宇宙时空之旅

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/

能结识到这部令人感动的记录片，缘起于知乎上一个热门话题：

“有人在不经意间或是在世界上绝大部分人都毫不知情的情况下拯救了世界吗？”

在热门回答中，water five讲述的两个故事：其一为一战时放过希特勒的英军士兵；其二就是本部记录片中因为测算地球年龄而发现石油工业照成产铅过量污染大气，危害人体健康并与之斗争，终得成功的克莱尔-帕得森先生。（http://www.zhihu.com/question/27549647）

water five是一位写字高手，被勾起兴趣的我，就在网易公开课上找来了这部已经翻译好的记录片（http://v.163.com/special/opencourse/aspacetimeodyssey.html）

一看，而且一发不可收拾的一口气看完了----震惊，感动，感恩。

震惊---为了其画面之精美，讲述之详实，叙事之绝妙技巧。

记得原来背新概念四时里面有一篇文章：

Beauty---And, though the gleams blind and dazzle, yet do they convey a hint of beauty and serenity greater than we have known or imagined. Greater too than we can describe; for language, which was invented to convey the meanings of this world, cannot readily be fitted to the uses of another. 有些美是不可言的，有些道是不可道德，譬如宇宙星空之美，又如科学探索之道。君记否《道德经》曾言：“大方无隅，大器晚成。大音希声，大象无形。”所以从古至今，我们仰望星空时，多怀有敬畏之心，不禁会发“江畔何人初见月？江月何年初照人？”之感慨！ 　对于科学探索，更是有多少人能阐明其道呢？一个物理定律，一个数学公式，一个化学方程式，难倒了多少科学家；愁煞了多少少年郎。

但这部记录片就能用那绝妙想象之舟带领你我，突破时间，空间的极限，古到洪荒，远到天地时空尽头；大可俯瞰星空之美，星系之繁，小可观细胞，分子，原子，电子，量子--。让我们能体验星空之美，造化之奇，科学之神力。学习源于兴趣，就连大神当年明月也说：历史应该可以写的好看。有了一部《明朝那些事儿》，多了多少明粉，又多了多少探究华夏悠久历史的翻书人；这部记录片用令人震惊之美，可以勾起多少人的兴趣，就能增几分世人对星空，对科学研究的欲望，让世人往蒙昧之荒前行了几步。

感动----- 全集分为十三部。一部一主题，部部皆有感人之处。捡来几处暂分享之，若欲详观，且自找来看。

其一——有哥白尼、布鲁诺为天文学献身，鲁迅先生曾有“灵台无计逃神矢，风雨如磐暗故园。寄意寒星荃不察，我以我血荐轩辕。”慷慨之言；哥白尼，目盲身死《天体运行论》，乔尔丹诺·布鲁诺鲜花广场以身献火维护发展日心说。

其三----哈雷与牛顿，一位万有引力，一位哈雷彗星，且纪录片中所述他俩人相处之事，让人有鲍叔牙-管仲，萧何-韩信，伯牙-钟子期之感；牛顿和胡克之间的争，牛顿晚年沉迷于神学，又让人看到了人性之缺陷。科学无国界，科学家有国界。发现无高低，人品有高低。

其七----地球化学家克莱尔·帕特森，以个人之力与石油行业
“铅污染”的一场环境保卫战。想起了当年明月给于谦的评价：人们不会忘记，正是这个人在危难之际挺身而出，力挽狂澜，保卫京城和大明的半壁江山，拯救了无数平民百姓的生命。 在这个污浊的世界上，能够干干净净度过自己一生的人，是值得钦佩的。 而如果他还能做出一些成就，那么我们就可以说，这是一个伟大的人。他的伟大不需要任何人去肯定，也不需要任何证明，因为他的一生就如同他的那首诗一样，坦坦荡荡，堪与日月同辉。

