先有雞，還是先有蛋？

What came first， the chicken or the egg？

Final answer： the egg. As the geneticist Haldane remarked， “The most frequently asked question is：‘Which came first， the chicken or the egg？’ The fact that it is still asked proves either that many people have never been taught the theory of evolution or that they don’t believe it.” With that in mind， the answer becomes obvious. Birds evolved from reptiles， so the first bird must have come out of an egg—laid by a reptile.

最終答案：先有蛋。遺傳學(xué)家霍爾丹說，“人們經(jīng)常會(huì)問先有雞、還是先有蛋的這個(gè)問題，那只能說明人們沒有學(xué)過進(jìn)化論或者說大家根本不相信進(jìn)化論。”如果相信進(jìn)化論的話，那么這個(gè)問題的答案是顯而易見的。禽類是由爬蟲類進(jìn)化而來，所以，第一只禽類肯定是從爬蟲類孵化的蛋里出來的。

硬幣是頭朝上，還是字朝上？

What are the chances of a coin landing on heads？

The probability isn’t fifty to fifty. If the coin is heads up to begin with， it’s more likely to land on heads. Students at Standford University recorded thousands of coin tosses with high-speed cameras and discovered the chances of heads up and down are approximaately fifty-one to forty-nine.

拋硬幣的概率并不是50比50。如果硬幣是頭朝上往上拋，那么很有可能掉下來時(shí)也是頭朝上。斯坦福大學(xué)的學(xué)生們用高速攝像機(jī)拍下了數(shù)千次拋硬幣的過程，發(fā)現(xiàn)頭朝上和字朝上的概率大約為51比49。

浮云有多重？

How much does a cloud weigh？

A lot. According to the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder， Colorado， US， an average cumulus cloud weighs about 100 elephants， while a big storm cloud weighs 200，000 elephants.

很重。根據(jù)美國(guó)科羅拉多州博爾德的國(guó)家大氣研究中心的研究，一朵普通的積雨云的重量相當(dāng)于100頭大象的重量，而一朵暴風(fēng)云的重量則可以達(dá)到20萬頭大象的重量！

長(zhǎng)生不老可能嗎？

Can anything live forever？

Yes. We are here to introduce： the immortal jellyfish. What makes the jellyfish—Turritopsis nutricula immortal is that once it is sexual maturity， it again transforms itself back into its nymphal stage （polyp state）. Their adult cells and the whole organism can become “young” again. Not eaten by any natural enemy， there is no biological reason why it can’t live forever.

可能。這里要介紹一種長(zhǎng)生不老的水母。這種可以永生的水母叫做燈塔水母，它可以在性成熟后重新回到幼蟲階段（水螅狀態(tài)）。燈塔水母的所有成年細(xì)胞和所有生理機(jī)制都可以返老還童。只要不被天敵吃掉，理論上說，燈塔水母就可以長(zhǎng)生不老！