There’s something that has always bothered me about this, and I don’t know if it’s just me.
Our whole universe was in a hot dense state
When nearly fourteen billion years ago expansion started - Wait!
Except, it really really sounds to me like he’s singing “million” and not “billion.” I try to listen for the b every time, but I don’t hear it.
Not sure why this bugs me so much, but it truly bugs me. Maybe it’s because they do a pretty decent job of getting the science right on the show, and “fourteen million years” is just so wrong.
What bugs me is it sounds like - Our whole universe was in a hot dense state
When nearly fourteen billion years ago expansion started waiting. Expansion started waiting??? We are still expanding dammit.
Also, I’ve always wondered in what sense one could say “the autotrophs began to drool.” Autotrophs are plants, right? While they may drip, exude or otherwise produce liquids, drool is specifically saliva.
According to a couple of different sites, the lyrics are:
[QUOTE=Bare Naked Ladies]
Our whole universe was in a hot dense state,
Then nearly fourteen billion years ago expansion started. Wait…
The Earth began to cool,
The autotrophs began to drool,
Neanderthals developed tools,
We built a wall (we built the pyramids),
Math, science, history, unraveling the mystery,
That all started with the big bang (bang)!
[/QUOTE]
So, the Big Bang, pause, and things start happening on Earth (once there is an Earth)
Yeah, they really screwed up the science in the lyrics. It should be:
Our whole universe was in a hot dense state,
Then nearly fourteen billion years ago expansion started. Wait…
The Earth began to cool,
and then the dinosaurs came,
but they got too big and fat,
so they all died and they turned into oil.
And then the Arabs came
and they bought Mercedes Benzes.
And Prince Charles started wearing
all of Lady Di’s clothes. (I couldn’t believe it.)
And it all started with the Big Bang.
Yeah, definitely sounds like “million” to me, but both “m” and “b” sounds are made at the same point in the mouth with both lips (bilabial) so maybe it’s just the way it comes out when enunciated for singing? I don’t know, but I can’t make it sound like “billion” no matter how much I try to.
I always heard “billion”, too. And whenever I encounter something like that in pop culture, I always stop and think “is that the right number?”, so I think I would have noticed.
What’s probably causing the confusion is that the immediately-preceding sound is the “n” at the end of “fourteen”, and of course “n” sounds a lot like “m” (and in fact, the difference between “n” and “m” is very close to “b”).
No, I mean, I can’t make the recorded version sound like “billion” to me. That is, knowing what the lyric is and knowing it’s supposed to be “billion,” I can’t listen to the original recording of it and hear a “b” in there no matter how hard I try to.
