so, next i went to london. in london i lived in a glass box for 44 days with nothing but water. it was, for me, one of the most difficult things i'd ever done, but it was also the most beautiful. there was so many skeptics, especially the press in london, that they started flying cheeseburgers on helicopters around my box to tempt me. (laughter) so, i felt very validated when the new england journal of medicine actually used the research for science.
后来，我去了伦敦。 在伦敦，我在一个玻璃箱里生存了44天 也是除了水什么都没有。 对于我来说，这次是所有挑战中最艰难的一次， 但它仍然是非常美好的一次历程。 当时有许多持怀疑态度的人，尤其是伦敦的记者们， 他们坐直升机徘徊在我的玻璃箱周围 到处扔汉堡引诱我。 (笑声) 我通过这次活动被认可而感到非常高兴， 事实上新英格兰医学杂志 还以此作为研究供科学参考。
my next pursuit was i wanted to see how long i could go without breathing, like how long i could survive with nothing, not even air. i didn't realize that it would become the most amazing journey of my life.
我的下一个追求便是想试试不呼吸能坚持多久， 也就是说什么都没有的情况下我能活多久， 甚至没有空气。 我并没有意识到， 这一次成就了我生命中最美妙的旅程。
as a young magician i was obsessed with houdini and his underwater challenges. so, i began, early on, competing against the other kids, seeing how long i could stay underwater while they went up and down to breathe, you know, five times, while i stayed under on one breath. by the time i was a teenager i was able to hold my breath for three minutes and 30 seconds. i would later find out that was houdini's personal record.
作为一个年轻的魔术师 我沉迷于霍迪尼和他在水下屏气挑战。 孩童时候，我就开始与其他的孩子们比试， 看可以在水下待多久， 当他们得反复探头出水面呼吸， 大概5次之多，我却可以一直待在水下，完全不需要换气。。 当我是青少年的时候 我已经可以水下屏气达3分30秒之久， 后来我才发现那就是霍迪尼的个人纪录。
in 1987 i heard of a story about a boy that fell through ice and was trapped under a river. he was underneath, not breathing for 45 minutes. when the rescue workers came they resuscitated him and there was no brain damage. his core temperature had dropped to 77 degrees. as a magician, i think everything is possible. and i think if something is done by one person it can be done by others. i started to think, if the boy could survive without breathing for that long, there must be a way that i could do it.
在1987年，我听说了一个故事， 一个男孩掉进冰封的河里， 困于河底。 他45分钟内没有呼吸。 当救援人员赶到 抢救并唤醒他时，发现他并没有脑损伤， 他的心脏温度降至77度。 作为一个魔术师，我相信一切皆有可能。 我认为如果某个人可以做到某件事， 那么任何人都可以做到。 我开始思索，如果这个男孩 可以如此长时间不呼吸而活下来， 那么必定有某种途径让我也可以做到。
so, i met with a top neurosurgeon. and i asked him, how long is it possible to go without breathing, like how long could i go without air? and he said to me that anything over six minutes you have a serious risk of hypoxic brain damage. so, i took that as a challenge, basically. (laughter) my first try, i figured that i could do something similar, and i created a water tank, and i filled it with ice and freezing cold water. and i stayed inside of that water tank hoping my core temperature would start to drop. and i was shivering. in my first attempt to hold my breath i couldn't even last a minute. so, i realized that was completely not going to work.
于是我找了最好的神经科医师， 问他人若是不呼吸最长支撑多久， 也就是哪怕连空气都没有我能撑多久? 他告诉我，任何超过6分钟不呼吸的行为， 都会因缺氧而造成 严重脑损伤的危险。 那么毫无疑问，我便把它列入了我的挑战。 (笑声) 第一次试验，我打算模拟那个男孩遭遇的情况， 弄一个水缸， 注满彻骨的冰水， 然后就跳进那个水缸里， 希望我的体温可以下降。 当不住地时我颤抖。第一次尝试 我甚至连一分钟都坚持不了。 于是我意识到简单的模拟行不通，
so, i went to talk to a doctor friend, and i asked him how could i do that? "i want to hold my breath for a really long time. how could it be done?" and he said, "david, you're a magician, create the illusion of not breathing, it will be much easier." (laughter) so, he came up with this idea of creating a rebreather, with a co2 scrubber, which was basically a tube from home depot, with a balloon duct-taped to it, that he thought we could put inside of me, and somehow be able to circulate the air and rebreathe with this thing in me. this is a little hard to watch. but this is that attempt. so, that clearly wasn't going to work. (laughter)
我便找了一位医生朋友， 询问他我怎样才能屏气那么久， “我想在在水下长时间屏气。怎么样才可以做到呢?”我问他， 他回答，“大卫，你是魔术师， 设计一个不呼吸的假象岂不是更容易?” (笑声) 他想出这么个点子， 做一个内呼吸装置， 内置一个co2 涤气器， 其实基本上就是一个家用的管子， 再套一个气球仅此而已。 他认为可以把这个东西放到我身体里， 然后用某种方式可以循环空气达到再呼吸的目的。 他是这么把东西放进来的， 这过程看起来会不太舒服... 但那是一次尝试。 好了，很显然它是不会起作用的。 (笑声)
then i actually started thinking about liquid breathing. there is a chemical that's called perflubron. and it's so high in oxygen levels that in theory you could breathe it. so, i got my hands on that chemical, filled the sink up with it, and stuck my face in the sink and tried to breathe that in, which was really impossible. it's basically like trying to breathe, as a doctor said, while having an elephant standing on your chest. so, that idea disappeared.
