I thought I'd talk a little bit about how nature makes materials. I brought along with me an abalone shell. This abalone shell is a biocomposite material that's 98 percent by mass calcium carbonate and two percent by mass protein. Yet, it's 3,000 times tougher than its geological counterpart. And a lot of people might use structures like abalone shells, like chalk. I've been fascinated by how nature makes materials, and there's a lot of secrets to how they do such an exquisite job. Part of it is that these materials are macroscopic in structure, but they're formed at the nano scale. They're formed at the nano scale, and they use proteins that are coded by the genetic level that allow them to build these really exquisite structures.
我想我应该谈一谈自然是如何制造材料的。 我带来了一个鲍鱼壳。 这个鲍鱼壳是种生物复合材料, 其中百分之98是碳酸钙 百分之二是蛋白质。 然而,它比地质学中相对应的 物质要坚硬三千倍。 许多人或许用过类似鲍鱼壳这样的结构, 如粉笔。 如今我为自然创造材料的方法所深深着迷, 做到这样的精细活 过程极度保密。 这些材料在结构上 肉眼可见, 但是它们是由纳米级材料组成的。 它们是由纳米级材料组成的, 它们使用由基因层次控制的蛋白质, 这使得它们能构建非常精致的结构。
So something I think is very fascinating is: What if you could give life to non-living structures, like batteries and like solar cells? What if they had some of the same capabilities that an abalone shell did, in terms of being able to build really exquisite structures at room temperature and room pressure, using nontoxic chemicals and adding no toxic materials back into the environment? So that's kind of the vision that I've been thinking about. And so what if you could grow a battery in a Petri dish? Or what if you could give genetic information to a battery so that it could actually become better as a function of time, and do so in an environmentally friendly way?
因此,我觉得非常让人着迷的是 如果能赋予非生物结构 以生命会发生什么, 比如电池,比如太阳能电池? 如果它们能有一些鲍鱼壳所拥有的 同样的能力会怎样, 能够 在常温常压下 用无毒的化学物质, 不添加对环境有害的材料 构建精致的结构。 这就是我曾想到过的愿景。 那么,如果你能在皮氏培养皿中培养出电池将会怎样? 或者说,如果你能把基因信息赋予一个电池, 以便确实能在一定时间内 变得更好, 并以一种环境友好的方式进行时会怎样?
And so, going back to this abalone shell, besides being nanostructured, one thing that's fascinating is, when a male and female abalone get together, they pass on the genetic information that says, "This is how to build an exquisite material. Here's how to do it at room temperature and pressure, using nontoxic materials." Same with diatoms, which are shown right here, which are glasseous structures. Every time the diatoms replicate, they give the genetic information that says, "Here's how to build glass in the ocean that's perfectly nanostructured." And you can do it the same, over and over again." So what if you could do the same thing with a solar cell or a battery? I like to say my favorite biomaterial is my four year old.
回到这个鲍鱼壳, 除了存在纳米结构之外, 令人着迷的一件事是, 当一只雄性鲍鱼和磁性鲍鱼相遇, 他们相互传递基因信息 信息中表明,“这是如何构建一个精巧的材料。 这就是如何在常温常压下,用无毒材料 做到这些的。” 与硅藻相同,有着光泽,有着玻璃状结构。 每次硅藻复制时, 它们给出基因信息,其中表明, “这就是如何在海洋中 有完美纳米结构的玻璃。 你能同样进行,并不断重复。” 那么如果你能用太阳能电池或 电池做同样的事会怎样? 我想说我最喜欢的生物材料是我四岁的孩子。
But anyone who's ever had or knows small children knows, they're incredibly complex organisms. If you wanted to convince them to do something they don't want to do, it's very difficult. So when we think about future technologies, we actually think of using bacteria and viruses -- simple organisms. Can you convince them to work with a new toolbox, so they can build a structure that will be important to me?
但任何曾有过或了解小孩的人 都知道他们是多么复杂的生物体。 因此,说服他们去 做他们不想做的事,非常困难。 当我们思考未来科技时, 我们会想到细菌和病毒的应用, 简单的有机体。 你能让它们使用新的工具箱吗, 以使它们能构建一种 对我来说很重要的结构么?
Also, when we think about future technologies, we start with the beginning of Earth. Basically, it took a billion years to have life on Earth. And very rapidly, they became multi-cellular, they could replicate, they could use photosynthesis as a way of getting their energy source. But it wasn't until about 500 million years ago -- during the Cambrian geologic time period -- that organisms in the ocean started making hard materials. Before that, they were all soft, fluffy structures. It was during this time that there was increased calcium, iron and silicon in the environment, and organisms learned how to make hard materials. So that's what I would like to be able to do, convince biology to work with the rest of the periodic table.
