was happening to straw
会产生叫做"孟格菲气体"的东西 producing something called Montgolfier Gas
可以让物体变轻 从而举升气球 which contains levity which is what lifts it up.
现在我们要烤火了 And now we're cooking!
真的 真的很热 Whoa! This is... this is seriously hot.
太壮观了 That was a sight.
真的很有趣 我们现在都知道飞行 It was great fun. We know about flight
但是想象一下如果你从未见过会飞的东西 but imagine you had never seen anything fly like that before.
你绝对会叹为观止的 It would completely blow your mind.
完全由纸做成的世界上第一个气球 The first balloon made entirely out of paper
飞向了1600多米的高空 soared a mile into the heavens.
现在的挑战就是要把人带到天上去 The race was now on to carry a man into the skies.
1783年11月 And in November 1783
两名勇敢的志愿者飞向天空 two brave volunteers took to the air.
人类第一次 The first humans
俯视自己星球的大地 to look down at the surface of their own planet.
但是不久热气球就有了竞争者 But very soon the hot air balloon had a rival
是由法国科研机构主持制造的 backed by the scientific establishment of France.
仅在10天之后 另一个气球升空了 Just ten days later another balloon rose.
气球的动力是一种新型气体 This was driven by a newly-discovered gas
人们称之为"易燃气体" called inflammable air.
其密度是普通气体的十三分之一 It was 13 times lighter than normal air and
当然也比用燃烧的稻草安全得多 considerably less dangerous than using a blazing pile of straw.
它的抬升能力非常强 It had huge lifting power.
这是人尽皆知的科学大事 This was science as public event.
半数巴黎人都出门观看 Half the city of Paris turned out to watch.
40万人 都惊奇的望向天空 400 000 people all staring upwards in amazement.
但是此次成功也让化学家们面临新的挑战 But its success laid down a challenge to the chemist.
怎样才能制出足够多的新气体 How could they make enough of this new gas
能让人尽情在空中翱翔 to fill the skies with floating aeronauts?
一个走在新兴化学前沿的人 It was a challenge picked up by the champion
接受了这个挑战 of the new chemistry...
安托万·拉瓦锡 ..Antoine Lavoisier.
在所有实验家中 他的解决办法最为大胆 Ever the experimenter his solution was daring
他找到一种方法 能分解最基本的物质 to find a way to break apart a fundamental substance...
水 Water.
你好 -你好 Hi there. - Hi.
幸会 -幸会 迈克尔 Nice to see you again. - Good to see you Michael.
我爱死这个了 我很高兴 I love this. I'm very impressed
能拿到拉瓦锡的 because I've got a drawing here of
原装置图纸 what Lavoisier's original apparatus looked like
我觉得现在这个和它很像 and I think that's pretty damned close.
这套装置可用来验证拉瓦锡的观点 This apparatus was constructed to test Lavoisier's idea
即水可以被分解为两种截然不同的气体 that water could be split into two very different gases
氧气和新的易燃气体 oxygen and the new inflammable air.
这个装置 So what we have is a system
本来是用于快速制备铁锈 to essentially make rust in a great hurry. -
明白 OK.
我们把铁管放在中间 So we have iron in the centre and
然后让水顺着铁管慢慢流下 then we have water which is trickling down
通过提升温度 and by raising the temperature
来加快化学反应的速度 what we do is we essentially speed up the reaction.
明白 之后水分子中的氧元素就会和铁结合 Right so the oxygen in the water is going to bind to the iron?
完全正确 铁的作用 Absolutely. The iron is essentially
就是让氧气与它化合 the oxygen getter in this system.
如果我从这一端放入少许水 If I let a bit of water in at this end
水就会变得非常热 that's going to get very hot
你就能看到团团蒸汽 and you can see with trained steam
这也是为什么后部的压强会稍微增大 and that's why we have a bit of pressure behind it.
现在水应该顺着铁管流下 But it's now going to drain through and
并和中间部分的铁管发生反应 in the centre it should be reacting with the iron.
明白 Right.
我们有可能在另一端看到一些气泡 We may be able to see bubbles down the far end.
出现气泡了 -恭喜 干得漂亮 - We've got bubbles. - Congratulations. Well done!
非常精彩 I'm very impressed.
这些气泡不可能是水蒸气 And those bubbles cannot be steam.
是的 Right.
因为水蒸气会在铜管中冷凝 Because the steam would be condensed here in the copper coil
所以我们先称它们为不可凝结气体 and so that must be some let's call it non-condensable gas.
但这是不是易燃气体呢 But is it inflammable air?
我们都急切想知道答案 是吧 We're getting anxious now aren't we?
好 一切就绪 Well we're ready.
我要把这根木条放进去 We're going to put the splint in there.
这的确是氢气 实验成功了 And it was definitely hydrogen and it worked.
那噗地一声就是氢气被点燃时发出的 It was in fact that pop sound that you do get when hydrogen ignites.