接着我开始考虑 试试液体呼吸。 有一种叫全氟化合物的化学药剂， 含氧量特别高， 理论上你是可以用它来呼吸。 于是我打算尝试这种化学试剂， 将它灌满水缸，把脸浸在里面， 试着呼吸。 但那实在是不太可能， 基本上就如医生所说， 情况如同一头大象踩住你胸口的同时你还非得呼吸一样。 这个法子看来也行不通。
then i started thinking, would it be possible to hook up a heart/lung bypass machine and have a surgery where it was a tube going into my artery, and then appear to not breathe while they were oxygenating my blood? which was another insane idea, obviously.
接着我想到， 有没有可能在我的心脏和肺之间用机械搭桥， 然后做手术把管子放入动脉， 表面没有呼吸但事实上这些装备在为我的血液供氧? 但这显然又是另一个疯狂的想法。
then i thought about the craziest idea of all the ideas: to actually do it. (laughter) to actually try to hold my breath past the point that doctors would consider you brain dead. so, i started researching into pearl divers. you know, because they go down for four minutes on one breath. and when i was researching pearl divers, i found the world of free-diving. it was the most amazing thing that i ever discovered, pretty much. there is many different aspects to free-diving. there is depth records, where people go as deep as they can. and then there is static apnea. that's holding your breath as long as you can in one place without moving. that was the one that i studied.
后来，我想出了一个最疯狂的办法： 那就是，真刀真枪的来。 (笑声) 去真正憋气至那一刻， 那连医生都认为会脑死亡的时间。 于是我开始搜集 有关采珠人的信息。 因为他们可以只用一口气便在水下待4分钟之久。 而且当我在做采珠人调查时 我发现了另一番洞天--自由潜水。 它几乎可以说是我至今发现最奇妙的事。 自由潜水有很多种， 有深度记录的，人们可以潜到他们能达到的最大深度， 还有静止屏气， 就是能憋气多久就憋多久， 但必须静止在一个固定的地方。 那就是我调查的研究。
the first thing that i learned is when you're holding your breath you should never move at all; that wastes energy. and that depletes oxygen, and it builds up co2 in your blood. so, i learned never to move. and i learned how to slow my heart rate down. i had to remain perfectly still and just relax and think that i wasn't in my body, and just control that. and then i learned how to purge. purging is basically hyperventilating. you blow in and out ... you do that, you get lightheaded, you get tingling. and you're really ridding your body of co2. so, when you hold your breath it's infinitely easier. then i learned that you have to take a huge breath, and just hold and relax and never let any air out, and just hold and relax through all the pain.
我学到的第一个要领就是当你在屏气时 应该一动不动，否则会浪费能量， 消耗氧气， 并会使血液中的co2含量升高。所以我试着不去移动。 我也学到了怎样减缓我的心率。 必须去保证一动不动并且非常放松 想象自己已经不在身体里， 并且要持续保持。 然后我学了怎样净化呼吸， 净化呼吸实际上就是强力呼吸。 呼进，呼出 然后会感到眩晕，耳鸣， 这样就可以排除身体内的co2， 接着当你再屏气的时候，就会感到轻松。 然后我学到必须要吸很大的一口气， 憋住，放松，别让一点儿空漏出去， 憋着并放松着尝试忍过所有的痛苦感觉。
every morning, this is for months, i would wake up and the first thing that i would do is i would hold my breath for, out of 52 minutes, i would hold my breath for 44 minutes. so, basically what that means is i would purge, i'd breath really hard for a minute. and i would hold, immediately after, for five and half minutes. then i would breath again for a minute, purging as hard as i can, then immediately after that i would hold again for five and half minutes. i would repeat this process eight times in a row. out of 52 minutes you're only breathing for eight minutes. at the end of that you're completely fried, your brain. you feel like you're walking around in a daze. and you have these awful headaches. basically, i'm not the best person to talk to when i'm doing that stuff.
每天早晨，连续几个月， 我醒来第一件事 就是屏住呼吸 在52分钟内， 我能憋气44分钟。 那就是说我会用净化呼吸的方式， 用力的呼吸一分钟 然后就马上屏气5分半钟， 接着再用力呼吸一分钟， 使最大的力气去净化呼吸， 然后马上再一次屏住呼吸5分半钟。 我会连续重复这样的过程8次。 在52分钟内，我其实只呼吸8分钟。 在快要结束时，我觉得大脑快炸开了， 就好像在一片耀眼中行走， 头痛欲裂。 似乎我属于做的出却描述不出的人。
i started learning about the world-record holder. his name is tom sietas. and this guy is perfectly built for holding his breath. he's six foot four. he's 160 pounds. and his total lung capacity is twice the size of an average person. i'm six foot one, and fat. we'll say big-boned. (laughter) i had to drop 50 pounds in three months. so, everything that i put into my body i considered as medicine. every bit of food was exactly what it was for its nutritional value. i ate really small controlled portions throughout the day. and i started to really adapt my body. (laughter)
我开始了解到这个记录的保持者 叫汤姆 斯塔斯。 这家伙就像是为屏气而生的， 他有6尺4，160磅重。 而且他的肺活量是 正常人的2倍。 我呢，6尺1寸，很胖， 或者可以硬是说成骨架比较大。 (笑声) 所以我必须在三个月内减掉50磅。 所有放进我嘴里的东西 我都看作是药物， 每一小块食物都按照营养价值需要来吃。 一天内 我都保持吃非常小量的食物， 渐渐的我开始保持很好的状态了。 (笑声)
the thinner i was, the longer i was able to hold my breath. and by eating so well and training so hard, my resting heart-rate dropped to 38 beats per minute. which is lower than most olympic athletes. in four months of training i was able to hold my breath for over seven minutes. i wanted to try holding my breath everywhere. i wanted to try it in the most extreme situations to see if i could slow my heart rate down under duress. (laughter)
我越瘦，就越能长时间屏住呼吸。 通过饮食控制搭配艰苦的训练， 我的心率下降到每分钟38次， 比多数奥林匹克选手都要低。 在4个月的训练，我已经可以屏住呼吸 长达7分钟之久。 我在任何地方都训练屏气， 尝试在极端的环境下屏气 检验是否可能降低心率 在如此高压下。 (笑声)
i decided that i was going to break the world record live on prime-time television. the world record was eight minutes and 58 seconds, held by tom sietas, that guy with the whale lungs i told you about. (laughter) i assumed that i could put a water tank at lincoln center and if i stayed there a week not eating, i would get comfortable in that situation and i would slow my metabolism, which i was sure would help me hold my breath longer than i had been able to do it. i was completely wrong.
