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  • I thought I would talk a little bit about how nature makes materials.

    我想我要談一下大自然如何製造材料。

  • I brought along with me an abalone shell.

    我帶來了一個鮑魚殼。

  • This abalone shell is a biocomposite material

    這個鮑魚殼是一個生物複合材料,

  • that's 98 percent by mass calcium carbonate

    它百分之98的質量是由碳酸鈣組成

  • and two percent by mass protein.

    另外百分之二是蛋白質。

  • Yet, it's 3,000 times tougher

    但是比起其他在同個地方成長的物質﹐

  • than its geological counterpart.

    它卻硬了三千倍。

  • And a lot of people might use structures like abalone shells,

    而且很多人或許會利用類似齙魚殼的東西,

  • like chalk.

    像是粉筆。

  • I've been fascinated by how nature makes materials,

    我對大自然如何製造材料感到著迷﹐

  • and there's a lot of sequence

    對於如此精巧的工作﹐

  • to how they do such an exquisite job.

    需要透過許多步驟才能完成。

  • Part of it is that these materials

    部份的原因是因為這些材料

  • are macroscopic in structure,

    雖然在結構上是肉眼可見的,

  • but they're formed at the nanoscale.

    但卻是在奈米尺度下形成。

  • They're formed at the nanoscale,

    它們是在奈米尺度下形成的,

  • and they use proteins that are coded by the genetic level

    而且它們利用基因編碼的蛋白質

  • that allow them to build these really exquisite structures.

    讓它們能夠製造出這些如此精巧的結構。

  • So something I think is very fascinating

    所以讓我感到非常著迷的是

  • is what if you could give life

    如果你可以將生命賦予給

  • to non-living structures,

    無生命結構,

  • like batteries and like solar cells?

    像是電池和太陽能電池?

  • What if they had some of the same capabilities

    又或他們擁有些像鮑魚殼一樣

  • that an abalone shell did,

    的能力,

  • in terms of being able

    就是說可以

  • to build really exquisite structures

    在室溫及室壓下

  • at room temperature and room pressure,

    利用無毒化學物質,

  • using non-toxic chemicals

    再加上無毒材料

  • and adding no toxic materials back into the environment?

    來製造非常精巧的結構。

  • So that's the vision that I've been thinking about.

    這是我正在想的願景。

  • And so what if you could grow a battery in a petri dish?

    如果可以在培養皿內製造電池會是怎樣的呢?

  • Or, what if you could give genetic information to a battery

    又或如果你可以給電池基因訊息

  • so that it could actually become better

    讓它可以隨著時間

  • as a function of time,

    表現更好,

  • and do so in an environmentally friendly way?

    而且又是用環保的方法﹖

  • And so, going back to this abalone shell,

    所以﹐講回這個鮑魚殼,

  • besides being nano-structured,

    除了是奈米結構,

  • one thing that's fascinating,

    另外一個有趣的是

  • is when a male and a female abalone get together,

    當一公和一母的鮑魚相會時,

  • they pass on the genetic information

    他們會把「如何建造出這種精巧材料」的

  • that says, "This is how to build an exquisite material.

    基因訊息傳遞下去。

  • Here's how to do it at room temperature and pressure,

    這就是如何在室溫室壓下利用

  • using non-toxic materials."

    無毒物質生產。」

  • Same with diatoms, which are shone right here, which are glasseous structures.

    在矽藻上也是一樣,就是這種玻璃般的結構。

  • Every time the diatoms replicate,

    每一次矽藻分裂,

  • they give the genetic information that says,

    他們就會把這樣的基因訊息傳遞下去:

  • "Here's how to build glass in the ocean

    「這是如何在海裡製造玻璃。

  • that's perfectly nano-structured.

    完全是奈米尺度的。

  • And you can do it the same, over and over again."

    而且你可以一而再、再而三地做相同的事情」

  • So what if you could do the same thing

    所以如果你可以對太陽能電池或是電池

  • with a solar cell or a battery?

    做同樣的事情?

  • I like to say my favorite biomaterial is my four year-old.

    我會說我最喜歡的生物材料就是我的四歲小孩。

  • But anyone who's ever had, or knows, small children

    任何一個有過或認識小朋友的人都知道

  • knows they're incredibly complex organisms.