同样地,我们对未来科技进行思考。 我们从地球最初开始, 基本上,用了十亿年 地球上才开始出现生命。 接着很快地就进化成了多细胞生命, 它们能够复制自己,能用光合作用 作为获取能源的一种方式。 但知道500万年前 -- 在寒武纪地质时代 -- 海洋中的生物开始制造坚硬的材料。 之前它们制造的都是柔软蓬松的结构。 正是在这一时期内 环境中的钙、铁 硅的含量增加了。 生物学会了如何制作坚硬的材料。 所以我希望能够 -- 确定生物 能与周期表中的其他元素工作。
Now, if you look at biology, there's many structures like DNA, antibodies, proteins and ribosomes you've heard about, that are nanostructured -- nature already gives us really exquisite structures on the nano scale. What if we could harness them and convince them to not be an antibody that does something like HIV? What if we could convince them to build a solar cell for us? Here are some examples. Natural shells, natural biological materials. The abalone shell here. If you fracture it, you can look at the fact that it's nanostructured. There's diatoms made out of SiO2, and there are magnetotactic bacteria that make small, single-domain magnets used for navigation. What all these have in common is these materials are structured at the nano scale, and they have a DNA sequence that codes for a protein sequence that gives them the blueprint to be able to build these really wonderful structures. Now, going back to the abalone shell, the abalone makes this shell by having these proteins. These proteins are very negatively charged. They can pull calcium out of the environment, and put down a layer of calcium and then carbonate, calcium and carbonate. It has the chemical sequences of amino acids which says, "This is how to build the structure. Here's the DNA sequence, here's the protein sequence in order to do it." So an interesting idea is, what if you could take any material you wanted, or any element on the periodic table, and find its corresponding DNA sequence, then code it for a corresponding protein sequence to build a structure, but not build an abalone shell -- build something that nature has never had the opportunity to work with yet.
现在,如果查看一下生物, 有许多类似DNA、抗体、 蛋白质和核糖体这样你曾听说过的结构, 这些结构以及是纳米结构了。 因此自然已经给予了我们 纳米级的非常精巧的结构。 如果我们控制它们 让他们不要变成像艾滋病病毒 这样的抗体将会怎样? 但如果我们能让它们为我们 建造太阳能电池将会怎样? 这儿有些例子:这是些天然的贝壳。 它们是天然的生物材料。 这个是鲍鱼壳 -- 如果折断它, 会看到它是纳米结构。 硅藻是由二氧化硅组成, 他们是趋磁细菌, 它们用微小的单极磁体导航。 这些事物的共同之处是 这些材料的结构都是纳米级的, 它们拥有一个DNA序列 这是一个蛋白质序列编码, 这给了它们一个蓝图 使它们能够构建这些奇妙的结构。 现在,回到鲍鱼壳, 鲍鱼用这些蛋白质做成壳。 这些蛋白质带有负电荷。 它们能吸收环境中的钙, 放上一层钙,然后是一层碳酸盐,再一层钙一层碳酸盐。 这是氨基酸的化学序列 其中表明,“这就是如何构建这种结构。 这是要做到这点的DNA序列, 蛋白质序列。” 一个有意思的想法是,如果你能选择任何材料或是 周期表中的任何元素, 依照DNA序列, 然后依照蛋白质序列 建立结构,但不是构建一个鲍鱼壳,将会怎样 -- 通过自然构建某种事物, 这是从未有机会进行的尝试。
And so here's the periodic table. I absolutely love the periodic table. Every year for the incoming freshman class at MIT, I have a periodic table made that says, "Welcome to MIT. Now you're in your element."
这是周期表。 我非常喜欢周期表。 在MIT,大一新生来的第一课, 我都会提供一个周期表, “欢迎来到MIT。现在你进入你的元素了。”
(Laughter)
把它翻过来,是带有PH值的氨基酸
And you flip it over, and it's the amino acids with the pH at which they have different charges. And so I give this out to thousands of people. And I know it says MIT and this is Caltech, but I have a couple extra if people want it. I was really fortunate to have President Obama visit my lab this year on his visit to MIT, and I really wanted to give him a periodic table. So I stayed up at night and talked to my husband, "How do I give President Obama a periodic table? What if he says, 'Oh, I already have one,' or, 'I've already memorized it?'"