终于我准备好要打破世界纪录， 要在黄金时段的电视频道直播。 当时的世界纪录是8分58秒， 汤姆，斯塔斯始终保持，我告诉过你们那个家伙有鲸鱼一样大的肺。 (笑声) 我设想可以在林肯中心放一个巨型水缸 然后我不吃饭在那里面先待一个礼拜， 就会比较适应了， 并且新陈代谢也会缓慢下来， 我很肯定这样做可以 帮我更长时间的屏住呼吸。 显然我完全错了。
i entered the sphere a week before the scheduled air date. and i thought everything seemed to be on track. two days before my big breath hold attempt, for the record, the producers of my television special thought that just watching somebody holding their breath, and almost drowning, is too boring for television. (laughter) so, i had to add handcuffs, while holding my breath, to escape from. this was a critical mistake. because of the movement i was wasting oxygen. and by seven minutes i had gone into these awful convulsions. by 7:08 i started to black out. and by seven minutes and 30 seconds they had to pull my body out and bring me back. i had failed on every level. (laughter)
我提前一个礼拜去到中心， 感觉一切都渐渐上了轨道， 没想到的是，在破纪录憋气尝试的前两天， 电视制作人 突然觉得 光看人憋气像是快要淹死 对观众来说太过无聊。 (笑声) 于是我不得不加上手铐， 边屏气边试着挣脱它们。 这被证明是个极严重的错误。 开始后我因为挣脱的动作浪费了很多氧气， 到第7分钟我已经开始 不住可怕的抽搐中™ 到7分08秒时，我开始失去知觉， 7分30秒的时候 他们必须把我拉出来进行抢救。 我输的一塌糊涂。 (笑声)
so, naturally, the only way out of the slump that i could think of was, i decided to call oprah. (laughter) i told her that i wanted to up the ante and hold my breath longer than any human being ever had. this was a different record. this was a pure o2 static apnea record that guinness had set the world record at 13 minutes. so, basically you breath pure o2 first, oxygenating your body, flushing out co2, and you are able to hold much longer. i realized that my real competition was the beaver. (laughter)
所以很自然唯一可以摆脱消沉 我可以想到的 就是去找奥普拉。 (笑声) 我告诉他我要提高赌注 我要屏住呼吸长过所有人。 这是个不同的记录， 这次是纯氧静止屏气记录， 由吉尼斯目前的13分钟为世界纪录。 也就是先吸入入纯氧, 充沛氧气，排出二氧化碳。 然后你就可以屏气更长时间。 当时我意识到，我真正的竞争者是-- 海狸。 (笑声)
in january of '08 oprah gave me four months to prepare and train. so, i would sleep in a hypoxic tent every night. a hypoxic tent is a tent that simulates altitude at 15,000 feet. so, it's like base camp everest. what that does is, you start building up the red blood cell count in your body, which helps you carry oxygen better. every morning, again, after getting out of that tent your brain is completely wiped out. my first attempt on pure o2, i was able to go up to 15 minutes. so, it was a pretty big success.
XX年1月 奥普拉给了我4个月准备和训练。 我每晚睡在低氧舱里， 所谓低氧舱就是模拟 海拔15000尺的含氧量， 跟终极野营似的。 这么做的原因是， 可以累积体内红细胞的数目， 帮助你更好的保存氧气。 每个早晨，同样的，从低氧舱里出来时 大脑一片空白。 第一次尝试纯氧时，我已经可以屏气15分钟。 这已经算是不小的成功了。
the neurosurgeon pulled me out of the water because in his mind, at 15 minutes your brain is done, you're brain dead. so, he pulled me up, and i was fine. there was one person there that was definitely not impressed. it was my ex-girlfriend. while i was breaking the record underwater for the first time, she was sifting through my blackberry, checking all my messages. (laughter) my brother had a picture of it. it is really ... (laughter)
当那个神经外科医师把我从水里拉出来时相当震惊-- 在他看来，15分钟不呼吸 你的大脑就完了，脑死亡-- 可是当他把我拉出来，我却状态良好， 当时肯定有一个人是觉得没什么大不了， 就是我的前女友。当我在水下第一次打破纪录时， 她却在翻我的黑莓手机， 检查我所有的短信。 (笑声) 我哥哥拍了张当时的照片。那真的是... (笑声)
i then announced that i was going to go for sietas' record, publicly. and what he did in response, is he went on regis and kelly, and broke his old record. then his main competitor went out and broke his record. so, he suddenly pushed the record up to 16 minutes and 32 seconds. which was three minutes longer than i had prepared. you know, it was longer than the record.
终于我宣布 公开挑战斯塔斯的记录， 他所做的回应， 就是在regis and kelly节目中， 自己打破他以前的记录。 然后他的主要竞争者又出来，并再次打破记录。 这样，记录离奇被提到 16分32秒。 比我所做的准备长出3分钟。 你知道，比原来纪录长出很多。
now, i wanted to get the science times to document this. i wanted to get them to do a piece on it. so, i did what any person seriously pursuing scientific advancement would do. i walked into the new york times offices and did card tricks to everybody. (laughter) so, i don't know if it was the magic or the lore of the cayman islands, but john tierney flew down and did a piece on the seriousness of breath-holding.
