Modern experiments have repeatedly confirmed this discovery.
现代实验已一再证实这项发现
The speed of light remains fixed regardless of the direction in which it is traveling.
无论光线往任何方向行进 光速永远维持不变
Michelson and Morley were deeply embarrassed.
迈克尔孙和莫雷极尴尬地
about having to report they being wrong. The ether simply wasn't there.
承认错误 以太根本就不存在
But the experiment wasn't a total disaster.
但这项实验非但不算一无可取
It's one of the most important mistakes in the history of science.
反而成为科学史上极重要的重大错误
Light is a wave that travels through nothing. What a strange idea.
光的行进完全不需介质 这个概念真是怪异
And the discovery that the speed can not be varied,is also very odd.
而光速恒定不变的这项发现 也非常奇特
Likely,we physicists like strange things.
幸好物理学家都喜欢怪异的事物
because it often leads to breakthroughs.
因为这种事常有助于获得突破
And this discovery led to the biggest breakthrough of all:
这项发现有助于取得最重大的突破
The discovery that the speed of light is fixed.
光速恒定不变的这项发现
Would challenge everything we scientists believed about the universe.
会改变科学家对宇宙的所有认知
It would take another of my heroes,Albert Einstein.
这得请我的另一位英雄爱因斯坦
to discover the deep truth about the nature of light.
才能发现光本质的深奥真相
To explain how he did it,let me take you back to my childhood.
为了解释他是如何办到的 我带大家回到我的童年