毫无疑问 There's no question.
这正是十八世纪人们所说的易燃气体 That was inflammable air as it was called in the 18th century.
拉瓦锡的成功鼓舞了拿破仑 Lavoisier's success encouraged Napoleon
用氢气组建一支气球军队 to create a military balloon corps powered by hydrogen gas.
能合成水的两种气体 These two gases that make up water
氢气和氧气 hydrogen and oxygen
是拉瓦锡对世界万物组成要素 were part of Lavoisier's bold new vision
大胆猜想的一部分 of what the world is made of...
元素 共计33种 Elements. 33 in all.
他的清单里记录了新发现的气体 His list included the newly discovered gases
但他并不是完全正确 but he didn't get it entirely right.
他的清单里也包括了热和光 He also included heat and light.
他尝试列出万物基石的新清单 It was a tentative new list of the building blocks of matter.
悲剧的是 拉瓦锡当时 Lavoisier's work coincided tragically for him
身处于法国大革命的动荡之中 with the upheaval of the French Revolution.
他通过税收获取利润 并被人们所痛恨 He made money from collecting taxes. He was a hated tax farmer.
拉瓦锡肯定也意识到自己处境危险 Lavoisier must have realised that he was vulnerable.
革命政府中的一位官员 A member of the revolutionary government
公开谴责像他一样的收税者 had denounced former tax farmers like him
是民众利益的吸血鬼 但他并没有逃走 as leeches on the people but he chose not to flee.
在协和广场 Here in La Place de la Concorde
拉瓦锡被执行死刑 Lavoisier was put to death.
他的死也绝不仅仅是他个人的悲剧 This was more than an individual tragedy.
正如拉瓦锡的一位同事所说 As one of Lavoisier's colleagues put it
砍掉他的头只需要一瞬间 it took just an instant to sever his head and
但是再过一百年 也未必有如此的头脑出现 over 100 years would not suffice to produce another like it.
我们对于万物组成的理解 We have now gone down a layer in our understanding
又进了一步 of what the world is made of...
我们进入了元素的世界 To a world of elements.
人们认为每种元素都不可分割 Each of them considered an unbreakable
并且是构成万物的基本物质 building block of matter
这种新的理解将会大放异彩 and this new understanding would begin to release great power.
我们的科学之旅 Our journey now moves
现在来到了壮丽的湖区 to the sublime landscape of the Lake District.
十八世纪晚期 At the end of the 18th Century
威廉·华兹华斯曾经住在这里 this was home to William Wordsworth
他是当时最伟大的诗人之一 one of the great poets of the day.
华兹华斯是浪漫主义运动的主要发起人 Wordsworth was a leading member of a movement called Romanticism.
他们看重感情和直觉而不是冰冷的逻辑 They prized feelings and intuition over cold hard logic.
浪漫主义科学听起来有点自相矛盾 Romantic science sounds like a contradiction in terms
但是我们将会发现 浪漫主义诗人 but as we'll discover the romantic poets
对科学的发展产生过巨大的影响 had a surprisingly profound effect on the story of science.
这听起来不可思议 That might sound unlikely
但它们之间的联系可以 but the link can be found
在华兹华斯的鸽子轩中找到 here in Wordsworth's Dove Cottage.
这幅当然就是 威廉·华兹华斯 So this is of course William Wordsworth
这幅是另一位浪漫主义诗人 and over here we've got another of the romantic poets.
名叫塞缪尔·泰勒·柯勒律治 This is Samuel Taylor Coleridge
是《老水手之歌》以及《忽必烈汗》的作者 Rime Of The Ancient Mariner and Kubla Khan.
但是我们真正要找的人是他 But the man I've really come to see is him
汉弗里·戴维 英国最伟大的科学家之一 Humphry Davy one of Britain's greatest chemists.
那么他在这里干什么呢 So what's he doing here?
汉弗里·戴维和浪漫主义诗人们 Well Humphry Davy and the romantic poets
都热爱诗歌 shared an interest in poetry
敬畏自然的力量 in the power of nature
并被某种可以改变情绪的物质感吸引 and in a certain mood-altering substance.
他们称之为笑气 They called it laughing gas and
戴维很大方地把它和诗人们分享 Davy generously shared it with his romantic friends.
但他们之间的共鸣比这深刻得多 But the connections went much deeper.
风景如画 Isn't it gorgeous?
不难想象戴维会如此热爱这片土地 You can see why Davy loved this place
他和浪漫主义诗人拥有一个共同的理想 and he shared with the romantic poets a belief
就是如果我们能洞察大自然的法则 that if only you could understand the laws of nature
并且依此和自然和谐相处 and livein harmony with them
那么世界将会更加美好 then the world would be a better place.
诗人和科学家都对大自然蕴藏的 Poets and men of science stood in awe
巨大力量肃然起敬 of the hidden powers contained within nature.
仅仅是表达方式有所不同 They just had different ways of showing it.