感恩———这部记录片，就像盗火的普罗米修斯：
是谁？让漫漫黑夜跳跃希望的火苗？
是谁？让蛮荒时代沐浴文明的曙光？
是谁？甘愿触犯天条也要救人类于水火？
是谁？深受酷刑却无怨无悔？
啊！巨人，是你给人类带来火种。
送来光和热，
送来人类新的纪元！

感谢奈尔·德葛拉司·泰森，这位黑人胖叔叔——他一位以从事科学传播闻名的美国天文学家，现任罗斯地球与太空中心海顿天象馆弗雷德里克·罗斯馆长；同时也是美国自然史博物馆天文物理部的助理研究员。
我始终认为，这样的科学家比国内一些用自己都看不懂，不相信的数据理论去SCI里滥竽充数，骗取职称福利的科学家更值得尊重。（当然这跟国内的科学体制也有关，不能简单归结于某个个人，谁不想堂堂正正做人，不造这些垃圾，以后有机会再详谈。）
中国也有这样的科普天文馆长：http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XODMzOTQyMTE2.html?firsttime=309


感谢福斯广播公司（FOX）和国家地理频道（NGC），当然国家地理频道不仅应当受这一部记录片之感谢，数以千记的佳品皆出自它手。

感谢网易公开课，以及其他为它引进中国而辛勤工作的所有人。知识的传播，离不开优秀的媒体。

PS:写在最后，
有人要拍《三体》，我是支持的。
起码有人关注了，无论好坏。
好了，可以借鉴；坏了，也可以在此基础上改进。
我们没有风险，
有风险的是做这件事儿的人。
作为观众，读者的我们也要宽容，这样我们才有更多好的内容来享受。

http://card.weibo.com/article/h5/s#cid=1001603804696631494433&vid=5489937891&extparam=

     《宇宙时空之旅》（Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey ）是美国国家地理频道和FOX电台联合制作的13集记录片，耗资超过3亿美元（？），由1980年播出并广受好评，著名天文学家卡尔·萨根主持的《Cosmos: A Personal Voyage》的原班人马打造。这是一部绚丽的史诗巨著，关于我们如何发现自然定律和探索我们在宇宙时空中坐标，从最微小到无穷大，从时间的开始到遥远的未来，在时空的海洋中畅游。叙事结构有点类似《万物简史》，以科学史为脉络，介绍人类探索宇宙的历程和获得的发现，并借以认识我们自身和我们在宇宙中的位置。该片获得了第66届艾美奖12项提名并最终获得了包括非剧情类节目最佳编剧在内的四项大奖。另外以我专业的眼光来看，除了飞行器的造型略想吐槽，该片的视觉效果其实堪称完美，如果有IMAX我绝对要去电影院再刷一遍。

      本片由著名天体物理学家Neil deGrasse Tyson主持，这位仁兄主持过不少关于宇宙天文的科普节目，上镜频率堪比Brian Green和Brian Cox.他曾在《生活大爆炸》第四季第7集客串，饰演自己。Neil的磁性声线让人十分难忘，难怪会被《时代杂志》（2000年）评为“最性感天文物理学家”（为什么不是Brian Cox？（＋﹏＋））。片中一再提到泰森和萨根的交集。在聊到与萨根的缘分时，泰森认为萨根影响了他一生。17岁时泰森想报考康奈尔大学，康奈尔大学招生办把他的申请转发给萨根，令泰森没想到的是，萨根写了一封私人信件给他，邀请他去康奈尔大学，“他邀请我去，帮我决定我是不是应该选择这所大学。当时他还送了我一本签名的书，我当时认为自己何德何能，所以我那时就在想，如果我日后成为物理学家，我也会这样对待我的学生,”泰森说。不过最终泰森还是选择了哈佛大学（！）。
       电视系列片《Cosmos: A Personal Voyage》在当年大受欢迎，有多达60个国家7.5亿人收看，是美国PBS电视台历史上最受欢迎的节目之一，配套发行的同名书籍成为纽约时报畅销书籍第1名长达70周，更赢得皮博迪奖和3座艾美奖。
       值得一提的是获得非剧情类最佳编剧的本片编剧和制片人Ann Druyan。她同时也是《Cosmos: A Personal Voyage》的编剧，而且之后更成为了卡尔·萨根的第三任夫人。
       还有让人简直不敢相信的是另一位制片人Seth MacFarlane。。。没错就是节操没下限，对屎尿屁情有独钟的那位Seth MacFarlane。当片头飘过这个名字的时候，我一度以为眼花了

