三米长的科莫多龙是全世界最大只的蜥蜴,一口就能将水牛和鹿咬死。不过,它没有调节体温的能力,寒冷时要晒太阳取暖,炎热时要遮荫避免身体过热。
绿森蚺可长达六米,大部份时间浸在水中静候比自己大只的猎物,将它勒死。
科莫多龙和绿森蚺的祖先都是巨型动物,分别是超过五米长的古巨蜥和可长达12米的泰坦蟒蛇。不过,古巨蜥从没像科莫多龙和绿森蚺般攀上过食物链顶端;而泰坦蟒蛇则要依赖非常湿热的气候才能维生。今日,因为处女地相继消失,加上原生栖息地被人类入侵的情况愈来愈多,科莫多龙和绿森蚺正面临绝种。
电视版本:双语广播(粤语/英语)
The 3-meter long Komodo dragon is the world’s largest lizard and can kill buffalo or deer with a single bite. However, it cannot regulate its body temperature and so needs sun to warm it up or shade to avoid overheating.
The green anaconda can grow up to 6 meters in length. It spends most of its time in the water, looking for prey larger than itself which it crushes to death.
The Komodo dragon and anaconda had giant ancestors: the Megalania, a lizard over 5 meters long, and the Titanoboa, a constrictor snake that sometimes grew to 12 meters. However, unlike the dragon and anaconda, the Megalania never reached the top of its food chain. As for the Titanoboa, it needed a very hot, wet climate to survive. Today, the Komodo dragon and anaconda are endangered by the disappearance of their virgin territories and the growing invasion of their original habitats by human beings.
TV Version: Bilingual Broadcast (Cantonese/English)
The largest land animal on Earth, the elephant, is endangering another giant in its ecosystem today as it robs the rhinoceros of some of its favorite food. Yet the elephant has not always been a dominant species. In the past, the ancestors of the rhino ruled in Asia. They weighed 20tons–four times the weight of an elephant. They disappeared when their ecosystem could no long provide enough nutrition for them.
Mammoths, too, were doomed by climate change and their need for huge quantities of food. Today, if we are to protect our last giant animals, we must make sure they have adequate resources.
TV Version: Bilingual Broadcast (Cantonese/English)
超过2000万年前,地球上的海洋都被一种长达16米、重60公吨的巨型鲨鱼统治,它就是巨齿鲨。这种超级猎食者拥有巨型的牙齿,吃尽无数的鲸鱼和海豚,以供应庞大的身体所需。后来随着气候变冷、猎物迁移到其他地方,加上新竞敌杀人鲸冒起,连群结队有组织地觅食,导致巨齿鲨终在250万年前绝种。
而在陆地,另一种巨型动物亦同样遭到气候变化的打击。1000万年前,南美洲曾出现过一种大地懒。它们拥有大象的身高,体积是现代树懒的200倍;它们是草食动物,栖于陆上,动作较现代树懒快,加上庞大体型轻易吓退猎食者,成功侵占了美洲,从巴塔哥尼亚到阿拉斯加都所向披靡。15000年前,早期人类开始进驻美洲大陆,在间冰期突如其来的气候暖化发生之前,或许也曾见过这些末代大地懒一面。
电视版本:双语广播(粤语/英语)
For more than 20 million years, the Earth’s oceans were ruled by a gigantic,16-meter,60-ton shark: the Megalodon. This super-predator with enormous teeth ate huge numbers of whales and dolphins to fuel its titanic organism. It went into decline when the climate cooled and its prey migrated to other regions, but above all because of the arrival of new rivals: killer whales hunting in well-organized pods. Finally, the Megalodon became extinct 2.5 million years ago.
On land, another huge animal was also hit by climate change. Giant sloths as tall as elephants, 200 times bigger than their modern cousins, appeared in South America 10 million years ago. These herbivores lived on the ground. They were faster than modern sloths and big enough to dissuade predators, and they colonized the Americas from Patagonia to Alaska. The first humans to populate those continents 15,000 years ago would have seen the last of the colossal sloths, which were subsequently wiped out by a sudden period of interglacial warming.
TV Version: Bilingual Broadcast (Cantonese/English)
今辑节目,占姆.艾尔卡利里教授会综合他之前多个科学特辑,并加入全新的片段,引导我们拆解物理学的一大谜思——万物的起源。
第一集,占姆教授首先会探讨量子物理学中著名的「不确定性原理」的发现过程,然后深入解构二十世纪上半叶,科学界创意大爆发的时期。这段期间全靠爱因斯坦、马克斯.普朗克和保罗.狄拉克等天才级人物,很多新奇的量子力学定律相继诞生。
电视版本:双语广播(粤语/英语)
Over these two films, Professor Jim Al-Khalili pulls together material from his many shows on science with new footage to provide a guide to answering one of the biggest mysteries of all—how did we get here?
In this film, Jim first explores how the famous uncertainty principle of quantum physics was discovered. He dives into an extraordinary period scientific creativity in the first half of the 20th century. At this time, thanks to geniuses like Albert Einstein, Max Planck and Paul Dirac, the strange laws of quantum mechanics were uncovered.
TV Version: Bilingual Broadcast (Cantonese/English)
肌痛性脑脊髓炎/慢性疲倦综合症 (ME/ CFS) 令人身体衰弱,影响全球过百万人。然而,相关医学研究一直不多。最近情况终于改变,因为新冠病毒的后遗症状,与典型慢性疲倦综合症征状相近。科学家正尝试找出这个神秘疾病的底蕴。
电视版本:双语广播(粤语/英语)
ME/CFS is a debilitating condition that affects millions of people throughout the world. And yet little research has been carried out into the disease to date. Recently, things have started happening – because the long-term effects of Covid-19 are similar to the typical symptoms of ME/CFS. Scientists are now trying to get to the bottom of this mysterious disease.
TV Version: Bilingual Broadcast (Cantonese/English)