不同的PH值下带有不同的电荷。 我把这个发给了数以千计的人。 我知道这上面写了MIT,写了加州理工, 但如果有人要的话我还有些额外的。 我非常荣幸的是, 奥巴马总统今年访问MIT时 造访了我的实验室, 我很想给他一张周期表。 我熬夜思索,对我的丈夫说 “我怎么才能给奥巴马总统一张周期表呢? 如果他说,‘哦,我已经有一张了’ 或是‘我已经背下来了’该怎么办?”
(Laughter)
因此他到访我的实验室
So he came to visit my lab and looked around -- it was a great visit. And then afterward, I said, "Sir, I want to give you the periodic table, in case you're ever in a bind and need to calculate molecular weight."
四处浏览 -- 这是个很棒的访问。 后来,我说, “先生,我想给你张周期表 以备你陷入困境,需要计算分子量时使用。”
(Laughter)
我觉得分子量听起来不像摩尔质量
I thought "molecular weight" sounded much less nerdy than "molar mass."
那么呆板。
(Laughter)
他看了看它,
And he looked at it and said, "Thank you. I'll look at it periodically."
说到, “谢谢。我会定期看看它的。”
(Laughter)
(笑声)
(Applause)
(掌声)
Later in a lecture that he gave on clean energy, he pulled it out and said, "And people at MIT, they give out periodic tables." So ...
之后在一次关于清洁能源的演讲中, 他把它拿出来,说道, “在MIT时有人给了我周期表。”
So basically what I didn't tell you is that about 500 million years ago, the organisms started making materials, but it took them about 50 million years to get good at it -- 50 million years to learn how to perfect how to make that abalone shell. And that's a hard sell to a graduate student: "I have this great project ... 50 million years ..." So we had to develop a way of trying to do this more rapidly. And so we use a nontoxic virus called M13 bacteriophage, whose job is to infect bacteria. Well, it has a simple DNA structure that you can go in and cut and paste additional DNA sequences into it, and by doing that, it allows the virus to express random protein sequences.
所以基本上我没有告诉各位的是 大约五亿年前,生物就开始制造材料, 大概花了五千万年变得擅长于此。 花了五千万年时间 学会了完美地制造出鲍鱼壳。 这对研究生来说很难理解 “我拥有这个伟大的项目 -- 五千万年。” 因此我们不得不找出一种 更快速的方式来完成这些。 因此我们使用了一种病毒, 一种名为M13噬菌体的无毒病毒, 用它去感染细菌。 它有简单的DNA结构, 可以剪切、粘贴 附加的DNA序列到其中。 这样做后,它允许病毒 表达随机的蛋白质序列。
This is pretty easy biotechnology, and you could basically do this a billion times. So you can have a billion different viruses that are all genetically identical, but they differ from each other based on their tips, on one sequence, that codes for one protein. Now if you take all billion viruses, and put them in one drop of liquid, you can force them to interact with anything you want on the periodic table. And through a process of selection evolution, you can pull one of a billion that does something you'd like it to do, like grow a battery or a solar cell.
这是很简单的生物技术。 可以这么做个十亿次。 这样就能得到十亿个不同的病毒 它们具有相同的遗传基因, 但它们可以基于它们的标签相互区分, 为一个蛋白质 编码的序列。 现在,收集起所有这些病毒, 可以把它们放入一滴液体中, 可以强制它们与周期表中的任何元素交互。 通过一个选择性进化的过程, 可以从十亿中选出一个符合你期望的病毒, 比如长出一个电池或是一个太阳能电池。 所以,基本上,病毒不能复制自身,它们需要宿主。
Basically, viruses can't replicate themselves; they need a host. Once you find that one out of a billion, you infect it into a bacteria, and make millions and billions of copies of that particular sequence. The other thing that's beautiful about biology is that biology gives you really exquisite structures with nice link scales. These viruses are long and skinny, and we can get them to express the ability to grow something like semiconductors or materials for batteries.
一旦有亿万中的一个 感染了一个细菌, 就会产生不计其数的那种 特定序列的复制体。 生物学的另一个美妙之处是 生物学可以以一种良好的比例 呈现精致的结构。 这些病毒长且瘦, 我们能让它们表达生长出一些事物的能力 比如半导体 或是制作电池的材料。
Now, this is a high-powered battery that we grew in my lab. We engineered a virus to pick up carbon nanotubes. One part of the virus grabs a carbon nanotube, the other part of the virus has a sequence that can grow an electrode material for a battery, and then it wires itself to the current collector. And so through a process of selection evolution, we went from being able to have a virus that made a crummy battery to a virus that made a good battery to a virus that made a record-breaking, high-powered battery that's all made at room temperature, basically at the benchtop. That battery went to the White House for a press conference, and I brought it here. You can see it in this case that's lighting this LED. Now if we could scale this, you could actually use it to run your Prius, which is kind of my dream -- to be able to drive a virus-powered car.