    从原始人类第一次把好奇的目光投向星空，到今天旅行者1号已航行至太阳系的郊外，对于宇宙138亿年的历史而言不过是一瞬间。当旅行者1号飞过海王星时最后一次回头凝望，地球不过是浩瀚宇宙中的一个不起眼的暗淡的小光点。我们越是对宇宙了解的多，就越是明白人类的渺小和无知。难怪有人说学习天文学会让人学会谦虚。。在几千年探索未知的道路上，一代又一代的科学家付出了毕生的努力，就算被忽视，被指责，被排挤，被迫害，追求真理的脚步却从未停止，即使在漫长的中世纪那些黑暗年代，依然闪烁着人类理性的光芒。然而其中能被人记住的总是少数，太多人被少数大牌的光芒掩盖。。在读《万物简史》的时候，我不时感叹，这根本就是科学史的无名英雄赞歌啊，《Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey 》也给我同样的感觉,有不少科学家我第一次听说（我敢说好多人也是），这个节目让我记住了他们的名字。因为他们的不懈努力，刷新了人类对世界的认识，他们终将被历史铭记。

虽然此次推荐的不是什么热门电影，依然希望各位支持我的微信订阅号【80遗后的影视随笔】：yiping80hou

 

      话说五四的时候，中国人想从西洋请德先生和赛先生，就是民主和科学。然后看看将近百年之后的今天，对于这种美好的愿望似乎可以用两个字来回答：呵呵

      每天刷微博、朋友圈时，你是否也会因为各种谣言而困扰，什么牙膏尾巴的颜色能看出牙膏用料啊，什么胶原蛋白可以让皮肤有弹性啊，例子都说不过来。所以有时候感觉到天朝人民或许喜欢听信而疏于求证，恰是没有请来赛先生的原因。于是为了宣扬下“科学精神”，今天就推荐由Fox电视网和国家地理频道联合制作的系列纪录片《宇宙：穿越时空的冒险》（以下简称宇宙）

      《宇宙》这一名字，很让人联想到08年的国家地理频道推出的《旅行到宇宙边缘》，两部作品都拥有着美轮美奂的CG技术，给我们带来了无与伦比的视觉震撼。它会将你无法感知的世界具象化，行星、太阳系、银河，恐怕只有上帝才能俯视的美景。但是《宇宙》作为系列纪录片，其拥有更为丰富视角，带给人的不仅仅是对于宏观宇宙的感慨，更多的是对人类探索宇宙真理的追忆。

      回想少年时，老师问我未来想做什么，我总会坚定的回答说：“科学家”！可是这个理想并不能支撑我物理课及格。即使我们熟知牛顿被苹果砸中而想起了万有引定律，但是当年高考物理看到万有引力的考题时，我却希望当年砸中牛顿的不是苹果，而是榴莲！

      这就是我曾经面对科学的心态，枯燥的书本和无聊的科学八卦夺走了骚年们本应具备的科学信仰。但是在《宇宙》一片中，我们却看到了科学所具有的精神和吸引力。《宇宙》用美式漫画的风格回溯了人类科学探索的历史：

      我们只知道布鲁诺因为反对地心说而被教会烧死，但是我们却不知道教会为了碾碎他意志而整整折磨了他8年，但是布鲁诺却始终没有放弃自己的信念；我们肯定也猜不到，牛顿之所以能够发明万有引力定律，是因为哈雷与胡克的一个赌局作为引子，牛顿当上皇家学会会长之后烧掉了胡克的画像而导致后世根本不知道胡克长得什么样子。或许关于科学的故事或许远比科学本身有趣，但是《宇宙》却坚持着科学的理念展现了科学界的“人类的群星闪耀时”

