Imam jedno priznanje. Ovisan sam o avanturama i kao dječak radije bih kroz prozor gledao ptice, drveće i nebo nego dvodimenzionalnu tablu umrljanu kredom gdje je vrijeme nepomično ili ga uopšte nema. Moji nastavnici su mislili da sa mnom nešto nije u redu jer nisam pazio na času. Nisu otkrili konkretan razlog osim da sam malo disleksičan jer sam ljevoruk. Ali nisu testirali moju radoznalost. Za mene, radoznalost se odnosi na našu povezanost sa svijetom i svemirom. Na želju da vidimo šta je iza koraljne kolonije ili iza onog drveta i da naučimo više ne samo o našem okruženju nego i on nama samima.
I have a confession to make. I am addicted to adventure, and as a young boy, I would rather look outside the window at the birds in the trees and the sky than looking at that two-dimensional chalky blackboard where time stands still and even sometimes dies. My teachers thought there was something wrong with me because I wasn't paying attention in class. They didn't find anything specifically wrong with me, other than being slightly dyslexic because I'm a lefty. But they didn't test for curiosity. Curiosity, to me, is about our connection with the world, with the universe. It's about seeing what's around that next coral head or what's around that next tree, and learning more not only about our environment but about ourselves.
San mojih snova je da istražujem Marsove okeane ali dok ne stignemo dotle mislim da okeani ovdje još uvijek čuvaju poprilično tajni. Zapravo, ako shvatite našu planetu kao oazu u svemiru i secirate je, vidjećete da okean zauzima preko 3,4 milijardi kubnih kilometara zapremine, od koje smo istražili manje od 5 posto. Kad vidim to, pomislim da postoje sredstva kojima se može otići dublje i dalje: podmornice, vozila na daljinsko upravljanje pa i ronjenje s bocom. Ali ako želimo da istražimo zadnju granicu na ovoj planeti, moramo da živimo tu. Moramo da sagradimo brvnaru na dnu mora.
Now, my dream of dreams, I want to go explore the oceans of Mars, but until we can go there, I think the oceans still hold quite a few secrets. As a matter of fact, if you take our planet as the oasis in space that it is and dissect it into a living space, the ocean represents over 3.4 billion cubic kilometers of volume, within which we've explored less than five percent. And I look at this, and I go, well, there are tools to go deeper, longer and further: submarines, ROVs, even Scuba diving. But if we're going to explore the final frontier on this planet, we need to live there. We need to build a log cabin, if you will, at the bottom of the sea.
U mojoj duši je ležala velika radoznalost kada sam otišao da posjetim TED govornika, dr Sylviu Earle. Možda ste čuli za nju. Prije 2 godine radila je u posljednjoj podvodnoj laboratiji kako bi je pokušala spasiti kako bi se zauzela za to da ne odustanemo od nje i vratimo je na kopno. Imali smo samo desetak naučnih laboratorija na dnu mora. Ostala je samo još jedna na svijetu: udaljena je od kopna 14 km na dubini od 20 metara. Zove se vodolija. Vodolija je u neku ruku dinosaurus, drevni robot zakovan za dno mora. Ona je Levijatan. Drukčije rečeno, ona je naslijeđe. Poslije te posjete shvatio sam da nisam imao puno vremena ako sam htio da iskusim kako je biti akvanaut.
And so there was a great curiosity in my soul when I went to go visit a TED [Prize winner] by the name of Dr. Sylvia Earle. Maybe you've heard of her. Two years ago, she was staked out at the last undersea marine laboratory to try and save it, to try and petition for us not to scrap it and bring it back on land. We've only had about a dozen or so scientific labs at the bottom of the sea. There's only one left in the world: it's nine miles offshore and 65 feet down. It's called Aquarius. Aquarius, in some fashion, is a dinosaur, an ancient robot chained to the bottom, this Leviathan. In other ways, it's a legacy. And so with that visit, I realized that my time is short if I wanted to experience what it was like to become an aquanaut.
