三米長的科莫多龍是全世界最大隻的蜥蜴,一口就能將水牛和鹿咬死。不過,牠沒有調節體溫的能力,寒冷時要曬太陽取暖,炎熱時要遮蔭避免身體過熱。
綠森蚺可長達六米,大部份時間浸在水中靜候比自己大隻的獵物,將牠勒死。
科莫多龍和綠森蚺的祖先都是巨型動物,分別是超過五米長的古巨蜥和可長達12米的泰坦蟒蛇。不過,古巨蜥從沒像科莫多龍和綠森蚺般攀上過食物鏈頂端;而泰坦蟒蛇則要依賴非常濕熱的氣候才能維生。今日,因為處女地相繼消失,加上原生棲息地被人類入侵的情況愈來愈多,科莫多龍和綠森蚺正面臨絕種。
電視版本:雙語廣播(粵語/英語)
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)
超過2000萬年前,地球上的海洋都被一種長達16米、重60公噸的巨型鯊魚統治,牠就是巨齒鯊。這種超級獵食者擁有巨型的牙齒,吃盡無數的鯨魚和海豚,以供應龐大的身體所需。後來隨著氣候變冷、獵物遷移到其他地方,加上新競敵殺人鯨冒起,連群結隊有組織地覓食,導致巨齒鯊終在250萬年前絕種。
而在陸地,另一種巨型動物亦同樣遭到氣候變化的打擊。1000萬年前,南美洲曾出現過一種大地懶。牠們擁有大象的身高,體積是現代樹懶的200倍;牠們是草食動物,棲於陸上,動作較現代樹懶快,加上龐大體型輕易嚇退獵食者,成功侵佔了美洲,從巴塔哥尼亞到阿拉斯加都所向披靡。15000年前,早期人類開始進駐美洲大陸,在間冰期突如其來的氣候暖化發生之前,或許也曾見過這些末代大地懶一面。
電視版本:雙語廣播(粵語/英語)
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)
今輯節目,占姆.艾爾卡利里教授會綜合他之前多個科學特輯,並加入全新的片段,引導我們拆解物理學的一大謎思——萬物的起源。
第一集,占姆教授首先會探討量子物理學中著名的「不確定性原理」的發現過程,然後深入解構二十世紀上半葉,科學界創意大爆發的時期。這段期間全靠愛因斯坦、馬克斯.普朗克和保羅.狄拉克等天才級人物,很多新奇的量子力學定律相繼誕生。
電視版本:雙語廣播(粵語/英語)
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)
肌痛性腦脊髓炎/慢性疲倦綜合症 (ME/ CFS) 令人身體衰弱,影響全球過百萬人。然而,相關醫學研究一直不多。最近情況終於改變,因為新冠病毒的後遺症狀,與典型慢性疲倦綜合症徵狀相近。科學家正嘗試找出這個神秘疾病的底蘊。
電視版本:雙語廣播(粵語/英語)
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)