    他們是非常複雜的個體。

  • And so if you wanted to convince them

    所以如果你想要說服他們

  • to do something they don't want to do, it's very difficult.

    去做他們不想要做的事情﹐是非常困難的。

  • So when we think about future technologies,

    所以當我們在思考未來的科技,

  • we actually think of using bacteria and virus,

    我們會想利用細菌和病毒

  • simple organisms.

    那樣簡單的生物體。

  • Can you convince them to work with a new tool box,

    你能不能說服它們用新的方法

  • so that they can build a structure

    讓它們能夠建造出一個

  • that will be important to me?

    對我有用的結構?

  • Also, we think about future technologies.

    而且,我們思考著有關未來的科技。

  • We start with the beginning of Earth.

    我們從地球的開端講起。

  • Basically, it took a billion years

    基本上,地球經過了幾十億年

  • to have life on Earth.

    才有生命。

  • And very rapidly, they became multi-cellular,

    且很快的,它們變成多細胞生物,

  • they could replicate, they could use photosynthesis

    它們會複製﹐它們可以用光合作用

  • as a way of getting their energy source.

    來取得它們能量的來源。

  • But it wasn't until about 500 million years ago --

    但直到五千萬年前--

  • during the Cambrian geologic time period --

    在寒武紀地質時期--

  • that organisms in the ocean started making hard materials.

    生物才從海洋移到陸地。

  • Before that they were all soft, fluffy structures.

    在那之前,生物都是柔軟蓬鬆的結構。

  • And it was during this time

    也是在這個時期

  • that there was increased calcium and iron

    環境中的鈣、鐵和矽

  • and silicon in the environment.

    逐漸增加。

  • And organisms learned how to make hard materials.

    然後生物們學會製造出硬的材料。

  • And so that's what I would like be able to do --

    那就是我想要做的--

  • convince biology

    說服生物學界

  • to work with the rest of the periodic table.

    與週期表上的其他元素合作。

  • Now if you look at biology,

    現在如果你看看生物學中,

  • there's many structures like DNA and antibodies

    有很多像是DNA和抗體

  • and proteins and ribosomes that you've heard about

    還有蛋白質和核糖體這些你有聽過的東西

  • that are already nano-structured.

    都已經是奈米結構的。

  • So nature already gives us

    所以自然界早已經給了我們

  • really exquisite structures on the nanoscale.

    在奈米尺度下如此精巧的結構。

  • What if we could harness them

    如果我們能夠駕馭它們

  • and convince them to not be an antibody

    說服它們不要當抗體

  • that does something like HIV?

    就像HIV那樣﹖

  • But what if we could convince them

    或是如果我們可以說服它們

  • to build a solar cell for us?

    為我們製造太陽能電池﹖

  • So here are some examples: these are some natural shells.

    所以這是一些例子:這些自然的貝殼。

  • There are natural biological materials.

    這是天然的生物材料。

  • The abalone shell here -- and if you fracture it,

    這個鮑魚殼,如果你打裂它,

  • you can look at the fact that it's nano-structured.

    你可以看到它是奈米結構的。

  • There's diatoms made out of SIO2,

    而矽藻是由二氧化矽組成

  • and they're magnetotactic bacteria

    且它們是超磁細菌

  • that make small, single-domain magnets used for navigation.

    製造出微小、單一結構磁鐵來幫助導航。

  • What all these have in common

    共同點是

  • is these materials are structured at the nanoscale,

    這些材料都是在奈米尺度上建造的,

  • and they have a DNA sequence

    且他們都有DNA序列

  • that codes for a protein sequence,

    可以轉譯成蛋白質序列

  • that gives them the blueprint

    給它們製造這些

  • to be able to build these really wonderful structures.

    美好構造的藍圖。

  • Now, going back to the abalone shell,

    現在,回到齙魚殼,

  • the abalone makes this shell by having these proteins.

    鮑魚因為有這些蛋白質才能製造這個殼。

  • These proteins are very negatively charged.

    這些蛋白質帶有大量負電。

  • And they can pull calcium out of the environment,

    且它們可以在環境中吸引鈣,

  • put down a layer of calcium and then carbonate, calcium and carbonate.