这下，我打算让科学时代杂志来报道这一切， 我希望他们也能参与， 于是，我做了任何一个 严谨探索科学的人都该做的事， 我走进纽约时报的办公室 给每个人表演纸牌魔术。 (笑声) 我不知道是魔术的原因还是开曼群岛的信仰， 约翰，第尔尼被说服了， 还写了一篇论屏住呼吸之严重性的报道。
while he was there i tried to impress him, of course. and i did a dive down to 160 feet, which is basically the height of a 16 story building, and as i was coming up, i blacked out underwater, which is really dangerous; that's how you drown. luckily kirk had seen me and he swam over and pulled me up. so, i started full focus. i completely trained to get my breath hold time up for what i needed to do. but there was no way to prepare for the live television aspect of it, being on oprah.
当他在那儿的时候，我试图给他深刻印象 于是我猛地下潜了160尺， 大概有16层楼那么高， 可我在上浮过程中，昏了过去， 那是相当危险的。那就是人们如何溺水的。 幸运的是克尔克看到我 他游过去把我救了上来。 这下我开始全神贯注了。 我彻底严格的训练延长屏气时间， 做我该做的事。 但不可能完全按照将电视直播的方式而准备， 也就是那个奥普拉的节目。
but in practice, i would do it face down, floating on the pool. but for tv they wanted me to be upright so they could see my face, basically. the other problem was the suit was so buoyant that they had to strap my feet in to keep me from floating up. so, i had to use my legs to hold my feet into the straps that were loose, which was a real problem for me. that made me extremely nervous, raising the heart rate.
练习中，我会面朝下，悬浮在水缸中， 但上电视时，他们却希望我面朝前， 以便观众看见我的脸。 另一个问题是， 那身衣服让我易悬浮， 所以他们不得不用皮带绑住我的脚保持我不至上浮， 同时我得用双腿帮助脚站稳在那个松松的皮带里面， 那对我来说是非常头疼的事， 因为它导致我极度紧张， 提高了心率。
then, what they also did was, which we never did before, is there was a heart-rate monitor. and it was right next to the sphere. so, every time my heart would beat i'd hear the beep-beep-beep-beep, you know, the ticking, really loud. which was making me more nervous. and there is no way to slow my heart rate down. so, normally i would start at 38 beats per minute, and while holding my breath it would drop to 12 beats per minute, which is pretty unusual. (laughter) this time it started at 120 beats, and it never went down.
除此之外，他们还装了， 我以前从未试过的，就是装了一个心率监测器 它就在放置在我的球型水缸旁边， 所以，每一次我心跳动时，都会听到哔哔的声音。 你知道，那个声音，非常吵。 它导致我更加紧张。 而且我竟然没有办法去降低心率。 一般情况下 我的心率是每分钟38次， 而且当我屏住呼吸时它会降到每分钟12次， 这是可是很不寻常的。 (笑声) 这一次，它却以每分钟120次作为开始， 再也没有降下去。
i spent the first five minutes underwater desperately trying to slow my heart rate down. i was just sitting there thinking, "i've got to slow this down. i'm going to fail, i'm going to fail." and i was getting more nervous. and the heart rate just kept going up and up, all the way up to 150 beats. basically it's the same thing that created my downfall at lincoln center. it was a waste of o2. when i made it to the halfway mark, at eight minutes, i was 100 percent certain that i was not going to be able to make this. there was no way for me to do it.
在水下前5分钟 我疯狂的尝试降低心率， 当时我只不住地想，“我必须让心率减速 我要失败了，我要失败了。” 而且我越来越紧张。 心率一直飙升， 直到每分钟150次。 其实就是出现了和伦敦中心失败时一样的情况， 心跳过快浪费氧气. 当我坚持到一半的时候，大概8分钟时， 我已经百分百确定 我不会成功了。 我根本做不到。
so, i figured, oprah had dedicated an hour to doing this breath hold thing, if i had cracked early it would be a whole show about how depressed i am. (laughter) so, i figured i'm better off just fighting and staying there until i black out, at least then they can pull me out and take care of me and all that. (laughter)
然后，我想，奥普拉贡献一整个小时 来做这个水下屏气的节目。如果我早早失败了 它就会变成一个描述我失败后如何沮丧的节目。 (笑声) 所以，我发现我还是最好强撑着， 直到昏过去， 至少这样他们可以先把我拉出来再抢救什么的。 (笑声)
i kept pushing to 10 minutes. at 10 minutes you start getting all these really strong tingling sensations in your fingers and toes. and i knew that that was blood shunting, when the blood rushes away from your extremities to provide oxygen to your vital organs. at 11 minutes i started feeling throbbing sensations in my legs, and my lips started to feel really strange.
我一直坚持到10分钟，在第十分钟时 我开始有这种非常强烈的 手指和脚趾镇痛的感觉。 我知道那是血液分流， 也就是血液从肢端回流 去为重要的器官供氧。 在第11分钟，我开始感到 腿部的抽搐感， 而且嘴唇感觉奇怪。
at minute 12 i started to have ringing in my ears, and i started to feel my arm going numb. and i'm a hypochondriac, and i remember arm numb means heart attack. so, i started to really get really paranoid. then at 13 minutes, maybe because of the hypochondria. i started feeling pains all over my chest. it was awful. at 14 minutes, i had these awful contractions, like this urge to breathe. (laughter)
在第12分钟我开始耳鸣， 而且胳膊开始麻木。 我是个忧郁症患者，我记起任何的麻木意味着心脏病。 于是我开始恐慌起来。 然后在第13分钟，可能由于忧郁症， 我感到胸前巨痛。 太难受了。 在第14分钟， 我有一种强烈的欲望， 想要呼吸的欲望。 (笑声)
at 15 minutes i was suffering major o2 deprivation to the heart. and i started having ischemia to the heart. my heartbeat would go from 120, to 50, to 150, to 40, to 20, to 150 again. it would skip a beat. it would start. it would stop. and i felt all this. and i was sure that i was going to have a heart attack. so, at 16 minutes what i did is i slid my feet out because i knew that if i did go out, if i did have a heart attack, they'd have to jump into the binding and take my feet out before pulling me up. so, i was really nervous.