1801年 依靠自己的社会关系 And in 1801 Davy's social connections
他在伦敦皇家学会找到一份职位 landed him a post at the Royal Institution in London.
在这里他不但可以做实验还可以为公众演讲 Here he was able to carry out research and give public lectures.
他朝气蓬勃 魅力四射 演讲引人入胜 His youthful glamour and taste for the spectacular
这一切都使他迅速成为耀眼的明星 made him an immediate success.
你好 你应该需要这个 Hi there. You might need that.
准备好演出了吗 -是的 Ready to perform then? - Yeah.
演出时间 Show time!
汉弗里·戴维以前肯定如此说过 As I'm sure Humphry Davy once said.
皮特·沃瑟博士要帮我重现200年前 'Dr Peter Wothers is helping to recreate the extravaganza
戴维带来的盛大演出 'that Davy brought here 200 years ago.'
慢慢地加一滴 -好的 Carefully add a drop. - OK.
这样吗 -是的 Can we... - Just... Yeah.
看看你的羊会怎样 See what happens to your sheep.
当时肯定有一大批热情的观众 There would have been an enthusiastic crowd drawn
争相观看这些精彩的演出 to these wonderful exhibitions.
坐在那边的年轻女士 Somewhere over there
肯定会为他的魅力热血沸腾 some ardent young women drawn by his charisma.
在那边你还有可能看到塞缪尔·柯勒律治 Over there you'd probably have seen Samuel Coleridge
以他自己的话说 是来寻找新的灵感 who was drawn he said to collect new metaphors.
在那人群之中 And sprinkled throughout the crowd
又坐着新一代的企业家和工厂主 a new breed of entrepreneur and factory owner
敏锐的捕捉着有价值的化学新闻 who had come here to collect valuable chemical information.
汉弗里·戴维深知 Humphry Davy had an instinctive understanding
神奇的表演 of how spectacle and showmanship
可以让他这样的新生代专家 could be used to establish science as a powerful force in society
将科学深植于大众生活中 controlled by a new breed of experts men like him.
他用自己精通的 He thrilled his audience
当时一种神奇事物的知识 让观众激动不已 with his mastery of one of the wonders of the age...
电 electricity.
这个实验会有危险吗 Is this going to be dangerous?
有可能的 这种物质反应很剧烈 Potentially yes. It's very unpleasant material.
那我可得穿好防护服了 OK. I'll button up well then!
戴维把一种不起眼的白色粉末草碱 Davy heated an unassuming white powder called potash
加热到熔融状态 然后通电 to a molten state and then passed electricity through it.
戴维在做这个实验时 And did Davy have any idea what
知道自己能得到什么吗 he was going to get when he did this experiment?
我想他不知道 -他就是觉得有趣 - I don't think he did no. - He just did it for a laugh.
电流将草碱分解 Electricity broke the potash apart
分离出一种它的基本构成元素 to reveal one of its building blocks.
这种元素发出淡紫色的光彩 A new element with a lilac glow.
他称之为钾 He called it potassium.
你看到的那些烟雾 The smoke you can see
就是生成的钾 is actually potassium that's been formed
立即与空气反应产生的 but is instantly reacting with the air.
这种元素是如此不稳定 This element was so volatile so reactive
以至于它刚被分离就迅速反应消失了 that it disappeared almost as soon as it was isolated.
我现在取出一块钾 I'll just fish a chunk out.
这就是钾 -真有意思 So this is potassium. - How funny.
我之前从没见过钾 它看起来像是金属 I've never seen potassium. It looks like a metal doesn't it?
看起来确实像 It looks like a metal
但我们切一下就会发现这种金属很软 but if we cut this it's a very soft metal.
你就能看到钾的真面目了 You can see what potassium really looks like.
快看 这就是纯的金属钾 Here we are. This is pure potassium metal.
并且你能看到钾已经与 And you can see that this is already reacting
空气中的氧气发生反应 with the oxygen from the air.
戴维在200年前 So it's really impressive that Davy
就能分离出钾真是令人钦佩 was able to do this 200 years ago.
的确是的 在当时的条件下 It really is. It was quite a remarkable achievement
能分离出这么不稳定的金属确实很伟大 to isolate this reactive metal.
戴维在发现新元素方面的确有自己的诀窍 Davy had a real knack for finding new elements.
他在两年内一共发现了八种新元素 Eight of them in less than two years.
哦 天哪 Oh God!
就是这样 -我可是大吃一惊 There we are. - I was not expecting that.
戴维工作的重要性 But the significance of Davy's work
远远超出了新元素本身 lay in far more than new elements.
它使科学深入到流行文化中 It extended to science itself and to popular culture.
当时的年轻作家玛丽·雪莱 There was the young author Mary Shelley
受到戴维成果的启发并为之感到忧虑 who was inspired and disturbed by Davy's work.