Kada smo se zaputili prema njemu posle velike muke i dugogodišnje pripreme ovo stanište koje nas je zvalo bilo je poput novog doma. Poenta odlaska dole i života u ovom staništu nije bila da ostanemo unutra, da živimo u nečemu što je veličine autobusa. Poenta je bila luksuzu vremena odvojenog kako bismo lutali napolju, istraživali, naučili nešto više o zadnjoj okeanskoj granici.
When we swam towards this after many moons of torture and two years of preparation, this habitat waiting to invite us was like a new home. And the point of going down to and living at this habitat was not to stay inside. It wasn't about living at something the size of a school bus. It was about giving us the luxury of time outside to wander, to explore, to understand more about this oceanic final frontier.
Posjetila nas je megafauna. Ovaj morski golub je česti prizor u okeanima. A razlog zašto je ovo važno, zašto je ova slika ovdje je zato što je ova životinja dovela i svoje prijatelje i umjesto da se ponašaju kao tipične morske životinje bile su radoznale o nama, strancima koji su se useljavali u njihovo susjedstvo i radili nešto sa planktonima. Proučavali smo razne životinje i stvorenja i oni su se sve više približavali, i zbog luksuza vremena ove životinje, ovi stanovnici koraljnih grebena počeli su da se navikavaju na nas i ova morska stvorenja koja inače samo prođu, sada su zastala. Ova životinja je kružila oko nas 31 dan u toku naše misije. Misija 31 nije bila puno vezana za rušenje rekorda nego za povezanost između ljudi i okeana.
We had megafauna come and visit us. This spotted eagle ray is a fairly common sight in the oceans. But why this is so important, why this picture is up, is because this particular animal brought his friends around, and instead of being the pelagic animals that they were, they started getting curious about us, these new strangers that were moving into the neighborhood, doing things with plankton. We were studying all sorts of animals and critters, and they got closer and closer to us, and because of the luxury of time, these animals, these residents of the coral reef, were starting to get used to us, and these pelagics that normal travel through stopped. This particular animal actually circled for 31 full days during our mission. So mission 31 wasn't so much about breaking records. It was about that human-ocean connection.
Luksuz vremena nam je omogućio da proučavamo životinje poput ajkula i kirnja u jatima kakva nismo dosad vidjeli. Isto kao da smo vidjeli pse i mačke kako se slažu. Čak i mogućnost da komuniciramo sa mnogo većim životinjama kao što je ova ugrožena golijat kirnja koja samo nastanjuje Floridu Keys. Naravno, kao i svaki susjed ako se umore na kraju, ova kirnja bi lajala na nas i taj lavež je tako snažan da parališe svoj plijen prije nego ga usisa u sebe u djeliću sekunde. Nama samo govori da se vratimo u stanište i ostavimo ih na miru.
Because of the luxury of time, we were able to study animals such as sharks and grouper in aggregations that we've never seen before. It's like seeing dogs and cats behaving well together. Even being able to commune with animals that are much larger than us, such as this endangered goliath grouper who only still resides in the Florida Keys. Of course, just like any neighbor, after a while, if they get tired, the goliath grouper barks at us, and this bark is so powerful that it actually stuns its prey before it aspirates it all within a split second. For us, it's just telling us to go back into the habitat and leave them alone.