    鋪下一層鈣然後碳酸化、加鈣、再碳酸化。

  • It has the chemical sequences of amino acids

    它擁有氨基酸的化學序列,

  • which says, "This is how to build the structure.

    說著:「這是如何建造結構。

  • Here's the DNA sequence, here's the protein sequence

    這是DNA序列、這是蛋白質序列

  • in order to do it."

    才能完成這件事。」 in order to do it."

  • And so an interesting idea is, what if you could take any material that you wanted,

    所以有趣的是,如果你可以選擇任何一種材料

  • or any element on the periodic table,

    或是元素週期表上的任何一個元素,

  • and find its corresponding DNA sequence,

    然後找到它對應的DNA序列,

  • then code it for a corresponding protein sequence

    將它轉譯成相對的蛋白質序列

  • to build a structure, but not build an abalone shell --

    來建造一種結構,但不是建造鮑魚殼--

  • build something that, through nature,

    透過大自然來建造出一個

  • it has never had the opportunity to work with yet.

    大自然還沒有機會建造的東西。

  • And so here's the periodic table.

    還有這是個元素週期表。

  • And I absolutely love the periodic table.

    我超愛元素週期表的。

  • Every year for the incoming freshman class at MIT,

    每年MIT進來的大一新生

  • I have a periodic table made that says,

    我都會給他們一張元素週期表在上面寫著:

  • "Welcome to MIT. Now you're in your element."

    「歡迎來到MIT。現在你在你的元素中了。」

  • And you flip it over, and it's the amino acids

    然後你把它翻過來就是氨基酸

  • with the PH at which they have different charges.

    以及它們在不同酸鹼度時的不同電荷。

  • And so I give this out to thousands of people.

    所以我給了好幾千人這樣的表。

  • And I know it says MIT, and this is Caltech,

    我知道它上面寫著是MIT﹐而這裡是加州理工學院,

  • but I have a couple extra if people want it.

    但我這有多出來的表﹐如果有人想要的話。

  • And I was really fortunate

    且我很幸運的

  • to have President Obama visit my lab this year

    今年歐巴馬總統來MIT參觀的時候

  • on his visit to MIT,

    參觀到我的實驗室,

  • and I really wanted to give him a periodic table.

    而我真的很想要給他一張元素週期表。

  • So I stayed up at night, and I talked to my husband,

    所以我熬夜跟我老公討論:

  • "How do I give President Obama a periodic table?

    「我要如何給歐巴馬總統一張元素週期表呢?」

  • What if he says, 'Oh, I already have one,'

    如果他說:「喔!我已經有一張了。」

  • or, 'I've already memorized it'?"

    或是「我已經背起來了」的話那我該怎麼辦?

  • And so he came to visit my lab

    所以他來到了我的實驗室

  • and looked around -- it was a great visit.

    到處晃晃 -- 那是一個很棒的拜訪。

  • And then afterward, I said,

    而之後我跟他說:

  • "Sir, I want to give you the periodic table

    「總統,我想要給你這張元素週期表,

  • in case you're ever in a bind and need to calculate molecular weight."

    以備你在處於困境時會需要計算分子量。」

  • And I thought molecular weight sounded much less nerdy

    而且我覺得比起分子質量

  • than molar mass.

    分子量聽起來比較不會有那麼書呆子的感覺。

  • And so he looked at it,

    然後他看了一下

  • and he said,

    接著說﹐

  • "Thank you. I'll look at it periodically."

    「謝謝你。我會週期性地去看它。」

  • (Laughter)

    (笑聲)

  • (Applause)

    (掌聲)

  • And later in a lecture that he gave on clean energy,

    而之後他在一個乾淨能源的演講中

  • he pulled it out and said,

    把它拿出來說:

  • "And people at MIT, they give out periodic tables."

    「MIT那邊的人會分發元素週期表。」

  • So basically what I didn't tell you

    所以基本上我沒有跟你們說的是

  • is that about 500 million years ago, organisms starter making materials,

    大約五億年前,生物體開始製造材料,

  • but it took them about 50 million years to get good at it.

    但他們花了大約五千萬年才擅長製造材料。

  • It took them about 50 million years

    他們花了大約五千萬年

  • to learn how to perfect how to make that abalone shell.

    才學會如何完美地製造出鮑魚殼。

  • And that's a hard sell to a graduate student.