在第15分钟，我遭受 心脏缺氧的症状， 心脏开始供血不足， 心率从120， 下降到50，又从150到40，20，又到150. 它会忽然停跳一拍， 时而开始，时而停止。而且我能感受到这发生的一切。 我很确定我快要心脏病了。 于是在第16分钟，我把脚滑出扣带 因为我知道如果我确实要离开水面， 或是突发心脏病， 他们会先跳进来松开我的脚上的扣带 再拉我出水。所以我非常紧张。
so, i let my feet out, and i started floating to the top. and i didn't take my head out. but i was just floating there waiting for my heart to stop, just waiting. they had doctors with the "pst," you know, so, sitting there waiting. and then suddenly i hear screaming. and i think that there is some weird thing -- that i had died or something had happened. and then i realized that i had made it to 16:32. so, with the energy of everybody that was there i decided to keep pushing. and i went to 17 minutes and four seconds. (applause)
我松开了我的脚，开始任由身体上浮， 但我没有把头伸出水面， 我只是，等待我心跳停止的那一刻... 等待着... 你知道他们有神经科的医生 坐在那里等着抢救我。 突然，我听到尖叫声， 我想一定是很疯狂的事发生了， 比如我死了之类的。 然而我突然意识到，我坚持到了16：32! 在场每一位观众释放出来给予我的能量 让我决定继续坚持... 我坚持到了,17分30秒。 (掌声)
as though that wasn't enough, what i did immediately after is i went to quest labs and had them take every blood sample that they could to test for everything and to see where my levels were, so the doctors could use it, once again. i also didn't want anybody to question it. i had the world record and i wanted to make sure it was legitimate.
即使那还不够，在出来之后我立刻 去了实验室 他们尽可能地提取了各处的血液样本 以测试所有指标以及我的状况， 那样医生就可以把它们记录在案。 当然我不希望任何人怀疑， 我创造了世界纪录，我当然希望 确定它是堂堂正正的。
so, i get to new york city the next day, and this kid walks up to me -- i'm walking out of the apple store -- this kid walks up to me he's like, "yo, d!" i'm like "yeah?" he said, "if you really held your breath that long, why'd you come out of the water dry?" i was like "what?" (laughter) and that's my life. so ... (laughter)
这样第二天我去了纽约， 有个小孩朝我走过来--我刚走出“苹果”-- 这孩子走向我，说，“嘿，大卫!” 我说“怎么了?” 他说，“如果你真的可以水下屏气那么久， 为什么你从水里出来的时候是干的?” 我没反应过来“什么?” (笑声) 这就是我的生活。你瞧... (笑声)
as a magician i try to show things to people that seem impossible. and i think magic, whether i'm holding my breath or shuffling a deck of cards, is pretty simple. it's practice, it's training, and it's -- it's practice, it's training and experimenting, while pushing through the pain to be the best that i can be. and that's what magic is to me, so, thank you. (applause)
作为一个魔术师，我试着展现一些东西 那些看似不可能的事。 我认为魔术，不管是水下屏气 还是捣鼓一副纸牌， 道理都很简单。 就是练习，训练，以及... 就是练习，训练，以及不断尝试。 去强忍过那些极痛苦的时刻，做自己能做的一切。 这就是魔术对于我的意义。谢谢你们。 (掌声)
TED英语演讲稿：我们在出生前学到了什么 ted英语演讲稿（2）my subject today is learning. and in that spirit, i want to spring on you all a pop quiz. ready? when does learning begin? now as you ponder that question, maybe you're thinking about the first day of preschool or kindergarten, the first time that kids are in a classroom with a teacher. or maybe you've called to mind the toddler phase when children are learning how to walk and talk and use a fork. maybe you've encountered the zero-to-three movement, which asserts that the most important years for learning are the earliest ones. and so your answer to my question would be: learning begins at birth.
well today i want to present to you an idea that may be surprising and may even seem implausible, but which is supported by the latest evidence from psychology and biology. and that is that some of the most important learning we ever do happens before we're born, while we're still in the womb. now i'm a science reporter. i write books and magazine articles. and i'm also a mother. and those two roles came together for me in a book that i wrote called "origins." "origins" is a report from the front lines of an exciting new field called fetal origins. fetal origins is a scientific discipline that emerged just about two decades ago, and it's based on the theory that our health and well-being throughout our lives is crucially affected by the nine months we spend in the womb. now this theory was of more than just intellectual interest to me. i was myself pregnant while i was doing the research for the book. and one of the most fascinating insights i took from this work is that we're all learning about the world even before we enter it.
when we hold our babies for the first time, we might imagine that they're clean slates, unmarked by life, when in fact, they've already been shaped by us and by the particular world we live in. today i want to share with you some of the amazing things that scientists are discovering about what fetuses learn while they're still in their mothers' bellies.
first of all, they learn the sound of their mothers' voices. because sounds from the outside world have to travel through the mother's abdominal tissue and through the amniotic fluid that surrounds the fetus, the voices fetuses hear, starting around the fourth month of gestation, are muted and muffled. one researcher says that they probably sound a lot like the the voice of charlie brown's teacher in the old "peanuts" cartoon. but the pregnant woman's own voice reverberates through her body, reaching the fetus much more readily. and because the fetus is with her all the time, it hears her voice a lot. once the baby's born, it recognizes her voice and it prefers listening to her voice over anyone else's.