Ovo nije bilo samo jedna avantura. Postajala je i ozbiljna instanca. Puno smo se bavili naukom tamo i zahvaljujući luksuzu vremena uspjeli smo da 3 godine nauke pređemo za 31 dan. U ovom konkretnom slučaju koristili smo PAM ili, da vidim ako mogu da to sročim, fluorometar impulsno-amplitudne modulacije. I naši naučnici sa univerziteta FIU, MIT i Sjevernoistočnog univerziteta mogli su da izmjere šta rade koraljni grebeni kada mi nismo tu. Fluorometar impulsno-amplitudne modulacije ili PAM mjeri fluorescentnost koralja jer ona ima veze sa zagađenošću vode kao i problemima uzrokovanim promjenom klime. Koristili smo raznolike savremene alate poput ove sonde, ili kako je ja zovem, proktolog za sunđere. Ova sonda testira stopu metabolizma burastog sunđera, u ovom konkretnom slučaju, ili crvenog drveta okeana. Ovo nam daje odličnu perspektivu onoga što se dešava pod vodom u odnosu na probleme uzrokovane promjenom klime i utjecaje dinamike ovoga na nas na kopnu. Promatrali smo ponašanje između predatora i plijena. To je bilo jako zanimljivo jer kako smo uzimali neke od predatora na ovim grebenima širom svijeta plijen, tj. sitne ribe, ponašale bi se sasvim drugačije. Uočili smo da ne samo da prestaju da se brinu za greben ulećući unutra i grabeći nešto algi i potom se vraćale kući, nego su se i rasprostirale nestajale sa mjesta gdje su ti grebeni. Unutar 31 dana uspjeli smo da napišemo 10 naučnih radova na svaku od navedenih tema.
Now, this wasn't just about adventure. There was actually a serious note to it. We did a lot of science, and again, because of the luxury of time, we were able to do over three years of science in 31 days. In this particular case, we were using a PAM, or, let me just see if I can get this straight, a Pulse Amplitude Modulated Fluorometer. And our scientists from FIU, MIT, and from Northeastern were able to get a gauge for what coral reefs do when we're not around. The Pulse Amplitude Modulated Fluorometer, or PAM, gauges the fluorescence of corals as it pertains to pollutants in the water as well as climate change-related issues. We used all sorts of other cutting-edge tools, such as this sonde, or what I like to call the sponge proctologist, whereby the sonde itself tests for metabolism rates in what in this particular case is a barrel sponge, or the redwoods of the [ocean]. And this gives us a much better gauge of what's happening underwater with regard to climate change-related issues, and how the dynamics of that affect us here on land. And finally, we looked at predator-prey behavior. And predator-prey behavior is an interesting thing, because as we take away some of the predators on these coral reefs around the world, the prey, or the forage fish, act very differently. What we realized is not only do they stop taking care of the reef, darting in, grabbing a little bit of algae and going back into their homes, they start spreading out and disappearing from those particular coral reefs. Well, within that 31 days, we were able to generate over 10 scientific papers on each one of these topics.
Ali poenta avanture nije bila samo učenje, nego i mogućnost da se znanje podijeli sa svijetom i zahvaljujući inžinjerima sa MIT-a, mogli smo da iskoristimo kameru Edgertronic da napravimo usporene snimke i do 20.000 okvirova po sekundi u maloj kutiji vrijednoj 3.000 dolara. Dostupna je svakom od nas. Ta kamera nam daje uvid u ono što životinje obično rade ali mi ne možemo da vidmo jer jer prebrzo. Da vam pokažem brzo snimak onoga šta ta kamera radi. Možete vidjeti svilenkast mjehur kako izlazi iz naših tvrdiš šljemova. Daje nam uvid u životinje pored kojih smo sjedjeli 31 dan, ali na koje inače nismo obraćali pažnju, kao što je rak samac. Korištenje savremene tehnologije koja nije namijenjena za okeane nije uvijek lako. Morali smo nekada da okrenemo kameru naopako, povežemo je kablom za laboratoriju i aktiviramo je iz same laboratorije. Ovo nam pruža mogućnost da u naučnom i inženjerskom smislu analiziramo neka zapanjujuća ponašanja koja su nevidljiva ljudskom oku kao što je pokušaj ove škamp bogomoljke da uhvati svoj plijen u roku od 0,3 sekunde. Taj udarac je jačine metka kalibra .22 i ako ste ikad okom probali uhvatiti metak u letu, to je nemoguće. Ali sada možemo da vidimo poput ovih božićnih crva kako se uvlače i zatvaraju na način nedostupan ljudskom oku ili u ovom slučaju vidite ribu kako baca zrnca pijeska. Ovo je pravi glavočić repaš i ako ga pogledate u stvarnom vremenu, uopšte se ne vidi kretanje njegovih peraja jer je tako brzo.