她的作品《科学怪人》也深受其影响 It influenced her when she wrote Frankenstein
这部小说塑造了 a novel which created
深入人心的科学怪人形象 a powerful and enduring image
疯狂的实验者沉溺于 of the mad experimenter who is dabbling
远超乎自己控制的力量之中 in forces way beyond his control.
然后戴维的朋友 And then there was Davy's friend
诗人塞缪尔·泰勒·柯勒律治 the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
实际上帮忙创造了"科学家"这个词 Now he actually helped coin the name "Scientist"
来形容像戴维这样的人 to describe what people like Davy did.
也有人称他们为"科学人" Alternatives included "Science man"
但最终流传下来的是"科学家" but it was "Scientist" that stuck.
其他观众则提出了更实际的问题 But others in the audience had a more practical reaction.
搞化学有用吗 能发财吗 Was chemistry useful? Was there money in it?
化学终将成为推动世界发展的强大动力 Chemistry was about to become a power in the world
但是其实现过程 but the journey it took to get there
却远超你我想像 was wonderfully unpredictable.
一切要从热带地区的一个致命难题说起 It starts in the tropics with a deadly problem
这道难题足以威胁十九世纪的帝国统治 that threatened the empires of the 19th century.
牙买加曾是英国的殖民地 In Jamaica once a British colony
希望我能在这里获悉他们的解决之道 I'm hoping to see how they tried to deal with it.
一大清早就已经热得不行 It's quite early morning. It's already unbelievably hot.
是啊 -还要好一会儿才能到吧 - Yeah man. - We have a while to go don't we?
你知道我们现在海拔多高吗 How high are we? Do you know?
当你到达金鸡纳树附近时 Oh when you reach by Cinchona
海拔高度就是1525米了 you are 5 002 feet above sea level.
好吧 这里有蚊子吗 Right. Do you get mosquito up here?
蚊子飞不上来吧 -不是很多 is it too high? - Oh just a few.
在这些青山的山坡之上 On the upper slopes of the blue mountains
生长着一种不同寻常的树 grows a truly remarkable tree.
我喜欢这里 很不错 I like it here. It's nice.
终于能下车了 It's just great to get off.
热带地区有很多让人厌恶的生物 There are lots of unpleasant creatures in the tropics
但最为致命的就是蚊子 but the deadliest by far is the mosquito.
历史上杀人最多的也是蚊子 It has killed more people than anything else in history.
蚊子不仅会传播黄热病 登革热 Now it carries yellow fever Dengue fever
还会传播疟疾 but also malaria.
对于十九世纪处于扩张中的大英帝国来说 And in the 19th century malaria was a huge problem
疟疾可是个大麻烦 for empire builders like the British.
是这条路吗 Right. Is it this way?
那树有多大 -差不多这么高 How big is it? - About this high.
那树龄呢 -这边 OK. and How old is it? - this way.
抵御这种疾病的良方 The best defence against this disease
就是金鸡纳树的树皮 was the bark of the Cinchona tree.
你知道是哪棵吗 以前见过吗 You know the tree? You ever seen it before?
那棵是吗 I think...Is that one there?
对 就是这棵 Yes. This one here.
就是这棵啦 -已经开始开花了 - Right yes this is it. - It's started blooming there.
这可能是历史上最神奇的树了 Yeah this is probably the most amazing tree in history.
是它前所未有地让人类免受疟疾侵扰 It has relieved more human suffering than anything else.
我们要的就是树皮吧 Right and it's the bark we want isn't it?
我听人说味道相当恐怖 你尝过没 I'm told it's fairly horrible. Have you tried it before?
伙计 是苦到家了 Yeah man. Real bitter.
我学医时 亲眼见过 I've seen somebody when I was doing medicine
有人死于疟疾 I saw somebody die of malaria
所以我对这东西非常 非常地感激 so I have huge huge appreciation for this.
好吧 我要尝了 Right am I going to enjoy it?
天呐 天呐 Oh God! Oh God!
你是对的 Oh you were right!
真的真的苦到家了 That is really really bitter.
苦得我都说不出来话了 Just dries up your mouth doesn't it?
所谓良药苦口利于病 On the grounds that something which is horrible is doing you good
这个一定是非常好的东西 then this must be extraordinarily good stuff.
金鸡纳树种植园遍布了整个热带地区 Cinchona plantations were established all over the tropics.
但仍满足不了欧洲诸帝国 But every year the empires of Europe
每年上百吨的树皮需求量 needed hundreds of tons of the bark to combat malaria
因此 政府转向化学家 so governments looked to chemists
期望他们能研制出人工合成的替代品 to come up with a synthetic alternative.
1820年 两位法国化学家成功地 In 1820 a couple of French chemists managed to isolate
从树皮中分离出一种有效成分 the active ingredient in the bark
并将其命名为奎宁 and they called it quinine.
人们迫不及待要进行的下一步 What people desperately wanted to do next
当然就是生产出人造版的奎宁 was obviously produce an artificial version of quinine.
可问题是从来没有人 The problem was nobody
尝试过如此复杂的工序 had done anything as complex as that before.