    而且那樣是很難推銷給研究生的。

  • "I have this great project -- 50 million years."

    「我有一個很棒的方案 -- 要花五千萬年的。」

  • And so we had to develop a way

    所以我們需要發展出一個

  • of trying to do this more rapidly.

    可以更快做到的方法。

  • And so we use a virus that's a non-toxic virus

    所以我們利用病毒,

  • called M13 bacteriophage

    一個叫做M13的無毒噬菌體,

  • that's job is to infect bacteria.

    它們的工作是感染細菌。

  • Well it has a simple DNA structure

    它有很簡單的DNA結構,

  • that you can go in and cut and paste

    讓你可以在裡面複製和貼上

  • additional DNA sequences into it.

    新加的DNA序列。

  • And by doing that, it allows the virus

    這麼做可以讓病毒

  • to express random protein sequences.

    表現隨機蛋白質序列。

  • And this is pretty easy biotechnology.

    這是非常簡單的生化技術。

  • And you could basically do this a billion times.

    而且基本上可以重複幾億次。

  • And so you can go in and have a billion different viruses

    所以你可以進到幾億種

  • that are all genetically identical,

    基因序列相同的病毒中,

  • but they differ from each other based on their tips,

    它們之間唯一不同的在於它們尖端上的

  • on one sequence

    一個序列

  • that codes for one protein.

    轉譯出一個蛋白質。

  • Now if you take all billion viruses,

    現在如果你拿這幾億種病毒,

  • and you can put them in one drop of liquid,

    把它們放進一滴液體中,

  • you can force them to interact with anything you want on the periodic table.

    你可以迫使他們跟週期表上的任何元素互動。

  • And through a process of selection evolution,

    透過選擇性進化,

  • you can pull one of a billion that does something that you'd like it to do,

    你可以在這幾億種病毒中找到一株能做到你想要它做的事的病毒,

  • like grow a battery or grow a solar cell.

    像是會製造電池或是生產太陽能電池的病毒。

  • So basically, viruses can't replicate themselves, they need a host.

    所以基本上,病毒不能自行複製,他們需要有寄主才行。

  • Once you find that one out of a billion,

    當你找到你要的那株病毒,

  • you infect it into a bacteria,

    你可以感染細菌,

  • and you make millions and billions of copies

    你就可以得到幾千幾萬的

  • of that particular sequence.

    相同序列的複製品。

  • And so the other thing that's beautiful about biology

    還有生物學上另一個有趣的地方

  • is that biology gives you really exquisite structures

    就是生物可以給你非常精巧的結構

  • with nice link scales.

    且帶有好的鏈接效應。

  • And these viruses are long and skinny,

    這些病毒是又長又瘦的,

  • and we can get them to express the ability

    且我們可以讓它們表現出

  • to grow something like semiconductors

    可用來生產電池

  • or materials for batteries.

    像半導體或其他類似材料的能力。

  • Now this is a high-powered battery that we grew in my lab.

    這是一個在我們實驗室長出來的高性能電池。

  • We engineered a virus to pick up carbon nanotubes.

    我們製造出能夠撿起奈米碳管的病毒。

  • So one part of the virus grabs a carbon nanotube.

    就是說病毒的一部份可以抓住奈米碳管,

  • The other part of the virus has a sequence

    另外一部份有一個序列

  • that can grow an electrode material for a battery.

    讓它們能夠長出電池電極材料。

  • And then it wires itself to the current collector.

    然後它會自己跟自己連成一個電流集電極。

  • And so through a process of selection evolution,

    透過選擇性進化,

  • we went from having a virus that made a crummy battery

    我們從一株可以致造不怎麼樣的電池的病毒

  • to a virus that made a good battery

    進步到一個可以製造好電池的病毒

  • to a virus that made a record-breaking, high-powered battery

    再到一個破紀錄、高性能電池的病毒,

  • that's all made at room temperature, basically at the bench top.

    且這都是在室溫下達成的,基本上就是在實驗桌上做出來的。

  • And that battery went to the White House for a press conference.

    這個電池到白宮參加了一個記者招待會。

  • I brought it here.

    我把它帶來這裡。

  • You can see it in this case -- that's lighting this LED.