how can we know this? newborn babies can't do much, but one thing they're really good at is sucking. researchers take advantage of this fact by rigging up two rubber nipples, so that if a baby sucks on one, it hears a recording of its mother's voice on a pair of headphones, and if it sucks on the other nipple, it hears a recording of a female stranger's voice. babies quickly show their preference by choosing the first one. scientists also take advantage of the fact that babies will slow down their sucking when something interests them and resume their fast sucking when they get bored. this is how researchers discovered that, after women repeatedly read aloud a section of dr. seuss' "the cat in the hat" while they were pregnant, their newborn babies recognized that passage when they hear it outside the womb. my favorite experiment of this kind is the one that showed that the babies of women who watched a certain soap opera every day during pregnancy recognized the theme song of that show once they were born. so fetuses are even learning about the particular language that's spoken in the world that they'll be born into.
a study published last year found that from birth, from the moment of birth, babies cry in the accent of their mother's native language. french babies cry on a rising note while german babies end on a falling note, imitating the melodic contours of those languages. now why would this kind of fetal learning be useful? it may have evolved to aid the baby's survival. from the moment of birth, the baby responds most to the voice of the person who is most likely to care for it -- its mother. it even makes its cries sound like the mother's language, which may further endear the baby to the mother, and which may give the baby a head start in the critical task of learning how to understand and speak its native language.
but it's not just sounds that fetuses are learning about in utero. it's also tastes and smells. by seven months of gestation, the fetus' taste buds are fully developed, and its olfactory receptors, which allow it to smell, are functioning. the flavors of the food a pregnant woman eats find their way into the amniotic fluid, which is continuously swallowed by the fetus. babies seem to remember and prefer these tastes once they're out in the world. in one experiment, a group of pregnant women was asked to drink a lot of carrot juice during their third trimester of pregnancy, while another group of pregnant women drank only water. six months later, the women's infants were offered cereal mixed with carrot juice, and their facial expressions were observed while they ate it. the offspring of the carrot juice drinking women ate more carrot-flavored cereal, and from the looks of it, they seemed to enjoy it more.
a sort of french version of this experiment was carried out in dijon, france where researchers found that mothers who consumed food and drink flavored with licorice-flavored anise during pregnancy showed a preference for anise on their first day of life, and again, when they were tested later, on their fourth day of life. babies whose mothers did not eat anise during pregnancy showed a reaction that translated roughly as "yuck." what this means is that fetuses are effectively being taught by their mothers about what is safe and good to eat. fetuses are also being taught about the particular culture that they'll be joining through one of culture's most powerful expressions, which is food. they're being introduced to the characteristic flavors and spices of their culture's cuisine even before birth.
now it turns out that fetuses are learning even bigger lessons. but before i get to that, i want to address something that you may be wondering about. the notion of fetal learning may conjure up for you attempts to enrich the fetus -- like playing mozart through headphones placed on a pregnant belly. but actually, the nine-month-long process of molding and shaping that goes on in the womb is a lot more visceral and consequential than that. much of what a pregnant woman encounters in her daily life -- the air she breathes, the food and drink she consumes, the chemicals she's exposed to, even the emotions she feels -- are shared in some fashion with her fetus. they make up a mix of influences as individual and idiosyncratic as the woman herself. the fetus incorporates these offerings into its own body, makes them part of its flesh and blood. and often it does something more. it treats these maternal contributions as information, as what i like to call biological postcards from the world outside.
so what a fetus is learning about in utero is not mozart's "magic flute" but answers to questions much more critical to its survival. will it be born into a world of abundance or scarcity? will it be safe and protected, or will it face constant dangers and threats? will it live a long, fruitful life or a short, harried one? the pregnant woman's diet and stress level in particular provide important clues to prevailing conditions like a finger lifted to the wind. the resulting tuning and tweaking of a fetus' brain and other organs are part of what give us humans our enormous flexibility, our ability to thrive in a huge variety of environments, from the country to the city, from the tundra to the desert.
to conclude, i want to tell you two stories about how mothers teach their children about the world even before they're born. in the autumn of 1944, the darkest days of world war ii, german troops blockaded western holland, turning away all shipments of food. the opening of the nazi's siege was followed by one of the harshest winters in decades -- so cold the water in the canals froze solid. soon food became scarce, with many dutch surviving on just 500 calories a day -- a quarter of what they consumed before the war. as weeks of deprivation stretched into months, some resorted to eating tulip bulbs. by the beginning of may, the nation's carefully rationed food reserve was completely exhausted. the specter of mass starvation loomed. and then on may 5th, 1945, the siege came to a sudden end when holland was liberated by the allies.
the "hunger winter," as it came to be known, killed some 10,000 people and weakened thousands more. but there was another population that was affected -- the 40,000 fetuses in utero during the siege. some of the effects of malnutrition during pregnancy were immediately apparent in higher rates of stillbirths, birth defects, low birth weights and infant mortality. but others wouldn't be discovered for many years. decades after the "hunger winter," researchers documented that people whose mothers were pregnant during the siege have more obesity, more diabetes and more heart disease in later life than individuals who were gestated under normal conditions. these individuals' prenatal experience of starvation seems to have changed their bodies in myriad ways. they have higher blood pressure, poorer cholesterol profiles and reduced glucose tolerance -- a precursor of diabetes.
why would undernutrition in the womb result in disease later? one explanation is that fetuses are making the best of a bad situation. when food is scarce, they divert nutrients towards the really critical organ, the brain, and away from other organs like the heart and liver. this keeps the fetus alive in the short-term, but the bill comes due later on in life when those other organs, deprived early on, become more susceptible to disease.
but that may not be all that's going on. it seems that fetuses are taking cues from the intrauterine environment and tailoring their physiology accordingly. they're preparing themselves for the kind of world they will encounter on the other side of the womb. the fetus adjusts its metabolism and other physiological processes in anticipation of the environment that awaits it. and the basis of the fetus' prediction is what its mother eats. the meals a pregnant woman consumes constitute a kind of story, a fairy tale of abundance or a grim chronicle of deprivation. this story imparts information that the fetus uses to organize its body and its systems -- an adaptation to prevailing circumstances that facilitates its future survival. faced with severely limited resources, a smaller-sized child with reduced energy requirements will, in fact, have a better chance of living to adulthood.