而一旦开始这样的尝试 The attempts to do so
就将为世界开启化学工业的大门 would open the world to chemistry on an industrial scale.
在伦敦东区一间 The challenge to make artificial quinine
由阁楼改成的临时试验室里 was taken up in a makeshift lab in London's East End...
年轻的威廉·帕金开始了奎宁合成的研究 in an attic room by young William Perkin.
于1856年3月
发现首种苯胺染料
继而创立以科学为基本的工业
此地即为他工作的家庭实验室
斯特普尼历史纪念委托协会立
我认为他在住所的附近找到了灵感 And I like to think he found his inspiration round the corner
也就是这家当地的杂耍剧场 in his local music hall.
这里真是华丽 Isn't it magnificent?
事实上这家剧院和整个伦敦 Now the theatre and in fact all of London
当时都是由煤气灯照亮 would have been lit by gas lights.
煤气是由煤炭制成 And the gas was produced from coal.
这也产生了一些相当恶心人的副产品 Now one of the rather nasty side products of that process
其中就有这种黑色的粘性物质 was a black viscous substance called
煤焦油 coal tar.
一个叫查尔斯·麦金托什的人 A certain Charles Mackintosh
就是用这个做出了胶布雨衣 used this stuff and produced waterproof macs.
但帕金的发现 But Perkin was about to make a discovery
远比胶布雨衣要有利可图 which was far far more lucrative than that.
帕金用来合成奎宁的化学药品 The chemicals he used to try and create quinine
毒性非常大 are highly toxic.
所以我会用替代品 So I'm going to use substitutes
大致演示出他的实验过程 to show what the process looked like.
此前已有化学家从煤焦油中提炼出了 Now from coal tar other chemists had produced
一种名为苯胺的物质 a substance called aniline which contains
这种物质与奎宁的碳氢氮含量相似 similar amounts of carbon hydrogen and nitrogen as quinine.
看来是个非常好的着手点 So this seemed like a pretty good place to start.
他在苯胺中加入了硫酸 He mixed up his aniline with sulphuric acid
以及一种叫重铬酸钾的物质 and also a substance called potassium dichromate
不过其中混有其他杂质 which is a sort of chemical mixer.
接着他让这些混合物反应了一段时间 And then he left it all to sort of brew for a while.
得出了一堆黑色泥状物 非常令人作呕 What he found was black gunky really quite revolting.
让我惊讶的是他没立即扔掉 还真没 I'm surprised he didn't chuck it away but he didn't.
他的"实验室"底下还住着他的父母 In his laboratory at the top of his parents' house
他就在那儿蒸馏啊混合啊 he distilled he mixed.
终于制成了一种非常有趣的细粉末 He eventually produced a very interesting little powder.
他发现的不是人造奎宁 He had not discovered artificial quinine.
而是一种 He had instead discovered something
他从未见过 which had never been seen before
从未料想到的东西 and which he really wasn't expecting.
那就是一种颜色 He had discovered the colour
紫 mauve!
第一种人造染料诞生了 He had created the first great synthetic dye
世界因此变得更加多彩 and made the world a far more colourful place.
帕金没能造出奎宁 Perkin never did make quinine
却轰动了时尚界 but he did create a fashion sensation.
达官贵人都爱他的淡紫染料 The rich and famous loved his synthetic mauve.
真得非常美 This is really beautiful.
这条维多利亚时代的古典长裙 It's an antique Victorian dress.
帕金制出的淡紫不仅仅是一种时尚宣言 Now Perkin's mauve was more than simply a fashion statement.
这条裙子用的苯胺染料 The aniline dyes which were used to colour this dress
还是首个被真正投入工业生产的化学产品 were the first to be produced on a truly industrial scale.
听起来虽然奇怪 So strange as it may sound
但这条裙子标志着人类历史的一大进步 this dress marks a significant moment in human history
开启了合成产品大规模地 when the synthetic took over from the natural
取代天然的时代 on a truly massive scale.
到了19世纪70年代 帕金的工厂 By the 1870s Perkin's factory
年产染料已达上百吨 was making hundreds of tons of dye a year
同时 在帕金生动鲜艳的染料种类中 adding Perkin's green and Britannia violet
又增添了帕金绿和大不列颠紫两种颜色 to his growing catalogue of vivid colours.
帕金无愧被誉为 Perkin is rightly celebrated
工业化学之父 as the father of industrial chemistry
但很快 德国成了领头军 but the lead soon passed to Germany
他们的化学家研究出了氨气的制造工序 where industrial chemists worked out how to make ammonia
进而合成了人造化肥 which led to artificial fertilisers
使不断膨胀的世界人口得以维生 which today sustain the global population.
但这条始于研制奎宁 But the journey that began in the tropics
的化学之路也将人类引向了 with the search for quinine also led here...
第一次世界大战的修罗场上 to the killing fields of the Great War.