But the point of adventure is not only to learn, it's to be able to share that knowledge with the world, and with that, thanks to a couple of engineers at MIT, we were able to use a prototype camera called the Edgertronic to capture slow-motion video, up to 20,000 frames per second in a little box that's worth 3,000 dollars. It's available to every one of us. And that particular camera gives us an insight into what fairly common animals do but we can't even see it in the blink of an eye. Let me show you a quick video of what this camera does. You can see the silky bubble come out of our hard hats. It gives us an insight into some of the animals that we were sitting right next to for 31 days and never normally would have paid attention to, such as hermit crabs. Now, using a cutting-edge piece of technology that's not really meant for the oceans is not always easy. We sometimes had to put the camera upside down, cordon it back to the lab, and actually man the trigger from the lab itself. But what this gives us is the foresight to look at and analyze in scientific and engineering terms some of the most amazing behavior that the human eye just can't pick up, such as this manta shrimp trying to catch its prey, within about .3 seconds. That punch is as strong as a .22 caliber bullet, and if you ever try to catch a bullet in mid-flight with your eye, impossible. But now we can see things such as these Christmas tree worms pulling in and fanning out in a way that the eye just can't capture, or in this case, a fish throwing up grains of sand. This is an actual sailfin goby, and if you look at it in real time, it actually doesn't even show its fanning motion because it's so quick.
Jedna od najvrednijih darova koje smo imali pod vodoom bio je WiFi i tokom 31 dana mogli smo se povezati sa svijetom u pravom vremenu sa dna mora kako bismo podijelili ova iskustva. Ondje doslovno skajpam u učionici sa jednim od 6 kontinenata i nekih 70.000 studenata sa kojima smo se čuli svaki dan. Zapravo, pokazujem vam sliku golijat kirnje kako leži na dnu i koju sam uslikao smartfonom. To nikada prije nismo vidjeli.
One of the most precious gifts that we had underwater is that we had WiFi, and for 31 days straight we were able to connect with the world in real time from the bottom of the sea and share all of these experiences. Quite literally right there I am Skyping in the classroom with one of the six continents and some of the 70,000 students that we connected every single day to some of these experiences. As a matter of fact, I'm showing a picture that I took with my smartphone from underwater of a goliath grouper laying on the bottom. We had never seen that before.
Sanjam o danu kada ćemo imati gradove pod vodom i možda ako uspijemo da prevaziđemo granice avantura i znanja i podijelimo naše znanje sa drugima možemo da riješimo razne probleme. Moj djed je govorio "Ljudi štite ono što vole". Moj otac: " Kako da ljudi zaštite ono što ne razumiju?" Razmišljao sam o ovome čitav život. Ništa nije nemoguće. Moramo da sanjamo, budemo kreativni i moramo da budemo avanturisti kako bismo stvorili čuda u najcrnjim vremenima. Ticalo se to klimatskih promjena ili iskorjenja siromaštva ili vraćanja budućim generacijama onoga što smo uzimali zdravo za gotovo sve je to jedna avantura. I ko zna, možda će i postojati podvodni gradovi i možda će neko od vas biti budući akvanaut.
And I dream of the day that we have underwater cities, and maybe, just maybe, if we push the boundaries of adventure and knowledge, and we share that knowledge with others out there, we can solve all sorts of problems. My grandfather used to say, "People protect what they love." My father, "How can people protect what they don't understand?" And I've thought about this my whole life. Nothing is impossible. We need to dream, we need to be creative, and we all need to have an adventure in order to create miracles in the darkest of times. And whether it's about climate change or eradicating poverty or giving back to future generations what we've taken for granted, it's about adventure. And who knows, maybe there will be underwater cities, and maybe some of you will become the future aquanauts.
Hvala puno.
Thank you very much.