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.
我會試着解釋爲何 我們知道的東西很可能並沒有我們自以爲知道的多 我想從四個問題開始,不是那種今年流行的文化問題 對了，剛剛那句是個圈內笑話
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.
不過這四個問題，事實上 即使是很懂科學的人也會覺得很難應答 我拿這些問題去問科學節目製片人 問那些有科學教育背景的觀衆 也問教科學的老師還有七歲孩童 我發現七歲孩童答得比其他人好 這是有些令人驚訝
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.
第一個問題，我建議你把問題記下來 抄在紙上，或想像中的紙上 坐在電腦前的你也可以試著作答.
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?
種籽很輕，而大樹很重，是嗎?我想我們都同意吧，大樹用來製成椅子的東西是從哪來的? 對吧?這些東西都是怎麼來的?
(Knocks)
(敲椅聲)
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?
問題二，你能否點亮一個小燈泡 只用1個電池、1個燈泡、和1條電線? 那你能畫出上述問題的圖解嗎?不用真的畫 但如果需要的話， 你能畫出來嗎? 還是你會說 這個不可能?
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.
第三個問題，爲什麼夏天比冬天熱? 大家應該都同意夏天比冬天還熱 但爲何如此?最後，你能不能 簡單的勾勒出 太陽系的平面圖... 呈現出行星軌道運行的形狀 你可以畫得出來嗎? 你畫得出來的話，就把形狀畫出來
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，孩童對事物的概念不是老師教的 老師時常這麼以爲，但實際上概念來自於常理 來自於孩童對周遭世界的體驗 來自於他們跟同伴彼此交流 還有跟保姆、父母親、所有人交流的經驗 這個領域中的一個專家，對了，願他安息 就是渥西主教，他說要你將東西放進其他人的鬧袋裏的時候要小心 因爲那些東西幾乎不會再改變，對吧?
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
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 他最後上了斷頭臺?還是被吊死?
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
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.
現在回到那四個問題，大家都知道是什麼問題了 你們彼此之間也沒有討論答案 我平時習慣點人站起來回答讓他丟臉 不過這次就不點了
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.
種籽可以很重，基本上所有的這些 99%都來自於空氣 我相信有85%的人，或許在你們TED會比較少 會說木材來自於大地，而有些人 也許你們中的一兩位， 可能結束後會來找我爭論 說木材其實是來自於大地 若是如此，那我們就會有讓卡車跑來跑去 把人們的花園都填上土，那會是很棒的生意。 不過實際上我們不會那麼做 因爲木材的材料大部分其實是從空氣中來的 我在英國唸書時考生物每考必過 我的成績很好，但畢業後 還是以爲木材來自於大地