      《宇宙》从第一集开始就建立了一个宇宙时间体系，从大爆炸（Big Bang！）到现在，《宇宙》把这一历程浓缩成了一年12个月， 在这样一个框架下，《宇宙》带我们走进了一个视觉魔幻的历程，飞出太阳系，众览银河，甚至飘到遥远的宇宙边缘；或是探索微观，深入到晨露或是细胞之中；甚至《宇宙》带我们走到了黑洞的面前：当看到主持人奈尔•德葛拉司•泰森的飞船停留在黑洞的边缘，挣扎于黑洞强大的引力，周围的物质不断被吸进这个黑暗的掠食者，那画面绝对是过去几千年人类都无法想想的世界，此刻却可以在荧幕面前真切的感受，而随着飞船被吸进黑洞，一扇幻想的大门也在那一刻被打开！

      《宇宙》的英文名字为《Cosmos: A Space Time Odyssey》。剧如其名，主持人奈尔•德葛拉司•泰森乘坐着穿越时空的飞船，像奥德赛一样带来了一场视觉和心灵魔幻之旅。也展现了这个宇宙亘古不变的原理。

      或许历史上的我们能够抵御战争的侵略，但是在科技上，“小米加步枪”是不会赢的！如果从民族的角度去思考，如果科学观能够普及，科学家出现的概率应该会增高。但我也担心，因为难以确定有多少人会因为我的介绍而去观看这部系列纪录片，但是我却坚定了自己的态度：如果我的孩子回答说他希望成为一名科学家的时候，我就需要像《宇宙》这样的作品去告诉我的孩子，科学有着怎样伟大的力量。

这部科普片做得十分精致，并且内容丰富，大到极超新星的爆炸，小到电子对光线的影响，而且画面十分美丽，并且很多生物都拍摄得很好。
        记忆最深的还是第一集，第一次看，就感觉到了对宇宙历史的极强的概括，像那张宇宙的日历，让整个宇宙历史化为了一年，我们都是在这个日历的最后一秒诞生的。第一集讲述了宇宙的起源，并且在整个十二集中都有很多的历史故事，能够让我们更形象地知道当时的故事。像这一集，就有科学家为了证明日心说而被判决死刑，但后来有这更多的人支持日心说，体现了科学的力量。
        还有让我记忆犹新的就是恒星的毁灭，太阳这颗小恒星，最终会不断膨胀，最终爆开，会伤害周围很多的行星，最终成为一颗白矮星，只能发出一丝丝微弱的光。而那时的人类必定有能力去别的地方，而他们还会记得这颗培育了幼儿时的他们的恒星吗，就算它已没有了原本的样子，但还是值得珍惜的。有一些大的恒星毁灭就像一场灾难，他们会一直缩小缩小，直到这么多原子之间几乎没有了距离，然后爆炸，这就是一场灾难，会发出强烈的光，而且超新星会有更强的光，是太阳的几千倍还是几万倍，而且不久就会有一个离地球较远的超新星毁灭，那时会照亮整个南半球的天空。
        这一系列中还有一个重要的东西，就是光。世世代代的人们研究光，有一种三棱镜能够让光分成七种颜色，而有人就是在测量温度是发现在最热的温度红色外面的温度计显示的温度居然比红色还高，这就是红外线，是一种不可见的光，还有很多这样子的光，而且用不同的光来看世界会有不同的样子，像有一种光就可以看见远处的宇宙爆炸。
        这个系列也让我更加了解很多著名的科学家，像牛顿，伽利略，法拉第，爱因斯坦什么的。而且里面的那艘想象之舟特别漂亮，能不受时间和空间的概念，挺厉害的，还有那个神秘的宫殿，里面记录了各种生命的诞生，消亡，还有这一条空空的走廊，等着别人来填写。
        最后一集，呼吁我们一起探索这个大无边界的宇宙，同时也要珍惜这个地球，这个沧桑的小白点。