I'm going to try and explain why it is that perhaps we don't understand as much as we think we do. I'd like to begin with four questions. This is not some sort of cultural thing for the time of year. That's an in-joke, by the way.
我会试着解释为何 我们知道的东西很可能并没有我们自以为知道的多 我想从四个问题开始,不是那种今年流行的文化问题 对了，刚刚那句是个圈内笑话
But these four questions, actually, are ones that people who even know quite a lot about science find quite hard. And they're questions that I've asked of science television producers, of audiences of science educators -- so that's science teachers -- and also of seven-year-olds, and I find that the seven-year-olds do marginally better than the other audiences, which is somewhat surprising.
不过这四个问题，事实上 即使是很懂科学的人也会觉得很难应答 我拿这些问题去问科学节目制片人 问那些有科学教育背景的观众 也问教科学的老师还有七岁孩童 我发现七岁孩童答得比其他人好 这是有些令人惊讶
So the first question, and you might want to write this down, either on a bit of paper, physically, or a virtual piece of paper in your head. And, for viewers at home, you can try this as well.
第一个问题，我建议你把问题记下来 抄在纸上，或想像中的纸上 坐在电脑前的你也可以试著作答.
A little seed weighs next to nothing and a tree weighs a lot, right? I think we agree on that. Where does the tree get the stuff that makes up this chair, right? Where does all this stuff come from?
种籽很轻，而大树很重，是吗?我想我们都同意吧，大树用来制成椅子的东西是从哪来的? 对吧?这些东西都是怎么来的?
(Knocks)
(敲椅声)
And your next question is, can you light a little torch-bulb with a battery, a bulb and one piece of wire? And would you be able to, kind of, draw a -- you don't have to draw the diagram, but would you be able to draw the diagram, if you had to do it? Or would you just say, that's actually not possible?
问题二，你能否点亮一个小灯泡 只用1个电池、1个灯泡、和1条电线? 那你能画出上述问题的图解吗?不用真的画 但如果需要的话， 你能画出来吗? 还是你会说 这个不可能?
The third question is, why is it hotter in summer than in winter? I think we can probably agree that it is hotter in summer than in winter, but why? And finally, would you be able to -- and you can sort of scribble it, if you like -- scribble a plan diagram of the solar system, showing the shape of the planets' orbits? Would you be able to do that? And if you can, just scribble a pattern.
第三个问题，为什么夏天比冬天热? 大家应该都同意夏天比冬天还热 但为何如此?最后，你能不能 简单的勾勒出 太阳系的平面图... 呈现出行星轨道运行的形状 你可以画得出来吗? 你画得出来的话，就把形状画出来
OK. Now, children get their ideas not from teachers, as teachers often think, but actually from common sense, from experience of the world around them, from all the things that go on between them and their peers, and their carers, and their parents, and all of that. Experience. And one of the great experts in this field, of course, was, bless him, Cardinal Wolsey. Be very careful what you get into people's heads because it's virtually impossible to shift it afterwards, right?
好，孩童对事物的概念不是老师教的 老师时常这么以为，但实际上概念来自于常理 来自于孩童对周遭世界的体验 来自于他们跟同伴彼此交流 还有跟保姆、父母亲、所有人交流的经验 这个领域中的一个专家，对了，愿他安息 就是渥西主教，他说要你将东西放进其他人的闹袋里的时候要小心 因为那些东西几乎不会再改变，对吧?
(Laughter)
(笑声)
I'm not quite sure how he died, actually. Was he beheaded in the end, or hung?
我不太清楚他的死因，真的 他最后上了断头台?还是被吊死?
(Laughter)
(笑声)
Now, those questions, which, of course, you've got right, and you haven't been conferring, and so on. And I -- you know, normally, I would pick people out and humiliate, but maybe not in this instance.
现在回到那四个问题，大家都知道是什么问题了 你们彼此之间也没有讨论答案 我平时习惯点人站起来回答让他丢脸 不过这次就不点了
A little seed weighs a lot and, basically, all this stuff, 99 percent of this stuff, came out of the air. Now, I guarantee that about 85 percent of you, or maybe it's fewer at TED, will have said it comes out of the ground. And some people, probably two of you, will come up and argue with me afterwards, and say that actually, it comes out of the ground. Now, if that was true, we'd have trucks going round the country, filling people's gardens in with soil, it'd be a fantastic business. But, actually, we don't do that. The mass of this comes out of the air. Now, I passed all my biology exams in Britain. I passed them really well, but I still came out of school thinking that that stuff came out of the ground.
种籽可以很重，基本上所有的这些 99%都来自于空气 我相信有85%的人，或许在你们TED会比较少 会说木材来自于大地，而有些人 也许你们中的一两位， 可能结束后会来找我争论 说木材其实是来自于大地 若是如此，那我们就会有让卡车跑来跑去 把人们的花园都填上土，那会是很棒的生意。 不过实际上我们不会那么做 因为木材的材料大部分其实是从空气中来的 我在英国念书时考生物每考必过 我的成绩很好，但毕业后 还是以为木材来自于大地