评论
打印
Hello and welcome to SciShow.
大家好 欢迎来到科学秀
Our goal here is to excitedly and enthusiastically share the marvelous peculiarity of the world
我们的目标是充满热情和激情地同你分享这个世界无与伦比的妙处
and give people the opportunity to know more about themselves and their universe.
让人们有机会了解自己和他们所在的宇宙
Recently, we were talking to some people at Google about this goal and they were like,
最近我们在谷歌上和一些网友聊起这个目标 他们的反应是
"What if, like, we gave you the most asked questions in the world?"
如果我们问你世界上最常问到的那些问题 你将怎么回答？
That seemed like a really good idea to us, so they did that.
这看起来是个不错的主意 他们真的就这么干了
And then after filtering out the ones about Kim Kardashian,
在过滤掉关于金·卡戴珊的问题后
we were left with a list of ten of the most googled scientific questions ever.
我们剩下十个谷歌上被问得最多的科学问题
This is the World's Most Asked Questions. Answering questions is what science is all about, and we love it.
这就是“世上最常问的问题” 科学的本质就在于回答问题 我们喜欢回答问题
So let's start out with the first one: What is the meaning of life?
我们先从第一问开始：生命的意义是什么？
Yeah, it doesn't necessarily sound like a question for SciShow,
这听起来不像是科学秀会问的问题
but it kinda depends on your definition of "meaning" and your definition of "life."
但事实上这取决于 你对“意义”和“生命”的定义
The person asking is probably wondering what the purpose of THEIR life is...which I’m not going to weigh in on.
问问题的人关注的可能是他们自己生命的意义 这不是我想讨论的
And probably, Google isn't the place to look for that answer. But the purpose of life itself?
可能他们也不该到谷歌上寻找答案 但我想问的是广义上生命的目标是什么呢？
That's actually a question that science has come a good long way to understanding.
这是科学长期以来想回答的问题
The biggest idea in understanding the history of life on earth,
理解地球上
and probably everywhere, if there is life elsewhere, is evolution.
或者其他存在生命的地方的各种生命的历史 最重要的概念是进化
Once upon a time, one thing made a copy of itself...creating a kind of immortality for that thing.
很久以前一个生物复制自己的基因创造了这个生物的永生存在
Though, of course, not really, because the thing died. But the instructions for making it were passed on.
当然 这并不是因为它本身长生不死 而是繁衍的指令已世代传承下来
Because the second thing had the instructions, it was able to make more of the things in the image of the first thing.
因为第二个繁衍出的生物收到了这样的指令 它就能根据第一个生物的形象繁衍出更多这样的生物
The things themselves kept dying, but the instructions lived on...
他们自身不断消亡 但繁衍的指令传承下去
and there we have the bizarre and occasionally upsetting meaning of life,
因此生物上来讲 我们就有了神奇的、偶尔令人苦恼的生命的意义
biologically...to pass on the instructionsfor creating more life.
那就是不断传递 繁衍创造更多生命的指令
Those instructions, these days, are DNA, or, for some simple organisms, RNA --
用现在的话说 这些指令就是DNA对简单的有机体来说是RNA
molecules that contain segments that code for different proteins,
DNA和RNA分子包含着不同蛋白质编码的片段
and those proteins do the majority of the constructing of the actual organism.
这些蛋白质形成有机体的主要成分
In a weird way, the life of an individual organism is just a system for keeping the genes goin'.
有点诡异的是 单个有机体的生命仅仅只是一个 保存和传承基因的系统
Genes that don't contribute to that task, or especially if they interfere with it, won't
基因无法促进有机体的传承 如果基因干扰有机体的话就不能通过它
get passed because the organism will die before it has a chance to do any breeding.
因为有机体在有机会进行繁衍前就死了
And there we have the primary mechanism of evolution.
因此我们就有了进化的基本机制
So, yeah, in a somewhat gritty sense, the biological meaning of life is
在某种程度上我们不得不勇敢承认 生命的生物学意义就在于
to live long enough to pass your genes on to the next generation.
活得够久以把基因传给下一代
So, basically...don't die...and have sex.
所以基本上归结于两点：活着和做爱
But simultaneously, there is a much more pleasant way of saying that.
同时我们也可以换一种更容易接受的说法
The meaning of life is to create life. To perpetuate life.
生命的意义在于创造生命 保存生命
To sustain and grow this marvelous and astounding complexity that is unique in the known universe.
传承发展这种已知宇宙中独一无二的无与伦比的、令人震撼的复杂性
As for the meaning of your own life...that's up to you to figure out.
至于你自己生命的意义 这取决于自己的探索
Leading up to this project, we did a little SciShow viewer survey where we asked you,
为做这个项目 我们在科学秀的观众中做了一个调查
our viewers, a bunch of questions, including whether you felt like you knew roughly what you were doing here on earth.
问他们一些问题 包括你是否大概知道 你在地球上在做什么
In other words, whether you had some idea of the meaning of your life.
换句话说你是否知道 你的生命存在的意义
And the results of our very unscientific analysis of this survey were fascinating.
我们对这个调查的分析很不科学化 但结果却很有意思
A full two thirds of you feel like you know roughly what you're doing here on earth,
三分之二的人表示知道自己生命的意义
but those who didn't were were substantially more likely to suffer from chronic hiccups...
但另外的三分之一不知道 却有习惯性地打嗝的特点
so either knowing your place in the world decreases your likelihood of getting hiccups...
知道自己在世界上存在的意义有减少打嗝的可能性
or getting hiccups increases the chance that you will feel aimless.
或者说打嗝会让人更不容易感到生命的意义
Or possibly there's some completely different effect going on,
又或者这里其实有完全不同的因果效应存在
or our completely non-scientific survey is not actually very good at predicting things.
或者我们这个完全不科学的 调查不善于预测
People who had some idea of their purpose were also more likely to have beards, be religious, and have fallen in love.
知道自己生命意义的人更有可能去留胡子 信仰宗教 和拥有爱情
And people who didn't feel like they knew what their purpose was were 26% more likely
而不知道自己生命意义的人中有26%的可能性
to hold violet as their favorite color of the rainbow.
最喜欢彩虹七色中的紫色
So that's just WEIRD! Of all the fascinating questions in the world, what question do you most want answered?
所以这非常奇怪！ 在世上所有奇妙的问题中 哪一个是你最想知道答案？
Let us know on Facebook or Twitter or in the comments down below, and we will answer the
你可以在Facebook、Twitter或者节目下方留言
best questions in a new video at the end of the month.
我们将在月末新一期视频中回答那些最好的问题
Don't forget to use the hashtag #WMAQ and stay tuned for more questions answered here on SciShow.
别忘了加标签#WMAQ# 并关注更多我们在科学秀回答的问题