the real trouble comes when pregnant women are, in a sense, unreliable narrators, when fetuses are led to expect a world of scarcity and are born instead into a world of plenty. this is what happened to the children of the dutch "hunger winter." and their higher rates of obesity, diabetes and heart disease are the result. bodies that were built to hang onto every calorie found themselves swimming in the superfluous calories of the post-war western diet. the world they had learned about while in utero was not the same as the world into which they were born.
here's another story. at 8:46 a.m. on september 11th, XX, there were tens of thousands of people in the vicinity of the world trade center in new york -- commuters spilling off trains, waitresses setting tables for the morning rush, brokers already working the phones on wall street. 1,700 of these people were pregnant women. when the planes struck and the towers collapsed, many of these women experienced the same horrors inflicted on other survivors of the disaster -- the overwhelming chaos and confusion, the rolling clouds of potentially toxic dust and debris, the heart-pounding fear for their lives.
about a year after 9/11, researchers examined a group of women who were pregnant when they were exposed to the world trade center attack. in the babies of those women who developed post-traumatic stress syndrome, or ptsd, following their ordeal, researchers discovered a biological marker of susceptibility to ptsd -- an effect that was most pronounced in infants whose mothers experienced the catastrophe in their third trimester. in other words, the mothers with post-traumatic stress syndrome had passed on a vulnerability to the condition to their children while they were still in utero.
now consider this: post-traumatic stress syndrome appears to be a reaction to stress gone very wrong, causing its victims tremendous unnecessary suffering. but there's another way of thinking about ptsd. what looks like pathology to us may actually be a useful adaptation in some circumstances. in a particularly dangerous environment, the characteristic manifestations of ptsd -- a hyper-awareness of one's surroundings, a quick-trigger response to danger -- could save someone's life. the notion that the prenatal transmission of ptsd risk is adaptive is still speculative, but i find it rather poignant. it would mean that, even before birth, mothers are warning their children that it's a wild world out there, telling them, "be careful."
let me be clear. fetal origins research is not about blaming women for what happens during pregnancy. it's about discovering how best to promote the health and well-being of the next generation. that important effort must include a focus on what fetuses learn during the nine months they spend in the womb. learning is one of life's most essential activities, and it begins much earlier than we ever imagined.
thank you.
Ted英语演讲稿:Underwater Astonishment ted英语演讲稿（3）we're going to go on a dive to the deep sea, and anyone that's had that lovely opportunity knows that for about two and half hours on the way down, it's a perfectly positively pitch-black world. and we used to see the most mysterious animals out the windowthat you couldn't describe: these blinking lights -- a world of bioluminescence, like fireflies. dr. edith widder -- she's now at the ocean research and conservation association -- was able to come up with a camera that could capture some of these incredible animals, and that's what you're seeing here on the screen.
好了，我们即将潜入海底深处。 任何一个有过这种美妙机会的人都知道 在这两个半小时的下降过程中， 是一个完全漆黑的世界。 我们透过窗户会看见世界上各种最神秘的动物， 各种无法形容的动物。这些闪亮着的光， 完美地构成了如萤火虫般发光的世界。 研究保护协会的edith witter博士 发明了一种照相机， 这种照相机可以拍下这些令人难以置信的生物。 这就是你现在在屏幕上看到的。
that's all bioluminescence. so, like i said: just like fireflies. there's a flying turkey under a tree. (laughter) i'm a geologist by training. but i love that. and you see, some of the bioluminescence they use to avoid being eaten, some they use to attract prey, but all of it, from an artistic point of view, is positively amazing. and a lot of what goes on inside ... there's a fish with glowing eyes, pulsating eyes. some of the colors are designed to hypnotize, these lovely patterns. and then this last one, one of my favorites, this pinwheel design. just absolutely amazing, every single dive.
他们全部都是生物发光体。像我说的，就像萤火虫一样。 这是个会飞的火鸡，在树下。(笑声) 我知道我现在像是个实习期的地质学家，不过我就是喜欢。 你可以看到这些生物发出的光， 有些是为了避免被吃掉。 有些又是为引诱食物上钩。 尽管如此，用艺术的角度来看，这些都如此神奇。 再来看看这里发生了些什么—— 这条鱼有着会发光，闪烁的眼睛。 有些颜色则可以催眠。 多么有趣的图案。这是最后一个： 也是我的最爱，像转轮一样的设计。 每一次潜水都充满着惊喜。
that's the unknown world, and today we've only explored about 3 percent of what's out there in the ocean. already we've found the world's highest mountains, the world's deepest valleys, underwater lakes, underwater waterfalls -- a lot of that we shared with you from the stage. and in a place where we thought no life at all, we find more life, we think, and diversity and density than the tropical rainforest, which tells us that we don't know much about this planet at all. there's still 97 percent, and either that 97 percent is empty or just full of surprises.
这正是一个未知的世界。到今天为止，我们只探索了其中的极小部分， 大约只占了所有海洋的3%。 到现在，我们已经发现了世界上最高的山峰， 最深的峡谷， 水下湖，水下瀑布， 还有我们刚才看到的。 然而，恰是我们曾经以为根本不可能有生命的地方， 我们发现了众多的生物，还有它们的密度和多样性， 都超过了热带雨林。这告诉我们 我们实际上对自己的星球还不甚了解。 还有剩下的97%，那里要不就是一片荒芜，要不就是充满惊喜。
but i want to jump up to shallow water now and look at some creatures that are positively amazing.cephalopods -- head-foots. as a kid i knew them as calamari, mostly. (laughter) this is an octopus -- this is the work of dr. roger hanlon at the marine biological lab -- and it's just fascinating how cephalopods can, with their incredible eyes, sense their surroundings, look at light, look at patterns. here's an octopus moving across the reef, finds a spot to settle down, curls up and then disappears into the background. tough thing to do.