军队制服的卡其色是用人造染料染成 Uniforms were coloured khaki with artificial dyes.
炸药是由 Explosives were produced
生产化肥的同样制造工序而来 by the same process used to make fertilisers.
给人类带来噩梦的毒气 It brought us the horrors of poison gas
氯气 chlorine
正是帕金开创的染料工业中所用的气体 a gas used in the dye industry that Perkin had pioneered.
第一次世界大战因此被称为 The First World War has been described
化学家之战 as the "Chemist's War".
工业化学成为推动世界历史的重要力量 Industrial chemistry became a force in world history
是元素被不断被发现 the result of connections between the discovery of elements
欧洲帝国不断成长 the growth of European empires
以及淡紫染料的共同结果 and the colour mauve.
但探寻万物由何构成的脚步并没有止于此处 But the search for what the world is made of was far from over.
在世界各大学府 研究人员试图 In universities across the world researchers had been trying
探索元素本身的结构成分 to make sense of what elements might themselves be made of.
主流理论认为 每一种元素 The main theory was that every element
都是由大量微小且不可分割的物质组成 is made of tiny indivisible chunks of matter
即原子 called atoms.
不同元素的原子聚到一起 Atoms of different elements join together
才构成了所有你看得见摸得着的事物 to make up everything you see or touch.
但要证明这套理论 There was just one rather tricky problem
却有一个比较棘手的问题 with the idea of the atom -
没有证据 proof.
眼见为实 Seeing is believing.
没人看见过原子是什么样子 Nobody had actually seen an atom.
它们太小了 They're far too small.
很多物理学家都对原子的存在抱怀疑态度 Lots of physicists were sceptical about their existence.
因研究音速而闻名的恩斯特·马赫曾说 Ernst Mach who leant his name to the speed of sound said
它们只是胡思乱想的产物罢了 They are just things of thought.
令人意想不到的是 The first physical evidence for the existence of atoms
证明原子存在的首个物证竟出自 would come from a gloriously unexpected source...
超自然世界 from the world of the supernatural.
以现代思想看 威廉·克鲁克斯 To the modern mind William Crookes
不像是严格意义上的科学家 is a puzzling sort of scientist.
他虽然致力于发现新元素 His interests range from discovering new elements
但也对魂灵鬼魅的世界感兴趣 to investigating the world of spirits and ghosts.
克鲁克斯会对招魂术有兴趣 Crookes' interest in spiritualism
很可能是弟弟的 was probably triggered by the death
英年早逝引发的 of his younger brother at a tragically young age.
当时 有人声称照片拍到了 At the same time there were photographs claiming to show
幽灵鬼魅之类的怪影 ectoplasm spirits apparitions.
克鲁克斯就此开始对魂灵世界的科学研究 Crookes set about a scientific investigation of these claims.
他邀请了一些当时有名的灵媒 Crookes invited some of the leading mediums of the day
到他家里做测验 to come to his house and be tested
这些灵媒都出色地通过了 and they passed the test with flying colours.
他声称看见人腾空而起 He claimed to have seen acts of levitation
手风琴能自己演奏 an accordion playing by itself
以及幻影 他还拍下了一部分 and strange phantom figures some of which he photographed.
克鲁克斯是不是太天真了呢 Was Crookes being naive?
那时电报才发明了几十年 Well it was only decades since the telegraph had been invented.
如果你跟全世界都能联系上 If you could communicate across the world
为什么不能跟死人有交流呢 then why not with the dead?
甚至就在他自己的实验室里 The thing is even in his own laboratory
克鲁克斯也遇到了难以解释的现象 Crookes was coming across stuff which was very hard to explain
像是发生在另一个世界的事情 stuff which was really if you like out of this world.
这个东西叫做克鲁克斯管 This thing here is called a Crookes tube
这就是一个普通的真空玻璃管 and it's simply a glass tube out of which the air has been sucked
再加上两个电极和一个荧光屏 a couple of electrodes and a fluorescent screen.
他给两个电极加了很大的电压 He passed a high voltage across the electrodes...
实验结果很惊人 and the result was really quite striking.
很漂亮不是吗 Isn't that gorgeous?
像一道绿色的射线 Looks like a sort of green ray.
这是精神放射物吗 Was this a spiritual emanation?
克鲁克斯是一位细心的实验者 Crookes was a careful experimenter.
他发现光会随着磁铁而弯曲 He found the glow could be bent with a magnet
这说明这束光应该是带电的 suggesting the glow was in some way electrical.
他接下来做的事情更是绝妙 What he did next was very ingenious.
正确 Right.
克鲁克斯又做了一个管 加了一个部件 Crookes made a new tube with another addition
一个小金属桨轮 a tiny metal paddle wheel.
我们来看一下打开会发生什么 Let's see what happens when we turn it on.
真是精妙绝伦啊 Ha! Spectacular.
这说明这道奇怪的光是由运动的粒子组成 This suggested the strange glow was made up of moving particles
是有质量的物体推动轮子前进 something with a mass to push a wheel.