这是我们在实验室培育的高能电池。 我们让病毒收集碳纳米管。 病毒的一部分抓住一个碳纳米管。 另一部分拥有一个 能长出电池的电极材料的序列。 然后它把自己缠绕成集电器。 然后通过一个选择性进化的过程, 我们就从一个制造低劣电池的病毒 得到了一个制造良好电池的病毒 一个制造破纪录的高能电池的病毒 这些都是在常温下,实验台上进行的。 那个电池去白宫参加过一次记者招待会。 我把它带到这里来了。 各位能在这个盒子里看到它 -- 亮着的是个LED等。 如果我们能放大这个, 就能用它来 驱动普瑞斯车, 这是我的梦想 -- 能驾驶一辆病毒驱动的汽车。
(Laughter)
但基本上 --
But basically you can pull one out of a billion, and make lots of amplifications to it. Basically, you make an amplification in the lab, and then you get it to self-assemble into a structure like a battery. We're able to do this also with catalysis. This is the example of a photocatalytic splitting of water. And what we've been able to do is engineer a virus to basically take dye-absorbing molecules and line them up on the surface of the virus so it acts as an antenna, and you get an energy transfer across the virus. And then we give it a second gene to grow an inorganic material that can be used to split water into oxygen and hydrogen, that can be used for clean fuels. I brought an example of that with me today. My students promised me it would work. These are virus-assembled nanowires. When you shine light on them, you can see them bubbling. In this case, you're seeing oxygen bubbles come out.
能从十亿中选出一个。 能把它放大许多倍。 基本上,能在实验室进行放大。 然后让它自组装 成一个如电池这样的结构。 我们也能通过催化作用做到这些。 这是光触媒 分离水的例子。 我们已经能做到的是 设计一个病毒,能吸收染色分子 并把染色分子在病毒的表面排成一列, 就像个触须, 然后就能让能量转移穿过这些病毒了。 接着我们给它第二段基因 以生长出无机材料 这能用于把水分离成 氢气和氧气, 氢气和氧气能用作清洁燃料。 今天我带来了一个样本。 我的学生对我保证说它能运作。 这些是由病毒组装的纳米线。 当用光照向它们时,能看到他们在冒着泡泡。 这样的情况表明,所看到的是氧气正在冒出。
(Applause)
基本上通过控制基因
Basically, by controlling the genes, you can control multiple materials to improve your device performance.
就能够控制多种材料来改进设备性能。 最后一个例子是太阳能电池。
The last example are solar cells. You can also do this with solar cells. We've been able to engineer viruses to pick up carbon nanotubes and then grow titanium dioxide around them, and use it as a way of getting electrons through the device. And what we've found is through genetic engineering, we can actually increase the efficiencies of these solar cells to record numbers for these types of dye-sensitized systems. And I brought one of those as well, that you can play around with outside afterward. So this is a virus-based solar cell. Through evolution and selection, we took it from an eight percent efficiency solar cell to an 11 percent efficiency solar cell.
也可以这样制造太阳能电池。 我们已经能够设计病毒 来收集碳纳米管 然后再外面附着上二氧化钛 -- 并作为通过设备收集电子的一种方式。 我们的发现是,通过基因工程 我们能真正的增加 这些太阳能电池的效率 为各种类型的 染色敏化系统记录数字。 我也带了一个到这儿来 稍后各位可以在外面摆弄一下。 这是个基于病毒的太阳能电池。 通过进化和选择, 我们把这个太阳能电池由效能百分之八 变为了百分之十一。
So I hope that I've convinced you that there's a lot of great, interesting things to be learned about how nature makes materials, and about taking it the next step, to see if you can force or take advantage of how nature makes materials, to make things that nature hasn't yet dreamed of making.
我希望我已经让各位相信 关于如何让自然制作材料 有许多美好的、有趣的事情要学习-- 更进一步 看看能否你能够推行, 或是利用自然制作材料的方式 来制作一些自然还未被要求制作的东西。
Thank you.
谢谢。
(Applause)