    你可以在這個盒子裡看到--正在照亮這個LED。

  • Now if we could scale this,

    如果我們可以有規模的做,

  • you could actually use it

    你可以用這電池

  • to run your Prius,

    來驅動你的普銳斯,

  • which is my dream -- to be able to drive a virus-powered car.

    這是我的夢想:可以開一臺病毒驅動的車。

  • But it's basically --

    但基本上,

  • you can pull one out of a billion.

    你可以從幾億種病毒裡面挑出一株。

  • You can make lots of amplifications to it.

    你可以大量放大它。

  • Basically, you make an amplification in the lab.

    基本上,你可以在實驗室裡放大。

  • And then you get it to self-assemble

    然後你讓它自己組裝

  • into a structure like a battery.

    成為一個類似電池的結構。

  • We're able to do this also with catalysis.

    我們可以利用催化劑來做到。

  • This is the example

    就像是利用光能

  • of photocatalytic splitting of water.

    分解水分子。

  • And what we've been able to do

    我們目前正在做的是

  • is engineer a virus to basically take dye absorbing molecules

    製造出一株病毒﹐讓可以吸收染料的分子們在

  • and line them up on the surface of the virus

    它表面上排排站

  • so it acts as an antenna,

    作用像是個接收器,

  • and you get an energy transfer across the virus.

    這樣就能將能量轉移到病毒全身。

  • And then we give it a second gene

    然後我們給它第二段基因,

  • to grow an inorganic material

    讓它能夠長出無機材料,

  • that can be used to split water

    可以用來將水分解成

  • into oxygen and hydrogen,

    氧氣和氫氣,

  • that can be used for clean fuels.

    可以作為乾淨能源。

  • And I brought an example with me of that today.

    我今天帶來了一個樣本。

  • My students promised me it would work.

    我的學生跟我保證這個樣本是能運作的。

  • These are virus-assembled nanowires.

    這些是病毒組裝的奈米電線。

  • When you shine light on them, you can see them bubbling.

    當光照設在上面的時候,你可以看到這些氣泡。

  • In this case, you're seeing oxygen bubbles come out.

    在這個例子中,你看到的是氧氣氣泡。

  • And basically by controlling the genes,

    基本上利用控制基因,

  • you can control multiple materials to improve your device performance.

    你可以控制多種材料來改善你的器具效能。

  • The last example are solar cells.

    最後一個例子是太陽能電池。

  • You can also do this with solar cells.

    你也可以對太陽能電池這麼做。

  • We've been able to engineer viruses

    我們可以製造

  • to pick up carbon nanotubes

    可以拿起奈米碳管的病毒,

  • and then grow titanium dioxide around them --

    然後在周圍形成二氧外鈦,

  • and use as a way of getting electrons through the device.

    就可以用在器具中來傳遞電子。

  • And what we've found is that, through genetic engineering,

    我們發現,透過基因工程,

  • we can actually increase

    我們真的可以增加

  • the efficiencies of these solar cells

    這些太陽能電池的效能

  • to record numbers

    讓這類染色敏感的系統

  • for these types of dye-sensitized systems.

    達到新的境界。

  • And I brought one of those as well

    我也帶來了一個這樣的東西,

  • that you can play around with outside afterward.

    演講完畢後你們可以到外面玩一玩。

  • So this is a virus-based solar cell.

    這是個以病毒為建立基礎的太陽能電池。

  • Through evolution and selection,

    透過演化和挑選,

  • we took it from an eight percent efficiency solar cell

    我們將一個百分之八效能的太陽能電池

  • to an 11 percent efficiency solar cell.

    增加到百分之11效能。

  • So I hope that I've convinced you

    所以我希望我已經說服了你們,

  • that there's a lot of great, interesting things to be learned

    關於大自然如何製造材料﹐

  • about how nature makes materials --

    有很多很棒、很有趣的事情等著我們去學習。

  • and taking it to the next step

    然後再進一步的,

  • to see if you can force,

    看你們是否可以用強迫的方式,

  • or whether you can take advantage of how nature makes materials,

    或是利用大自然製造材料的方法

  • to make things that nature hasn't yet dreamed of making.

    來製造出一些大自然還沒想到要去做的東西。

  • Thank you.

    謝謝。

I thought I would talk a little bit about how nature makes materials.

我想我要談一下大自然如何製造材料。

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