这让克鲁克斯非常激动 Now Crookes was thrilled.
对他而言 As far as he was concerned
这证明了所有合理的假设 this proved beyond all reasonable doubt
这里发生的就是 that what was happening was
一束粒子转动了轮子 a stream of particles were making it spin.
他把这种力量 He called this force
这种光束称为"发光物质" this stream "Radiant matter"
他认为这是物质的第四种状态 and he thought it was a sort of fourth state of being.
因为他只是个实验家 For all his skills as an experimenter
克鲁克斯没得出令人信服的理论来解释现象 Crookes didn't have a convincing theory of what was happening.
但在好奇心的驱使下他又做了一系列实验 But his curiosity would trigger a whole sequence of experiments
推进了物理和化学的发展 that would in turn transform physics chemistry
也让我们从一个全新的角度 and also create a whole new way of
审视我们生存的这个奇妙世界 looking at this deeply strange world that we all live in.
原子理论就是在这里开始的 Atomic theory really started to come into focus
剑桥大学 here in Cambridge University.
在毫不起眼的卡文迪许实验室里 In the rather unassuming Cavendish Laboratory
一位物理学家的成果 with the work of the physicist
约瑟夫·约翰·汤姆孙 也就是JJ Joseph John Thomson known as JJ.
他发现了让管子发光 He realised that what was causing the tube to glow
并且让浆轮运动的物质 and the paddle wheel to spin
那是一束很小很小的带电粒子 were a stream of tiny charged particles
甚至比原子都要小得多 particles far far smaller than even atoms.
他做了一些更精巧的克鲁克斯管 He built more accurate and delicate versions of Crookes' tubes.
汤姆孙计算出这种能让轮子动起来的粒子 Thomson calculated the particles causing the wheel to move
比原子要小一千倍 were 1 000 times smaller than an atom.
这引起了轰动 It caused a sensation.
它们被命名为电子 They were named electrons
人类发现的第一种亚原子粒子 the first sub-atomic particles to be discovered.
JJ汤姆孙因为这项发现 It was an achievement that gained JJ Thomson
在1906年获得了诺贝尔物理学奖 the Nobel Prize for physics in 1906.
在二十世纪初 A new layer of our understanding of
我们对世界的组成有了更进一步的了解 what the world is made of opened up in the early 20th century.
世界由原子组成 The world was made of atoms
原子又由三种基本粒子构成 and they were made up of three fundamental particles
原子核内有质子和中子 protons and neutrons packed into a nucleus
电子围绕着原子核运动 surrounded by electrons moving in orbits.
有个地方能让你了解原子的世界 A suitably grand location to give you a sense of the world of the atom
那就是伦敦圣保罗教堂 is St Paul's in London.
在这里你就可以开始想象 It's a place where you can start to picture
原子内的比例和构造 the scale and proportions inside the atom.
如果你把圣保罗大教堂想象成一个原子 If you can imagine St Paul's Cathedral as an atom
原子核 也就是这个原子的核心 then the nucleus which is at the heart of the atom
几乎集中了所有质量的所在 and where almost all the mass resides
比一粒沙子还要小 would be smaller than a single grain of sand.
剩余的空间都是空的 The rest is effectively a void.
这很神奇 It is remarkable.
任何被你看作是固体的物质 Everything you think of as solid matter
这个建筑 我 你 我脚下的地板 the building me you the floor I'm standing on
几乎都是由空白空间组成 almost all of it is empty space.
因此 如果你去掉所有空白空间 That's why if you took out the empty space
世界上所有的人加起来 the entire population of the world
也就只有一块方糖那么大 could fit inside the size of a single sugar cube.
科学家们很快意识到在原子内部 And scientists soon realised that inside the atom
传统的物理定律是不适用的 the traditional laws of physics simply don't apply.
在原子理论诞生的初期 In the early days of atomic theory
他们把原子 they thought of the atom
看成是一个小型的太阳系 as being like a sort of mini solar system.
原子核 也就是太阳 You've got the nucleus the sun at the centre
周围旋转的电子就像小型行星 and round it spun the electrons like mini planets.
但是很快他们意识到 Soon however they realised
电子和行星毫无相似之处 that electrons are nothing like planets.
电子是一种让人难以置信的诡异怪兽 The electron is an unbelievably weird beast.
你甚至无法确定它在哪里 And you simply cannot pin it down.
电子永远不会只出现在一个地方 An electron is never just in one place.
它到处游走好像会同时出现在很多地方 It flits around as if it were in many places at the same time.
在圣坛上 圆顶上 By the altar up there in the dome
我身后 just behind me
都是在同一时刻 all at the same time.
现在急需一个新的理论 A new theory was required
解释这个奇怪的亚原子世界 to explain this strange sub-atomic world.
电子的运动方式不能确定 The behaviour of electrons could only be described
只能用概率描述 not as certainties but as probabilities.