不过我现在还是想说说浅水里的世界， 来看看那些神奇的生物。 头足类动物，有头有角。小时候我把他们当作是枪乌贼。 这是一条章鱼。 这是来自roger hanlon博士，海洋生物实验室的成果。 这些头足类动物真令人着迷， 它用它们的眼睛，它们那难以置信的眼睛来观察周围的环境， 看光，看图案。 这有只章鱼正在穿过礁石。 找到一个位置，停下来，卷起，然后马上消失在背景之中。 这很难做到。
in the next bit, we're going to see a couple squid. these are squid. now males, when they fight, if they're really aggressive, they turn white. and these two males are fighting, they do it by bouncing their butts together, which is an interesting concept. now, here's a male on the left and a female on the right, and the male has managed to split his coloration so the female only always sees the kinder gentler squid in him. and the male ... (laughter) we're going to see it again. let's take a look at it again. watch the coloration: white on the right, brown on the left. he takes a step back -- so he's keeping off the other males by splitting his body -- and comes up on the other side ... bingo! now i'm told that's not just a squid phenomenon with males, but i don't know. (laughter)
接下来，再来一起看一对鱿鱼。 这就是鱿鱼。当雄性鱿鱼搏斗时， 如果它们想要显示出自己的侵略性，它们就变为白色了。 这有两条雄鱿鱼在搏斗。 它们用撞屁股的方式来搏斗， 真是挺有意思的方法。这里有一条雄性在左边， 雌性在右边。 看，这条雄性能有办法利用颜色把自己分为两半， 所以雌性只能看到它温顺，优雅的一边， 雄性-- (笑声)再来看一次。 让我们再看一次。注意它的颜色： 白色在右边，棕色在左边。 它后退一步，让其它的雄性无法靠近 来到另外一边，并且马上转换颜色。 瞧!以前有人告诉我 这个雄性特征不仅仅是在鱿鱼身上，不过我也不太确定。 (掌声)
cuttlefish. i love cuttlefish. this is a giant australian cuttlefish. and there he is, his droopy little eyes up here. but they can do pretty amazing things, too. here we're going to see one backing into a crevice, and watch his tentacles -- he just pulls them in, makes them look just like algae. disappears right into the background. positively amazing. here's two males fighting. once again, they're smart enough, thesecephalopods; they know not to hurt each other. but look at the patterns that they can do with their skin. that's an amazing thing)
墨鱼，我很喜欢墨鱼。这是一只巨型澳大利亚墨鱼。 看它，看它那双无精打采的眼睛。 不过它们能做很神奇的事。 我们马上就能看到它退入到礁石的夹缝中去， 注意它的触角。 它就这样把触角拉进来，使自己看起来像海藻一样。 刹那就消失在背景中。 多神奇!这又是两只雄性在搏斗。 当然，这些头足类非常聪明， 他们知道如何不会伤害到对方。 不过看下它们能够利用皮肤来变换图案。怎么样? 很神奇吧!
here's an octopus. sometimes they don't want to be seen when they move because predators can see them. here, this guy actually can make himself look like a rock, and, looking at his environment, can actually slide across the bottom, using the waves and the shadows so he can't be seen. his motion blends right into the background -- the moving rock trick. so, we're learning lots new from the shallow water. still exploring the deep, but learning lots from the shallow water. there's a good reason why: the shallow water's full of predators -- here's a barracuda -- and if you're an octopus or a cephalopod, you need to really understand how to use your surroundings to hide.
这是个章鱼。有时候，它们不想被别人发现它们在移动， 因为那些食肉动物会发现它们。 看，这个家伙把自己弄的像石头一样， 观察着它周围的环境， 然后滑过水底， 利用波纹和阴影来隐藏自己，从而不被发现。 就是这样，无声无息地融入环境之中。 这就是移动石头的手法。我们从浅海中学到了很多新东西。 继续来探索下深海领域， 同时从浅海中学到很多新东西。 这有个原因来解释：在浅海里， 到处都是捕猎者。这是条梭鱼。 如果你是条章鱼或是头足类动物的话， 你确实需要知道怎么利用周围的环境来隐藏自己。
in the next scene, you're going to see a nice coral bottom. and you see that an octopus would stand out very easily there if you couldn't use your camouflage, use your skin to change color and texture. here's some algae in the foreground ... and an octopus. ain't that amazing? now, roger spooked him so he took off in a cloud of ink, and when he lands the octopus says, "oh, i've been seen. the best thing to do is to get as big as i can get." that big brown makes his eyespot very big. so, he's bluffing. let's do it backwards -- i thought he was joking when he first showed it to me. i thought it was all graphics -- so here it is in reverse. watch the skin color; watch the skin texture. just an amazing animal, it can change color and texture to match the surroundings. watch him blend right into this algae. one, two, three. (applause) and now he's gone, and so am i. thank you very much.
下个画面里，你可以看到一个美丽的珊瑚。 你会发现，一条章鱼 如果不进行伪装，极易被发现。 伪装是改变你皮肤的颜色和纹理。 前面这里有些海藻， 还有一条章鱼。难道不神奇么?不过现在，显然roger(摄影师)吓到了它， 它马上释放烟雾弹——墨水来掩护逃脱。 当它停下来，会想，“啊，我被发现了， 那我最好变到最大来保护下自己。 那片棕色让它的眼睛看起来十分大。 它在唬人。让我们看一次倒放。 我第一次看到的时候还以为他在开玩笑呢。 我以为是电脑特效。让我们看看倒放。 注意看它皮肤的颜色，以及皮肤的纹理。 多么神奇的动物，可以改变自己的颜色和质地 来变得和背景一样。看它消失在海藻中。 一，二，三。 它不见了，我也该下去了。谢谢大家!