不能确定电子在哪里 Not where electrons are
只能说它们可能在哪里 but where they are likely to be.
这个新的理论也就是量子论 The new theory was known as quantum.
尼尔斯·玻尔 量子物理之父 Niels Bohr the father of quantum physics
他曾说 当你听说这个理论后 once said that if you're not profoundly shocked
若没有被深深震撼到 when you hear about it
那你就是没有理解它 then you haven't understood it.
连阿尔伯特·爱因斯坦都曾否定量子理论 Even Albert Einstein initially rejected quantum theory
他说 "上帝从来不会跟宇宙掷骰子" saying "God does not play dice with the universe."
尽管如此 量子理论依然是 But quantum theory is nonetheless
我们现代科技社会的基础 the foundation of our modern technological society.
1945年 饱经战火的一代人 1945 and the wartime generation
庆祝着胜利 憧憬着和平富裕的生活 celebrated victory and the possibility of peace and plenty.
他们梦想着科技如何使生活更美好 They dreamt of how technology could make their lives better.
而这些梦想的背后却是电子科技 And behind many of these dreams was the science of the electron.
一个崭新的世界即将到来 There was a brand-new world
让梦想变为现实的正是 and what made it possible were these.
真空管 Valves.
它看起来很漂亮 不是吗 Now it is rather gorgeous isn't it?
这是克鲁克斯管的远亲 It's a distant cousin of the Crookes tube
它的任务是控制电子的流动 and its job was essentially to control the flow of electrons
放大或者开关 to amplify or to switch things.
真空管是电气工业的重要部分 The valve was the workhorse of the electrical industry.
它在收音机和电话交换机中 It was used to amplify electrical signals
被用来放大电子信号 in radios and telephone exchanges
以及在早期电脑中开关二进制信号 and to switch binary signals in early computers.
他们被成百万的生产 They were manufactured by the million.
可是麻烦的是 这又胖又大的家伙 The trouble is big chunky
很耗电 uses a lot of power
会变得很热 gets really hot
而且 及其易碎 and is incredibly... Breakable!
量子理论的奇妙世界找到了替代品 The strange world of quantum theory was to provide a replacement.
这是在一家电话公司 It was in a telephone company
量子理论开始走向实用 that quantum theory came of age.
贝尔实验室想用一种更便捷更便宜的方式 Bell Labs wanted a better cheaper way of
让美国人沟通 connecting Americans.
因此 他们需要替换掉真空管 To do that they needed to replace the valve.
他们的研究小组由威廉·肖克利带头 Their research team was led by William Shockley
一个圆滑 聪明绝顶却难以相处的人 a slick clever and rather unlikeable individual.
这个就是肖克利的团队做出来的 And this is what Shockley's team came up with.
这个看上去有些奇怪的小东西 It is a curious looking beast
就是世界上第一个晶体管的雏形 but this is a model of the world's first transistor.
只有你了解电子的性质 You can only make a transistor
你才能做出晶体管 if you understand how electrons behave.
你需要量子理论 You need quantum theory.
但实际上它和真空管的作用是一样的 But essentially it was doing what a valve does
控制电子的流动 control the flow of electrons
但它是借助量子力学实现的 but it did so using the laws of quantum mechanics.
现在 我要把晶体管 Now I would put the transistor right up there
列为历史上最伟大的十项发明之一 with the ten greatest inventions of all time
因为它彻底地改变了世界 because it utterly transformed the world.
又大又胖的电子管收音机很快被淘汰了 Big clunky valve radios soon gave way
取而代之的是小型的便携式晶体管收音机 to small portable transistor radios
而这些又被微处理器取代 and these in turn were replaced by the micro-processer.
想一下你就会惊讶的发现 It is astonishing when you think
仅仅在60年间 我们就由这个 that in just 60 years we have gone from this
一个单晶体管 发展到了这个 a single transistor to this
一个包含有超过20亿晶体管的微处理器 a micro-processor that contains over two billion transistors.
由我看来 这个微处理器 For me the micro-processor is the ultimate expression
就是探索万物由何组成 of the power that has been unleashed
旅程中的结晶 by trying to understand what the world is made of.
对于物质组成的不断深入研究 Delving ever deeper into matter
无疑改变了我们的社会 has undoubtedly changed our society.
我们居住的房子 The buildings we live in
出行的工具 联络的方式 the way we travel how we communicate.
简而言之 我们现在的生活方式 In short our modern way of life
很大部分归功于 is largely a product of the attempts
对于我们自身组成的不断研究 to find out what we're all made of.
我们的探索还远没有结束 Our attempts are far from over.
我们会探索到更深层 更千奇百怪的事物 There will be new layers to discover ever more strange.
也许我们现在无法理解的事情 Perhaps what now seems unbelievable
只是因为我们现在还不明白 is simply what we do not yet understand.
下一次 我们将探索与自身最密切相关的问题 Next time the most personal question we have asked.
－End－
